Mrs. George Frederick Stratton (1811)
(oil on canvas, 94 3/8" x 58 7/8")
by
Sir Thomas Lawrence
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769 - 1830) was one of England's most distinguished and sought-after portrait painters of his day. A child prodigy and self-taught, Lawrence was earning an income from his painting by the time he was ten years old. Despite his commercial and critical popularity, Lawrence spent much of his adult life dealing with financial difficulties. A member of the Royal Academy in London, Lawrence served as its president from 1820 until his death. Lawrence is perhaps best remembered now for Pinkie, the female counterpart to Thomas Gainesborough's famous The Blue Boy.
Mrs. George Frederick Stratton, nee Anne D'Ewes (1776 - 1861), was, obviously, the wife of George Frederick Stratton (1779 - 1834?), an English landowner, minor military officer, and unsuccessful candidate for political office. His main accomplishment seems to have been burning through a substantial inheritance, to the point where his financial troubles drove him to abandon his wife and emigrate to America. Lawrence painted a second portrait of Mrs. Stratton, though without the Newfoundland.
Like the other Newfoundlands Lawrence painted, this dog does not particularly look like modern Newfs, but does resemble other dogs from this early point in the breed's history.
This is not Lawrence's only portrait that included a Newfoundland dog: see also, here at The Cultured Newf, Lawrence's Mrs. MaGuire and Her Son with a Newfoundland Dog, Gus and his Portrait of Sir Hugh Owen.