Sir Thomas Lawrence, PRA, 
British 1769-1830- 
Portrait sketch of two young boys embracing,...

Sir Thomas Lawrence, PRA, 
British 1769-1830- 

Portrait sketch of two young boys embracing, possibly George, 3rd Marquess Townshend (1778-1855) and his younger brother Charles (1785-1853); 

black, white, and red chalk on a prepared canvas, 70 x 57 cm. 

Provenance: 
Probably the Artist's studio sale; Christie's, London, 18 June 1831, lot 77 (195 gns to Lord Charles Townshend, the equivalent of £18,241.92 in 2025). 
Lord Charles Townshend. 
Mrs M. C. M. Nuttall; Sotheby's, London, 6 February 1952, lot 143, as 'English School' (£12, to Leger). 
with Leger Galleries, London. 
with Colnaghi's, London. 
Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 4 December 2024, lot 216. 
Private Collection, UK. 

Exhibited: 
London, Leger Galleries, October-November 1952, no.14. 

Note: 
The present composition, which is executed on a particularly large scale, is an especially charming example of Lawrence's portraits of children. It very much bears a resemblance to another work by Lawrence entitled 'The Proffered Kiss', which was also purchased by Townshend from the artist's studio sale in 1831 as an unfinished sketch, and which it is believed Townshend commissioned Lawrence's studio assistant Henry Wyatt (1794-1840) to complete. A visual resemblance to the sitters Emily (1818-1906) and Laura Anne (1820-1894) Calmady is also notable, from Lawrence's double portrait in the Metropolitan Museum in New York [25.110.1]. 

Lawrence made these large scale drawings on canvas as preparatory sketches for his finished portraits, such as in his portrait of 'William Lock the Younger' in the Yale Center for British Art [B1994.11] or as finished works in their own right: see Christie's, London, 4 June 2008, lot 23 ('Double Portrait of Richard Rowland Bloxham and Andrew Bloxham, on the eve of their departure for the Sandwich Islands', 1823). Sometimes they were not taken further as 'Lawrence sometimes, nay often, laid aside the first drawing and painted on a copy' from his fear of losing the invaluable benefit of first impressions.' (A. Cunningham, 'The Lives of the most eminent British Painters, Sculptors and Architects', vol.6. 1833, p.195).