Lot 5
  • 5

Sir Thomas Lawrence P.R.A., 1769-1830

Estimate
1,000 - 2,000 GBP
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Sir Thomas Lawrence P.R.A.
  • study for the head of a man
  • signed with initials and inscribed on a separate label: the sketches have been/done by Sir Thomas Lawrence/about the year 1796 or 98/at my grandfathers house/in Kew, near London/they are done with a paper/match, burnt or singed/at an open fire/the little book is his very/first attempt at drawing/when he was a waiter/at a public house, also inscribed in ink: Dresden 1878 Sophia Pappendick/from Lucy Wharton Dresal (?)xmas/97
  • pencil and burnt paper stump, on laid paper with partial watermark: L MUNN
  • 18x15cm.; 7x6in.

Provenance

Eleanor Brewster;
by descent to the mother of the present owner (by 1960)

Catalogue Note

Sophia Pappendick, mentioned on the label, would appear to be a descendant of Mrs Papendick, assistant Keeper of the Wardrobe to Queen Charlotte.  Mrs Papendick's journal Court and Private Life in the Time of Queen Charlotte, edited and published by a granddaughter Mrs Vernon Delves Broughton in 1887, mentions the drawings of which this is an example.  

In referring to evenings spent at home in the 1790's, she wrote, When we wished to fill up the time with music, I sent for Rodgers; otherwise we read, worked, or had a game at cards.  It was during these evenings that Lawrence drew those beautiful drawings in burnt paper pencils. (Court and Private Life in the Time of Queen Charlotte, ed. Mrs Vernon Delves Broughton, 1887, vol 11, p.145)

We are grateful to Dr Kenneth Garlick and Peter Bower for their assistance in cataloguing this drawing