37 Facts About Thomas Lawrence

Thomas Lawrence stayed at the top of his profession until his death, aged 60, in 1830.

Thomas Lawrence became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1791, a full member in 1794, and president in 1820.

Thomas Lawrence's reputation waned during Victorian times, but has since been partially restored.

Thomas Lawrence became accomplished in dancing, fencing, boxing and billiards.

From this point on, Thomas Lawrence supported his parents with his portrait work.

The family settled at 2 Alfred Street in Bath, and the young Thomas Lawrence established himself as a portraitist in pastels.

Thomas Lawrence's sitters included the Duchess of Devonshire, Sarah Siddons, Sir Henry Harpur, Warren Hastings, and Sir Elijah Impey.

Talented, charming and attractive Thomas Lawrence was popular with Bath residents and visitors.

Wealthy people allowed him to study their collections of paintings, and Thomas Lawrence's drawing of a copy of Raphael's Transfiguration was awarded a silver-gilt palette and a prize of 5 guineas by the Society of Arts in London.

Sometime before his eighteenth birthday in 1787 Thomas Lawrence arrived in London, taking lodgings in Leicester Square, near to Joshua Reynolds' studio.

Thomas Lawrence was introduced to Reynolds, who advised him to study nature rather than the Old Masters.

Thomas Lawrence set up a studio at 41 Jermyn Street and installed his parents in a house in Greek Street.

Thomas Lawrence exhibited several works in the 1787 Royal Academy exhibition at Somerset House, and enrolled as a student at the Royal Academy but did not stay long, abandoning the drawing of classical statues to concentrate on his portraiture.

Aged just 20, Thomas Lawrence received his first royal commission, a summons arriving from Windsor Palace to paint the portraits of Queen Charlotte and Princess Amelia.

In 1791 Thomas Lawrence was elected an associate of the Royal Academy and the following year, on the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, King George III appointed him "painter-in-ordinary to his majesty".

Thomas Lawrence's reputation was established, and he moved to a studio in Old Bond Street.

Thomas Lawrence's debts stayed with him for the rest of life.

Thomas Lawrence narrowly avoided bankruptcy, had to be bailed out by wealthy sitters and friends, and died insolvent.

Thomas Lawrence fell in love first with Sally, then transferred his affections to her sister Maria, then broke with Maria and turned to Sally again.

Thomas Lawrence continued on friendly terms with their mother and painted several portraits of her.

Thomas Lawrence's parents died within a few months of each other in 1797.

Thomas Lawrence gave up his house in Picadilly, where he had moved from Old Bond Street, to set up his studio in the family home in Greek Street.

Thomas Lawrence stayed at Montague House, the princess's residence in Blackheath, while he was painting the portraits and thus became implicated in the "delicate investigation" into Caroline's morals.

Thomas Lawrence swore an affidavit that although he had on occasion been alone with her, the door had never been locked or bolted and he had "not the least objection for all the world to have heard or seen what took place".

Napoleon's return from Elba put these plans on hold, although Thomas Lawrence did make a visit to Paris, where his friend Lord Charles Stewart was ambassador, and saw the art that Napoleon had looted from Italy, including Raphael's Transfiguration, the painting he had reproduced for his silver-gilt palette as a boy.

Charlotte died in childbirth; Thomas Lawrence completed the portrait and presented it to her husband Prince Leopold at Claremont on his birthday, as agreed.

Thomas Lawrence's sitters included Tsar Alexander, Emperor Francis I of Austria, the King of Prussia, Field-Marshal Prince Schwarzenberg, Archduke Charles of Austria and Henriette his wife, Lady Selina Caroline, wife of the Count of Clam-Martinic and a young Napoleon II, as well as various French and Prussian ministers.

Thomas Lawrence arrived back in London 30 March 1820 to find that the president of the Royal Academy, Benjamin West, had died.

That very evening Thomas Lawrence was voted the new president, a position he would hold until his death 10 years later.

The royal commissions continued during the 1820s, including one for a portrait of the king's sister Sophia, and one of Sir Walter Scott, as well as one to paint the newly-crowned Charles X of France for the Waterloo series, for which Thomas Lawrence made a trip to Paris, taking Herman Wolff with him.

Thomas Lawrence acquired another important patron in Robert Peel, who commissioned the painter to do portraits of his family as well a portrait of George Canning.

Thomas Lawrence died suddenly on 7 January 1830, just months after his friend Isabella Wolff.

Thomas Lawrence was famed for the length of time he took to finish some of his paintings and, at his death, his studio contained a large number of unfinished works.

In 1913, Sir Walter Armstrong, who was not a great admirer of Thomas Lawrence, published a monograph.

Critic and artist Roger Fry did something to restore it in the 1930s, when he described Thomas Lawrence as having a "consummate mastery over the means of artistic expression" with an "unerring hand and eye".

At one time Thomas Lawrence was more popular in the United States and France than in Britain; and some of his best known portraits, including those of Elizabeth Farren, Sarah Barrett Moulton and Charles Lambton found their way to the United States during the early-20th-century enthusiasm there for English portraits.

Thomas Lawrence is one of the great painters of the last 250 years and one of the great stars of portraiture on a European stage.