Portrait of a gentleman, half-length

Brian Allen has confirmed the attribution to Lawrence after first-hand inspection of the work following the 2015 sale. The bold, fluent handling of paint, executed with a characteristic speed and assurance, is typical of the painter's mature, established work of the 1820s. Lawrence rapidly rose to become the pre-eminent portraitist of his era. Prodigiously talented, he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1791 at the age of only twenty-two. He was elected President of the Academy in 1820, and this portrait, formerly identified as the reformist politician Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet (1770-1844), shows the painter's innate ability to capture likeness and character.