Sir Thomas Lawrence

by Michael Levey, Sir Thomas Lawrence (Artist)

Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830) was the most gifted and successful British portrait painter in the generation following Gainsborough and Reynolds, and his pre-eminence was confirmed by his election as President of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1820. Yet Lawrence’s work has often been dismissed as flashy and meretricious. This beautifully illustrated, eloquently written, and comprehensive account reverses that view, demonstrating that Lawrence was an intelligent, hard-working, and profoundly conscientious artist.
The book is the first sustained study of Lawrence’s work in many years, and the first ever to look closely at his highly accomplished drawings as well as his paintings. Tracing the steps in his career, Michael Levey analyses and illustrates the finest of Lawrence’s achievements, making pertinent comparisons with the work of British contemporaries and with foreign artists like Goya and Ingres. Utilizing published and unpublished sources and focusing detailed attention on individual works, Levey presents a persuasive argument for reconsideration of Lawrence as an artist of the top rank.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published March 8, 2006

About the author

Sir Michael Vincent Levey (8 June 1927 - 28 December 2008) was an English art historian and was the director of the National Gallery from 1973 to 1986.

Reviews

[Claudio Lombardo]

This excellent monograph about Sir Thomas Lawrence was Sir Michael Levey´s (1927-2008) last work and it confirms the observation made in 1950 by Douglas Goldring, whose magnificent biography of Lawrence "Regency Portrait Painter" I highly recommend, about the bad press that Sir Thomas Lawrence had after his death. As the introduction to Levey´s book says: "Lawrence’s work has often been dismissed as flashy and meretricious. This beautifully illustrated, eloquently written, and comprehensive account reverses that view, demonstrating that Lawrence was an intelligent, hard-working, and profoundly conscientious artist."

I recommend this book to all lovers of portrait painting and admirers of Sir Thomas Lawrence. By the way, Sir Michael Levey also wrote the excellent catalogue for the 1979 exhibition dedicated to Sir Thomas Lawrence organised by the National Portrait Gallery.