Portrait of the Rev. Andrew Lawrence (1755-1821), half-length, in a dark coat and hat, holding a cane, in a landscape

Details

Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. (Bristol 1769-1830 London)
Portrait of the Rev. Andrew Lawrence (1755-1821), half-length, in a dark coat and hat, holding a cane, in a landscape
with two identical labels 'Rev/sd Andrew Lawrence Chaplin RN one of the first oil paintings by Sir Thomas Lawrence Exhibited at the Royal Academy A Roly Bloxam 1878' (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
29 x 24 in. (73.7 x 61 cm.)

Provenance

By inheritance through the artist's sister Anne, who married Richard Rouse Bloxam, to the present owner.

Literature

Lord R.S. Gower, Sir Thomas Lawrence, London, 1900, p. 143.
Sir W. Armstrong, Lawrence, London, 1913, p. 144.
K. Garlick, 'A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence', in Walpole Society, XXXIX, 1964, p. 122.
K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, Oxford, 1989, p. 220, no. 470.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, 1790, no. 260.
On loan to the National Art Gallery, Wellington, New Zealand, 1981-2007.
New Zealand, Wellington, National Art Gallery, Art and Life in Georgian England, 14 May-25 September 1986.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

Andrew Lawrence was the eldest son of Thomas and Lucy Lawrence, and the brother of Sir Thomas Lawrence. Having taken his degree at Oxford he was ordained and became Vicar of Middleton, Hampshire, and Chaplain to the Naval Hospital at Haslar, Portsmouth. This portrait, painted at the outset of Lawrence's career (when he was twenty-one), was one of twelve portraits that the artist exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790, a selection which included his celebrated portraits of Elizabeth Farren and Queen Charlotte (Garlick, op.cit., nos. 294 (a), pl. 5 and 186, pl. 4).

This picture passed by inheritance in the family of the artist's sister Anne, who married Richard Rouse Bloxam, together with a portrait of Lawrence's mother (lot 46) and a double portrait in chalk of Lawrence's nephews, Richard Rowland and Andrew Bloxam (Christie's, London, British Art on Paper, 4 June 2008, lot 23).

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