Two Veiled Young Women, probably Lilla Amnani and Her Sister

Two Veiled Young Women, probably Lilla Amnani and Her Sister — Richard Cosway. 1786.

Medium: graphite, watercolor, red chalk on paper. Dimensions: Matted: 38.1 x 29.7 cm (15 x 11 11/16 in.); Sheet: 33 x 25.7 cm (13 x 10 1/8 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Richard Cosway was a prolific painter in London, most well-known for his portrait miniatures and drawings, which he made both on commission and as personal exercises or mementos. This drawing features two women who may be fantasized versions of the two wives of Sidi Hadji Abdurrahman Adja, a Tripolitan ambassador who visited London in 1786. A published account of the ambassador’s home life circulated around this time. Cosway may have invented the ladies as a form of novelistic intrigue when he made a drawing featuring the ambassador.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.