A long-haired terrier

Cosway was born near Tiverton in Devon, the son of a schoolmaster. He showed an early talent for drawing and studied portraiture, both in miniature and in oils, at Shipley's Drawing School in the Strand, London, and later at the Richmond Academy established by Charles, 3rd Duke of Richmond, where he met Giovanni Battista Cipriani. From 1760 Cosway exhibited in London at the Royal Society of Artists and the Free Society of Artists. In 1770 he was made an associate of the Royal Academy where he began to exhibit the following year. Although he is best known for his portraits, he clearly had an affinity for animals, and commissioned (or may have been given) Portrait of a Spanish Dog belonging to Mr Cosway, chasing a butterfly by George Stubbs (1775, see J. Egerton, George Stubbs, Painter, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 366-67, no. 166, private collection).

Kenneth Clark, Baron Clark (1903-83) was a British art historian and prominent public figure. He was born in London and received a scholarship to study at Trinity College, Oxford, where he met Charles F. Bell, the curator of the Ashmolean Museum. Bell introduced Clark to American art historian Bernard Berenson, who greatly influenced him and became his mentor as they would work closely together on revising Berenson’s Drawings of the Florentine Painters. After returning to England in 1927, Clark published his first and well-received book The Gothic Revival, co-organized the exhibition of Italian Renaissance paintings at the Royal Academy, while also being elected as the curator of the Ashmolean upon Bell’s retirement in 1931.

In 1934, Clark was appointed as the youngest-ever director of the National Gallery in London. He continued to amass many accomplishments, which include his appointment to Surveyor of the King’s Pictures by King George V, and the receipt of knighthood for serving in the post in 1938. Upon his retirement from the National Gallery in 1946, Clark dedicated more time to public arts programming and lecture series, culminating in his award-winning documentary series Civilisation, aired in 1969. As its host, Clark explored the history of Western art, architecture and philosophy.