Sir Thomas Lawrence Portraits of Emily and Laura Anne, the Children of Charles B Calmady  1823-4 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

French portrait painting was transformed by the example of Thomas Lawrence, the leading London portraitist. Lawrence's international reputation had been secured by his portraits of the Allied sovereigns and diplomats who defeated Napoleon. His brilliant characterisation - especially of children - and free, apparently casual brushwork was widely admired, but horrified conservative tastes. No painter so epitomised what was thought to be the British style, or provoked such conflicting outcomes in French painting. While artists like Gros or Ingres upheld French discipline, Delacroix painted his portrait of Baron Schwiter (shown in room 3) under Lawrence's spell, and saw it rejected from the Salon.

Lawrence exhibited in France, painted the king and other prominent figures, and sent work to Paris for engraving. The Comte de Forbin, director of the Royal museums, considered Lawrence the leader of the British school, and secured his appointment as a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur as both a symbolic and a personal compliment.