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Francis Cotes(London 1726-1770)Portrait of Mrs William Colhoun of Wretham, Norfolk, full-length, standing beside an urn before a landscape
£25,000 - £35,000
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Poppy Harvey-Jones
Head of Sale

Lisa Greaves
Head of Department
Francis Cotes (London 1726-1770)
signed and dated 'FCotes. RA./ px.t 1768' (lower right, F and C in ligature), bears inscription 'Mrs Colquhoun/ mother of Mrs Edward Coke' (lower right)
oil on canvas
241.8 x 147.8cm (95 3/16 x 58 3/16in).
Footnotes
Provenance
Reputedly commissioned by William Colhoun for Wretham Hall, Norfolk, and thence by descent to
Hon. Edward Keppel Coke, Longford Hall, Derbyshire
His sale, Christie's, London, 27 April 1917, lot 129 (1,900 gns.to A. Wertheimer)
With M. Knoedler & Co., New York, by 1924
Sale, Christie's, London, 26 November 2002, lot 30
Private Collection, UK
Exhibited
Providence, Rhode Island School of Design, Exhibition of 18th Century Portraits, November 1932, no. 7
Literature
C. Winter, 'Francis Cotes, R.A.', Part II, The Connoisseur, October 1931, vol. LXXXVIII, p. 250
E.M. Johnson, Francis Cotes, Complete Edition with a Critical Essay and a Catalogue, London, 1976, pp. 93-94, cat. no. 256, ill., pl. 84
Grace Colhoun, nee Parsons, was the eldest daughter of Edward Parsons, a landowner in Little Parndon, Essex. She married William Colhourn, landowner in Norfolk and MP for Bedford (1782-1804) in 1766, shortly before this portrait was commissioned. Their daughter, also named Grace Colhourn, married Edward Coke, High Sheriff of Derbyshire and brother to Thomas Coke, famously known as 'Coke of Norfolk'.
