Thomas Lawrence | |
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_-_Self-portrait_of_Sir_Thomas_Lawrence_-_03-950_-_Royal_Academy_of_Arts.jpg) Unfinishedself-portrait,c. 1825 | |
| Born | (1769-04-13)13 April 1769 Bristol, England |
| Died | 7 January 1830(1830-01-07) (aged 60) London, England |
| Resting place | St Paul's Cathedral |
| Known for | Painting |
| Movement | Romanticism |
| Signature | |
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Sir Thomas LawrencePRA FRS (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English painter who served as the fourth president of theRoyal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born inBristol and began drawing inDevizes, where his father was an innkeeper at theBear Hotel in theMarket Square. At age ten, having moved toBath, he was supporting his family with hispastel portraits.
At 18, he went to London and soon established his reputation as aportrait painter inoils, receiving his first royal commission,a portrait ofQueen Charlotte, in 1789. He stayed at the top of his profession until his death, aged 60, in 1830. 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 in 1791, a full member in 1794, and president in 1820.
In 1810, he acquired the generous patronage of thePrince Regent, was sent abroad to paint portraits of allied leaders for theWaterloo Chamber atWindsor Castle, and is particularly remembered as theRomantic portraitist of theRegency. 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 duringVictorian times, but has since been partially restored.
Lawrence was born at 6 Redcross Street,Bristol, the youngest surviving child of Thomas Lawrence, a supervisor ofexcise, and Lucy Read, a clergyman's daughter fromTenbury Wells inWorcestershire.[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 includedAndrew 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 inBroad 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,[note 1] a favourite stopping place for the London gentry making their annual trip to take the waters at Bath.[2]
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 actorDavid Garrick.[3]
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.[4] He also became accomplished in dancing, fencing, boxing, and billiards.[5] By age ten his fame had spread sufficiently for him to receive a mention inDaines Barrington'sMiscellanies as "without the most distant instruction from anyone, capable of copying historical pictures in a masterly style".[6] But once again Lawrence senior failed as a landlord; in 1779, he was declared bankrupt and the family moved toBath. 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 inpastels. 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 includedGeorgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire,Sarah Siddons,Sir Henry Harpur (ofCalke Abbey, Derbyshire, who offered to send Lawrence to Italy, but Lawrence senior refused to part with his son),Warren Hastings, and SirElijah Impey.[7] Talented, charming and attractive (and surprisingly modest) Lawrence was popular with Bath residents and visitors. ArtistsWilliam Hoare and Mary Hartley gave him encouragement.[8] Wealthy people allowed him to study their collections of paintings, and Lawrence's drawing of a copy ofRaphael'sTransfiguration was awarded asilver-gilt palette and a prize of 5 guineas by the Society of Arts in London.[9]
Sometime before his eighteenth birthday in 1787, Lawrence arrived in London, taking lodgings in Leicester Square, near to SirJoshua Reynolds' studio. He was introduced to Reynolds, who advised him to study nature rather than the Old Masters. Lawrence set up a studio at 41Jermyn Street and installed his parents in a house in Greek Street. He exhibited several works in the 1787Royal Academy exhibition atSomerset 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 ofWilliam Linley and one of Lady Cremorne, his first attempt at a full-length portrait.[10] 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 fromWindsor Castle to paint the portraits of QueenCharlotte and PrincessAmelia.[11]
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.[12] Also shown that year was another of Lawrence's most famous portraits, that of actressElizabeth Farren, soon to be the Countess of Derby, "completely Elizabeth Farren: arch, spirited, elegant and engaging", according to one newspaper.[13]
In 1791 Lawrence was elected an associate of the Royal Academy and the following year, on the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, KingGeorge III appointed him"painter-in-ordinary to his majesty".[14] His reputation was established, and he moved to a studio in OldBond Street. In 1794, he became a full member of the Royal Academy.[15]
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")[16] 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".[17]
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.[18]
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; andSatan summoning his legions, a giant canvas illustrating lines fromJohn Milton'sParadise Lost.[19] BoxerJohn Jackson posed for the naked body of Satan; the face is that of Sarah Siddons' brother,John Philip Kemble.[20]
Lawrence's parents died within a few months of each other in 1797. He gave up his house inPiccadilly, 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, most notable of whom wereWilliam Etty andGeorge Henry Harlow.[21]
The early years of the 19th century saw Lawrence's portrait practice continue to flourish. Amongst his sitters were major political figures such asHenry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville andWilliam Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, whose wifeLady Caroline Lamb he also painted. The King commissioned portraits of his daughter-in-lawCaroline, the estranged wife of thePrince of Wales; and his granddaughterCharlotte. Lawrence stayed atMontagu 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".[22] Expertly defended bySpencer Perceval, he was exonerated.
