Title: Copy of portrait of William Cowper, after the original (1792) by Lemuel Francis Abbott (c.1760-1802)

Dimensions: 127 x 101.6 cm
Oil on Canvas
Date: c.1920

This is a copy of the portrait of Cowper by Lemuel Francis Abbott (c.1760-1802), the original of which is in the National Portrait Gallery, London (Museum No.NPG.2783).

Abbott painted it for Cowper's cousin Anne Bodham. It shows Cowper sitting before his writing slope with an open volume of Homer before him.

Cowper had sat for the portrait only the month before his visit to Eartham (see Romney portrait) and it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1793 with his wig, coat, waistcoat and breeches hung in the same room.

Cowper's dress and 'bob wig' is typical of the period. He wears a dark blue (or black) frock coat that by this time has been cut away so that it just meets by hooks and eyes at mid-chest level.

The waistcoat is cut straight across at the waist and with the buff-coloured breeches reflects a new sobriety in both the colour and cut of a man's dress that became the norm at the end of the 18th century.

The breeches would generally tie at the knee with ribbon bows. Men's breeches of the second half of the 18th century are generally closed at the front with a turn-down flap (or 'fall') that covers the front opening. Prior to this they would have been closed with an arrangement of vertical buttons.