Thomas Lawrence

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Lady Orde with her daughter Anne, 1810/12
Prince von Metternich , 1820–1825
Portrait of Queen Charlotte, 1789/1790

Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA FRS (born April 13, 1769 in Bristol , † January 7, 1830 in London ) was an English painter .

life and work

Thomas Lawrence began drawing as a child prodigy in Devizes , where his father was a landlord. As a ten year old he moved to Bath , where he was trained by William Hoare (1707–1792) and contributed to the maintenance of his family with chalk portraits. In 1785 he won a prize and made some attempts in history painting. From 1787 he was a student at the London Royal Academy of Arts . This year he exhibited four female portraits, which established his reputation. In 1788 he was able to exhibit six and in 1789 13 portraits, including that of the Duke of York; In 1790 followed those of Queen Charlotte , Princess Amalia and eleven other portraits. In 1791 he painted ten portraits of Homer while reading his poems .

In 1792 he became court painter after Joshua Reynolds died. On February 10, 1794 he was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts , of which he was president from 1820 to 1830. In 1814 he went to Paris and the following year Prince Regent George IV knighted him. In 1818 Lawrence portrayed the members of the congress in Aachen on his behalf and then the ruling heads and other important persons in Vienna and Italy , including the sculptor Antonio Canova . In 1820 he was elected President of the Academy. On February 28, 1822 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society . In 1825 he went to Paris to paint Charles X and the Dauphin on behalf of the King of England . In New York , Lawrence was elected honorary member ( Honorary NA ) in 1827, the first year after the founding of the National Academy of Design .

Lawrence died at the height of his fame and was buried with great ceremonies in the crypt of London's Saint Paul's Cathedral .

In the eyes of his posterity, his work was viewed critically. In Meyer's Konversations-Lexikon of 1889 it says: “Lawrence painted elegantly but softly; there is something weak about his drawing, his coloring is untrue and his characteristics superficial; his representations also lack diversity. His few history pictures are insignificant. Nonetheless, he was the most celebrated fashion painter of his time, accommodating the sentimental taste of London society. "

Despite the colossal income, he did not make a large fortune, as he was a passionate collector of paintings and drawings. His collection of paintings came into the possession of the National Gallery . His portraits became widespread because they were often reproduced in copperplate engravings or etchings .

Works (selection)

  • Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. 1829, unfinished portrait, oil on canvas, private collection
  • Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick , 1804, oil on canvas, 127 × 102 cm. London, National Portrait Gallery (NPG 244)
  • The Red Boy (Charles William Lambton) , 1825, canvas, 137 × 111 cm. London, Earl of Durham private collection
  • The Dauphin , canvas, 270 × 176 cm. Windsor Castle, Royal Collection
  • Elizabeth Farren , before 1791, canvas, 238 × 147 cm. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art , legacy of Edward S. Harkness (see picture 2)
  • Emily and Harriet Lamb , before 1793, canvas, 76 × 63 cm. London, Lady Salmond's private collection
  • Emily and Laura Calmady (Tondo) , before 1825, canvas, diameter 77 cm. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Pope Pius VII. , 1820, canvas
  • Archduke Karl , 1818–19, canvas, 270 × 176 cm. Windsor Castle, Royal Collection
  • Homer recites the »Iliad« , before 1792, canvas, 85 × 114 cm. Downton Castle (Herefordshire), WMP Kincaid Lennox private collection

exhibition

  • 2010: Thomas Lawrence, Regency Power and Brilliance. National Portrait Gallery, London

literature

Web links

Commons : Thomas Lawrence  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Database entry - Thomas Lawrence. Royal Academy of Arts; Retrieved April 10, 2013.
  2. ^ Past Academicians "L" / Lawrence, Sir Thomas Honorary 1827 . ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. nationalacademy.org; accessed on June 30, 2015 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nationalacademy.org
  3. ↑ Grave of Sir Thomas Lawrence. knerger.de
  4. ^ Lawrence, 1) Sir Thomas . In: Meyers Konversations-Lexikon . 4th edition. Volume 10, Verlag des Bibliographisches Institut, Leipzig / Vienna 1885–1892, pp. 583–583.
  5. ↑ Wellington's portrait. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , November 4, 2016, p. 9.
  6. ↑ Portraits of Sir Thomas Lawrence, in chronological order . npg.org; Retrieved July 7, 2015
  7. ^ 'Genius ... Infected by Romance' - Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power & Brilliance . nybooks.com; Retrieved July 7, 2015
  8. ↑ The appearance of ease. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , December 27, 2010, p. 23.
personal data
SURNAME Lawrence, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English painter
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1769
PLACE OF BIRTH Bristol
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1830
Place of death London