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 hepainted 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 leadersArthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington,Gebhard Leberecht von Blücher, and CountMatvei Platov, who sat for Lawrence at his new house at 65Russell 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.[23][24] The prince also had plans for Lawrence to travel abroad and paint foreign royalty and leaders, and as a preliminary he was given aknighthood on 22 April 1815.Napoleon's return fromElba 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'sTransfiguration, the painting he had reproduced for his silver-gilt palette as a boy.[25]
_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
In 1817 the prince commissioned Lawrence to paint a portrait of his daughter PrincessCharlotte, who was pregnant with her first child. Charlotte died in childbirth; Lawrence completed the portrait and presented it to her husband, PrinceLeopold, atClaremont 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.[26]
Eventually, in September 1818, Lawrence was able to make his postponed trip to the continent to paint the allied leaders, first atAachen and then at theCongress of Vienna, for what would become theWaterloo Chamber series, housed inWindsor Castle. His sitters includedAlexander 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 ofClam-Martinic and a youngNapoleon 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 paintPope Pius VII and CardinalErcole Consalvi.[27]
Lawrence arrived back in London on 30 March 1820 to find that the president of the Royal Academy,Benjamin West, had died. That very evening, Lawrence was voted the new president, a position he would hold until his death 10 years later. George III had died in January; Lawrence was granted a place in the procession for thecoronation of George IV. On 28 February 1822, he was elected as aFellow of the Royal Society "for his eminence in art".[28]
The royal commissions continued during the 1820s, including one for a portrait of the King's sisterSophia, and one of SirWalter Scott (along withJane Austen, one of Lawrence's favourite authors), as well as one to paint the newly-crownedCharles X of France for the Waterloo series, for which Lawrence made a trip to Paris, taking Herman Wolff with him.[29] Lawrence acquired another important patron inRobert Peel, who commissioned the painter to do portraits of his family as well a portrait ofGeorge Canning. Two of Lawrence's most famous portraits of children were painted during the 1820s: that of Emily and Laura Calmady, daughters ofCharles Calmady, and that of Master Charles William Lambton, painted for his fatherLord Durham for 600 guineas and known asThe Red Boy. The latter portrait attracted much praise when it was exhibited in Paris in 1827.[30] One of the artist's last commissions was of the future Prime MinisterGeorge Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen.Fanny Kemble, a niece of Sarah Siddons, was one of his last sitters (for a drawing).
Lawrence died suddenly on 7 January 1830, just months after his friend Isabella Wolff. A few days previously he had experienced chest pains but had continued working and was eagerly anticipating a stay with his sister at Rugby, when he collapsed and died during a visit from his friends Elizabeth Croft and Archibald Keightley.[31] After a post-mortem examination, doctors concluded that the artist's death had been caused by ossification of the aorta and vessels of the heart. Lawrence's first biographer, D. E. Williams, suggested that this in itself was not enough to cause death, and it was his doctors' over-zealous bleeding and leeching that killed him.[32] Lawrence was buried on 21 January in the crypt ofSt Paul's Cathedral.[33] Amongst the mourners wasJ. M. W. Turner who painted asketch of the funeral from memory.[34]Lawrence was famed for the length of time he took to finish some of his paintings (Isabella Wolff waited twelve years for her portrait to be completed) and, at his death, his studio contained a large number of unfinished works. Some were completed by his assistants and other artists, some were sold as they were. In his will, Lawrence left instructions to offer, at a price much below their worth, his collection of Old Master drawings to first George IV, then the trustees of theBritish Museum, then Robert Peel and theEarl of Dudley. None of them accepted the offer and the collection was split up and auctioned; many of the drawings later found their way into the British Museum and theAshmolean Museum.[35] After Lawrence's creditors had been paid, there was no money left, although a memorial exhibition at theBritish Institution raised £3,000 which was given to his nieces.[36]
Lawrence's friends asked Scottish poetThomas Campbell to write the artist's biography, but he passed on the task to D.E. Williams, whose two rather inaccurate volumes were published in 1831.[37] It was nearly 70 years later, in 1900, before another biography of Lawrence appeared byLord Ronald Gower. In 1913, SirWalter Armstrong, who was not a great admirer of Lawrence, published a monograph. The 1950s saw the publication of two further works:Douglas Goldring'sRegency portrait painter, and Kenneth Garlick's catalogue of Lawrence's paintings (a further edition was published in 1989). SirMichael Levey, curator of theNational Portrait Gallery's 1979–80 Lawrence exhibition, produced books on the artist in 1979 and 2005. Lawrence's entanglements with the Siddons family have been the subject of three books (by Oswald Knapp,André Maurois, andNaomi Royde-Smith) and a recent radio play.
