George C. Williamson

“ Lady Hamilton, by her ingenuity in placing herself in the most becoming and graceful of attitudes, and by the marvellous power of expression that she possessed, enabling her to show in her countenance the very thoughts of the creation that she was representing, delighted Romney, and over and over again he posed her in various ways, and painted with increasing delight her lovely face. ”

“ The modelling on the face is very dexterously painted, and the tender thoughtful expression of the dark eyes quite beautiful.
The hair is painted in very broad, powerful fashion, and the draperies over the bust indicated lightly and put on with a wonderful sliding movement which is notable. On the whole Romney seldom did a more pleasing piece of work than the portrait of this quiet and refined dainty girl. ”

“ During all the time when she first sat to Romney she was living with Greville and was attached to him, and there is absolutely no evidence whatever that the relationship between her and the artist was any other than that of a beautiful and accomplished woman sitting to a clever artist in numerous delightful scenes and characters.
Few works in which she is represented are more beautiful than the Circe, in which her fair girlish form is seen advancing toward the spectator full of the knowledge of that power of fascination that she had in so supreme a degree. ”

“ Romney was at his very best in this delightful group. The faces of both boy and girl are painted with unusual care, the clear eyes of the manly lad seeming to look right into the spectator; while the downcast lids of the girl's face serve but to reveal through their clear semi-transparency the brown eyes which they hide. ”

“ Much attention has in this work been given to the hands, which Romney rightly believed were indicative of character. The grasp of the sturdy fingers of the boy contrasts well with the long slender fingers which grasp the dog in loving embrace, and the same pleasing idea of divergence can be seen in the modelling of the faces and in the posture and shape of the feet. The dogs are painted in very natural positions: the darker spaniel, which is leaping up to the lad, is evidently in a favourite posture and full of enthusiasm towards his young master ”

“ The delicious piquancy of the bright little faces, so full of charm, delight all who behold them, and there is also an irresistible grace and sweetness about the figures of his children that is very noteworthy.
Mark how cleverly he depicts motion, how easily in the Stafford and Clavering groups of children the young people move, and in what graceful attitudes the artist has represented them. They hardly touch the ground as they gracefully glide around through the figures of the mazy dance, and the happiness of their faces and the grace of their postures are alike most charming. ”

“ He completely ignored it, would not suffer it to be mentioned in his presence, considered that it was not worthy of any recognition, and went on painting pictures of all the loveliest women of society, but declining to allow a single one of them to be shown in the exhibitions of the Academy.
This determination was partly dictated, no doubt, by modesty, as there is every evidence that Romney was a modest, retiring, shy man, and even at the very zenith of his fame was not found in the brilliant society in which the President delighted. ”

“ Classic ideas became more and more the vogue, and to the grace of the drapery is to be attributed some of the charm of the pictures. Once this was realized it was not easy for the artist to alter his original suggestion, and all the great ladies of the day had to be painted in the style that suited Lady Hamilton, but was not bound to suit the different styles of beauty of those who desired to follow her example and be painted by the fashionable artist. ”

“ He was, however, a true artist and could not avoid making his pictures beautiful. He had a keen sense of beauty, a passionate love of warm, rich, sunny colour, and when he came to deal with historical or dramatic scenes a very powerful imagination; but he was careless and wasteful of his powers, and was so overwhelmed with commissions that he did not put his best work into many of the pictures that he painted. They, however, always charm, and they are always pleasing and generally poetic, although they are in other respects very frequently open to grave criticism. ”

“ She, who lived upon adulation, and desired above all that her beauty should be admired, was never tired of sitting to the artist who above all men had the desire and the power to express her features in their wonderful sweetness, and so the memory of the graceful sitter and clever artist are handed down together.
There is no doubt that the fame alike of sitter and artist served to make more popular the Grecian style of costume seen in the pictures, and so served to banish the more formal long-waisted style of dress that had been so popular a short time before. ”

“ The picture is a large one, as the figures are life-size, and it has been engraved; and hardly any of the works of Romney is more worthy of praise than this vivacious and graceful creation.
The wonderful eyes which distinguished the features of Lady Hamilton can be well appreciated in the portrait which we give from the National Portrait Gallery. The face is not altogether a pleasing one. ”

“ It is not that Romney, as has been unwisely said, made all his women alike, for that is not so; but the charm that constituted one of the chief merits of the artist was dependent to a great extent upon tricks of posture, glance and costume, and, having ascertained what these were, there was a danger on Romney's part of repeating them. ”

“ Hayley was a man of fine taste, personal fascination and amiability, and fond of associating with men of culture and quality; and it is for his friends rather than for any work that he himself did that his memory is kept in honour. Romney is said to have first met him when, returning from Kendal, he stopped awhile at Tabley as the guest of Sir John Leicester; and, as they were all of them great admirers of Pope, the acquaintance began which lasted for so many years, brought them into contact with Cowper and with Gibbon, and eventually made Hayley one of the biographers of Romney. ”

