Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A.

William Dacres Adams, Private Secretary to William Pitt the Younger, and thence by descent until 1994;
With Thos. Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London:
From whom acquired by the mother of the present owner.

London, Royal Academy, Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., 28 October - 31 December 1961, no. 35;
New Haven, Yale Center for British Art; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum; Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Portraits of an Age, 1790-1830, 1993, no. 24.

J. Boaden, ed., Memoirs of Mrs. Inchbald, London 1833, vol. I, pp. 342, 349, vol. II, pp. 246-248;
W. Armstrong, Lawrence, London 1913, p. 141;
K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1954, p. 43;
K. Garlick, “A catalogue of the paintings, drawings and pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence,” in The Walpole Society, Vol. 39 (1962-1964), p. 110;
K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence: a complete catalogue of the oil paintings, Oxford 1989, p. 212. cat. no. 429a;
K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Portraits of an Age, 1790-1830, exhibition catalogue, New Haven 1993, p. 66 cat. no. 24, reproduced p. 67.ENGRAVED:
Stipple engraving, Samuel Freeman, 1797, plate to The Monthly Mirror (1807).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.This work has been restored and is in very good condition. The work is unfinished, and a strip of about 4 inches running across the bottom is completely unpainted. The background is loosely applied, but it is in very healthy state. There are three small restorations in the background in the upper left, and a horizontal restoration to a loss of about 2 inches long in the upper right. The face and cap are in beautiful condition, showing no retouches at all. There are hardly any restorations in the lightly painted chest and the unpainted lower edge. This example of the artist's work in progress is clearly in very good state.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Elizabeth Simpson Inchbald, the daughter of a Suffolk farmer, left home at an early age determined to make a career on the stage. She married the actor Joseph Inchbald (1735-1779), playing Cordelia to his Lear in her debut in 1772 in Bristol.  In the ensuing years, she performed in numerous roles, not only in Shakespearian drama, but in 17^th century comedies and tragedies as well as contemporary plays, appearing in London and Dublin.  Though she had numerous admirers, her acting was never critically acclaimed and she began to devote her energy into writing both plays and fiction.  In 1789, she retired from the stage to write full time, achieving considerable success.  Her work for the stage included comedies, sentimental dramas and farces, some of which were original and others of which were adaptations of French and German plays.  Inchbald is best known today for her novel A Simple Story (1791), and to readers of Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park in which her play, Lover’s Vows (1798) is the drama enacted by some of the characters in a private theatrical and deemed rather unsuitable, as it follows the story of a “fallen woman” and her illegitimate son.Inchbald is thought to have met Lawrence through the actress Sarah Siddons with whom she had a close friendship. This portrait of circa 1796, left unfinished, provides us with insight into Lawrence’s working method when beginning a portrait.  According to his early biographer, Allan Cunningham, “His constant practice was to begin by making a drawing of the head full size on canvass; carefully tracing dimensions and expression.  This took up one day.”¹  At the next sitting, Lawrence would begin to paint the head.  In this portrait of Mrs. Inchbald, we see exactly this method with the head having been almost fully worked up while her torso is delineated by black chalk drawn directly on the canvas.  Though never completed, Lawrence has already captured the beauty and keen intelligence of his sitter.

Another portrait of Elizabeth Inchbald by Lawrence, dating from a few years later, was sold at Sotheby’s London on 10 July 1991, lot 54.

1.  See A. Cunningham,  The Lives of the most eminent British Painters, Sculptors and Architects, London 1833, vol. 6, pp. 194-195.