Lawrence was commissioned to paint for Windsor Castle a commemoration
gallery of those who had restored the Bourbons. The sitters chosen
were the Emperor of Russia, the King of Prussia, Blücher, and Hetman
Platoff. The portraits were painted, and at about the same time,
Wellington and Metternich sat to the painter. Lawrence recovered all
the ground he had lost, and gained fresh honours in rapid succession.
In the year of Waterloo he painted the portrait of the Prince Regent,
who knighted him; in 1817 he painted at Claremont the portrait of the
Princess Charlotte. To these years his biographers trace the
beginning of his relations with Mrs. Wolfe, wife of a diplomat
accredited to this country. Cunningham refers to her as the wife of a
Danish Consul, Mr. Knapp says she was the wife of the German
Ambassador, but the point is not worth investigating. Suffice it she
was a clever, attractive woman, separated from her husband, and the
artist seems to have established with her intimate but platonic
relations. He was devoted to her, but, then, he had a very susceptible
heart. The friendship continued until the death of the lady, whom the
artist survived only a few months.
In 1818 a further and greater honour than any that had come his way
hitherto was conferred upon Sir Thomas. He was sent to Aix-la-Chapelle
to paint members of the Congress then sitting there, with instructions
to proceed to Vienna and Rome. An allowance of one thousand a year
for travelling expenses made the commission still more attractive, and
the artist, free at last to travel and to work in the most stimulating
surroundings Europe could provide, remained away from England for a
year and a half. In his work he distinguished himself. His sitters
included Emperor Francis of Austria, Louis XVIII., Charles X.,
Archduke Charles, Metternich, Techernicheff, Ouvaroff, Hardenberg,
Nesselrode, Baron Gentz, Earl Bathurst, Lord Liverpool, the Marquis of
Londonderry, the Duke of Cambridge, and Mr. Canning. In Rome the aged
Pontiff Pius VII. gave him nine sittings, and he painted the portrait
of the great Cardinal Gonsalvi, “the Pitt of Rome.” But it was not
only to paint that he went to the Eternal City; he had much to learn,
and some of the letters he wrote to London during his stay are
remarkable for their sound judgment and insight. The supreme master of
art for him was Michael Angelo, following him Raphael, Correggio,
Titian, Sir Joshua, and perhaps J. M. W. Turner came in the order
named. To the end Lawrence was faithful in his devotion to the art of
the first President of the R.A. “I don’t see why British artists wish
to travel abroad when we have Sir Joshua in England,” he said in his
untravelled days. He was not heard to express this opinion again in
the years when he had crossed “the narrow seas.” Eighteen months of
foreign travel did much for him; he brought a wider mind and a bigger
intelligence home with him; to say nothing of a collection of gifts
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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