SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE (follower of) (Bristol, 1769 - London, 1830) Portrait of Antonio Canova Oil on canvas, 49X39.5 cm Provenance: Genoa, private collection Pope Pius VII commissioned Canova to negotiate the restitution of the Vatican works of art looted by Napoleon Bonaparte between 1797 and 1815. The artist travelled from Rome to Paris and London in 1815 and during his stay in the British capital he posed for Thomas Lawrence, who exhibited the portrait at the Royal Academy in 1816. Lawrence reworked the portrait during a second sitting in Rome in 1819 and at least four versions are known to exist, preserved in the USC Fisher Museum of Art in Los Angeles, the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Gipsoteca e Museo Antonio Canova in Possagno.