Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A.

Stephen Charles Francis Gundry (1838–1909);

sale, London, Sotheby’s, 20 November 1986, lot 58,

where acquired by the present owner

This lively portrait of a boy, who is perhaps eight or nine years old, dates to the 1820s, a time when Lawrence’s reputation - as President of the Royal Academy - was assured.

Rather than created as a study for an oil painting, Lawrence seems to have made works such as this - that are conceived with chalks applied directly to canvas - as independent works of art, whose purpose was ultimately for display.¹ Other works of this type include his Portrait of George William Campbell, 6^th Duke of Argyll from circa 1806 and his double portrait of Andrew Bloxam and Richard Rowland Bloxam from 1824, examples that demonstrate that he was in habit of working in this manner for many years.² Indeed his posthumous studio sale of July 1831 included eighteen ‘Large Drawings, from the Life, on Canvas’, with the catalogue announcing that 'It may be safely affirmed that, in their kind, they have never been surpassed...' 

We are very grateful to Susan Sloman for her help when cataloguing this lot.

^1. See: Ed. A. Cassandra Albinson, Peter Funnell and Lucy Peltz, Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and Brilliance, Yale Center for British Art and National Portrait Gallery, London, published New Haven and London 2010, under cat. no. 26

^2.See: London, Christie’s, 4 June 2008, lot 23 (£85,000) & London, Sotheby’s, 12 July 1999, lot 48 (£35,000)