Homer Reciting his Poems

It depicts the classical Greek poet Homer reciting his Iliad to a receptive audience. It was a rare venture into the genre for the artist, who went on to became known as the leading portrait painter of the Regency era. He was around twenty one when he painted it. Around the same time he also produced a landscape painting A View of Dovedale, displaying his versatility as an artist.^[1]

The painting was produced for the archaeologist Richard Payne Knight and was exhibited at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition at Somerset House in 1791.^[2] Today it is part of the collection of the Tate Britain in Pimlico, having been acquired in 1975.^[3]

• Levey, Michael. Sir Thomas Lawrence. Yale University Press, 2005.
• Lloyd, Stephen & Sloan, Kim. The Intimate Portrait: Drawings, Miniatures and Pastels from Ramsay to Lawrence. National Galleries of Scotland, 2008.
• Wright, Amina. Thomas Lawrence: Coming of Age. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2020.

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