LAWRENCE, SIR THOMAS, was born at Bristol, May 4th, 1769. Ills father bad been brought up to the legal profession, which he however never followed. Of a somewhat improvidentand unsettled disposition, he tried various avocations without much success in•any. Ile had married a beautiful and accomplished young lady, daughter of the Rev. W. Read, vicar of Tenbury ; and he at length obtained, through the interest of an aunt of Mrs. Lawrence, the office of super visor of excise at Bristol, which he resigned soon after the birth of his son Thomas—the youngest of sixteen children, most of whom died in infancy—and became landlord of the White Lion Inn. Not suc ceeding at Bristol, Mr. Lawrence in 1772 was enabled by his friends to become landlord of the Black Bear at Devizes, where he remained till 1779. This inn was at that time much frequented by the rich and fashionable, who resorted to Bath, and generally stopped at Devizes. It was here that young Lawrence manifested that decided predilection for the art in which he subsequently attained such eminence. He drew striking likenesses with the pencil and pen while a child in petticoats. Ile was likewise remarkable for the feeling and taste with which he recited poetry, in which he had been trained by his father, who never failed to introduce him to his guests, who were delighted both with his genius and his extraordinary personal beauty. It was io 1775, when he was only six years old, that Mr. (afterwards Lord) Kenyon and his lady had their portraits in profile taken by the infant artist. They were deficient iu force, but the execution is said to have been extremely easy and spirited, and the likenesses accurate. Very soon after this event he was sent to a highly respectable school, kept by Mr. Jones, near Bristol, but ho was removed when only eight years old; and this was all the regular education that he ever had.
In 1779 Mr. Lawrence failed, and was obliged to leave Devizes, whence he went to Weymouth. In 1782 he settled at Bath, and placed his son for a time as a pupil under Mr. Prince Hoare, a crayon
painter, of much taste, fancy, and feeling, from whom young Lawrence acquired that grace, elegance, and spirit, which qualified him to be so pre-eminently the painter of female beauty. At the age of thirteen he received from the Society of Arts the great silver pallet, gilt, with an additional present of five guineas, for a copy in crayons of the Trans figuration.' Sir Thomas frequently declared that this honour had given a great impulse to his enthusiastic love of the art. Nor did ho confine himself to portraits. At the age of nine he copied historical pictures in a masterly style, and at the age of ten ventured on original compositions of the highest order, such as Christ reproving Peter for denying him," Reuben requesting his Father to let Benjamin go to Egypt,' Haman and Mordecai,' ito.
At length in 1781' Lawrence's father resolved to bring his son to London, and took apartments iu Leicester-square. He was soon introduced to Sir Joshua Reynolds, who gave him good advice and encouragement, and always received him with kindness. It was in the same year (1787) that he first exhibited at Somerset House, where seven of his pictures, all female portraits, were admitted. From that time his fame and his practice rapidly increased, though he had some formidable competitors, one of whom was Hoppner, who was patronised by the Prince of Wales. In 1791 he was chosen Associate of the Royal Academy, or rather, being under the age (twenty-four) fixed by the laws of the institution, he was elected a Supplemental Associate,' being the only instance of the kind which has occurred; and his election is said to have been owing to the strongly-expressed wish of George III. In 1792 George III. appointed him to succeed Sir Joshua Reynolds as principal painter in ordinary, and the Dilettanti Society unanimously chose him for their painter. From that time forward every exhibition at Somerset House offered fresh proofs of his talenta. Yet these pictures were but a small portion of those which he executed.