Lot Essay
When Lawrence moved from Bath to London in 1787 he came with the reputation of a prodigy who had made his name by painting small portraits in pastel. His acquisition of the skills of painting in oils as soon as he was settled, was however so phenomenally rapid that he abandoned pastel almost entirely. Lot 54 was his last, his most ambitious and his most successful effort in this medium. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1795, no. 602, as Portraits of a Family. On the right stands Mrs Ayscoghe Boucherett. On her right is her half-sister, Juliana Angerstein. Her two eldest children play below.
Mrs Boucherett, (1761-1837), was born Emilia Crockatt, the youngest child of Charles Crockatt, a City merchant married to Anna Muilman, (1733-1783), niece of the historian, Peter Muilman, F.S.A., Emilia's mother married as her second husband, John Julius Angerstein, (1732-1823), in 1771. Their daughter, Juliana, (1772-1846), married on the 20th November 1804, against her father's wishes, General Nikolai Alexandrovich Sabloukoff, (1776-1848), who later served in the 1812 campaign and was created D.C.L. at Oxford in 1834. Emilia Crockatt married on the 17th March 1789, Ayscoghe Boucherett, (1755-1815), of North Willingham, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, M.P. for Great Grimsby, 1796-1803, whose assets were barely sufficient to meet his debts due to his involvement in The Grimsby Haven Company. He was killed in front of his family when the curricle he was driving overturned at his home, Willingham House, Lincolnshire. They had four children. Emilia Mary (1790-1874), Ayscoghe (1791-1857), Juliana (d. 1861), Maria (1797-1867).
John Julius Angerstein, Financier and Collector, was reputed to be the son of Andrew Thomson, a Russian Merchant by the Empress Elizabeth. His collection of Old Master Paintings, was purchased for the Nation in 1824, and formed the nucleus of the National Gallery. Angerstein was one of Lawrence's patrons from his earliest days in London, and Woodlands, the Angerstein's house at Blackheath, where this pastel was probably made, was second home to him. Here he painted the large group of the Boucherett children, 1800, which is now in the Louvre, and another of the children of John Angerstein, 1808, which is now in Berlin, and made numerous portraits in oils and drawings, of members of both families, and of their friends, the Locks of Norbury, Mrs Boucherett and her sister-in-law, Mrs John Angerstein, were among his closest friends and correspondents. Some of their letters were published by D R Williams in The Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, Kt., in 1831.
A copy was made for the family by William Marshall Craig in 1814, and Williams quotes a letter from Lawrence to Angerstein, 10th November, 1821, which states 'Mr Craig, the youngest student, who has been at Woodlands, has shown me the drawing he has made from my crayon picture, which I think very delicate and pretty ...'.
The fact that this work has surfaced for the first time, almost a hundred years after its sale in 1896 gives it a special interest.
We are grateful to Kenneth Garlick for his help in preparing this catalogue entry
Mrs Boucherett, (1761-1837), was born Emilia Crockatt, the youngest child of Charles Crockatt, a City merchant married to Anna Muilman, (1733-1783), niece of the historian, Peter Muilman, F.S.A., Emilia's mother married as her second husband, John Julius Angerstein, (1732-1823), in 1771. Their daughter, Juliana, (1772-1846), married on the 20th November 1804, against her father's wishes, General Nikolai Alexandrovich Sabloukoff, (1776-1848), who later served in the 1812 campaign and was created D.C.L. at Oxford in 1834. Emilia Crockatt married on the 17th March 1789, Ayscoghe Boucherett, (1755-1815), of North Willingham, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, M.P. for Great Grimsby, 1796-1803, whose assets were barely sufficient to meet his debts due to his involvement in The Grimsby Haven Company. He was killed in front of his family when the curricle he was driving overturned at his home, Willingham House, Lincolnshire. They had four children. Emilia Mary (1790-1874), Ayscoghe (1791-1857), Juliana (d. 1861), Maria (1797-1867).
John Julius Angerstein, Financier and Collector, was reputed to be the son of Andrew Thomson, a Russian Merchant by the Empress Elizabeth. His collection of Old Master Paintings, was purchased for the Nation in 1824, and formed the nucleus of the National Gallery. Angerstein was one of Lawrence's patrons from his earliest days in London, and Woodlands, the Angerstein's house at Blackheath, where this pastel was probably made, was second home to him. Here he painted the large group of the Boucherett children, 1800, which is now in the Louvre, and another of the children of John Angerstein, 1808, which is now in Berlin, and made numerous portraits in oils and drawings, of members of both families, and of their friends, the Locks of Norbury, Mrs Boucherett and her sister-in-law, Mrs John Angerstein, were among his closest friends and correspondents. Some of their letters were published by D R Williams in The Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, Kt., in 1831.
A copy was made for the family by William Marshall Craig in 1814, and Williams quotes a letter from Lawrence to Angerstein, 10th November, 1821, which states 'Mr Craig, the youngest student, who has been at Woodlands, has shown me the drawing he has made from my crayon picture, which I think very delicate and pretty ...'.
The fact that this work has surfaced for the first time, almost a hundred years after its sale in 1896 gives it a special interest.
We are grateful to Kenneth Garlick for his help in preparing this catalogue entry