Sir Martin Archer Shee, 'Mr Lewis as the Marquis in 'The Midnight Hour'', before 1792

Martin Archer Shee painted this portrait of the actor William Thomas Lewis for himself. It was one of seven works that he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1792 when he was just 22. Shee loved the theatre and many of the portraits he exhibited over the years were of actors and actresses. He was proud enough of this portrait to still show it in his gallery in Cavendish Square, London, 40 years later when he was President of the Royal Academy.

Born about 1748, the son of an actor, Lewis made his first stage appearance in Dublin, and his London debut at the Covent Garden Theatre in 1773. He was to remain at Covent Garden for his whole acting career. He played at least 194 parts over the next 35 years: 134 in comedy, 15 in farce and 45 in tragedy. He took his last curtain call on 29 May 1808 and died in London on 13 January 1811. Shee shows him dressed for his role as the Marquis in The Midnight Hour – a short three-act comedy which opened at Covent Garden Theatre on 22 May 1787. In the play the Marquis falls in love with Julia, whose uncle has arranged for her to marry someone else. The Marquis must use all his wit to win Julia by ‘the midnight hour’.

Although Shee depicts Lewis in the Marquis‘ rich black satin costume, he has not shown him on the stage during a particular scene. Instead he portrays Lewis as a celebrated actor. The expression seems to capture Lewis’s stage manner with ’winking eyes, and little teeth-shewing laugh'. Unfortunately the black shadows of Lewis’s costume and the red drapery behind him now suffer from wide and disfiguring cracks (already visible by 1909) and the picture is obscured by yellowing varnish.

In 1800 Shee painted a different, bust-length portrait of Lewis in a black coat and white cravat with dark brown unpowdered hair, now in the collection of the Garrick Club in London. Lewis was frequently depicted in character by a wide range of artists – some 43 portraits are known, but these are mainly small engravings. The celebrated portraitist Sir Thomas Lawrence may also have painted Lewis in his Portrait of a Gentleman, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1789 (now untraced).

The sitter’s son, Thomas Denison Lewis, bequeathed this portrait and the interest on a capital sum of £10,000 to the National Gallery in 1862. The Lewis Fund allowed the National Gallery to buy outright such paintings as Antonello da Messina’s Portrait of a Man, Avercamp’s A Scene on the Ice near a Town and Gainsborough’s Cornard Wood. It continues to be used for new acquisitions in conjunction with other funds.