Portait of Sir Robert Wigram, 1st Baronet, MP

Sir Thomas Lawrence was a highly esteemed portraitist who began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in London soon after moving there in 1787. His works were both naturalistic and flattering, and the artist quickly became a favorite of the upper classes in Britain. Lawrence was painter to both George III and the Prince Regent, the future George IV, exhibiting his first portrait of the latter in 1815, the year both the AMAM works (AMAM 1986.17 & 2010.14) were likely begun.

These pendant portraits have been recently reunited after decades apart. Lady Wigram was acquired by the museum in 1986, and her husband, Sir Robert Wigram, is the most recent acquisition in this handbook, acquired in 2010. Together, they tell a story of marital love, business, foreign trade, and philanthropy in early nineteenth-century England.

Lady Wigram (1767-1841), Sir Robert's second wife, is shown wearing a black velvet gown, white ruff and Indian shawl with paisley decoration; an ermine robe that attests to her wealth is folded over the sofa. Her costume alludes, in part, to her husband's business interests in the East Indies, as shawls such as hers were imported from Kashmir, while the gown and ruff were fashionably "Elizabethan" at the time, reflecting British patriotism after Napoleon's defeat in 1815. Her affable expression and calm demeanor conform with what is known of her life; she bore her husband seventeen children (he had six already from his first wife) and she was well known as "Lady Bountiful" in Walthamstow, Essex, for her philanthropic activities, organizing coeducational schools and medical clinics, and founding a local library. The portrait was exhibited at London's Royal Academy in 1816.

Sir Robert (1744-1830) was instrumental in convincing the government to build the East India Docks in 1803, and the papers under his right hand resting on the table once showed the lettering "EID con 1803" (now only partially visible under UV light, perhaps because of a previous restoration in this area) in reference to that construction. He was one of the company's original subscribers and was on its construction committee, serving later in 1810 as chairman of the Docks and becoming a director of the company in 1815, the year this portrait was likely started. The books at lower left, one of which is entitled "East India Docks," additionally refer to his business activities. Wigram first came to London in 1762 where he apprenticed with a Dr. Allen and became a surgeon, serving on ships to the East Indies from 1764 to 1772. He contracted an eye disease in China and ceased sailing, became a drug merchant in London and later a Member of Parliament, and was created a baronet in 1805. Well known for his energy and business acumen, the diarist Joseph Farington wrote of him that he "should be miserable if in a morning he should not awake with his head full of ideas of business for the day."

Sir Robert, depicted here with a frank, open expression, had said of Lady Eleanor, "I never did undertake any business of moment without consultation with my wife, and I can truly say it has much promoted my fortune." These wonderfully painted portraits are evidence of their compatibility and harmonious marriage, even as they allude to Sir Robert Wigram's successful business dealings, the burgeoning of trade, and the language of fashion in the early nineteenth century.