The Holburne Museum in Bath has acquired a preparatory oil sketch of a 19-year-old youth by the Bristol-born artist Thomas Lawrence, after raising the princely sum of £450,000—including £61,209 via a public appeal. The fetching 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 secured funding from the Art Fund charity, the Heritage Lottery Fund, and the Arts Council England/Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Grant Fund.
