Portraits of the representatives of Vorontsov family painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence

Abstract

The subject of this article is the portraits of the members of Vorontsov family – a Russian family of diplomats inseparably connected with Great Britain and Russia. These works were painted by the British artist Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) in the early XIX century, featuring the portraits of S. R. Vorontsov (in 1805-1806), Y. S. Pembroke (in 1808), M. S. Vorontsov and graphic painting of E. K. Vorontsova (in 1821). The method of research consists in a detailed comprehensive examination of the depiction of the members of Vorontsov family. Main emphasis is made on the comparative analysis of reminiscences of the contemporaries on the model and artistic style of T. Lawrence’s works. The scientific novelty consists in viewing these portraits from one of the perspective of Russian-British artistic ties of the early XIX century – the connection between Lawrence and Russia, and broadening of catalogue descriptions with new records. The comparison of graphic and painting works of T. Lawrence with written reminiscences on the presented models proves that portraits of his authorship minutely reflect the inner world of the models and the impression they created on their contemporaries.