Sir Thomas Lawrence »

Michael Levey was Director of the National Gallery, London, from 1973 to 1986. He contributed the entry on Lawrence to the new Dictionary of National Biography and curated the major exhibition of Lawrence’s paintings and drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, London, in 1979–80. His numerous books include the prize-winning Giambattista Tiepolo.

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 Utilizing published and unpublished sources and focusing detailed attention on individual works, Levey presents a persuasive argument for reconsideration of Lawrence as an artist of the top rank.

Library Journal

In this beautifully illustrated study (200 black-and-white and color images), distinguished art historian Levey (former director, National Gallery, London; Giambattista Tiepolo) argues for the talent and accomplishments of mostly self-taught British portraitist Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830). In chronologically organized chapters, Levey discusses the artist's publicly and privately held drawings and paintings, framing them within the political and social contexts in which they were created. He shows that Lawrence's style, which after his death was perceived as flashy and meretricious, involved much thoughtful, laborious effort and argues that the artist's works should be considered top rank, akin to historical portraiture and on the same level as portraits by such great painters as Peter Paul Rubens and Francisco de Goya. Well written and carefully documented with endnotes and a selective bibliography, this visually and intellectually stimulating survey-the first sustained study of Lawrence's work in several years-will fill part of the current gap in the scholarly literature on this great artist. Strongly recommended for academic and large public library research collections.-Cheryl Ann Lajos, The Free Lib. of Philadelphia Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.