Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)

Lawrence painted Sir Walter Scott in 1826-27, depicting the celebrated novelist and poet at the height of his international fame but just before the financial catastrophe that would overshadow his final years. Scott's publishing firm Constable & Co. collapsed in 1826, leaving him burdened with enormous debts that he heroically attempted to repay through furious literary production. Lawrence's portrait captures Scott's robust, genial personality and the rugged features that contemporaries found as compelling as his novels. Now in the Royal Collection, the portrait is the definitive visual image of the man who virtually invented the historical novel and transformed Scotland's romantic image.

Lawrence portrays Scott with genial warmth, capturing the novelist's famously approachable personality. The relatively informal composition and warm palette create an intimate quality unusual in Lawrence's grand portraits.