son to see the collections of pictures, mostly by old masters, at the show-houses in this part of the country. In this manner, at the age of eight, he was taken to Corsham House, Wilts, where he strayed away from his friends, and was found in one of the rooms, before a picture by Rubens, when upon being taken away, he murmured, with a sigh, "Ah! I shall never be able to paint like that!" At Wilton, the seat of the Earl of Pembroke, there is one of Lawrence's early paintings, a head of the full life size. At the age of ten, he attempted original compositions of the highest class. He now painted "Christ reproving Peter for his denial;" also "Reuben's application to his father, that Benjamin might accompany him and his brethren into Egypt;" and "Haman and Mordecai ;" all which he finished with great rapidity. Daines Barrington attests this success; adding that in about seven minutes, the boy scarcely ever failed in drawing a strong likeness of any person present: "he is likewise an excellent reader of blank verse, and both understands and feels the striking passages of Milton and Shakspeare." LAWRENCE'S RECITATIONS. These readings became so celebrated as to attract to the Bear Inn, at Devizes, crowds of fashionable visitors from Bath. Here Garrick, Foote, Wilkes, Sheridan, Burke, Johnson, Churchill, and others, were to be found, resting for the night, when Mr. Lawrence never failed to exhibit his precocious son. Mr. Hugh Boyd, one of the supposed authors of Junius, invited father and son to his house in town, and the latter, in his tenth year, exhibited great talent with his pencil. Mr. and Mrs. Garrick were among the visitors to the Bear Inn, in their way to Bath, when the father used to address the great actor with, "Tommy, Sir, has learned one or two speeches since you were here;" which he used to deliver before Garrick and his wife, in a summer-house of the inn garden; and at this time, the future walk in life of the boy was poised between the pencil and the stage: fortunately he chose the former. At one of the lad's recitations, Sir William Chambers was present; and a Colonel Hamrich gave the child half-a-guinea for the beautiful handwriting in his copy-book. As a boy, he is described as remarkably handsome: he wore his collar thrown back, and his hair, which was beauti ful, was so redundant, that its rich dark curls obscured his face when he stooped to draw. Mr. John Bernard, in his piquant Retrospections of the Stage, describes Lawrence at this period-" as a reader, little Tom was but little Tom,-a very clever child at nine years of age, whilst, as a sketcher of likenesses, he disclosed the future powers of the President. "There was something about little Lawrence, however, which excited the surprise of the most casual observer. He was a perfect man in miniature. His confidence and selfpossession smacked of one-and-twenty. Lawrence frequently brought his boy to the green-room, and we would set him on a table, and make him recite Hamlet's directions to the Players. On one occasion, Henderson was present, and expressed much gratification. The little fellow, in return for our civilities and flatteries, was desirous to take our likenesses, the first time we came to Devizes, and Edwin and myself afforded him an opportunity soon after, on one of our nonplay-day's excursions. After dinner, Lawrence proposed giving us a reading as usual, but Tom reminded him of our promise. We preferred a specimen of his talents, as being most novel. The young artist collected his materials very quickly, and essayed my visage the first. In about ten minutes he produced a faithful delineation in crayon, which for many years I kept as a curiosity. He next attempted Edwin's, who, startled at the boy's ability, resolved (in his usual way) to perplex him. (This he did by changing the form of his features,-raising his brows, compressing his lips, and widening his mouth.) Tom no sooner perceived the change than he started in supreme wonder, attributing it to a defect in his own vision. The first outline was accordingly abandoned, and a second commenced. Tom was now more particular, and watched him narrowly, but Edwin, feature by feature, and muscle by muscle, so completely ran, what might be called the gamut of his countenance (as the various compartments of its harmony,) that the boy drew and rubbed it out, till his hand fell by his side, and he stood silently looking in Edwin's face, to discover, if possible, its true expression. Edwin could not long maintain his composure at his scrutiny, and revealed the hoax with a burst of merriment and mimic thunder. "Little Tom could not take up Shakspeare or Milton, and read at random. He had been instructed in particular speeches, and to these he referred. There was one in Milton (Satan's Address to the Sun) he had long wished to learn, but his father, from an apprehension that his mind was yet unequal to the grasp, had passed it over." YOUNG LAWRENCE IN BATH. In 1779, Mr. Lawrence and his family left Devizes, and in their road to Weymouth, visited Oxford, where the young artist took the likenesses of several eminent persons; and the leading men of the University subscribed for his portrait, painted by Mr. Prince Hoare, of Bath, and engraved by Sherwin. In 1782, the Lawrences visited Bath; and it became the fashion to sit to young Lawrence for his oval crayon likenesses, at one guinea and a half. His portraits of Mrs. Siddons and