Philip Sansom
- Artist: Sir Thomas Lawrence
- Date: c.1805–10
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 1264 x 1016 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Philip Sansom” by Sir Thomas Lawrence. The portrait, painted around 1805‑10, captures the London merchant and banker Philip Sansom—one of the founding members of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Lawrence, known for rendering his sitters with keen psychological insight, shows Sansom seated in a simple interior, a chair and curtain framing him. The sitter’s dignified posture and restrained expression hint at his principled stance: he opposed slavery itself but believed that ending the trade was a more realistic first step. Painted toward the end of Sansom’s life, the work is an intimate window into both a man and a critical moment in Britain’s social reform. Lawrence’s deft use of oil on canvas brings out the sitter’s rich character, making the portrait both a historical record and an engaging study of personality.
See it in person
Philip Sansom is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
