Page "Thomas Lawrence" Paragraph 26

Lawrence's reputation as an artist fell during the Victorian era.

Critic and artist Roger Fry did something to restore it in the 1930s, when he described Lawrence as having a " consummate mastery over the means of artistic expression " with an " unerring hand and eye ".

At one time Lawrence was more popular in the United States and France than he was in Britain, and some of his best known portraits, including those of Elizabeth Farren, Sarah Barrett Moulton ( known to her family as Pinkie ), and Charles Lambton ( the " Red Boy ") found their way to the United States during the early 20th century enthusiasm there for English portraits.

Sir Michael Levey acknowledges that Lawrence is still dismissed by some art historians ; his explanation is that " He was a highly original artist, quite unexpected on the English scene: self-taught, self-absorbed in perfecting his own personal style, and in effect self-destructing, since he left behind no significant followers or creative influence.

Leaving aside Sargent, his sole successor has been not in painting, but in fashionable, virtuoso photography.