Admiral Barrington were now engraved. From the collection of the Hon. Mr. Hamilton, on Lansdown Hill, young Law-· rence copied, in crayons, the Transfiguration of Raphael; the Aurora of Guido; and other celebrated pictures, for which copies Lawrence's father refused 300 guineas. He usually finished three or four crayon paintings in a week, and received three guineas for half-lengths, at that time, and for Bath, a very extraordinary sum. Here he opened a public exhibition of his works, his father performing the office of exhibitor. LAWRENCE AND THE STAGE. As young Lawrence grew up, his Shakspearean readings, and his frequent visits to the theatre, imbued him with a strong dramatic propensity. About his sixteenth year, he had serious intentions of making the stage his profession. Mr. Bernard heard him recite Jaffier (in Venice Preserved), but could not perceive any evidence of talent he could balance against that which he was acknowledged to possess in his artistic pursuits. Mr. Bernard then disclosed what had passed to Lawrence's father, who, relying much upon his son's efforts for support, grew alarmed, and besought Mr. Bernard to use all his influence in dissuading young Lawrence from his design. This it was suggested would be best effected by a surprise. Mr. Bernard then arranged that Lawrence should come to his house next morning, with some friends, and Mr. Palmer, the Manager of the Bath Theatre. "By half-past twelve the next day, all the parties were : assembled old Lawrence, and his friends, in the back 'I brought her, gave her to your despairing arms : here he stammered, and became stationary. I held the book, but would not assist him; and he recommenced and stopped, reiterated and hemmed, till his father, who had heard him with growing impatience, pushed open the door, and said, 'You play Jaffier, Tom! hang me if they would suffer you to murder a conspirator.' Mr. Palmer, taking young Lawrence by the hand, assured him, in the most friendly manner, that he did not possess those advantages which would render the stage a safe undertaking. The address did not produce an instantaneous effect; it was obvious that the young artist was of a reverse opinion. A conversation ensued, in which I, abusing the life of an actor, and other friends representing the prospects of a painter, young Lawrence at length became convinced, but remarked, with a sigh, 'That if he had gone on the stage, he might have assisted his family much sooner than by his present employment.' My reader can appreciate the affection of this sentiment, but I am unable to describe its delivery, or the effect it took upon every person present." The filial attachment of Lawrence to his family was, from his earliest days, proverbial. Young Lawrence went away, renouncing his intentions and retaining his friends; and Mr. Bernard congratulating himself upon having so successfully lent his aid to check an early propensity, which, if encouraged, must have led to a renouncement of the pencil. LAWRENCE RECEIVES THE SOCIETY OF ARTS PRIZE. In the Session of 1785, the Society of Arts, in the Adelphi, voted young Lawrence their Medal, and the reward of Five Guineas for the most successful copy from the old masters-a crayon drawing of the Transfiguration of Raphael, being a copy of the copy which Lawrence had already made. He received "the greater silver palette, gilt," by special vote of the Committee; and had not the Drawing been made two years before, it would have received the Society's first reward. Lawrence was now anxious to remove to London, and to become a student of the Royal Academy, to which his father assented. On their way to the metropolis, in 1787, they halted at Salisbury, where the young artist executed several crayon portraits. Next year, 1787, he first exhibited at the Royal Academy, when he sent seven pictures-an extraordinary number for a painter eighteen years of age. In the following year, he sent six portraits; in 1789, thirteen; and in 1790, twelve pictures. LAWRENCE'S EARLIEST OIL-PAINTINGS. It was not until 1786, and when Lawrence had passed his seventeenth year, that he made any attempt at oil-painting. In that year he painted a whole-length figure of Christ bearing the Cross; the canvas was eight feet high. Young Lawrence next painted his own portrait—a head, or three-quarters' size. "In this he evidently aimed at the style of Rembrandt, in his middle life, when he had neglected his higher finish, and before he had availed himself of the broad fulness of the brush, with deep contrasts, and sudden transitions, and with great breadth of shadow. To his study of Rembrandt in this, portrait, he added a few signs of his imitating Sir Joshua Reynolds himself." * In a letter to his mother, young Lawrence thus speaks of the above portrait: "To any but my own family I certainly should not say this; but, excepting Sir Joshua, for the painting of the head, I would risk my reputation with any painter in London." In the same letter, he says: "I have had the pleasure of seeing the great Mr. Barry; he did not recollect my name, nor did I wish to make myself known." LAWRENCE SETTLES IN LONDON-INTRODUCTION TO REYNOLDS. Upon reaching the metropolis, Mr. Lawrence hired for his son a suite of handsome first-floor apartments at No. 4, Leicester-square, then, and for many years after, occupied by Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence. By E. D. Williams, vol. i. p. 81. |