Thomas Lawrence

At 18, he went to London and soon established his reputation as a portrait painter in oils, receiving his first royal commission, a portrait of Queen Charlotte, in 1789. Self-taught, he was a brilliant draughtsman and known for his gift of capturing a likeness, as well as his virtuoso handling of paint. He became an associate of the Royal Academy[16] in 1791, a full member in 1794, and president in 1820. In 1810, he acquired the generous patronage of the Prince Regent, was sent abroad to paint portraits of allied leaders for the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle, and is particularly remembered as the Romantic portraitist of the Regency. Lawrence's love affairs were not happy (his tortuous relationships with Sally and Maria Siddons were the subjects of several books) and, in spite of his success, he spent most of his life deep in debt and never married. At his death, he was the most fashionable portrait painter in Europe. His reputation waned during Victorian times, but has since been partially restored.

• Honorific Prefix — Sir • Name — Thomas Lawrence • Born — 13 April 1769 • Birthplace — Bristol, England • Died — 7 January 1830 • Place of death — London, England • Resting Place — St Paul's Cathedral[36] • Known for — Painting • Movement — Romanticism

Lawrence was born at 6 Redcross Street, Bristol, the youngest surviving child of Thomas Lawrence, a supervisor of excise, and Lucy Read, a clergyman's daughter from Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire.[1] They had 16 children, but only five survived infancy: Lawrence's brother Andrew became a clergyman; William had a career in the army; and sisters Lucy and Anne married a solicitor and a clergyman (Lawrence's nephews included Andrew Bloxam). Soon after Thomas was born, his father decided to become an innkeeper and took over the White Lion Inn and next-door American Coffee House in Broad Street, Bristol. But the venture did not prosper, and in 1773 Lawrence senior removed his family from Bristol and took over the tenancy of the Black Bear Inn in Devizes,[2] a favourite stopping place for the London gentry making their annual trip to take the waters at Bath.[3] • Illustration — An early pastel portrait of Maria Linley It was during the family's six-year stay at the Black Bear Inn that Lawrence senior began to make use of his son's precocious talents for drawing and reciting poetry. Visitors would be greeted with the words "Gentlemen, here's my son—will you have him recite from the poets, or take your portraits?" Among those who listened to a recitation from Tom, or Tommy as he was called, was actor David Garrick.[4] Lawrence's formal schooling was limited to two years at The Fort, a school in Bristol, when he was six to eight, and a little tuition in French and Latin from a dissenting minister.[5] He also became accomplished in dancing, fencing, boxing, and billiards.[6] By age ten his fame had spread sufficiently for him to receive a mention in Daines Barrington's Miscellanies as "without the most distant instruction from anyone, capable of copying historical pictures in a masterly style".[7] But once again Lawrence senior failed as a landlord; in 1779, he was declared bankrupt and the family moved to Bath. From this point on, Lawrence supported his parents with his portrait work. The family settled at 2 Alfred Street in Bath, and the young Lawrence established himself as a portraitist in pastels. His oval portraits, for which he was soon charging three guineas, were about 12 inches by 10 inches (30 by 25 centimetres), and usually portrayed a half-length. His sitters included Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire, Sarah Siddons, Sir Henry Harpur (of Calke Abbey, Derbyshire, who offered to send Lawrence to Italy, but Lawrence senior refused to part with his son), Warren Hastings, and Sir Elijah Impey.[8] Talented, charming and attractive (and surprisingly modest) Lawrence was popular with Bath residents and visitors. Artists William Hoare and Mary Hartley gave him encouragement.[9] Wealthy people allowed him to study their collections of paintings, and Lawrence's drawing of a copy of Raphael's Transfiguration was awarded a silver-gilt palette and a prize of 5 guineas by the Society of Arts in London.[10]

• Illustration — Portrait of Queen Charlotte (1789). Lawrence's first royal commission: Queen Charlotte, wife of George III Sometime before his eighteenth birthday in 1787, Lawrence arrived in London, taking lodgings in Leicester Square, near to Sir Joshua Reynolds' studio. He was introduced to Reynolds, who advised him to study nature rather than the Old Masters. Lawrence set up a studio at 41 Jermyn Street and installed his parents in a house in Greek Street. He exhibited several works in the 1787 Royal Academy exhibition at Somerset House, and enrolled as a student at the Royal Academy but did not stay long, abandoning the drawing of classical statues to concentrate on his portraiture. At the Royal Academy exhibition of 1788, he was represented by five portraits in pastels and one in oils, a medium he quickly mastered. Between 1787 and his death in 1830 he missed only two of the annual exhibitions: in 1809, protesting how his paintings had been displayed; and in 1819, because he was abroad. In 1789 he exhibited 13 portraits, mostly in oil, including one of William Linley and one of Lady Cremorne, his first attempt at a full-length portrait.