William Baker (1743–1824)

William Baker, Hertfordshire MP and painted by Lawrence in 1807 in a portrait whose current institutional location is not definitively established, represented the prosperous landed Whig gentry of the Home Counties who formed an important secondary tier of Lawrence's political portraiture. Hertfordshire's proximity to London made it one of the most politically active of the English counties — its MPs could attend parliamentary sessions easily while maintaining active country-house estates, and its landed families participated in the London social world more continuously than their counterparts in more distant counties. Baker's combination of Whig political sympathies and landed gentlemanly identity was entirely typical of the Hertfordshire parliamentary tradition, and Lawrence's portrait creates the appropriate image of informed civic engagement within the conventions of the landed gentleman's official portrait. The 1807 date places the commission in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars, when political portraiture carried an additional valence of national identity and civic duty beyond mere social documentation.

Lawrence paints the elderly sitter with respectful attention to his years, the face modeled with warm flesh tones that convey vitality without denying age. The confident, efficient handling of the dark coat and background is characteristic of Lawrence's approach to straightforward male commissions from the provincial gentry.