Yet if Lawrence’s ability and social intelligence enabled him to maneuver chameleon-like, from one world to another, his swift and largely untutored ascent also got him into trouble.
Lawrence’s unorthodox approach in his studio called for preliminary sketches made in two-hour sittings, which he would paint over in oils. According to A. Cassandra Albinson, one of the curators, while this process gave the portraits a psychological depth they undoubtedly would not have had, it also blurred the boundaries between painter and sitter, and was often criticized as "morally dubious." In an article on a rival painter, Thomas Phillips, published a month after Lawrence’s death, an unnamed poet (possibly Samuel Rogers) remarked tellingly, "If I wanted my mistress painted I would go to Lawrence, but if my wife, I would go to Phillips."
Albinson writes that even today his female portraits "seem sexualized and emotionally charged." While his relationships in general "are somewhat opaque," he was dogged by charges of improprieties throughout much of his working life, she added.
In 1806 he was one of the principal defendants in "the Delicate Investigation" to determine whether the Princess of Wales had been impregnated while separated from her husband. Only 2 years earlier rumors were circulating to prejudice Lawrence, regarding a possible affair with the actress Sarah Siddons and in succeeding years further dogged him as he took up with not one but both of Siddons’s daughters.
If the "zone of intimacy" Lawrence fostered in his studio apparently caused anxiety among critics and potential clients alike, "it also piqued interest in his portraits of women and gave them a sense of spontaneity, liveliness and sensuality that his competitors could not match," Albinson writes.
With his male subjects he was more circumspect, cultivating benefactors who would support his work and bail him out of financial ruin a number of times in a financially checkered history. In his paintings of the leaders of the day he was able to depict character in poses that seem strikingly modern even today. Taken together, these portraits remain astute psychological profiles that capture his subjects’ inner lives while documenting their place in society.
In a life writ large his tremendous finale was in the assemblage of paintings that now hang in Waterloo Chambers at Windsor Castle. Under the patronage of the Prince Regent, Lawrence traveled across Europe painting a series of portraits of the sovereigns and military leaders who were allied in the defeat of Napoleon. These were still in the artist’s care in 1830 when he died, and still had not been mounted at the time of the King’s death six months later. Today they are stand as a truly regal historical gathering displayed in Waterloo Chamber, a top-lit gallery paneled with ornate woodwork salvaged from the Royal Chapel. The curators, who have brought this fascinating show to New Haven, note that in this space Lawrence’s portraits became "the glittering heart of the Windsor Castle ceremonial, a function that it retains to this day."
Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power & Brilliance (Yale Center for British Art) by Cassandra Albinson, Peter Funnell, Lucy Pelz, is on exhibit through June 5 at the Yale Center for British Art, 106 Chapel Street. Hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday, noon to 5:00 p.m. (203) 432-2800 Admission is free.
©2011 Kristin Nord for SeniorWomen.com
Images:
(1) Elizabeth Farren (born ca. 1759, died 1829), Later Countess of Derby, 1790, and a leading comic actress of her generation. This portrait was among the dozen portraits Lawrence sent to the 1790 Royal Academy exhibition. The submissions marked his official debut as a major British portraitist. Note Lawrence's trademark whites and blues; The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
(2) Mrs. Jens [Isabella] Wolff, 1803 - 1815; Oil on canvas, 50 1/2 x 40 5/16 in. (128.2 x 102.4 cm); Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Kimball Collection, © The Art Institute of Chicago
(3) Catherine Rebecca Grey, Lady Manners, later Lady Huntingtower (1766-1852); Oil on canvas, Cleveland Museum of Art. This portrait was displayed at the Royal Academy in 1794.
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