Lot 3: Sir Thomas Lawrence, PRA (British, 1769-1830) Portrait of Margaret Carpenter unframed

Portrait of Margaret Carpenter
inscribed and dated 'Margaret Carpenter/1817' in pencil (lower left)
pencil and watercolour
26 x 22cm (10 1/4 x 8 11/16in).
unframed

PROVENANCE:
with Scott and Fowles, New York
Sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, Los Angeles, date unknown

The sitter of the present lot was the wife of James Carpenter, a bookseller and publisher of 14 Old Bond Street, who would have been a neighbour of Lawrence, who also had premises on Old Bond Street at this time. The sitter is not to be confused with the artist Margaret Carpenter 1793-1872, (see lot 13) Lawrence's most famous pupil, who was the daughter in law of the subject of this drawing. The sitter's son, William Carpenter, Keeper of the Print Room at the British Museum, married Margaret Geddes who went on to study under Lawrence and become a well known artist in her own right.