Sir thomas lawrence biography

Sir Thomas Lawrence PRA ( - )

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Sir Thomas Lawrence was a child prodigy who became the leading British portrait painter of his generation and was elected President of the Royal Academy in

Born in Bristol in , Lawrence entered the Royal Academy Schools aged 18 and was elected a Royal Academician just six years later. In , he succeeded the Royal Academy’s founder, Joshua Reynolds, as the King’s official Painter-in-Ordinary, completing several portraits of the monarch. Lawrence’s flattering and glamorous portraits proved highly popular and, from this period onwards, he was kept busy with a constant stream of commissions from the rich and famous.

In , Lawrence was given a prestigious commission by the Prince Regent to paint the allied military leaders, diplomats and heads of state involved in the defeat of Napoleon, including King Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, Tsar Alexander I of Russia and the Duke of Wellington. The initial commission proved slightly premature when Napoleon returned from exile on the island of Elba but it continued in earnest after the French leader’s defeat at the Battle of Waterloo in Lawrence’s paintings now hang

ARTIST BIOGRAPHIES - SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE

Lawrence, Sir Thomas, –, English portrait painter, b. Bristol. He began to draw when very young. In , 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 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 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 , 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 numb

Sir Thomas Lawrence Biography In Details

In Lawrence was knighted; in he went to Aachen to paint the sovereigns and diplomats gathered there for the third congress, and visited Vienna and Rome, everywhere receiving flattering marks of distinction from princes, due as much to his courtly manners as to his merits as an artist. After eighteen months he returned to England, and on the very day of his arrival was chosen president of the Academy in room of Benjamin West, who had died a few days before. He held the office from to his death. He was never married.

Sir Thomas Lawrence had all the qualities of personal manner and artistic style necessary to make a fashionable painter, and among English portrait painters he takes a high place, though not as high as that given to him in his lifetime. His more ambitious works, in the classical style, such as his once celebrated "Satan," are practically forgotten.

The best display of Lawrence's work is in the Waterloo Gallery of Windsor, a collection of much historical interest. "Master Charles William Lambton" (), painted for Lord Durham at the price of guineas, is regarded as one of his best portraits, and a

Sir Thomas Lawrence

Sir Thomas Lawrence () was the leading English portrait painter of his day. His dashing, colorful style fixed the pattern of society portraiture to the present time.

Thomas Lawrence was born in Bristol on May 4, At Devizes, where his father was landlord of the Black Bear Inn, Thomas's talents first became known. Fanny Burney, a prodigy herself, reports that in Sir Joshua Reynolds had already pronounced Lawrence the most promising genius he had ever met. When Thomas was 10, his father moved the family to Oxford and then to Bath to take advantage of the portrait skill of his son.

At the age of 17 Lawrence began to paint in oil, all his previous work having been in pastel. In the family moved to London, and by he was challenging Reynolds. When Reynolds died in , Lawrence was appointed to the lucrative post of painter in ordinary to the king. He soon became the foremost portrait painter in England, a position he maintained until his death. His portraits of women are models of beauty and elegance, whether the sitter be a tragic actress like Mrs. Siddons, a social figure like the Princess de Lieven, or a personal friend.

At the close of the Napoleonic Wars

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