Sir Thomas Lawrence

Sir Thomas Lawrence 1769-1830, English portrait painter, b. Bristol. He began to draw when very young. In 1787, on his first visit to London, he met Sir Joshua Reynolds, who encouraged the development of his work. Lawrence studied for a short time at the Royal Academy. His reputation was established with the exhibition in 1790 of his portrait of Elizabeth Farren, the actress (Metropolitan Mus.). He soon won royal patronage, and after the deaths of Reynolds and Hoppner he became the fashionable portrait painter of his day. He succeeded Reynolds as painter in ordinary to the king, became an Academician, and was knighted in 1815. After the fall of Napoleon, Lawrence was sent by George IV to the conference at Aix-la-Chapelle to paint the dignitaries assembled there (portraits in Waterloo Gall., Windsor Castle, England). In Austria and Italy he made portraits of state and Church officials and, upon his return to England in 1820, he succeeded Benjamin West as president of the Royal Academy. Among the best of his portraits of children are the group The Calmady Children (Metropolitan Mus.), and the celebrated Pinkie (Henry E. Huntington Gall., San Marino, Calif.). A number of his works were hurriedly executed to alleviate financial pressure and were imperfectly finished. Among the best-known of his numerous works are portraits of Mrs. Siddons, Benjamin West, and Princess Lieven (National Gall., London) and those of George IV and Princess Caroline (National Portrait Gall., London). Examples of his portraiture are in the Metropolitan Museum and the Frick Collection, New York City, and in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Bibliography: See catalog ed. by K. Garlick (1960); study by D. Goldring (1951).

Lawrence, Sir Thomas (1769–1830) English painter. Considered one of the most brilliant British portrait painters of his age, Lawrence's portrait of Queen Charlotte (1789) won immediate acclaim. He became Painter in Ordinary to the King, and was sent to Europe to paint the allied leaders involved in the defeat of Napoleon.

Lawrence, Sir Thomas (1769–1830). Painter. Lawrence was born in Bristol, the son of an innkeeper, and almost completely self‐taught. In 1791 he was elected ARA, made a full academician three years later, and president in 1820. A portrait of Queen Charlotte, painted in 1790, led to enormous success and his appointment as painter to the king on the death of Reynolds in 1792. Fellow‐artist Benjamin Haydon, less successful, said of him, ‘Lawrence … was suited to the age, and the age to him. He flattered its vanities, pampered its weaknesses, and met its meretricious taste.’