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).
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).