Emma Hart, later Lady Hamilton, in a White Turban

Maker George Romney (British, 1734-1802)

SitterSitter: Emma Hart, later Lady Hamilton (British, 1765 - 1815)

Collections

British Paintings

ClassificationsPAINTINGS

Dateca. 1791

Mediumoil on canvas

Dimensionscanvas: 32 × 25 3/4 in. (81.3 × 65.4 cm.) frame: 43 × 36 3/4 × 5 in. (109.2 × 93.3 × 12.7 cm.)

DescriptionSeated half-length, her body almost in profile left, her head, nearly full-face. The left arm lies below her waist, the hand, holding a locket, touches her breast. Her curling, brown hair falls over her back and right shoulder. She wears a white turban, with falling ends, and a low short-sleeved dress with a broad, pink sash. Dark-brownish background.

Credit LineThe Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Label TextAmy (or Emy) Lyon was born on April 26, 1765 at Denhall, Chester, the only child of the blacksmith Henry Lyon, who died in her infancy, and a woman who later called herself Mrs. Cadogan. In her early teens she worked as a domestic servant at Hawarden (Wales) and London, and reportedly posed as a living illustration of ideal health and beauty for Dr. James Graham's lectures at Schomberg House, Pall Mall. In 1780 she began a liaison with Sir Harry Fetherstonehaugh (1754-1846) of Uppark, Sussex, who abandoned her when she became pregnant in 1781. Soon after, the Hon. Charles Francis Greville (1749-1809) installed her in his house near Paddington Green, London, where she lived under the name Mrs. Emma Hart. Numerous portraits resulted from her frequent visits to the studio of George Romney, to whom Greville introduced her in April 1782. In March 1786 Greville sent her (along with her mother) to Italy to live with his uncle Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), British envoy at Naples. She gained renown for her striking beauty, wide-ranging interests, and the "Attitudes" she performed in imitation of the poses of classical painting and statuary. In May 1791 Emma Hart visited London with Hamilton and immediately recommenced her regular appointments with Romney until September 6, the day she and Hamilton were wed. Two days later they returned to Naples, where she became the trusted confidante of Queen Maria Carolina. From 1793 the British naval hero Horatio Nelson became an intimate friend of the Hamiltons and following his victorious battle of the Nile in August 1798, he and Lady Hamilton began an affair. Their daughter, Horatia Nelson Thompson, was born on January 30, 1801. They accompanied Hamilton to England when he was recalled in 1800, and following his death in 1803 they lived together at Merton, Surrey. Nelson died in 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar. Emma's longstanding habits of gambling and luxury soon exhausted the bequests of both men, and she was imprisoned for debt from 1813-14. On her release, she settled in Calais, France, where she died on January 15, 1815.

This painting was one of several that Romney left in his studio at his death in 1802. By the late 1770s he had acquired a reputation for taking on more paintings than he could complete, and by 1787 his studio was filled with portraits long underway. The overwhelming demand for his work stretched him thin--frequently requiring thirteen-hour workdays--and his patrons' negligence in paying their bills often stalled his progress. But Romney's irresistible urge to paint historical and literary subjects also interfered with his portrait commissions. His difficulties were exacerbated in 1782 when he found his ideal muse in Emma Hart. In addition to painting her in imaginative compositions--in which she skillfully impersonated mythological and allegorical figures and literary heroines--Romney also portrayed her in her own private character in works intended for her lover Charles Greville.
Greville's straitened finances in the mid 1780s deprived Romney of both his muse (whom Greville sent to Naples to live with his uncle) and his promised commissions (which Greville now realized he could not afford). The hairstyle and turban in the present portrait suggest a somewhat later date, and the painting was probably executed during the five months in 1791 that Emma Hart (now Lady Hamilton) visited London, when Romney returned to his favorite subject with renewed vigor. "The greatest part of this summer I shall be engaged on painting pictures from the divine lady," he wrote a friend in June of that year. On August 29, 1791, John Dickenson reported a visit to Romney's studio during which he saw "8 or 9 Portraits of Emma, not one of which satisfied me." Her return to Naples a week later brought a sudden close to her collaboration with Romney.
In accordance with his standard working method, Romney began this portrait with the sitter's head, lavishing attention on the face, which he generally brought to a higher state of finish than the rest of the canvas. His conception of the facial structure emphasized its rounded forms: the hollows of the eye sockets, the seamless flow of the eyebrows into the nose, the curves of the mouth, and the shape of the face itself. The hair, too, is a mass of looping curls, snakelike in their swirling motion. The painting is remarkable for the variety and dexterity of the brushwork. From above the left elbow, long strokes of flesh-colored paint sweep fluidly through the extended arm to the upraised hand. Four short stabs place the pink sash around the sitter's waist and a single vertical stroke delimits its breadth. A nervous squiggle of russet paint indicates the bow at her back. Having summarily blocked in Hart's creamy drapery, Romney had just begun to refine the contours of her left arm and bosom with strokes of cool gray and warm umber paint. The unresolved quality of these passages indicates that the artist still had further work to do and that the portrait is technically unfinished. It is difficult to identify the object held in the sitter's left hand, but it appears to be a locket, miniature, or pouch with a long string attached. In any of these cases it most likely constitutes a private keepsake, which women habitually wore as reminders of loved ones.
Romney's close association with the famous Lady Hamilton undoubtedly proved a boon to his painting practice. The great number of her portraits that remained in his studio until his death provided an irresistible enticement to the curious, and many of these casual visitors presumably commissioned works of their own. Romney's day book for 1795-96 documents the frequency with which other artists borrowed various portraits of Lady Hamilton in order to make their own copies. A version of the present painting in a private British collection was possibly made under such circumstances.

Status

Not on view

Object number26.109