Description:Born in 1769 Thomas Lawrence developed an enthusiasm for art from an early age. His portraits of English and European royalty made him the most fashionable portrait painter of the early nineteenth century. Despite suffering huge financial difficulties, Lawrence was Principal Painter to King George the Third, and was knighted in 1815. He served as president of the Royal Academy for a decade from 1820 until his death in 1830.
Sir Thomas Lawrence’s Letters to George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (1786-1861), the second Duke of Sutherland
As the leading portrait artist of his day, Thomas Lawrence painted a number of pictures for the Sutherland family. His subjects included the second Duke of Sutherland, and an amusing letter written to the Duke by Lawrence in December 1823 refers to the Duke’s sittings for his portrait.
Lawrence comments that the ‘pleasure’ he will have in ‘receiving’ the Duke ‘may induce me to exact longer and more frequent sittings’ than the Duke ‘may be willing to afford’. Lawrence adds that he will treat the Duke ‘more gently’ when he first commences work on the painting, adding that ‘an hour is about the usual extent of the first sitting’.
Click on the images on the left to learn more about Sir Thomas Lawrence in the Sutherland Papers.
Contextual Information from: Michael Levey, ‘Lawrence, Sir Thomas (1769–1830)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/16189]