[11] They received favourable comments in the press, with one critic referring to him as "the Sir Joshua of futurity not far off". Aged just 20, Lawrence received his first royal commission, a summons arriving from Windsor Castle to paint the portraits of Queen Charlotte and Princess Amelia.[12] The Queen found Lawrence presumptuous (although he made a good impression on the princesses and ladies-in-waiting), and she did not like the finished portrait, which remained in Lawrence's studio until his death. When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790, however, it received critical acclaim.[13] Also shown that year was another of Lawrence's most famous portraits, that of actress Elizabeth Farren, soon to be the Countess of Derby, "completely Elizabeth Farren: arch, spirited, elegant and engaging", according to one newspaper.[14] • Illustration — Lawrence exhibited in 40 Royal Academy annual exhibitions. In 1791 Lawrence was elected an associate of the Royal Academy and the following year, on the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, King George III appointed him "painter-in-ordinary to his majesty".[15] His reputation was established, and he moved to a studio in Old Bond Street. In 1794, he became a full member of the Royal Academy. Although commissions were pouring in, Lawrence was in financial difficulties. His debts stayed with him for the rest of his life. He narrowly avoided bankruptcy, had to be bailed out by wealthy sitters and friends, and died insolvent. Biographers have never been able to discover the source of his debts; he was a prodigiously hard worker (once referring in a letter to his portrait painting as "mill-horse business")[17] and did not appear to have lived extravagantly. Lawrence himself said: "I have never been extravagant nor profligate in the use of money. Neither gaming, horses, curricles, expensive entertainments, nor secret sources of ruin from vulgar licentiousness have swept it from me".[18] • Illustration — Lawrence was in love with Sarah Siddons' daughter Sally. Painting by Thomas Lawrence. Another source of unhappiness in Lawrence's life was his romantic entanglement with two of Sarah Siddons' daughters. He fell in love first with Sally, then transferred his affections to her sister Maria, then broke up with Maria and turned to Sally again. Both sisters had fragile health; Maria died in 1798, on her deathbed, extracting a promise from her sister never to marry Lawrence. Sally kept her promise and refused to see Lawrence again; she died in 1803. Lawrence continued on friendly terms with their mother and painted several portraits of her. He never married. In later years, two women provided him with companionship — friends Elizabeth Croft and Isabella Wolff, who met Lawrence when she sat for her portrait in 1803. Isabella was married to Danish consul Jens Wolff, but she separated from him in 1810. Sir Michael Levey suggests that people may have wondered if Lawrence was the father of her son Herman.[19] Lawrence's departures from portraiture were very rare. In the early 1790s, he completed two history pictures: Homer Reciting his Poems, a small picture of the poet in a pastoral setting; and Satan summoning his legions, a giant canvas illustrating lines from John Milton's Paradise Lost.[20] Boxer John Jackson posed for the naked body of Satan; the face is that of Sarah Siddons' brother, John Philip Kemble.[21] • Illustration — Satan summoning his Legions, 1796–1797 Lawrence's parents died within a few months of each other in 1797. He gave up his house in Piccadilly, where he had moved from Old Bond Street, to set up his studio in the family home in Greek Street. By now, to keep up with the demand for replicas of his portraits, he was using studio assistants, including Samuel Lane from 1802 until Lawrence's death almost twenty years later, and most notable William Etty and George Henry Harlow.[22] The early years of the 19th century saw Lawrence's portrait practice continue to flourish. Amongst his sitters were major political figures such as Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville and William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, whose wife Lady Caroline Lamb he also painted. The King commissioned portraits of his daughter-in-law Caroline, the estranged wife of the Prince of Wales; and his granddaughter Charlotte. Lawrence stayed at Montagu House, the princess's residence in Blackheath, while he was painting the portraits and thus became implicated in the "delicate investigation" into Caroline's morals. He swore an affidavit that although he had on occasion been alone with her, the door had never been locked or bolted and he had "not the least objection for all the world to have heard or seen what took place".[23] Expertly defended by Spencer Perceval, he was exonerated.

