Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A.

Lawrence executed the present work in 1782, when he was only thirteen years old. His father, Thomas, was an innkeeper who suffered bankruptcy in 1779. As a result he moved his family from Devizes to Oxford before settling in Bath in 1780. His young son was already showing great artistic talent and - perhaps encouraged by William Hoare of Bath, the fashionable pastellist - he would show a preference for the medium until he moved to London in 1790.

D.E. Williams, Lawrence's early biographer, noted that 'by the mid 1780s Lawrence was regularly finishing three or four crayon paintings every week' and on being shown one of his pictures done at the age of nine John Russell, R.A. is said to have exclaimed 'this boy, whoever he is, will be President of the Royal Academy.'¹ 

Alongside carrying out small-scale portraits in pastel, Lawrence also made a number of pastel copies after the old masters. In his Dictionary of Pastellist before 1800 (see Literature), Neil Jeffares records seven drawings of this type.² The present pastel is derived from Pietro da Cortona's monumental canvas of circa 1630, which was commissioned for, and remains in, the Roman church of Santa Maria della Concezione.

Lawrence's source was not, however, the painting itself: his pastel corresponds very closely (including in coloring) to a hand-colored print after Cortona's painting, engraved by Jacob van Lint (1723-1790) or Hendrik Frans van Lint (1684-1726), which is held in the collections at Stourhead, Wiltshire.³ Given that Stourhead is not far from Bath, it seems likely that Lawrence used this very print as his source.  

We are very grateful to Neil Jeffares for his help when cataloguing this work. 

1. N. Jeffares 'Sir Thomas Lawrence', Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, online edition, p. 1; Lawrence was appointed President of the Royal Academy in 1820. 

2. N. Jeffares, op. cit, nos: J.466.42, J.44.422-429 

3. www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/730907