Thomas Lawrence

One of the delights of this exhibition is the opportunities it provides to work out how some of the effects are achieved: the portrait of Elizabeth Farren for instance features a shimmering gown, courtesy of thickly applied brushstrokes of white paint. So simple, yet so effective. Not that the clothing dominates, impressive though it is. His drawings provide ample illustration of Lawrence's skills and the faces are what you most remember. Selina Meade and Rosamund Croker are impossibly beautiful, though not forbiddingly so, while the elderly Mary Digges shows how adept Lawrence was at portraying age. Likewise the oil sketch of Wilberforce is full of character, while the painting of Pius IV is a worthy descendant of Raphael's Julius II. Perhaps most charming of all are the portraits of children, whether on their own like the famous one of Charles William Lambton, or in groups. There's a real warmth to many of these that is singularly lacking in many other artistocratic portraits of the period.