British School
(Fourth Quarter 18th Century)

"Portrait of Charles Lee Lewes, Actor"

oil on canvas backed with a wood panel
unsigned, with an old British shipping label and inventory labels en verso.
In an antique gesso and giltwood frame.
36" x 27-3/4"

Notes: Born in London of Welsh parentage, Lewes began his acting career in bit roles in the Haymarket, eventually moving on to choicer roles at Covent Garden Theatre. He proved especially adept at comedic roles, so impressing the novelist and playwright Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) that the esteemed writer composed an additional dialogue for his play She Stoops to Conquer especially for Lewes to deliver during a performance. After a dispute with the management of Covent Garden, Lewes accepted a position at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, performing such iconic Shakespearean roles as Falstaff. Lewes apparently had somewhat of an artistic temperament, and eventually fell out of favor with the London theatres. He worked for a short time at the Dundee Theatre, Edinburgh, before moving to Ireland where, impoverished, he spent some time in a debtor's prison. While imprisoned, Lewes worked on his memoirs; they were published posthumously by his son. The thrice-married Lewes had several children and the critic and philosopher George Henry Lewes (perhaps most well-known today as being the paramour of the novelist George Eliot) was his grandson.

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