LAWRENCE, Sir THOMAS (1769-1S30). An English portrait painter. He was horn at Bristol, Slay 4, 1769. llis father, who had been edu cated for the law, was an actor and afterwards an inn-keeper. At the age of ten he portrayed the notables of Oxford in crayon, and when his father removed to Bath. his son's studio, although he was but twelve years old, was a favorite resort of beauty and fashion. In his seventeenth year he began to point in oils, and in 1757 he went to London, exhibiting a number of paintings and portraits at the Academy, the schools of which he entered. His attractive manner and appear ance won his way into high society, and in I7S9 he had attained Court patronage. and in the following year his painting, "An Actress." attracted much attention. In 1791 George induced the Academy to elect him an associate, against its own rules, since he was only twenty one—an honor never since repeated. In 179'2 he succeeded Sir Joshua Ileynolds as painter to the King, whose portrait he painted in the same year. Ile in high favor with George IV., who knighted him in 1815.
In 1817 he was sent to Aix-la-Chapelle to por tray the Eu•mean sovereigns and nobles there assembled, including the Emperors of Austria and Russia, the King of Prussia, and Prince Metternich. At Rome he was received as a sec ond Raphael and assigned a silt went, in the Quirinal, where lie painted two of his best por traits, those of Pius VIE. and Cardinal Gonsalvi. He was made a member of the Academies of lloine and Florence, and on the evening of his return to England, in 1S20, he was elected president of the Royal Academy. In 1825 he was sent to l'aris to portray the King and the Dauphin. He possessed one of the finest collections of drawings of the old masters ever in private hands; part of which is now in the :Museum of Oxford. He died in London, January 7, 18:30.
Sir Thomas was the most celebrated painter of his day, but in the reaction against former ex travagant praises, scant justice is now done him. Ile had an unusually acute perception of the graces of society—the elegant airs of the men, and the gracious smiles of the ladies. His execu tion was facile, his composition and draughts manship were good, but his portraits lacked character, and his color, though brilliant, was often hard and glassy. Ilis most perfect works are his drawings in crayon and pencil. His few historical pieces were of little value, but some of his portraits, like those of Mrs. Siddons, and "An Actress," probably Miss Farrell, are very beautiful. Among the most notable are the series of the participants in the congress of Aix-la Chapelle. noticed above, in Waterloo Gallery, Windsor Castle. The National Gallery possesses those of Angerstein. Benjamin West, Mrs. Sid dons, Sir Samuel Romilly, Caroline Fry, and "Child with a Kid," besides others on loan. In the South Kensington Museum are those of Princess Caroline and Sir C. E. Carrington; in the National Portrait Gallery, George IV.. Prin cess Caroline, Lord Thurlow, Lord Eldon, Wil liam Windham, James Mackintosh. Wilberforce, Warren Hastings, Samuel Rogers, Thomas Camp bell, and Elizabeth Carter.
Consult : D. E. Williams, Life and Correspond ence of Sir Thomas Lawrence (London. 1S31) Lewis, Imitations of Sir Thomas Law•enrc's Fin est Drawings (London. 1539).