Portrait of Rebecca Cornwall, Lady Simeon (d. 1830)

Rebecca Cornwall, Lady Simeon, painted by Lawrence around 1790 and whose current institutional location is not definitively established, belongs to Lawrence's very early aristocratic commissions — works from the period when he was still in his early twenties and competing directly with the established generation of portraitists for commissions from the highest-rank families. The Simeon family were Hampshire landowners connected to the Isle of Wight, and Lady Simeon's portrait would have been one of the country house commissions that began reaching Lawrence as word of his extraordinary talent spread among the aristocracy. The contrast between Lawrence at twenty-one painting Rebecca Cornwall and his mature work of the 1820s is striking: the early portraits show a precocious technical competence that somewhat suppresses his personal stylistic voice behind conventional academic practice, while his mature manner — the atmospheric dissolution, the luminous complexion, the free handling of dress — was still developing. That aristocratic patrons were commissioning Lawrence this early in his career demonstrates both the speed of his reputation's growth and the urgency with which fashionable society sought access to the most talented young painter in London.

The early date makes this portrait a valuable document of Lawrence's developing style, already showing the luminous skin tones and fluid brushwork that would become his hallmarks. The treatment is somewhat more careful and finished than his later, freer manner, reflecting a young artist determined to demonstrate his technical mastery.