Stringer Lawrence

1 portrait of Thomas Gainsborough

© National Portrait Gallery, London

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Stringer Lawrence

by Thomas Gainsborough
oil on canvas, feigned oval, circa 1774-1775
29 7/8 in. x 24 5/8 in. (759 mm x 626 mm)
Given by Sir Henry Yule, 1888
Primary Collection
NPG 777

Sitterback to top

Artistback to top

  • Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), Portrait and landscape painter. Artist or producer associated with 268 portraits, Sitter in 8 portraits.

This portraitback to top

Perhaps painted as late as 1774, when Gainsborough left Bath for London, or in 1775, the year Lawrence died. In any event, it shows him late in life, in his seventies.
More detailed information on this portrait is available in a National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue, John Kerslake's Early Georgian Portraits (1977, out of print).

Linked publicationsback to top

  • Bayly, Christopher, The Raj: India and the British 1600-1947, 1990 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 19 October 1990 - 17 March 1991), p. 92
  • Kerslake, John, Early Georgian Portraits, 1977, p. 164
  • Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 368

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1774back to top

Current affairs

Philanthropist and reformer John Howard is called before the House of Commons Select Committee to give evidence on the shocking conditions in prisons across the country.
Young Tahitian Omai arrives in England after making contact with Captain James Cook on his second voyage. He is introduced into London Society by Joseph Banks and is much admired.
Coercive or 'Intolerable' Acts are passed in response to the crisis in the American colonies.

Art and science

Philosopher and chemist Joseph Priestley isolates oxygen in the form of a gas.
Artist Thomas Gainsborough moves from Bath to set up a studio in London.
Royal Crescent, Bath, designed by John Wood the Younger, is completed.
Methodist preacher John Wesley publishes his pamphlet Thoughts Upon Slavery which argues against slavery.

International

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe publishes his romantic novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, bringing him an immediate European reputation.
In retaliation for the Boston Tea Party, the port of Boston is closed under the first of the British government's Coercive Acts. Delegates from twelve American colonies meet in Philadelphia and agree not to import any goods from Britain.
Death of Louis XV of France. Louis XVI succeeds.

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