Lot Essay
Lawrence made these large scale drawings on canvas as preparatory drawings for his finished portraits, for example William Lock the Younger, Yale Center for British Art, or as finished works in their own right, see Christie's, London, 4 June 2008, lot 23, Double Portrait of Richard Rowland Bloxham and Andrew Bloxham, on the eve of their departure for the Sandwich Islands, 1823. Sometimes they were not taken further as 'Lawrence sometimes, nay often, laid aside the first drawing and painted on a copy' from his fear of losing the invaluable benefit of first impressions.' (A. Cunningham, The Lives of the most eminent British Painters, Sculptors and Architects, vol. 6. 1833, p. 195).