Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A.

The sitters, Sir Charles Cockerell (1755-1837), 1st Baronet, and Harriet Cockerell (née Rushout; d. 1851), Sezincote House, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire;

Thence by descent to their great-grandson, Sir Charles Hamilton Rushout (1868-1931), 4th Baronet, Sezincote House, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire;

By whom sold (“The Property of Sir Charles Rushout, Bart.”), London, Christie's, 2 July 1920, lot 41;

Where acquired by "Armor";

Frederick Lewis (1870-1944), 1st Baron Essendon;

By whom sold ("Property of the Rt. Hon. Lord Essendon," London, Christie's, 18 June 1954, lot 60;

Where acquired by "Lawrence";

Robert Wylie Lloyd (1868-1958), London;

By whose executors sold ("Sold by Order of the Executors of the Late R.W. Lloyd, Esq."), London, Christie's, 29 May 1959, lot 84;

Where acquired by Julius Weitzner, New York and London;

From whom acquired by John and Johanna Bass Collection, New York;

By whom bequeathed to the Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, in 1963 (inv. no. 63.34).

Miami, Bass Museum of Art, Highlights of the John and Johanna Bass Collection, 3 November - 9 December 1990;

Miami, Bass Museum of Art, Elizabeth I to Elizabeth II: Master Drawings from the National Portrait Gallery, London, 11 December 1993 - 6 February 1994;

Miami, Bass Museum of Art, An Invitation to LOOK, 1 April - 3 July 2011;

Miami, Bass Museum of Art, Pascale Marthine Tayou: Beautiful, 29 October 2017 - 21 May 2018;

Miami, Bass Museum of Art, Figuring Self: Portraits from the Collection, 29 May - 20 October 2019.

K. Garlick, "A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence," in Walpole Society 39 (1964), p. 56;

The John and Johanna Bass Collection at Miami Beach, Florida, Miami 1973, p. 15, cat. no. 34;

K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, A Complete Catalogue of the Oil Paintings, Oxford 1989, p. 170, cat. no. 197, reproduced;

K. Garlick, in Paintings and Textiles of the Bass Museum of Art: Selections from the Collection, M. Russell (ed.), Miami 1990, p. 52, reproduced.

Painted circa 1817, this stately group portrait exemplifies the mature practice of Thomas Lawrence, the preeminent nineteenth-century portraitist of Britain’s aristocratic elite. At right, depicted in profile, stands Sir Charles Cockerell (1755-1837), a Somerset-born politician who spent the first half of his career in India, notably serving as the Postmaster General from 1784 to 1792. Beside him sits his second wife, Harriet Rushout (1771-1851), depicted in a white muslin gown rendered with Lawrence’s characteristic sensitivity to texture and light. The couple is accompanied by their three children: Charles (1809-1869), later adopting the surname Rushout and succeeding his father as 2^nd Baronet; Harriet Anne (1812-1842), the future Viscountess Deerhurst; and Elizabeth Marie, who died in 1832.

Lawrence’s portrayal of the family reflects the period’s new appreciation of childhood as a distinct stage of life, defined by innocence and familial affection. Rather than presenting the children as miniature adults, he captures them in animated poses with rosy cheeks. The affectionate rapport with their mother, who cradles the youngest daughter while the others gather around her, imbues the grand portrait with both social gravitas and a tender intimacy.

Unexhibited and unengraved during Lawrence’s lifetime, the portrait remained in the Cockerell family’s possession at Sezincote House—designed circa 1805 by Charles’s elder brother, Samuel Pepys Cockerell, in an Indo-Moorish style reflecting the family’s longstanding ties to India—and remained largely unknown until it appeared at auction in 1920. It later entered the collection of Robert Wylie Lloyd, a connoisseur, entomologist, and vice-president of the Alpine Club, who bequeathed his collection of over 5,000 Swiss prints and books, together with a group of Turner watercolors, to the British Museum.