George Romney, The Spinstress (Portrait of Emma Hart) 1782-86Kenwood House, Hampstead, UK
(Source)
I'm currently reading Kate Williams' biography of Emma, Lady Hamilton. It was a birthday present from elle'Mischka because the cleavage on the cover reminded her of me. How touching.
Anyway! Emma Hamilton/Emma Hart/Amy Lyon rose from the slums to marry into the aristocracy, and eventually the mistress of Lord Nelson even bearing his bastard daughter. And she did it by becomine a prostitute and artist's model. Although paintings of her from Joshua Reynolds and Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun exist, she was most famous for her collaboration with George Romney. The Spinstress was painted while Emma was the mistress of Charles Greville and he had her sequestered away in the then-semi-rural hamlet of Paddington *snicker*. According to the biography, this painting was meant to be a joke on her position - a 'spinstress', innocently dressed in white, living a life of peace in the country, with a suggestively shaped spindle...
The thing that amuses me is that whenever you read about people in past centuries being described as beautiful, one might beg to differ when you eventually see paintings of them or wonder about the artistic licence. Whenever you see pics of Emma Hamilton she is actually recognisable as being herself in them and she was actually quite the hottie. Well done!
Anyway! Emma Hamilton/Emma Hart/Amy Lyon rose from the slums to marry into the aristocracy, and eventually the mistress of Lord Nelson even bearing his bastard daughter. And she did it by becomine a prostitute and artist's model. Although paintings of her from Joshua Reynolds and Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun exist, she was most famous for her collaboration with George Romney. The Spinstress was painted while Emma was the mistress of Charles Greville and he had her sequestered away in the then-semi-rural hamlet of Paddington *snicker*. According to the biography, this painting was meant to be a joke on her position - a 'spinstress', innocently dressed in white, living a life of peace in the country, with a suggestively shaped spindle...
The thing that amuses me is that whenever you read about people in past centuries being described as beautiful, one might beg to differ when you eventually see paintings of them or wonder about the artistic licence. Whenever you see pics of Emma Hamilton she is actually recognisable as being herself in them and she was actually quite the hottie. Well done!
1 comment:
I'm reading England's Mistress now, too, and am struck by how amazing a person Emma was. Painted by Reynolds as Thais when she was sixteen, then becoming Romney's muse, just a litte later. A very poor girl who transformed herself and eventually helped Nelson defeat Napoleon. Harry Thurston Peck described them as "a gentler Cleopatra with a greater Antony." The more you learn about her the more you must respect her. Romney's picture of her as Circe is my favorite.
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