Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A.

Brian Leary, QC (1929-2020), probably by the mid 1960s,

Thence by family descent to the present owner

N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, on-line edition, J.466.4114

Full of character and spirit, this portrait has been dated on stylistic grounds to circa 1786. At that date Lawrence was only seventeen years of age but even as a very young boy his extreme artistic talent had been recognized, with one anecdote recalling the time when the fashionable pastellist, John Russell, R.A., was shown one of Lawrence’s pictures done at the age of nine. He is said to have exclaimed ‘this boy, whoever he is, will be President of the Royal Academy.'¹ This prediction, of course, was to come true in 1820.

We are grateful to Neil Jeffares for his help when cataloguing this lot. 

¹ N. Jeffares, 'Sir Thomas Lawrence', Dictionary of Pastellist before 1800, on-line edition