Page 16 - Pierre Durand Collection Including Chinese Art and Porcelain Sothebys Jan 27 2022

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FRANCIS COTES, R.A. (LONDON 1726-1770)
Portrait of Captain Collingwood Roddam (1734-1806), half-length, in
a red coat
oil on canvas
30º x 25 in. (76.5 x 63.3 cm.)
$80,000-120,000
PROVENANCE:
The sitter, and by descent to
Sir Herbert Hadfield, from whom acquired by the following
with Ehrich Galleries, New York, by 1931.
with Cooling Galleries, Ltd., London and Toronto, by 1941.
Private collection, Canada.
with Newhouse Galleries, New York.
The Collection of Khalil Rizk, New York.
EXHIBITED:
New York, American Art Association-Anderson Galleries, Old and Modern
Masters in the New York Art Market from the Collections of Leading New York
Dealers, 15 March - 4 April 1931, no. 39, loaned by Ehrich Galleries.
LITERATURE:
Art News, XCIX, 1931, cover illustration.
W. Heil, 'Portraits by Francis Cotes', Art in America, XX, 1931, p. 6.
H. E. Keyes, 'The Rising Star of Francis Cotes', Antiques, XIX, 1931, p. 217, fig. 1.
H. Granville Fell, 'Some Topics of the Moment', The Connoisseur, CVII, 1941, p.
219, cover illustration.
E. Mead Johnson, Francis Cotes: Complete Edition with a Critcal Essay and a
Catalogue, Oxford, 1976, pp. 75-76, no. 164.
This portrait of Captain Collingwood Roddam caused a stir when it
reappeared on the art market in 1931, featuring on the cover of Art News
and in articles published in Art in America and Antiques in that same year.
Francis Cotes depicts the young Captain Collingwood Roddam, brother of
the decorated British Admiral Robert Roddam, in his East India Company
uniform. The portrait is dated circa 1760 (Keyes, op. cit.), around the time the
young officer set sail on the East Indiaman Countess of Harcourt to Bombay.
The ship traded at Indian ports under Roddam’s command until its Company
charter expired, and it returned to the service of the Royal Navy transporting
prisoners to Australia.

Cotes trained first as a painter of pastels under George Knapton before
setting up his own studio in his father’s apothecary. His work with pastels
informed his later use of oils. Cotes employed strong whites in the highlights
and blues in the shadows, imbuing his sitters with a distinctive appearance,
as seen in the present portrait (Keyes, op. cit., p. 219). This portrait was
completed at the height of Cotes’ popularity. It was around this time that
he became a founding member of the Royal Academy. Unfortunately, his
career came to an early end when he died at the age of 44 due to the adverse
effects of an experimental medical treatment.