Portrait of Countess Therese Czernin nee Orsini und Rosenberg(Sir Thomas Lawrence)
SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE, P.R.A.
(Bristol 1769 – London 1830)
Portrait of Countess Thérèse Czernin,
née Orsini und Rosenberg
Coloured chalks heightened with white on prepared canvas
85 x 70.5 cm (33 ½ x 27 ¾ in)
PROVENANCE: Graf und Gräfin Emil von Spannocchi, Austria
A child prodigy and largely self taught, Lawrence’s talent became apparent at an early age when he made chalk portraits of the guest who frequented his fathers inn at Devizes (examples at Dulwich College Picture Gallery, London). He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1786 and with the encouragement of Sir Joshua Reynolds entered its school the following year. By the late 1780s Lawrence had established a circle of influential patrons drawn from the English aristocracy and on the death of Reynolds in 1792 he succeeded to the post of Painter-in-Ordinary to the King. In 1794 he became an academician and from this date his career as a portraitist flourished. His work for the Regent was rewarded with a knighthood in 1815 and it was intended that he should travel to the Congress of Vienna as the Regent’s envoy, to paint the heads of all the allied states and their armies, but the plan was delayed by Napoleon’s flight from Elba and the ensuing hundred Days. Lawrence finally made the trip in 1818, first visiting the Congress at Aix-La-Chapelle and eventually reaching Vienna in the December. He stayed for five months as the guest of Sir Charles Stuart, the British Ambassador, and his sitters included the Emperor, Prince Schwarzenberg and the Archduke Charles. In 1819 he travelled to Rome, where he painted the portraits of Pope Pius VII and Cardinal Consalvi and on his return to England in 1820 was made President of the Royal Academy succeeding Benjamin West. In 1825 William IV sent Lawrence to Paris to paint Charles X and the Dauphin for which he received the legion of Honour. On his death he left a magnificent collection of Old Master drawings.
Countess Thérèse von Orsini und Rosenberg (1798-1896) married Count Eugène Czernin von und zu Chudenitz in Vienna on 27th May 1817. She was the daughter of Franz, Prince Orsini und Rosenberg.
We are indebted to Dr. Kenneth Garlick for confirming the attribution of this drawing to Lawrence. It would have almost certainly been executed during the artist’s sojourn in Vienna between December 1818 and May 1819, although it does not appear on the list of his sitters which he sent to Joseph Farington from Rome (cf. D.E. Williams, The Life and Correspondence of Sir Thomas Lawrence, London 1831, Vol. II, p. 145).
Graf und Grafin Emil von Spannocchi, Austria