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Lot Essay
This striking portrait, which has been in a family collection since the early 20th Century, depicts one of Lawrence's closest friends during his early years in London. Lawrence came to London from Bath with his parents in the mid 1780s and they settled in Soho. He gained an audience with Sir Joshua Reynolds, the then President of the Royal Academy, and was accepted by the Royal Academy Schools where he started in September 1787. D.E.Williams recalled in 1831: 'Lawrence had been admitted a student of the Royal Academy; and amongst his contemporaries were Mr. Benjamin West and Mr. Westall, with whom he contracted an intimate aquaintance, which continued through life and which, with the latter, amounted to the warmest friendship' (see D.E.Williams, The Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, 1831, vol. I, p. 106).
Richard Westall was brought up in Hertford and became apprenticed to a silver engraver in London in 1779. He turned to drawing however and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784. He was accepted at the Royal Academy Schools in 1785, two years before Lawrence. The two artists met at around this time presumably at the Royal Academy and soon became firm friends - Lawrence persuaded his parents to take out a lease on a house at 57 Greek Street and to accept Westall as a lodger.
Lawrence's rise to prominence was a rapid one. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790 and was made an Associate of the Royal Academy in the following year. In 1792, Reynolds died and at the age of 23, Lawrence succeeded him as Painter-in-Ordinary to the King. In 1794 he was made a full Academician and by the turn of the century he was the most sought after portrait painter in the country.
Westall established a reputation as a book illustrator in the early 1790s and worked for Boydell and Macklin amongst others. Redgrave writes that he 'first attracted notice by his designs in watercolour in which medium he executed some well-finished historical subjects....rich and full of colour and of great beauty in execution' (see Samuel Redgrave, Dictionary of Artists of the English School, 1878, p. 465). He was made a full Academician in 1794, the same year as Lawrence, and his work became very popular. Later in life he became drawing master to the future Queen Victoria.
This intimate but intense drawing dates from circa 1792-95 and depicts Westall in his late 20s. It does not have the feeling of an official commission but merely of an artist recording the features of a friend. We know that this drawing was in the possession of Richard Westall's younger brother William so presumably Lawrence presented it to the sitter. As well as being the most important portrait painter of his day in oil, Lawrence was also probably the greatest portrait draughtsman. He also used drawings 'to pin down his prime visual sensations' (see Michael Levey, Sir Thomas Lawrence, exhibition catalogue, 1979) and Delacroix praised 'La verité de son dessin', adding that his drawing of heads was 'incomparable'.
For a work by Westall, see lot 31.
Richard Westall was brought up in Hertford and became apprenticed to a silver engraver in London in 1779. He turned to drawing however and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1784. He was accepted at the Royal Academy Schools in 1785, two years before Lawrence. The two artists met at around this time presumably at the Royal Academy and soon became firm friends - Lawrence persuaded his parents to take out a lease on a house at 57 Greek Street and to accept Westall as a lodger.
Lawrence's rise to prominence was a rapid one. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790 and was made an Associate of the Royal Academy in the following year. In 1792, Reynolds died and at the age of 23, Lawrence succeeded him as Painter-in-Ordinary to the King. In 1794 he was made a full Academician and by the turn of the century he was the most sought after portrait painter in the country.
Westall established a reputation as a book illustrator in the early 1790s and worked for Boydell and Macklin amongst others. Redgrave writes that he 'first attracted notice by his designs in watercolour in which medium he executed some well-finished historical subjects....rich and full of colour and of great beauty in execution' (see Samuel Redgrave, Dictionary of Artists of the English School, 1878, p. 465). He was made a full Academician in 1794, the same year as Lawrence, and his work became very popular. Later in life he became drawing master to the future Queen Victoria.
This intimate but intense drawing dates from circa 1792-95 and depicts Westall in his late 20s. It does not have the feeling of an official commission but merely of an artist recording the features of a friend. We know that this drawing was in the possession of Richard Westall's younger brother William so presumably Lawrence presented it to the sitter. As well as being the most important portrait painter of his day in oil, Lawrence was also probably the greatest portrait draughtsman. He also used drawings 'to pin down his prime visual sensations' (see Michael Levey, Sir Thomas Lawrence, exhibition catalogue, 1979) and Delacroix praised 'La verité de son dessin', adding that his drawing of heads was 'incomparable'.
For a work by Westall, see lot 31.