• Illustration — Portrait of the Duke of Wellington in 1815, later used on the Bank of England £5 note By the time the Prince of Wales was made regent in 1811, Lawrence was acknowledged as the country's foremost portrait painter. Through one of his sitters, Lord Charles Stewart, who he painted in Hussar uniform, he met the Prince Regent, who became his most important patron. As well as portraits of himself, the prince commissioned portraits of allied leaders Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, and Count Matvei Platov, who sat for Lawrence at his new house at 65 Russell Square. (The house was demolished in the early 20th century to make way for the Imperial Hotel.) The private sitting-room of Sir Thomas Lawrence shows Lawrence at 65 Russell Square, surrounded by casts of classical sculpture.[24] The prince also had plans for Lawrence to travel abroad and paint foreign royalty and leaders, and as a preliminary he was given a knighthood on 22 April 1815. Napoleon's return from Elba put these plans on hold, although Lawrence did make a visit to Paris, where his friend Lord Charles Stewart was ambassador, and saw the art that Napoleon had looted from Italy, including Raphael's Transfiguration, the painting he had reproduced for his silver-gilt palette as a boy.[26] • Illustration — Lawrence painted a Portrait of Pope Pius VII in Rome in 1819 In 1817 the prince commissioned Lawrence to paint a portrait of his daughter Princess Charlotte, who was pregnant with her first child. Charlotte died in childbirth; Lawrence completed the portrait and presented it to her husband, Prince Leopold, at Claremont on his birthday, as agreed. The princess's obstetrician, Sir Richard Croft, who later shot himself, was the half-brother of Lawrence's friend Elizabeth Croft, and for her Lawrence drew a sketch of Croft in his coffin.[27] Eventually, in September 1818, Lawrence was able to make his postponed trip to the continent to paint the allied leaders, first at Aachen and then at the Congress of Vienna, for what would become the Waterloo Chamber series, housed in Windsor Castle. His sitters included Alexander I of Russia, Francis I of Austria, Frederick William III of Prussia, Karl Philipp, Prince of Schwarzenberg, Archduke Charles, Duke of Teschen and Henriette his wife, Lady Selina Caroline, wife of the Count of Clam-Martinic and a young Napoleon II, as well as various French and Prussian ministers. In May 1819, still under orders from the Prince Regent, he left Vienna for Rome to paint Pope Pius VII and Cardinal Ercole Consalvi.[28]

• Illustration — Portrait of William Linley, 1788 • Illustration — Miss Marthe Carr, c. 1789, Prado Museum, Madrid • Illustration — Homer Reciting his Poems, 1790 • Illustration — Portrait of Arthur Atherley, 1792 • Illustration — Portrait of Graham Moore 1792 • Illustration — Portrait of the Duke of Portland, 1792 • Illustration — Lady Hamilton as La Penserosa, 1792 • Illustration — John Julius Angerstein and His Wife, 1792 • Illustration — Portrait of George III, 1792 • Illustration — Portrait of Sir Francis Burdett, 1793 • Illustration — Sophia, Lady Burdett, c.1793 • Illustration — Portrait of Lady Manners, 1794 • Illustration — Rebecca, Lady Simeon, early 1790s • Illustration — The Two Sons of the Earl of Talbot, 1793, Neue Pinakothek, Munich • Illustration — Amelia Stewart, Viscountess Castlereagh, 1794 • Illustration — Lord Mount Stuart, 1795 • Illustration — Portrait of the Duke of Leeds, 1796 • Illustration — The Young Lord Liverpool, 1796 • Illustration — Portrait of Sir Edward Pellew, 1797 • Illustration — Henry Dundas, unknown date • Illustration — John Philip Kemble as Coriolanus, 1798 • Illustration — Mary, Countess of Inchiquin, 1800 • Illustration — John Philip Kemble as Rolla, 1800 • Illustration — Captain Herbert Taylor (c.1800, Museum of the Shenandoah Valley • Illustration — Alexander MacKenzie, (c. 1800–1801), National Gallery of Canada • Illustration — Codrington Edmund Carrington, 1801 • Illustration — John Philip Kemble as Hamlet, 1801 • Illustration — Princess Charlotte of Wales, c. 1801 • Illustration — Portrait of Countess Conyngham, 1802 • Illustration — George Griffin Stonestreet, 1802 • Illustration — Earl of Camden, 1802 • Illustration — Portrait of Lord Thurlow, 1803 • Illustration — Sir James Mackintosh, 1804 • Illustration — Lady Hinchingbrook as Hope, 1804 • Illustration — Portrait of Sir John Moore, c. 1804 • Illustration — Portrait of Caroline of Brunswick, 1804 • Illustration — Portrait of Sarah Siddons, 1804 • Illustration — Portrait of the Young Lord Melbourne, c. 1805 • Illustration — Lady Caroline Lamb, c.1805 • Illustration — Portrait of Joseph Banks, 1806 • Illustration — Portrait of Lord Westmoreland, 1806 • Illustration — Lord Ellenborough, 1806 • Illustration — Portrait of William Pitt, 1807 • Illustration — Marchioness of Ailesbury, 1809 • Illustration — Portrait of George III in State Opening of Parliament dress, 1809 • Illustration — Portrait of Lord Castlereagh, 1809 • Illustration — Portrait of Benjamin West, 1810 • Illustration — Robert Brownrigg, 1810 • Illustration — Portrait of Mirza Abul Hasan, 1810 • Illustration — Robert Southey, 1810 • Illustration — Anne Frances Bankes, Countess of Falmouth 1810–15 • Illustration — Portrait of George Hibbert, 1811 • Illustration — Warren Hastings, 1811 • Illustration — John Philip Kemble as Cato, 1812 • Illustration — Thomas Taylor, 1812 • Illustration — Portrait of James Watt, 1813 • Illustration — Count Matvei Platov, 1814 • Illustration — Lady Leicester as Hope, 1814 • Illustration — Emily Harriet Wellesley-Pole, Lady Raglan, c.1815 • Illustration — Portrait of Prince Metternich, 1815 • Illustration — Portrait of the Duke of York, 1816 • Illustration — Countess of Plymouth, 1817 • Illustration — Portrait of Thomas Graham, 1817 • Illustration — Marianne Wellesley, Marchioness Wellesley, 1817–1825 • Illustration — Portrait of Frances Vane, 1818 • Illustration — Portrait of Frederick William III of Prussia, 1818 • Illustration — Portrait of Karl von Hardenberg, 1818 • Illustration — Portrait of Francis I of Austria, 1819 • Illustration — Portrait of Archduke Charles, 1819 • Illustration — Count John Capo d'Istria, c.1819 Royal Collection • Illustration — Lady Selina Meade, 1819. • Illustration — Portrait of Lord Clanwilliam, 1819 • Illustration — Portrait of Thomas Campbell, 1820 • Illustration — King George IV's Coronation Portrait, 1821 • Illustration — Portrait of Mikhail Vorontsov, 1821 • Illustration — William Amherst, 1821 • Illustration — Portrait of the Countess of Blessington, 1822, Wallace Collection, London • Illustration — Portrait of George IV, 1822 • Illustration — Earl of Harewood, 1823 • Illustration — Duke of Palmela, c.1823 • Illustration — Portrait of Lady Maria Conyngham, 1825 • Illustration — David Lyon, 1825, Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid • Illustration — Portrait of the Honorable Mrs. Seymour Bathurst, 1828, Dallas Museum of Art • Illustration — Francis Humberstone MacKenzie of the 78th Highlanders • Illustration — Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington • Illustration — Portrait of George Canning, 1826 • Illustration — Portrait of Thomas Young, 1826 • Illustration — The Children of Ayscoghe Boucherett • Illustration — Abraham Redwood • Illustration — Shute Barrington (Merton College, Oxford) • Illustration — Sir William Forbes, 1803 • Illustration — Portrait of Sir Charles Stewart (3rd Marquess of Londonderry), 1812 • Illustration — Portrait of the Marquess Wellesley, 1813 • Illustration — Portrait of Marshal Blücher, 1814 • Illustration — Portrait of the Duke of Wellington for the Waterloo Chamber 1814–1815 • Illustration — Portrait of the Duke of Wellington c.1815 • Illustration — Portrait of Count Münster, 1815 • Illustration — Portrait of Lord Uxbridge, c.1816 • Illustration — Antonio Canova, 1818 • Illustration — John Bloomfield, 2nd Baron Bloomfield, 1819 • Illustration — Alexander Chernyshyov, 1818 • Illustration — Portrait of Count Nesselrode, 1818 • Illustration — Portrait of the Duke of Richelieu, 1818 • Illustration — Portrait of Prince Schwarzenberg, 1819 • Illustration — Cardinal Consalvi, 1819 • Illustration — Portrait of Napoleon II, c. 1819 • Illustration — Portrait of Lord Liverpool, 1820 • Illustration — Portrait of Sir Humphry Davy, 1821 • Illustration — Portrait of Prince Leopold, 1821 • Illustration — Portrait of the Marquess of Hertford, 1823 • Illustration — John Julius Angerstein, 1824 • Illustration — Portrait of Frederick Robinson, 1824 • Illustration — Portrait of the Duke of Devonshire, 1824 • Illustration — Portrait of Princess Sophia, 1824 • Illustration — Princess Mary, 1824 • Illustration — Wilhelmina Bowlby (1798–1834), circa 1825 • Illustration — Portrait of Charles X of France, 1825 • Illustration — Portrait of the Duke of Angoulême, 1825 • Illustration — Portrait of the Duchess of Berry, 1825 • Illustration — The Red Boy or Master Lambton 1825 • Illustration — Anne, Lady Bentinck, 1825 • Illustration — Portrait of Henry Brougham, 1825 • Illustration — Portrait of Sir Walter Scott, c.1826 • Illustration — King William IV, then Duke of Clarence, 1827 • Illustration — Portrait of Julia, Lady Peel, 1827 • Illustration — Portrait of Rosamond Croker, 1827 • Illustration — Portrait of Jeffry Wyatville, 1828 • Illustration — George, Duke of Cumberland, 1828 • Illustration — John Fawcett, 1828 • Illustration — Marchioness of Londonderry and her son George, 1828 • Illustration — Portrait of Edward Codrington, 1828 • Illustration — Portrait of John Soane, 1829 • Illustration — Portrait of the Countess of Wilton. 1829 • Illustration — William Van Mildert, 1829 • Illustration — Duchess of Richmond, 1829 • Illustration — Portrait of Maria II, 1829 • Illustration — Unfinished Wellington, 1829 • Illustration — Portrait of Lord Aberdeen, 1830

Portrait of the Hon.