Lawrence’s Annoying Paintings at the Cleveland Museum of Art

I have nothing against Thomas Lawrence, indeed, I like his work, but—good grief!—he could make some annoying paintings. The Cleveland Museum of Art has two of the offending paintings hanging side-by-side.

Lawrence (died 1830) had well-earned success throughout his life. A prodigy, he found success early and later became President of the Royal Academy. He was the most fashionable society portraitist of his day, and remains the model for others with such ambitions.

The painting that prompted this post is the “Portrait of Catherine Grey, Lady Manners.”  Manners was her husband’s surname and had nothing to do  with the Lady Manners secondary school, which then, as now, had a reputation for inculcating proper manners in its students.

Portrait of Catherine Grey, Lady Manners by Lawrence

The painting is huge, 12 miles high by 5 miles wide (actually, I exaggerate a little, its size is 100″ x 62″).  Lawrence’s typical manner 🙂 is perfectly suited to his program, which was to finish paintings as quickly as possible and collect the fee. His style is efficient in the extreme. Many of his paintings are filled with economic passages of great charm and artistry, and he holds his own with those artists famous for their efficiency, such as Hals, Velasquez, and Goya.

When I first examined this painting, I thought Lawrence did not like the sitter because something is plainly off. The huge white expanse of her gown–acres and acres of the stuff– is the merest scrumble of unarticulated plainness, well beyond ‘efficient.’ The gown’s sheer size dominates the painting and draws the viewer’s attention—a bad thing.

As if that wasn’t enough, Lawrence puts a peacock behind the sitter! Whether or not he has a message for us regarding Miss Manners, the peacock further distracts attention from her, which, perhaps, is just as well. The sitter’s legs appear 12 feet long and the poor woman is clearly about to tumble over and fall on her face.

The final and most incongruous note of all, is the confusing slap-dashery of foliage behind the sitter’s head, painted thickly and with exaggerated bravura–very un-Lawerence-like. The thick, ropey paint contrasts unpleasantly with the rest of the painting, especially the gown. It’s as if Lawrence was deliberately trying to insult the sitter by drawing attention away from her.

I wasn’t surprised to learn while researching this post that, according to The Peerage, Lady Manners refused to pay for the painting.

The other annoying painting is “Portrait of Charlotte and Sarah Carteret-Hard,” which hangs next to Lady Manners.  This painting has none of the obtuseness of the other, and, instead, is full of the charm one expects from Lawrence. This white gown is carried off superbly. What is annoying, is the bad condition of the painting itself.  Unlike  Miss Manners which is in perfect condition, large parts of this painting are cracking badly. One suspects it was painted over another painting, perhaps an unfinished one (or another for which the sitter refused to pay). It’s annoying to see an otherwise fine painting suffering so.

[The photo is mine but the painting is owned by the Cleveland Museum of Art.]