Lawrence's reputation as an artist fell during theVictorian era. Critic and artistRoger Fry did something to restore it in the 1930s, when he described Lawrence as having a "consummate mastery over the means of artistic expression" with an "unerring hand and eye".[38] At one time Lawrence was more popular in the United States and France than in Britain; and some of his best known portraits, including those ofElizabeth Farren,Sarah Barrett Moulton (known to her family as Pinkie) and Charles Lambton (the "Red Boy") found their way to the United States during the early-20th-century enthusiasm there for English portraits. Sir Michael Levey acknowledges that Lawrence is still dismissed by some art historians: "He was a highly original artist, quite unexpected on the English scene: self-taught, self-absorbed in perfecting his own personal style, and in effect self-destructing, since he left behind no significant followers or creative influence. Leaving aside Sargent, his sole successor has been not in painting, but in fashionable, virtuoso photography."[39]
The most extensive collections of Lawrence's work can be found in theRoyal Collection,[40] and theNational Portrait Gallery in London.[41]Tate Britain, theNational Gallery and theDulwich Picture Gallery house smaller collections of his work in London. There are a few examples of his work in theHolburne Museum of Art and theVictoria Art Gallery in Bath, and inBristol City Museum and Art Gallery. In the United States, theHuntington Library housesPinkie, and Lawrence's portraits ofElizabeth Farren, Lady Harriet Maria Conyngham, and the Calmady children are in theMetropolitan Museum of Art. In Europe, theMusée du Louvre has a few examples of Lawrence's work, and theVatican Pinacoteca has aswagger portrait ofGeorge IV (presented by the King himself) as almost its only British work.
In 2010 the National Portrait Gallery held a retrospective exhibition of Lawrence's work. The director of the National Portrait Gallery,Sandy Nairne, was quoted inThe Guardian describing Lawrence as "…a huge figure. But a huge figure who we believe deserves a great deal more attention. He is one of the great painters of the last 250 years and one of the great stars of portraiture on a European stage."[42] In December 2018, a portrait of Lady Selina Meade (1797–1872), who married the Count ofClam-Martinic, painted by Lawrence in Vienna in 1819, sold for £2.29 million at auction, a record for the artist.[43]
In the 1848 novelVanity Fair,William Makepeace Thackeray refers to "...the Lawrence portraits, tawdry and beautiful, and, thirty years ago, deemed as precious as works of real genius...".[44]
A description of Mr Tite Barnacle of the Circumlocution Office as someone who "seemed to have been sitting for his portrait to Sir Thomas Lawrence all the days of his life" is one of 25 references to art inCharles Dickens' 1857 novelLittle Dorrit.[45]
In the playAn Ideal Husband byOscar Wilde, Lord Caversham is introduced with a stage direction that describes him as "[r]ather like a portrait by Lawrence".[46]
In the 1943 filmThe Man in Grey, Lawrence appears in one scene and is played by the actorStuart Lindsell.
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| Preceded by | Principal Painter in Ordinary to the King 1792–1830 | Succeeded by |
| Cultural offices | ||
| Preceded by | President of the Royal Academy 1820–1830 | Succeeded by |
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