Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. John Julius Angerstein

Lawrence painted John Julius Angerstein and his wife around 1790-92, depicting the Lloyd's of London chairman and art collector whose collection would form the founding nucleus of the National Gallery when it was purchased by the British government in 1824. Angerstein, born in St. Petersburg to a German merchant family, had become one of London's wealthiest financiers and most discerning art collectors. His collection, displayed at his Pall Mall house, included masterpieces by Raphael, Titian, Claude, and Rembrandt. Now in the Louvre, this double portrait documents the man whose taste shaped the National Gallery's character and, through Lawrence's sympathetic characterization, captures the cultivated world of Georgian collecting.

Lawrence renders the couple with his characteristic elegance and fluidity, using warm tones and softly modeled flesh. The intimate composition of husband and wife together creates a sense of domestic harmony appropriate to a private commission.