Title: Portrait of Sir John Lawrence, Viceroy of India (1864-1869)
Date: c.1860
Medium: Carved ivory
Dimensions:
5 x 4.5 cm
Credit Line: Presented, John Northridge, 2014
Object Number: NGI.2014.13.2
DescriptionThe portrait is carved in ivory and mounted in an oval silver frame in the form of a cameo brooch. There are no hallmarks on the silver mount. The portrait is similar in style to a carved ivory portrait profiles by the British artist William Hogh. The sitter Sir John Lawrence (1811-1879) was born in Yorkshire but attended the free grammar school in Londonderry where his maternal uncle was headmaster. Lawrence's mother Catherine Knox (1774-1846) was from Lifford, Co. Donegal. John Lawrence rose through the ranks of the Indian Civil Service to become Viceroy in 1864, a post he held for five years. His brother Henry, with whom he founded schools for young boys in India, was killed in the siege of Lucknow.
ProvenanceBy descent from Harriet Lawrence, the sitter's wife; presented, John Northridge, 2014