Lady Louisa Barbara Rolle (1796–1885)

Lady Louisa Barbara Rolle, painted by Lawrence around 1830 and now in Great Torrington Town Hall, is almost certainly one of his very last completed portraits — he died on January 7, 1830, and works dated to 1830 were typically finished in the first days of that year or completed posthumously from unfinished canvases by his assistants. Lady Rolle was a wealthy Devon landowner, her family holding substantial estates in north Devon including the area around Great Torrington. The enormous scale — 269 by 175.2 centimeters — represents the most ambitious full-length commission appropriate for a woman of wealth and county significance, and Lawrence's ability to maintain this scale and ambition in what were literally the final months of his life demonstrates the technical mastery that remained undiminished even as his health declined. Great Torrington Town Hall's holding connects the portrait to the local Devon heritage of the Rolle family, whose estates and charitable activities shaped the town's development. Lawrence's final portraits show his technique at its most atmospheric and free: the forms dissolving into light and color at the edges, the central presence emerging from an almost impressionistic dissolution of the surrounding space.

Lawrence captures the youthful beauty of the sitter with his characteristic luminous treatment of skin, the eyes bright and engaging. The late date places this among Lawrence's final works, yet the handling shows no diminution of his powers in rendering fabric, flesh, and the sparkle of personality.