Lawrence had established himself as a leading portrait painter and depicted many politicians and royal figures of Liverpool's generation. The work was painted around 1796. It features a
Bas-Relief of
Demosthenes, the celebrated
Athenian orator and hero of the subject. Liverpool's determined, combative stance may be an attempt to echo the Ancient Greek statesman. Liverpool's biographer
Norman Gash describes it as showing "a sensitive and intense young man with long hair, worn naturally in a kind of studied disorder, and a curiously intent look beneath the dark level eyebrows". An
engraving of the portrait was made in 1801 around the time that he was negotiating the
Treaty of Amiens with
France. After serving as
foreign secretary,
home secretary and
war secretary, Liverpool succeeded the
assassinated Spencer Perceval in 1812, overseeing victory in the
Napoleonic Wars and becoming Britain's third-longest-serving prime minister. Lawrence painted him several more times, including in 1820 and then in 1826 towards the end of his lengthy period as premier. It has been part of the collection of the
National Portrait Gallery in
London since 1994 and is now on display there. ==See also==