Part 2

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.

This happened in 1796, and Romney let the residence in Cavendish Square and went to reside at Hampstead.

The accommodation did not, however, content him, and he acquired two copyhold plots of ground at the back of the house, on which he forthwith erected what Hayley describes as "a singular fabric," but which Cunningham calls a "strange new studio and dwelling-house."

He adds that it "cost £2,733, and was an odd whimsical structure, in which there was nothing like sufficient domestic accommodation, though there was a wooden arcade for a riding house in the garden, and a very extensive picture and statue gallery."

There is little doubt that this structure forms part of what is at present the Constitutional Club, the large room being Romney's picture gallery, although considerable additions have been made to the building.

In 1798 he had sold his London house to Mr., afterwards Sir Martin Shee, and, as this strange structure was ready, he moved into it, and let off to a Mrs. Rundell the old adjacent house in which he had been residing.

The new "whimsical" structure was not really complete when the artist went to live in it. The walls were not dry, the roof let in water; but the artist insisted on moving into his fanciful residence, and on taking with him the vast stock he had of his own pictures and those by other artists which he had collected.

Many of them were quickly injured by the damp of the house, and others by being placed in the open arcade; and Flaxman in a letter records the distress that he felt at seeing so fine a collection of works perishing.

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.

Hayley was considerably in Romney's debt, and was anxious, it is clear, that no one of repute should look into the affairs of the painter, but that his influence should reign supreme.

In 1798, however, Romney broke away from this state of affairs, and, accompanied by his son, who was devoted to him, and whose absence at his religious duties was the only reason which prevented his dwelling always with the artist, visited the north of England, not, however, as far as can be ascertained, going to Kendal.

A pleasant holiday was spent in the Lake district, but the mental vigour of the old artist did not gain much increase of strength by the change, and when he returned to London his health had completely broken down.

The following year he was again at Eartham with Hayley, but for the last time. Hayley's good nature towards his friends, his extravagant habits and his luxurious life, combined with utter neglect of monetary matters, had brought about the necessity for stern retrenchment, and Eartham was to be sold. He removed to Felpham, where he built a cottage near the sea, and there he and his son resided till the death of the latter, shortly afterwards; but at the earnest advice of Flaxman and his wife, coupled with the entreaties of his son, Romney went north back again to his wife, of whom he had seen so little for many years. She received him gladly and with open arms, and nursed him to the end with the most touching tenderness.

The last event of his life was the return from India of his brother, Colonel James Romney, to whom he had always been greatly attached, and for whom he had suffered some privations in order that the requisite sum needful for the Colonel's advancement might be sent him many years before.

The aged artist was, however, hardly able to recognize his beloved brother. He soon afterwards became completely childish in mind, and never again regained his intellectual powers.

He died on November 15th, 1802, at the age of sixty-eight, passing away in the arms of his wife, who devoted herself entirely to him up to the moment of his death. She survived him for many years.

LADY HAMILTON

In any consideration of the life and art of George Romney, however brief, it is impossible to leave out the name of Lady Hamilton, as she was so constantly painted by him.

It will be well, therefore, for a short section of this little book to be devoted to a story of the life of this fascinating person, who was fated to exercise so strong an influence upon the painter. It is hardly possible for the most imaginative romancer to tell a story more chequered in its events, more thrilling in its emotions, and more sad in its end.

Emma Lyon was the daughter of a smith in Cheshire, a humble man, who died in 1761, after a very short married life, and left his widow and infant daughter wholly without support.

The widow moved at once from Neston, where her husband had died, to Hawarden, her native place, and here by the aid of her relatives, almost equally poor with herself, she managed to bring up her child and send her to a dame's school in the village.

When about twelve Emma went as nursery-maid to the family of a Mr. Thomas, a doctor of Hawarden, whose son afterwards became an eminent surgeon.

At sixteen she left and came to London, and became housemaid to a tradesman in St. James's Street; and then later on, probably in 1778, became nursemaid in the family of another doctor, one Dr. Budd, a physician in St. Bartholomew's Hospital.

From here she migrated out to the west end, taking a place as lady's-maid in the house of a lady of fashion whose dwelling was a favourite resort of the gayest persons of the day, and where she had ample opportunity of reading as many books as she desired, of dressing in a style which made her more attractive, and of receiving a great deal of praise for her beauty and the quality of her voice.