“ Romney was, as has been already stated, fond of building work, and pleased to see an opportunity of increasing a house or studio; and this propensity of his was encouraged by Hayley, who loved to make a sensation and to live in a large house; and although Hayley was fond of Romney and brought him many commissions, yet on the whole the judgment of later days is certainly to the effect that it would have been better for Romney if he had never met this attractive friend. ”

“ There is nothing which, with any degree of accuracy, can be stated against the moral character of Romney whilst he was away from her, and all such charges against him fall to the ground by reason of the absence of proof, and it seems clear that it was no such cause that kept him from sending for his wife. ”

“ There is a purpose in the gaze which these eyes extend to the observer, and the attitude, although intended to be a natural one, is quite evidently studied and assumed. It is intended to give full play to the face and eyes, and to reveal the graceful curves of the arms and the slender beauty of the fingers. ”

“ For over twenty years the two men continued fast friends, and Romney used often to go down to stay with Hayley at Eartham, near Chichester, and spent some weeks during each autumn with him. He decorated part of the house, painting some delightful pictures to be placed in the new library that Hayley built; and he met there many pleasant friends, amongst whom were the poet Cowper and his friend Mrs. Unwin, in connection with whom is the chief claim that Hayley has for remembrance, and also the young sculptor Flaxman, for whom Romney acquired a deep friendship. ”

“ The picture is a charming example of the skill of the artist, both in expressing lightness and grace in attitude, and also in power of grouping and composition. The children are moving with the utmost daintiness and freedom, and are all of them admirably well drawn. ”

“ The face is one of peculiar sweetness, and the eyes have an arch look, mingled with thoughtful pathos, which is peculiarly attractive.
The face is wonderfully painted, the modelling being subtle and very dexterous; while the harmony of the whole work is most noticeable. The picture is one of Romney's most successful works in its charm of colour and sweetness of expression.
The remaining three of our illustrations are taken from the gallery of the Duke of Sutherland at Trentham, and are reproduced by kind permission of their noble owner, and of his Grace's representative, Mr. ”

“ Romney was now more than ever under the influence of Hayley, which was being used to its full and baneful extent, and other persons were taken into the house on the advice of the poet to assist the artist and to look after him, who were all more or less creatures of Hayley. ”

“ Romney was, however, determined to leave Cavendish Square, and, acting on the advice of his son to buy a ready-built house rather than to erect one, he purchased an old dwelling-house near Holly Bush Hill, Hampstead, now identified with that known as The Mount, Heath Street, Hampstead, close to where he had been in the habit of lodging for some little while, and where he found the quiet and retirement which he desired. ”

“ The picture, small as it is, and showing but little of the graceful form, is yet a masterpiece, and is a delineation of character unsurpassed in its effect by any other portrait by the same hand.
There is in the Wallace Gallery an interesting Portrait of Mrs. Robinson, the beautiful actress, in the character of Perdita, the daughter of Leontes in "The Winter's Tale," which she made so peculiarly her own. ”

“ He was also asked by a person in the village to paint her portrait, and succeeded in performing the commission in so creditable a way, that it was quite clear to the elder Romney that his son was intended by nature to be an artist.
Accordingly, yielding to the persuasions of the lad himself, backed up as they were by those of many friends, he took steps to apprentice him to an itinerant painter, who was at that time in their neighbourhood, named Steele. ”

“ Romney had always been convinced that the study of the great artists of the Continent was needful for him before he would be able to accomplish what he felt was within him, and he made every effort to get to Italy in order to study the Old Masters. ”

“ Steele afterwards eloped with a young lady who was one of his pupils, and Romney had to assist him in his arrangements. They were difficult, and involved a vast amount of trouble and exposure to night air at a time when the youth was far from strong; and after the gay couple had escaped to Gretna Green, Romney fell ill of a fever, and was nursed by a domestic servant named Mary Abbott. With this young person the artist fell violently in love, and on recovering from his illness married her on October 14th, 1756, when only twenty-two years old, and without any means of his own on which to live. ”

“ Even the reports as to Romney and Lady Hamilton, to which reference is made in a succeeding chapter, are gainsaid by the letters of Lady Hamilton herself which are in the Morrison collection, and no one has ever been able to produce one single piece of evidence in support of the statements that have been too wildly made. ”

“ Other introductions which the artist took with him were from Sir William Hamilton and his nephew Greville.
Romney was not yet a man of any means, and he supported himself whilst in Rome by painting portraits and some historical works, and by copying the great masterpieces which he found in the Eternal City ”

“ Mrs. Robinson first took the part in the performance on December 3rd, 1779, at Drury Lane, in the presence of their Majesties King George III. and Queen Charlotte, and also before the youthful Prince of Wales, whose affection was afterwards to have such an effect upon her life. ”

“ NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON.
Study of Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante, about 1786. (312)
The Parson's Daughter. A portrait. A circular bust portrait of a young lady. See page 45. (1068)
Portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Lindow. A life-size group. Bought in 1893. Strong in colour, and more definite and hard than is the artist's usual manner. (1396)
Portrait of Mrs. Mark Currie. A portrait of a lady seated on a terrace. See page 44. Painted in May, 1789. Romney received sixty guineas for this picture, which was bought for a very large sum by the Trustees from the family in 1897. ”