Last week it was announced that the National Portrait Gallery in London this autumn will do an exhibition on Sir Thomas Lawrence – it will consist of some fifty works and be the first major exhibition on him in Britain for thirty years.This is great news as Lawrence, one of the finest British portraitists of the 19th century, following his death in 1830 has received considerably less attention that some of his contemporaries or near-contemporaries such as Gainsborough, Reynolds, Constable or Turner.
The exhibition will run from 21 October to 23 January and among the works included will be some of the grand portraits from the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle of the leaders of the coalition which defeated France in the Napoleonic Wars – among the portrait of Pope Pius VII which is seen above.
What do you think diffentiates a Lawrence portrait from those of Reynolds or Gainsborough? I don't believe I am familiar with Lawrence.
ReplyDeleteI think the short, easy answer would be to say that Lawrence is less romantic than Gainsborough (who often placed his subjects in the nature and let trees take the place of columns in the background) and that Lawrence is perhaps also more "glamorous" (although that is not the perfect word to express it).
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