In Regency terms it was "a period of male hysteria", but it might now be called a nervous breakdown. Whatever the phrase, it was certainly a wretched time for the artist Sir Thomas Lawrence and is part of the reason why his name is not now shouted from the rooftops as one of Britain's finest portrait artists.
The breakdown was part of a scandal – his love affairs with two well-connected sisters – and it contributed to the tarnishing of a reputation that never fully recovered. The National Portrait Gallery wants to help, though, and has announced it is to stage the first major Lawrence exhibition in 30 years, introducing a new generation to the artist.
The NPG's director, Sandy Nairne, called Lawrence "a huge figure. But a huge figure who we believe deserves a great deal more attention. He is one of the great painters of the last 250 years and one of the great stars of portraiture on a European stage."
The autumn show will include some of his best-known work as well as many paintings and drawings that are rarely seen in public. Although Lawrence was the superstar artist of the Regency period, incredibly well connected and admired throughout Europe, he is not today as well known as the star artists who preceded him – Joshua Reynolds, say, or Thomas Gainsborough – or those who followed, such as Turner and Constable.
One reason for that is the scandals linked to his name including, in the 1790s, his affairs with the two daughters of the noted actress Sarah Siddons. The story began when Lawrence fell for Sally Siddons but then transferred his affections to Maria, who died in 1798. So he went back to Sally. It was tumultuous for all concerned and almost pushed Lawrence over the edge. "It clearly damaged his reputation and was very emotionally damaging to him and the Siddonses," said Peter Funnell, the NPG's curator of 19th century portraits.
When he died in 1830 Lawrence's standing declined rapidly and he quickly "became branded with the stereotypical loose-morals image of the Regency period", said Funnell.
The affairs became a sensation once more in 1904 when Lawrence's extraordinarily emotional correspondence was published in a book by Oswald Knapp. Lawrence writes of his uncontrollable feelings and his anguish, while Mrs Siddons talks of "this wretched madman's frenzy" and of his "flying off in ANOTHER whirlwind".
Funnell said: "There was an almost evangelical reaction against him and what he was seen to represent in terms of the Regency period. It's difficult, when that does happen to an artist's reputation, to really get away from that."
Lawrence had found considerable fame – though not fortune – quickly. He was a child prodigy and was making money in Bath as a pastellist from the age of 11. He became one of the youngest Royal Academicians and, aged just 20, caused a stir with two stunning portraits, one of Queen Charlotte and the other of actress Elizabeth Farren. The critics immediately installed Lawrence as both rival and successor to Reynolds.
Also going on public display at the NPG, for the first time in the UK, will be a recently discovered self-portrait. The depiction of a big-eyed, small-chinned 17- or 18-year-old was for a long time thought to be of the future prime minister Lord Grey, to whom Lawrence bore an uncanny likeness, until it was agreed in the 1990s that it must be Lawrence.
His work dipped during his nervous hysteria, but in the early 19th century his star shot up. "With the help of his friends, he pulls himself back together," said the NPG's curator of 18th century portraits, Lucy Peltz. "He becomes incredibly ambitious and innovative and explorative."
Among the most eye-catching loans to the show are three monumental portraits that will be familiar to any attentive participant in the guided tours at Windsor Castle. The enormous paintings of Pope Pius VII, Field Marshal Gebhard von Blücher and Charles, Archduke of Austria, can usually be seen hanging in the imposing Waterloo Chamber, which was created for them. The rare loan will offer an opportunity to see the portraits up close, and digital reproductions will be installed at Windsor in their absence.
"When we set out on this we realised it would be very hard to set out his full ambition as an artist without one of them and in the end they very generously agreed to lend three," said Funnell.
In 1820 Lawrence became president of the Royal Academy and George IV became his main patron. It was a decade when he painted some of his most stunning portraits, including one of Princess Sophia in 1825 and another of Rosamund Croker in 1827 – "we're told that men stood before it in a half-circle admiring its loveliness at the Royal Academy exhibition," said Funnell.
One of the paintings closest to Lawrence's heart will be on loan from Chicago: a portrait of his close friend and probable lover Isabella Wolff, the former wife of the Danish consul in London.
There will also be works such as a painting of Charles William Lambton, known as the "Red Boy".
The exhibition, a collaboration with the Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven, will run from 21 October to 23 January 2011.