Robert Banks (1770–1828), 2nd Earl of Liverpool

Lawrence painted Robert Banks Jenkinson, 2nd Earl of Liverpool, around 1800, another version of his portrait of the long-serving Prime Minister. This version, now in the Parliamentary Art Collection, serves an institutional function — documenting the leaders who shaped British policy during the Napoleonic Wars and the turbulent postwar period. Liverpool's fifteen-year premiership (1812-27) remains the longest continuous government of the nineteenth century.

Lawrence renders the long-serving Prime Minister with the quiet authority appropriate to a man who held power through steady competence rather than personal charisma. The composed expression and formal arrangement convey political gravitas, while the warm flesh tones humanize what might otherwise be a merely official likeness.