Bonhams to Sell Painting by Britains Premier Regency Portrait Artist
Published November 22nd, 2007
A spectacular full-length portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence (British, 1769-1830), the most successful portrait painter of his time, is set to make up to £500,000 in Bonhams’ Old Master Paintings sale in London, New Bond Street on 5 December 2007. Lawrence was one of the most talented and respected artists of the Regency era despite never having received any artistic instruction. His natural eye was to catapult him into an entirely different social stratosphere, from the son of a failed innkeeper to the President of the Royal Academy and lover to the Prince Regent’s wife.
The portrait for sale at Bonhams is of Mrs Arthur Annesley and her two children. Mrs Annesley had ten children during her lifetime and the painting took so long to complete that it is impossible to say exactly which children are portrayed although it is probable that the elder child is Arthur Annesley. The backdrop to the painting is almost certainly the grounds of Bletchingdon Park, the family estate located between Oxford and Bicester. The portrait would not have been delivered to Bletchingdon until after Lawrence’s sudden death, by which time the young Arthur would have been in his mid 40’s and the sittings with Lawrence must have seemed a distant memory.
