SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE (1769-1830)

Mrs Calverley Bewicke (1790-95)

Oil on canvas (75 x 62 cm)

Private collection

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Around the time when Lawrence painted the portrait of his friend and benefactor, William Lock, he portrayed a beautiful woman named Margaret Bewicke (1762-1859). Margaret Bewicke was the youngest daughter of the theologian Robert Spearman of Old Acres, County Durham. In 1781, she married Calverly Bewicke (1755-1815) of Close House, near Heddon-on-the-Wall in Northumberland, a landowner who commanded the Durham Militia for many years and was MP for Winchelsea between 1806 and 1815. The experts (Sir Walter Armstrong and Kenneth Garlick) consider that this portrait was painted between 1790 and 1795; therefore, Mrs Bewicke was 30-35 years old when she sat to Lawrence. She was also portrayed by Sir William Beechey around 1820; his beautiful full-length portrait still hangs at Close Hall.

Margaret was frequently mentioned in the local newspapers as a generous benefactress. In 1814, she built a school at Houghton for the children of the Close House Estate, where they were educated at her expense. She was also very interested in gardening, and her gardener, Joseph Clark, won many prizes.

The background in this portrait is very unusual. Mrs Bewick is standing in front of a red curtain that offsets her white dress and occupies the left half of the painting; however, on the right, instead of painting the usual view of a park or garden, Lawrence chose a light grey background; not a very happy choice. Nevertheless, the beautiful figure of the sitter, to whom Lawrence’s brilliant and broad brushstrokes gave such a bright and ethereal appearance, commands our attention. Margaret Bewicke’s portrait shows that, at a very young age, Lawrence was already a consummate master of his craft who had nothing to learn. Like his great predecessor, Thomas Gainsborough, he was an incredibly talented artist who did not need masters.

In the 1910s, this admirable portrait left England as a result of the extravagant lifestyle of Ivan Bewicke, who forced his mother to mortgage the estate and sell numerous paintings. By the 1950s, it was owned by Mr and Mrs Frederick S. Ford of Michigan, who gifted it to the Toledo Museum of Art. The museum sold the painting in 2007 via Sotheby´s, and it was purchased by the English art dealer Philip Mould. The painting reappeared on the market in December 2025 when it was auctioned by Bonhams, but it failed to sell.