Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769 – 1830) - a biography by Sarah Padwick  

 Thomas Lawrence was born in Bristol in 1769, son of the innkeeper, Thomas and his wife Lucy Read, “the beauty of Tenbury” of gentle blood, being a distant relation of the House of Powys. He was the youngest of sixteen children, though only he and two sisters survived infancy. The family moved to Devizes, Wiltshire in 1772, where his father was the innkeeper of The Bear Hotel, a posting inn in The Square. Thomas was a child prodigy, who, by the age of six, was already sketching the guests’ likenesses and declaiming passages from Milton. From the age of 10, he was earning money from his pencil portraits of the well-known travellers between London and Bath.

Above left: a self portrait done in 1788 of Thomas Lawrence - aged about 19. He was born in Bristol in 1769 and  he died in London in 1830 aged 60. Above right: Sir Thomas Lawrence in about 1825 by Richard Evans. Oil on canvas 36 1/4 in. x 28 in. (921 mm x 711 mm). Purchased  in1868 by the National Portrait Gallery. Reproduced here on license from NPG. This may not be copied.

In 1779 He became the chief breadwinner, when his father became bankrupt. From 1780 to 1786, he lived in Bath, working his portraits in pastel. In 1784, he won the prize and silver-gilt palette of the Society of Arts for a crayon drawing after Raphael’s “Transfiguration”.

In 1787, he moved to London and began painting in oils. He was hitherto almost entirely self taught but on arrival in London was received by Sir Joshua Reynolds and became a student at the Royal Academy, exhibiting almost immediately. His rise to fame was rapid and he became an associate of the Academy in 1791.

He had his big break when asked to paint a full-length portrait of Queen Charlotte. However, the Queen was reluctant to sit for him and her expression was care worn from the burdens she carried, from the declining health of George III, the losses in America and the uprisings in France. Although the painting had delicacy and honesty, she eventually rejected it and never paid for it. One of his most famous portraits was of the actress Elizabeth Farren, painted in 1790 - see the photogallery.

With Reynolds death in 1792, he was appointed principal painter to King George III, in lieu of his mentor. Two years later, he became a Royal Academician and the most fashionable portrait painter of his era, with sitters amongst England’s most notable people and, ultimately, most of the crowned heads of Europe and Pope Pius VII - see the photogallery.

In 1796, Lord Seaforth, one of Lawrence’s close patrons, gave him £1,000 (about £77,000 nowadays) to relieve him from financial difficulties and in 1815, Lawrence was knighted.

He was sent to Europe as an envoy of the Prince Regent, to paint the various victors of Waterloo, including Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington and Charles William Vane-Stewart, later 3rd Marquess of Londonderry (see illustration). Amongst Europe’s royalty, he painted Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of Brunswick (see illustration), a favourite subject of his, who was reputedly his lover for a time.

Upon returning to England in 1820, he was chosen to be president of the Academy, which post he held until his death in 1830. He never married.

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