Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A. (Bristol 1769-1830 London) - Portrait head of a lady, unfinished

Lot 243. oil on canvas - 16 1/4 x 11 1/2 in. (41.3 x 29.2 cm.) - Estimate: £30,000-50,000

Provenance : Purchased by Mrs. and Mr. Eliot Hodgkin on the Paris art market in 1957.

Literature : K. Garlick, 'A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings and Pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence', The Walpole Society, XXXIX, London, 1964, p. 207.
K. Garlick, Sir Thomas Lawrence, London, 1989, p. 292, no. 873.

Exhibited : London, Royal Academy of Arts, Sir Thomas Lawrence P.R.A., 1961-62, no. 57.
London, Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, Eliot Hodgkin, Painter & Collector, 14 March-10 April 1990, no. 99.

Note : Garlick (op. cit., 1989) dates this work to circa 1795, by which stage Lawrence had already established himself as the leading portrait artist in London.

For the catalogue of the exhibition at Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, 14 March - 10 April 1990, Eliot Hodgkin 1905-1987 Painter and Collector, Sir Brinsley Ford provided an affectionate and admiring introduction, which comprised a brief biography and reflections on his friend's ,
achievements, both as a gifted and individual artist and as a collector of an unusual range of interests fully shared by his wife Mimi. Eliot Hodgkin was particularly interested in architecture and the ,
preservation of distinguished buildings, many of which he had seen destroyed during World War II and its aftermath, and he consequently decided that his own collection should be sold for the benefit of The Georgian Group and The Victorian Society.

Christie's. Old Master & British Pictures. 7 December 2007. 8 King Street, St. James's, London