Sir Thomas Lawrence

English (1769 - 1830)

All artists

Sir Thomas Lawrence *Elizabeth Thynne, Countess Cawdor, d. 1866* Begun 1827

Biography

Born 1769

Died 1830

Nationality English

Birth place Bristol

Death place London

Lawrence was a child prodigy, supporting his family from boyhood by selling pastel portraits to visitors to Bath. By 1786 he had moved to London where he briefly attended the Royal Academy Schools. He rapidly established himself as a brilliant and successful portrait painter, exhibiting an astonishingly ambitious full-length of Queen Charlotte in 1790 (now at the National Gallery, London). He was knighted in 1815 and became President of the Royal Academy in 1820. His sitters - whether society beauties, theatrical stars or military commanders - embody the romantic, slightly raffish, glamour associated with the Regency period.

Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA FRS (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was a leading English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. Lawrence was a child prodigy. He was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper. At the age of ten, having moved to Bath, he was supporting his family with his pastel portraits. At eighteen 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 1790. 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 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 became the subject of several books) and, in spite of his success, he spent most of life deep in debt. He never married. At his death, Lawrence was the most fashionable portrait painter in Europe. His reputation waned during Victorian times, but has since been partially restored.

ID: 312096

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