Lot Essay
This and the following lot are unique in Lawrence's oeuvre. For although the landscape passages in his portraits are of consistent brilliance and a very few drawings of landscapes are known, no other oil studies survive. The title used by Lupton for both in 1834 - 'Study from Nature' certainly expresses the character of the two. The tradition that these were 'painted at Ilam Hall, Derbyshire, when Lawrence was painting the Watts Russell family there', was recorded in a letter of 1951 from Colonel Grant to Kenneth Garlick (Garlick, 1993, p.15). Dr. Garlick suggests that the Mr. Watts, from whom he received a half-payment of 15 guineas about 1790, at the outset of his career, was David Pike Watts, whose daughter Mary married Jesse Russell (1786-1875), second son of Jesse Russell (b. 1743), of London and Wolthamstow: the younger Jesse assumed the name of Watts Russell in 1817. Ilam Hall was rebuilt for him and his wife: it is now demolished, but the estate is owned by the National Trust.
The two landscapes have been consistently dated to the outset of Lawrence's career (Garlick, 1993, p. 19). A date of 1790 or soon after, supported by the evidence of Lawrence's lost portrait of Mr. Watts, should not be excluded, for the character and handling of the two can be paralleled in the background of the celebrated portrait of Queen Charlotte (London, National Gallery) exhibited in that year. Little is known about Lawrence's movements outside London, and it must be emphasised that the early years of his London career are poorly documented. Garlick (1993, p. 17) summarises the evidence: a visit of 1795 to Burghley, others to the Boucheretts at Willingham Hall, like Burghley in Lincolnshire. His sister Anne lived at the time at Solihull in Warwickshire. There is no evidence that he travelled further north or west, but the dramatic landscapes of certain portraits carry such conviction that it is difficult to believe that his experience of moorland and mountains was at second hand; in this connection Dr. Garlick (Garlick, 1993, p. 13) cites the 'Pinkie' (1795, San Marino, Huntington), the Lady Conyngham (1861, Birmingham City Art Gallery), the Lady Georgiana Fane (1806, Tate Gallery) and the Master Lambton (1827, private collection). In the 1861 and 1884 sale catalogue it is implied that the figures in this and the companion picture are by Thomas Stothard. There is in fact no reason to suppose that the present picture is not entirely Lawrence himself, as Dr. Garlick observes (1993, p. 16).
As a portraitist, however, Lawrence was not alone to venture into the sphere of landscape painting. Reynolds, significantly also at the outset of his career, had done so, and in the 1790s two of Lawrence's rivals painted landscapes: Thomas Phillips (Royal Acadamy, 1792, no. 202, now in a private collection) and Hoppner, whose ambitious Dolbadern Castle was sold at Christie's, 22 November 198*, lot 41.
What the two de Quincey pictures poignantly demonstrate is an original talent for landscapes which Lawrence was to supress in preference for the career as a portrait-painter which alone could secure him the financial resources which his pattern of living - and later collecting - necessitated.
The two landscapes have been consistently dated to the outset of Lawrence's career (Garlick, 1993, p. 19). A date of 1790 or soon after, supported by the evidence of Lawrence's lost portrait of Mr. Watts, should not be excluded, for the character and handling of the two can be paralleled in the background of the celebrated portrait of Queen Charlotte (London, National Gallery) exhibited in that year. Little is known about Lawrence's movements outside London, and it must be emphasised that the early years of his London career are poorly documented. Garlick (1993, p. 17) summarises the evidence: a visit of 1795 to Burghley, others to the Boucheretts at Willingham Hall, like Burghley in Lincolnshire. His sister Anne lived at the time at Solihull in Warwickshire. There is no evidence that he travelled further north or west, but the dramatic landscapes of certain portraits carry such conviction that it is difficult to believe that his experience of moorland and mountains was at second hand; in this connection Dr. Garlick (Garlick, 1993, p. 13) cites the 'Pinkie' (1795, San Marino, Huntington), the Lady Conyngham (1861, Birmingham City Art Gallery), the Lady Georgiana Fane (1806, Tate Gallery) and the Master Lambton (1827, private collection). In the 1861 and 1884 sale catalogue it is implied that the figures in this and the companion picture are by Thomas Stothard. There is in fact no reason to suppose that the present picture is not entirely Lawrence himself, as Dr. Garlick observes (1993, p. 16).
As a portraitist, however, Lawrence was not alone to venture into the sphere of landscape painting. Reynolds, significantly also at the outset of his career, had done so, and in the 1790s two of Lawrence's rivals painted landscapes: Thomas Phillips (Royal Acadamy, 1792, no. 202, now in a private collection) and Hoppner, whose ambitious Dolbadern Castle was sold at Christie's, 22 November 198*, lot 41.
What the two de Quincey pictures poignantly demonstrate is an original talent for landscapes which Lawrence was to supress in preference for the career as a portrait-painter which alone could secure him the financial resources which his pattern of living - and later collecting - necessitated.