PBA Galleries

2 volumes. Gravure plates throughout. (Folio) 32x24.5 cm ( 12½x9¾"), full brown pebbled morocco, gilt ruled borders with central frame of scrollwork, spines gilt, gilt dentelles with wide borders of flowers and vines, red and yellow morocco onlays, all edges gilt. One of 600 copies.

Both volumes extra-illustrated with the insertion of earlier engravings, etc. Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), was a notable British portrait artist. At the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Lawrence succeeded to the title of Royal Painter. He became the President of the Royal Academy in 1820, five years after being knighted. A commission to paint the lovely granddaughter of an elderly woman resulted in perhaps Lawrence's most famous work. The eleven year old subject was Sarah Barrett Moulton and the resulting portrait came to be known to the world as "Pinkie". Along with Gainsborough's "Blue Boy" it is perhaps the 18th century's most famous portrait. The fact that young Sarah died not two years later makes it even more poignant. Her connection to the literary world is that her brother Edward ultimately changed his surname to Moulton-Barrett and had a daughter he named Elizabeth who grew up to become Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Pinkie now resides in San Marino California at the famed Huntington Library.