“Of all the Messieurs we had at Vienna during the Congress and a year or two after it, whether English, French, or of any other nation, I shall always think that, next to Lord Castlereagh, the most graceful, elegant, polished gentleman was your painter, the Chevalier Lawrence.”
So said the Princess Rosamoffski, Austrian by ancient descent and birth, and Russian only by marriage. The unmarried sister of the Princess, a Chanoinesse of Brunn, an accomplished, very tasteful person, echoed the opinion; which I also heard repeated by the Princess Jablonovski, the Countess Cléry, and by other ladies who were of la créme de la créme of Viennese society. At Florence, Rome, Naples, and wherever he went in Italy, Sir Thomas made an equally favourable impression.
I had known him in London in 1813-14, and had been wonderfully struck with
what appeared to me to be the perfection of his manners. I believe he owed a good deal of
the ease and natural elegance of his deportment and carriage to a taste he had cherished
for athletic and other exercises; he was very clever with both broad-sword and small-sword,
he could beat most men at single-stick, he was a first-rate hand with the boxing-gloves,
few could compete with him at billiards, and he had dearly loved dancing. I saw him in
Italy in 1818, but only en passant and when he
was in a great hurry to get back to his London practice. I did not see him
| CHAP. XV] | HIS MAXIMS OF LIFE | 147 |
He had for maxims, that what was worth doing at all was worth doing well; that nothing ought to be done by halves; that if he were a housemaid, he would take a pride in doing the work thoroughly. Even in writing a note to accept an invitation to dinner or to decline one, or on any other familiar or trivial subject, he took pains with it, always gave it some elegant turn, and folded it and sealed it with all possible neatness and elegance. And this he did with all persons. I saw a letter he had written to his tailor. But for the subject-matter, it might have been written to a duchess. Considering that his early education had been quite neglected, that he began to earn his livelihood by his pencil and crayons at the age of fourteen, that he had been so incessantly occupied with his portraits ever since, as to have had little time for reading or study, his range of information, his general knowledge and taste in literature, were quite extraordinary. Even in the company of professed scholars and literati he could maintain his share of the conversation, and could always say something agreeable or otherwise worthy of attention.
One night after dinner John Murray
expressed his astonishment at the painter’s acquirements, and told him to his face
that he wondered how he had ever come by them. Sir
Thomas replied with a smile: “Mr. Murray, I
have always been a good listener. My profession for many years has brought me in close
contact with clever, accomplished people, and I have always kept my ear open, and have
afterwards treasured up what I heard.” There is a good
| 148 | SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE | [CHAP. XV |
I was shocked and grieved at the painter’s sudden death. I had met him only a few days before, and was to have dined with him at Murray’s the very day on which he died. The poverty and difficulties under which his life began have been under-rated rather than over-rated. Genteel biographies have made his father an innkeeper, or an hotel-keeper; but, in truth, he was neither. He was a publican, and kept a common public-house. Even when young Lawrence was making some way in the world, he was kept so poor by the pulls made upon him by his family, that he had seldom money to buy clothes, a case all the harder as he was always fond of being well-dressed.
I knew an old West of England lady, aunt of the present General Salter of the Bombay Army, who presented the
limner with his first pair of black satin breeches, to enable him to go comme il faut to some ball or assembly at Bath. With
his long foreknowledge of the evils of poverty, it is astonishing that he should not have
taken more care of his money. After making a very large annual income for the space of a
quarter of a century, at the least, he left
| CHAP. XV] | DUCHESS OF ST. ALBANS | 149 |
Sir Thomas, it will be remembered, had neither wife
nor family. I believe he occasionally did something for two or three nieces. With one of
these, a very pretty and coquettish little woman, I was slightly acquainted, a short time
after her marriage. He had promised her husband a portion with her, but he was slow in
paying it, and when he paid an instalment he had to borrow the money for the purpose. There
was, I believe, some falsehood or exaggeration in a story current in London society a year
or two before his death. A bond which he had given for £4,000 came into the hands of
Messrs. Coutts and Co., the bankers, who demanded immediate payment,
according to the purport of the deed. The chief partner and main proprietor of that bank
was no less a personage than the Duchess of St. Albans,
who had been previously Mrs. Coutts, and originally
Harriette Mellon of Galashiels. According to the received London
tale, Lawrence hastened to her, threw himself on his knees at her
feet, and implored Her Grace to grant time and to hold the bond. Hereupon the Duchess
called for it, put it into the painter’s hand, and told him to put it into the fire,
and to
| 150 | SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE | [CHAP. XV |
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