The Holburne Museum in Bath has launched a fundraising campaign to buy a preparatory oil sketch of a 19-year-old youth by the Bristol-born artist Thomas Lawrence and “save the work from going into private ownership”, according to a press statement.
The unfinished sketch, made in 1791, depicts Arthur Atherley, the son of a banker who became the member of parliament for Southampton. The finished portrait is owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. There are no works by Lawrence, who lived in Bath from 1780 to 1787, in the collection of the Holburne Museum.
The museum has secured funding from the Art Fund charity and the Arts Council England/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund, but needs to raise another £61,209 by the end of January 2016. A funding application has also been made to the Heritage Lottery Fund.
“We hope that Atherley will be a poster boy for our centenary year in 2016,” said Jennifer Scott, the museum’s director, at a press briefing on 27 October to launch next year’s exhibition schedule, which includes Impressionism: Capturing Life (13 February-5 June) and Stubbs and the Wild (18 June-2 October).
New commissions by the UK artist Linda Brothwell and Belgrade-born Djordje Ozbolt will also go on show at the museum next year as part of the anniversary programme.
