When Lawrence was but ten years old, his name had flown over the
kingdom; he had read scenes from Shakspeare in a way that called forth
the praise of Garrick, and drawn faces and figures with such skill as to
obtain the approbation of Prince Hoare; his father, desirous of making
the most of his talents, carried him to Oxford, where he was patronized
by heads of colleges, and noblemen of taste, and produced a number of
portraits, wonderful in one so young and uninstructed. Money now came
in; he went to Bath, hired a house--raised his price from one guinea to
two; his Mrs. Siddons, as Zara, was engraved--Sir Henry Harpur desired
to adopt him as his son--Prince Hoare saw something so angelic in his
face, that he proposed to paint him in the character of Christ, and the
artists of London heard with wonder of a boy who was rivalling their
best efforts with the pencil, and realizing, as was imagined, a fortune.
The Hon. Daines Barrington has the following record of Lawrence’s
precocious talent in his _Miscellanies_: “This boy is now, (viz.
February, 1780,) nearly ten years and a half old; but, at the age of
nine, without the most distant instruction from any one, he was capable
of copying historical pictures in a masterly style, and also succeeded
amazingly in compositions of his own, particularly that of _Peter
denying Christ_. In about seven minutes he scarcely ever failed of
drawing a strong likeness of any person present, which had generally
much freedom and grace, if the subject permitted.”