This portrait of Charles William Lambton - aged six or seven - was commissioned by the boy's father John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, a Whig politician and MP for County Durham.
Popularly known as The Red Boy, it remained in the Lambton family until it was acquired by the National Gallery in 2021.
It is acknowledged as one of Thomas Lawrence's (1769-1830) masterpieces and, a sign of the image's enduring popularity, it was the first painting to be reproduced on a British postage stamp in 1967.
... Read more .. »