GEORGE ANDERSON LAWSON (BRITISH, 1832-1904): A MARBLE BUST OF A GENTLEMAN, POSSIBLY A SELF PORTRAIT, DATED 1888
signed to the reverse 'G.A. LAWSON Sc. LONDON 1888', raised on a waisted marble socle,
72cm high

Provenance: Acquired by the present owner in 1997 from a large private residence in Richmond. The sculptor is known to have lived in Richmond before his death in 1904.

Lawson trained at the Royal Scottish Academy and set up his first studio at 36 St George's Place, Glasgow in 1860. In 1866 he moved to London after a period in Rome, but maintained his links with Scottish artists and patrons. His most famous work is his memorial to Robert Burns in Ayr, inaugerated in 1892 and hailed at the time as 'the finest statue of Burns from any studio'. Otherversions were made and are now in Dublin, Melbourne and Montreal. He also won the Wellington monument competition and completed a statue of the Duke of Wellington for the otp of Wellington's Column in the centre of Liverpool. He also produced portrait busts such as that ofGeorge MacDonald (1887), Jeanie Deans (n.d.) and Motherless (1901), which is in the collection of GMAG (reg no. S-80). The present bust bears a distinct similarity to a painting of the sculptor by Thomas Alexander Ferguson Graham, and so could well be a self portrait.Lawson was elected HRSA in 1884, he exhibited at the RA , 1862-93, RSA , 1860-92, and RGIFA , 1870-92.