Thomas Lawrence

oil on canvas, 93 x 73 cm

This painting is a replica of the celebrated Portrait of Antonio Canova in the Gypsotheca in Possagno.

Lawrence and Canova first met in Paris in 1815 when the works of art which Napoleon had seized in Italy were being returned under the sculptor’s watchful eye. This portrait, however, was painted while Canova was in London, where he had travelled to view the marble friezes from the Parthenon known as the Elgin Marbles. Painted in a single sitting, the picture acquired considerable fame after being shown at the Royal Academy; indeed so much so that Canova was to write to Lawrence that the painting “never stays in my house for a whole month at a time because people are constantly asking me for it so that they can copy it”.