About this work
Edmund Law (1703–87), born at Cartmel, Lancashire, was educated at St John’s College, Cambridge. He became Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1754 and was appointed Bishop of Carlisle in 1769. He was the author of Considerations of the Theory of Religion (1749), The Life of John Locke (1777) and other publications. This formal portrait was painted for the sitter’s eldest son, Dr John Law, Bishop of Clonfert. A native of Lancashire, the artist, George Romney, moved to London in 1762, where he rose to prominence as a portrait painter, at the height of his career rivalling Sir Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough.