Sir Thomas Lawrence RAThe Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London, England. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment...
(13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was a notable
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
painterPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
, mostly of portraits.
He was born in
BristolBristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, west of London, and east of Cardiff.With an estimated population of 416,400 for the unitary authority in mid-2007, and a surrounding urban area with an estimated 561,500 residents, it is England's sixth, and...
. His father was an innkeeper, first at Bristol and afterwards at
DevizesDevizes is a small market town and civil parish in the English county of Wiltshire, in the southern United Kingdom.-History:Devizes Castle was built by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury in 1080 but the town is not mentioned in the Domesday Book...
, and at the age of six Lawrence was already being shown off to the guests of the Bear as an infant prodigy who could sketch their likenesses and declaim speeches from
MiltonJohn Milton was an English poet, author, polemicist and civil servant for the Commonwealth of England. He is best known for his epic poem Paradise Lost and for his treatise condemning censorship, Areopagitica....
. In 1779 the elder Lawrence had to leave Devizes, having failed in business and Thomas's precocious talent began to be the main source of the family's income; he had gained a reputation along the Bath road. His debut as a crayon portrait painter was made at
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
, where he was well patronized, and in 1782 the family settled in Bath, where the young artist soon found himself fully employed in taking crayon likenesses of fashionable people at a guinea or a guinea and a half a head. In 1784 he gained the prize and
silver-giltSilver-gilt or gilded/gilt silver, sometimes known in American English by the French term vermeil, is silver gilded with gold. Most large objects made in goldsmithing that appear to be gold are actually silver-gilt; for example most sporting trophies, medals , and many crown jewels...
palette of the Society of Arts for a crayon drawing after Raphael's "Transfiguration," and presently beginning to paint in oil.
Early career
Abandoning the idea of going on the stage which he had briefly entertained, Lawrence came to London in 1787, was kindly received by Sir
Joshua ReynoldsSir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an important and influential 18th century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealisation of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
, and became a student at the
Royal AcademyThe Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London, England. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment...
. He began to exhibit almost immediately, and his reputation increased so rapidly that he became an associate of the Academy in 1791. The death of Sir Joshua in 1792 opened the way to further successes. Lawrence was at once appointed painter to the Dilettanti Society, and principal painter to
King George IIIGeorge III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
in lieu of Reynolds. In 1794 he was a Royal Academician, and he became the fashionable portrait painter of the age, his sitters including England's most notable people, and ultimately most of the crowned heads of Europe.
Caroline of BrunswickCaroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was the wife of George IV of the United Kingdom from 1795, and his queen consort from 29 January 1820 until her death.-Early life:...
was one of his favourite subjects, and is reputed to have been his lover for a time.
Financial difficulty
Financial problems plagued Lawrence. In 1796,
Lord SeaforthFrancis Humberston Mackenzie, 1st Baron Seaforth FRS was a British politician and general.When he was about twelve he suffered from scarlet fever which resulted in his losing his hearing and almost all speech, from this he was known as MacCoinnich Bodhar in Gaelic...
, one of Lawrence's close patrons, gave him £1,000 (equivalent to about £ in present day terms) to relieve him from his financial difficulties. Lawrence painted several portraits for Lord Seaforth, including a full-length portrait of Seaforth's daughter, Mary.
Recognition
In 1815 Lawrence was knighted; in 1818 he went to
AachenAachen is a historic spa city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the medieval Kings of Germany...
to paint the sovereigns and diplomats gathered there for the third congress, and visited
ViennaVienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and also one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.7 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre. It is the 10th largest city by...
and
RomeRome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated municipality , with over 2.7 million residents in , while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat to be 3.46 million. The metropolitan area of Rome is estimated by OECD to have a population of 3.7 million...
, everywhere receiving flattering marks of distinction from princes, due as much to his courtly manners as to his merits as an artist. After eighteen months he returned to England, and on the very day of his arrival was chosen president of the Academy in place of
Benjamin WestBenjamin West RA was an Anglo-American painter of historical scenes around and after the time of the American War of Independence...
, who had died a few days before. He held the office from 1820 to his death. He was never married.
Sir Thomas Lawrence had all the qualities of personal manner and artistic style necessary to make a fashionable painter, and among English portrait painters he takes a high place, though not as high as that given to him in his lifetime. His more ambitious works, in the classical style, such as his once celebrated "Satan," are practically forgotten.
The best display of Lawrence's work is in the Waterloo Gallery of Windsor, a collection of much historical interest, along with his famous painting of the
Duke of WellingtonThe Dukedom of Wellington, derived from Wellington in Somerset, is a hereditary title in the senior rank of the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first holder of the title was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , the noted Irish-born British career officer and statesman, and unqualified...
. "Master Charles William Lambton" (1825), painted for Lord Durham at the price of 600 guineas, is regarded as one of his best portraits, and a fine head in the
National Gallery, LondonThe National Gallery in London, founded in 1824, houses a rich collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900 in its home on Trafalgar Square...
, shows his power to advantage.
The Life and Correspondence of Sir T. Lawrence, by DE Williams, appeared in 1831.
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