Existing comment:
Rt. Rev. William Lawrence 1850–1941
The Right Reverend William Lawrence served as Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts from 1893 to 1927, but his influence on religious and civic life reached beyond the boundaries of his diocese. The son of a wealthy Boston industrialist and a friend of the preeminent Gilded Age financier J. P. Morgan, Lawrence was instrumental in founding the Harvard Business School, believing it important to promote morality in the business leaders of the future. In his essay "The Relation of Wealth to Morals" (1901), Lawrence declared that "godliness is in league with riches."
This commissioned portrait follows the format that Sargent developed during the latter half of the 1910s, when he spent much of his time in Boston while painting a series of murals. By placing the headand- shoulders portrait against a dark background rendered with vigorous strokes of charcoal, he created an impression of energy as well as spatial depth.
Charcoal on paper, 1916
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; gift of Rt. Rev. Frederic C. Lawrence
This is the National Portrait Gallery sign in the exhibit. |