Richard Rothwell was born in Athlone in 1800. He commenced his art studies in the Dublin Society's School in December 1814, and spent the next five years there, winning a silver medal for oil studies from the antique. When the Royal Hibernian Academy was founded in 1823 he was made an associate, and the next year a member.

He sent portraits to the RHA between 1826 and 1829, when he left for London, as did so many of his countrymen, to find fame and fortune. In London, he worked in the studio of Sir Thomas Lawrence, and upon Lawrence's death in 1830, Rothwell was entrusted with the completion of Lawrence's unfinished portraits. He sent portraits of British nobility to the Royal Academy and wo...