Angerstein was a prominent financier and a founder of Lloyd's. The collection at his house in Pall Mall, formed with the advice of Lawrence, was bought by the British government after his death and forms the nucleus of the National Gallery, London. This is one of several autograph replicas of a portrait painted in 1816.
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Title:John Julius Angerstein (1736–1823)
Artist:Sir Thomas Lawrence (British, Bristol 1769–1830 London) and Workshop
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:36 x 28 in. (91.4 x 71.1 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Adele L. Lehman, in memory of Arthur Lehman, 1965
Accession Number:65.181.9
For much of his professional life Lawrence benefited from the patronage, friendship, and financial acumen of John Julius Angerstein, a financier, who as a young man underwrote marine insurance at Lloyd’s and who later played a major role in transforming the firm into the great insurance house that it became. He was born Johan[n] Julius Angerstein in St. Petersburg in 1736. His mother was Eva Pritzen Angerstein; it is not clear whether he was the legitimate son of Johann Heinrich Angerstein, a surgeon from Coburg, or the natural son of Andrew Thompson, a British merchant. J. J. Angerstein, who became a British subject in 1770, formed a small but very important collection of European paintings in the 1790s and early 1800s. After his death in 1823, the British government bought his fifty-four old masters, which had been amassed with some advice from Lawrence, among others. The pictures thus secured for the nation included major works by Raphael, Sebastiano del Piombo, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Van Dyck; five paintings by Claude Lorrain; and six Hogarths, constituting the series Marriage à la Mode. The Angerstein residence at 100 Pall Mall, leased from his executors, opened to the public in 1824 as the National Gallery, London.
The primary version of this composition (Corporation of Lloyd's), painted when Angerstein was in his early eighties, was exhibited in 1816 at the Royal Academy. That work passed to the sitter’s son, John, and grandson, John Julius William. Sometime after 1951, it was sold to Lloyd’s by a descendant. In 1823 Lawrence wrote Angerstein’s son asking to borrow the portrait so that he could use it as the model for a posthumous replica ordered by George IV. The king’s replica (National Gallery, London), paid for in 1824 but not delivered until 1828, went to William IV and was presented by him to the National Gallery in 1836. The present canvas can be identified with certainty only from 1932. The persuasive characterization and suave fluidity of handling suggest that it is largely autograph, which would mean that it was painted between 1824 and 1828. Kenneth Garlick (1991) considered it "Lawrence with possible studio assistance." On the other hand, it may be illogical to propose that an artist as busy as Lawrence would have painted a second replica, even if destined for a member of the Angerstein family. A copy belonged to Morton J. May of St. Louis in 1935.
[2010; adapted from Baetjer 2009]
?by descent to the sitter's grandson, John Julius William Angerstein, Weeting Hall, Norfolk (1858–d. 1866; his trustees, 1866–96; their sale, Christie's, London, July 4, 1896, no. 117, for £131.5.0 to Blakeslee); ?[T. J. Blakeslee, New York, from 1896]; ?Mrs. Benjamin C. Porter, New York (by 1908–at least 1910); [Newhouse, New York, by 1932–33; sold to Leyman]; Harry S. Leyman, Cincinnati (1933–35; sold to Levy); [John Levy, New York, 1935–36; sold to Lehman]; Mrs. Arthur (Adele L.) Lehman, New York (1936–d. 1965)
New York. Ehrich-Newhouse. "Loan Exhibition of Paintings in Aid of the Architects' Emergency Fund," January 16–26, 1935, no. 19 (lent by Mr. H. S. Leyman).
New York. Parke-Bernet. "French and English Art Treasures of the XVIII Century," December 20–30, 1942, no. 393 (lent by Mrs. Arthur Lehman).
Tokyo National Museum. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," August 10–October 1, 1972, no. 90.
Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art. "Treasured Masterpieces of The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 8–November 26, 1972, no. 90.
"List of Loans." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 3 (July 1908), p. 147, [possibly this picture], as lent by Mrs. Benjamin C. Porter.
Art News 31 (October 29, 1932), ill. on cover, as sold by Newhouse to a Cincinnati collector.
C. H. Collins Baker. British Painting. London, 1933, p. 281, [in error] as belonging to the Cincinnati museum.
"Lawrence's Portrait of His Patron is Sold." Art Digest 7 (June 1933), p. 8, ill., confuses it with no. 110 [the first version] in the 1896 Angerstein sale.
Helen Comstock. "Lawrence's Portrait of John J. Angerstein." Connoisseur 95 (February 1935), pp. 98–99, ill.
Martin Davies. National Gallery Catalogues: The British School. London, 1946, pp. 91–92, as a "very close version" of the National Gallery picture, and possibly no. 117 of the 1896 sale.
Kenneth Garlick. Sir Thomas Lawrence. London, 1954, p. 24, as a repetition of the Lloyd's portrait.
Martin Davies. National Gallery Catalogues: The British School. 2nd ed. London, 1959, pp. 73–74, lists separately [in error] versions in the Leyman and Lehman collections; notes that lot 117 of the Angerstein sale, according to some copies of the catalogue, may have been "finished by Smart".
Kenneth Garlick. "A Catalogue of the Paintings, Drawings, and Pastels of Sir Thomas Lawrence." Walpole Society 39 (1964), p. 19, lists it [in error] under both replicas (ii) and repetitions (i and possibly ii).
Claus Virch. The Adele and Arthur Lehman Collection. New York, 1965, pp. 60–61, ill., dates it about 1824.
Kenneth Garlick. Sir Thomas Lawrence: A Complete Catalogue of the Oil Paintings. Oxford, 1989, p. 137, states that it "has some claim to be at least in part from Lawrence's hand".
Kenneth Garlick. Letter to Katharine Baetjer. January 15, 1991, from a photograph, describes it as "good" and "would be inclined to [call it] Lawrence with studio assistance"; notes that a painting sold at Christie's, New York, October 10, 1990, no. 812, proves after cleaning to be "probably the first sketch" for this portrait type.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 202, ill.
Judy Egerton. National Gallery Catalogues: The British School. London, 1998, pp. 366, 369 n. 1, quotes Garlick [Ref. 1989].
Katharine Baetjer. "British Portraits in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 57 (Summer 1999), pp. 70–71, ill. (color), suggests that it was perhaps painted between 1824 and 1828.
Katharine Baetjer. British Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575–1875. New York, 2009, pp. 220–22, no. 108, ill. (color).
Sir Thomas Lawrence (British, Bristol 1769–1830 London)
1813 (?)
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