The Calmady Children (Emily, 1818–?1906, and Laura Fotodruck

Lawrence’s portrait of Emily and Laura Anne Calmady embodies the admiration for the unrestrained exuberance of childhood that played a critical role in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century European culture. Lawrence once described the portrait, which was shown at the Royal Academy and engraved under the title Nature—as "my best picture . . . one of the few I should wish hereafter to be known by."