Thomas Lawrence

Sir Thomas Lawrence was a portrait painter born in Bristol, an innkeeper’s son and a child prodigy at drawing, who was largely self-taught and was painting Queen Charlotte by the age of twenty. He became the most fashionable portraitist in Europe, with a dazzling, fluent brushwork, and succeeded Reynolds as Principal Painter to the king. After the defeat of Napoleon the Prince Regent sent him to paint the allied monarchs, generals and statesmen, portraits now in the Waterloo Chamber at Windsor Castle. He was President of the Royal Academy from 1820. The National Gallery holds his Queen Charlotte, and the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Britain also have his work.