1786

Mad Girl

Sir Thomas Lawrence

English, 1769 - 1830

This powerful pastel head is by the seventeen-year-old Thomas Lawrence, who would become one of the finest of all English portrait painters. It was shown in London at the Royal Academy in 1787. On the back of the frame appears the following inscription in the artist's hand:

Madsong
One Morning very early,
One Morning in the Spring,
I heard a Maid in Bedlam,
Who mournfully did sing;
Her chains she rattled in her hands
While sadly thus sung she,
I love my Love,-because
I know my Love loves me!