Sir Thomas Lawrence Portrait Of A Young Man Member Of Grillion's Club In London In The 19th Century

Sir Thomas Lawrence (Bristol 1769 – London 1830) A fine portrait from the first third of the 19th century of a member of Grillion's Club in London. Drawing in three pencils: black chalk, red chalk, and white chalk. Framed in tinted paper with a wash frame and pen strokes, ink cartouche below. Contemporary giltwood frame. Grillion's was a London club founded in 1812. It was founded by the British diplomat Stratford Canning with the idea of being a neutral meeting place free from the violence of political controversy. The club had no premises of its own but met at the Grillion Hotel on Albemarle Street, from which it took its name. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, many leading statesmen were members of the club, including Prime Ministers Gladstone, Salisbury, Balfour, Asquith, and Baldwin. As early as 1813, a series of portraits of members of the Club were commissioned from the draughtsman Joseph Slater (1782-1837) and subsequently taken up by engraving. Given the quality of the members of the club, other artists were asked to complete this gallery of portraits. The most complete collection of these prints is kept at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Thomas Lawrence is a painter who was the most important portraitist of the English Regency (1811-1820) and the reign of King George IV (1820-1830). Dimensions of the drawing (sheet): 19x23.5 cm