The strangely exaggerated estimation in which Sir Thomas Lawrence
(1769-1830) is held by French connoisseurs, is to a certain extent
to be accounted for by the superb quality of the picture by which he
is best known in France: the portrait group of _J. J. Angerstein and
his Wife_ (No. 1813A) at the Louvre, which was acquired in 1896 for
£3000. This fine group displays all his bravura and pleasing freshness
and brightness of colour, without any of the vulgar tricks and
shallow mannerisms of his later years. Next to it should be mentioned
the charming half-length life-size _Portrait of Mary Palmer_ (No.
1813C), in a yellow dress, seated in a garden. The completely wrecked
_Portrait of Lord Whitworth, English Ambassador to France in 1802_ (No.
1813), and the _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 1813D), are of no artistic
significance.
Neither is it necessary to dwell upon the mediocre _Brother and
Sister_ (No. 1801), by Sir William Beechey (1753-1839); the _Portrait
of Charlotte Sophia of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Princess of Wales_ (No.
1818), by Allan Ramsay (1713-1784); and the _Portrait of Lamartine,
French Poet and Politician_ (No. 1816A), by Henry Wyndham Phillips
(1820-1868). _The Woman in White_ (No. 1816) is at least a sound piece
of craftsmanship, even if the attribution to John Opie (1761-1807),
“the Cornish Wonder,” is subject to doubt.