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- Herausgeber: Arron Adams
- Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
- Sprache: Englisch
George Romney (1734 – 1802) was an English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures – including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson. Romney is generally ranked third in the hierarchy of 18th-century society portrait painters, after Joshua Reynolds and Thomas Gainsborough. His art is characterized by great refinement, sensitivity of feeling, elegance of design and beauty of color. Romney was a prolific painter and produced about 2,000 paintings and 5,000 drawings during his lifetime.
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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016
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George Romney
His Palette
By Arron Adams
First Edition
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George Romney: His Palette
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Copyright © 2016Arron Adams
Foreword
George Romney was a British painter who was one of the leading society portraitists of the 18th Century. Romney was a prolific painter and produced about 2,000 paintings and 5,000 drawings during his lifetime.He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures – including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson.
Romney studied art as an apprentice to Christopher Steele, whose clean, neat style can be seen in Romney’s early works. Romney left his wife and children in the north of England to pursue a career in London. He was reasonably successful in London, but then embarked on a grand tour of France and Italy to study the Old Masters. His painting style matured in this time and his skills were much in demand when he returned to London.
Romney became obsessed with the beauty of Emma Hart, the mistress of Sir William Hamilton. He painted her in various poses and used her as a model for a number of his historical and Shakespearean paintings. At the end of his life, in failing health, Romney returned to his wife in the north of England after an absence of almost 40 years. She nursed him until he died.
Famous works include Lady Hamilton as Nature, and Major General Sir Archibald Campbell.
Paintings
The artist’s brother James holding a candle, 1761, oil on canvas
Romney’s younger brother James (1745-1807) was sixteen years old when this oil sketch was executed. He later became a colonel in the East India Company.
The innovative candlelight subject is close in style to works by Joseph Wright of Derby from a similar date. However, while Wright is well known for his experiments in painting candle and lamplight pictures, only three candlelight subjects by Romney are known. Two of these were included in a lottery exhibition in KendalTown Hall in March 1762 to help fund Romney’s move to London. Unlike his contemporary, Romney did not pursue an interest in dramatic light and shadow effects after this date.
Detail
William Hayley, 1777-79, oil on canvas
William Hayley (1745-1820) wrote a biography of his friend Romney, for whom he sat on at least thirteen occasions. He was also a poet, and this image evokes very well the soulful melancholy appropriate to this calling.
This may be tactful flattery on Romney’s part - the poet Southey (another friend) said of Hayley: “Everything about that man is good, except his poetry.”
Emma Hart as Miranda, 1785 – 1786, oil on canvas
Emma Hart, who later became Lady Hamilton, sat for Romney on over 330 occasions and was renowned for her adoption of various classical poses. Romney painted her in a variety of guises as Circe, Medea and here as Miranda from Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
Emma Hamilton gained some notoriety in her lifetime and in her prime was regarded as an example of a classic English rose. From her investment of time in sitting for Romney it is reasonable to suppose that she did this in order to preserve something of this beauty.
Detail
Catherine, Lady Rouse Boughton, 1785 – 1787, oil on canvas
In 1782, Catherine Hall married Charles William Boughton, who belonged to a long-established aristocratic family. As the second son, he was not heir to the family seats, but in 1768 he inherited the estates of his maternal cousin, Thomas Philips-Rouse. By the time of his marriage he had become a man of substance and it is not surprising that he wished to demonstrate his family’s status by commissioning this portrait of his young wife.
Romney portrays Lady Rouse Boughton in a long flowing white gown, a type of garment often used by the artists to show the female form to it’s full advantage, icing “a lightness to their bodies and limbs, and a variety and grace to their action”.
