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and there are many fine mezzo-tints after his works; of these are * Palemon and La- vinia/ ' Rosalind and Celia/ ' Cymon and Iphigenia/ ' Lady Haymaking,' 1780, his last contribution to the Academy Exhibition.
LAWRENCE, Andrew, engraver. He was born in Westminster in 1706, and was the natural son of Andrew Lawrence, apothecary to Queen Anne. He learnt drawing under Mons. Regnier, who then taught in Soho. He became a good lin- guist and musician. He also drew in crayons and painted in oil. On the death of bis father he tried alchemy, and soon lost the fortune left him. Then a ruined man, he made his way to Bologna and from thence to Paris, where he was employed by Le Bas, and etched for him many plates, receiving about a franc and a half a day. Among the works so executed are the ' Halte d'Officiers/ * Les Sangliers force's/ after Wouvermans; ' Le Soir,' after Berg- hem; and some others. Afterwards he worked for A. Pond. Salvator Rosa's ' Saul and the Witch of Endor ' is engraved wholly by him, as are also some plates after De Ijoutherbourg and Wouvermans. His engravings, published in Paris, have the name A. Laurent under them. He etched with great taste, was also a clever painter, and possessed much professional knowledge. He died at Paris, July 8, 1747.
LAWRENCE, Maby, flower painter. She first exhibited at the Academy in 1794, and continued with small exception a yearly contributor up to 1814, when she became, by marriage, Mrs. Kearse, and in that name exhibited up to 1830. She pub- lished, in 1797, 'The Various Kinds of Roses cultivated in England/ which she drew and coloured from nature, and en- graved with great tenderness. • LAWRENCE, Sir Thomas, Knt., P.R.A., portrait painter. Was born at Bristol, May 4, 1769. His father, the son of a clergyman, tried many means to gain a livelihood. At the time of his son's birth he kept the 'White Lion Inn/ and his business failing there about three years after, he took another inn at Devizes. Young Lawrence was a handsome boy, and both repeated poetry and drew like- nesses with a very precocious taste : two years' schooling and a few lessons in French were the sum of his education. His family removed successively to Oxford, Weymouth, and Bath, where he received some art-help from Wm. Hoare, R.A., and commenced his career by drawing chalk heads in ovals at one guinea and one and a half guinea each. He gained a premium from the Society of Arts in 1785, and his sitters increasing be doubled his prices, and he made some attempts at historical subjects, though probably only in chalk.
In 1787 he came with his family to
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London, and was admitted a student of the Royal Academy. He exhibited there in that year four female portraits — 'Mad ,GirV 4 A Vestal Virgin/ and * Mrs. Esten as Belvidera;' in the following year, six portraits; in 1789, 13 portraits, one of them of the Duke of York; and in 1790, the Queen, the Princess Amelia, and 11 other portraits. He was not long in gain- ing public patronage and royal favour. In 1791, though under the academic age, he was elected an associate of the Aca- demy, and with 10 portraits, exhibited a classic subject, ' Homer reciting his Poems/ In 1792, when in his 23rd year only, he was appointed by the King his painter in ordinary, on the death of Sir Josnua Rey- nolds; that year exhibited his Majesty s portrait, and in 1794 was admitted to his full honours as member of the Academy. Reynolds's death had left the profession open; he soon distanced his competitors, and stood first in the front rank, enjoying the chief honours and profits of his pro- fession. In 1801 an mcident occurred which, for a short time, diminished the number of his female sitters. He was re- quired to paint the portrait of the Princess of Wales, and for a time occupied a room at her Royal Highnesses residence, which was made a subject of scandal and of in- quiry before the Commission of 1806, then called ' The Delicate Investigation/ but no allusion whatever was made to Lawrence in the report.
On the opening of the Continent in 1814, he hastened to Paris to see the great art collection in the Louvre, but was recalled to receive an important commission from the Prince Regent, who had not before em- ployed him. He was appointed to paint the portraits of the eminent statesmen and soldiers who had aided in the restoration of the Bourbons (many of whom were then expected to visit London^ to form a com- memoration gallery at Windsor. In 1815 the Prince Regent sat to him and conferred on him the honour of knighthood, and in 1818 he visited Aix-la-Chapelle, where the Congress sat, and alter wards Vienna and Rome, for the completion of the Prince's commission, returning in 1820, after an absence of 18 months, during which he had seized the opportunity to visit the principal Italian cities.
The president of the Academy had died during nis absence, and on the very day of his arrival in London he was unanimously elected the new president. Fortune seems invariably to have favoured him. He con- tinued to paint the portraits of the most dis- tinguished of his countrymen and country- women. In 1825 he went to Paris to paint for the King, Charles X., and the Dauphin, and had the Legion of Honour conferred, upon him. At the height of his fame,
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