H Beard Print Collection

13 kwietnia 1769

Born

1779

Father’s bankruptcy and the move to Bath

His father fails again as a landlord and is declared bankrupt in 1779; the family moves to Bath, and from then on Lawrence supports his parents with his portraits. Other accounts have the family settling in Bath in 1782.

1787 · Nauka

Royal Academy of Arts

1787

London: meeting Reynolds

Shortly before his eighteenth birthday he arrives in London and takes lodgings in Leicester Square, close to the studio of Sir Joshua Reynolds, who receives the young man warmly and advises him to study nature rather than the Old Masters. Lawrence sets up a studio at 41 Jermyn Street and installs his parents in a house in Greek Street.

1789

First royal commission

At just twenty he is summoned to Windsor Castle to paint portraits of Queen Charlotte and Princess Amelia. The Queen finds him presumptuous and dislikes the finished portrait, which will remain in his studio until his death.

1790

Queen Charlotte and Elizabeth Farren on show

The Academy exhibition shows his portrait of Queen Charlotte, which, despite the sitter’s displeasure, wins critical acclaim. Also exhibited is the portrait of the actress Elizabeth Farren, soon to be Countess of Derby: it makes Lawrence still more famous, and a newspaper notes that in it the actress is entirely herself — arch, spirited, elegant and engaging.