Art Collections Online

Although itinerant portrait painters toured Wales in the 18th century, the wealthier gentry increasingly commissioned likeness of themselves from London-based artists. Many such portraits can be seen in the 18th century gallery here by among others, Hogarth, Zoffany, Reynolds, Gainsborough and Romney. This painting by Francis Cotes usually hangs at Chirk Castle, Denbighshire. Richard Myddleton, who inherited Chirk in 1747, was a Member of Parliament and lived part of each year in London. He married in 1761 and he and his wife, also painted by Cotes, nearly ruined themselves buying fashionable luxuries and remodelling the castle and its grounds.