The first slip which she made in her career was occasioned by her going to plead with Admiral Payne for the release of a cousin who had been forcibly pressed into the navy, and whose family were, without his assistance, unprovided for. Emma undertook this mission out of good nature and gained her petition; but in return the admiral, who was much struck by the beauty of her face, became her suitor, and she entered his house as his mistress. This life lasted for a very short time, as a wealthy baronet, Sir Harry Featherston, who visited Admiral Payne, begged her to leave him and come to Up Park as its mistress.

The admiral, who was shortly going on board his ship, consented to part with the fair Emma, who was much attached to her latest lover, and she went off with Sir Harry to Up Park, where she resided in the midst of every luxury for some months. Here she learned to ride on horseback, and succeeded in attaining to great proficiency in this accomplishment.

The affection, however, shown her by Sir Harry Featherston, lasted but a short time, and soon he began to weary of his toy. He brought his mistress to London, but was ashamed to let her be seen with him in public, and so gradually neglected her; and at the end of 1781 they separated, as Emma was not one to put up tamely with neglect, and was ambitious of yet greater conquests. They always remained friends, and corresponded to the end of their days; but another field of opportunity was now opening, and Emma was ready to avail herself of it.

The notorious and unscrupulous quack Dr. Graham was at that time in the height of his fame, and he had opened in 1779 his so-called Temple of Health in the Adelphi.

He was on the point of removing to more important premises when Emma Lyon left Up Park, and when, therefore, the Temple of Hymen, as the new imposture was named, was opened at Schomberg House, Pall Mall, in the residence afterwards occupied by Richard Cosway, R.A., and by Gainsborough, it was Emma Lyon who, as Hebe and the model of perfect beauty, health and happiness, was one of the greatest attractions of the place.

This wonderful woman, who was so lovely in face and form, and was withal so graceful in attitude, exhibited herself at the command of the quack in the most becoming of costumes of light drapery, posing as a goddess and attracting numerous admirers. Her beauty drew to the exhibition many of the noted painters and sculptors of the day, who were anxious to perpetuate the features and form of the fair Emma, and to draw her in the attitudes and characters which she so cleverly assumed.

She had no compunctions as to what character she assumed, whether it was Venus or a Bacchante, provided that she was admired and received the praise which was the very breath of her existence.

It was, however, only for a short time that she remained with Dr. Graham, as Mr. Charles Greville, the second son of the Earl of Warwick, to whom all her past history was unknown, and who fondly imagined that she was, as she represented herself to be, a paragon of virtue, fell deeply in love with her, and after a while gained her affection in return.

Greville was a man of the most cultivated taste, and he set about the education of the fair Emma with great zeal, training her in music, in dancing, in the love of the fine arts, and in the duties and accomplishments that befitted her new position.

He found out, after a short time, that she loved to be admired, and was ready to do anything that would obtain for her that gratification; but so successful was she in retaining her conquest of the man who appears to have honestly loved her, that for many years they lived together with considerable apparent affection on both sides.

When with Greville she sent for her mother, who from that moment and for some twenty years remained with her, assuming first the name of Cadogan, and then later on that of Hart, and she conducted herself with so much propriety that when Greville died he left her an annuity of £100 per annum.

Emma was now known as Mistress Hart, and it was under that name that Greville first introduced her to Romney in 1782, when he was himself sitting to the artist for his portrait.

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.

In 1784 another set of circumstances came into play. Greville had been extravagant in his method of living, and his affairs were somewhat embarrassed. He had seen a lady of quality with ample means whom he had thoughts of marrying; and at this moment his uncle, Sir William Hamilton, who was Ambassador to the King of Naples, arrived in London upon a long leave of absence.

Sir William was fascinated by the mistress of his nephew, and a curious agreement seems to have been entered into between the two men. Greville gave up his mistress to his uncle on the understanding that he took her to Naples, provided securities for the payments of Greville's debts, and made such arrangements as to his property as constituted Greville his heir.

Sir William was, on his part, to provide properly for Emma, who, with her mother, was to follow him to Naples under the excuse that she might there complete her training in music and singing under his care, and return to Greville when his means allowed him to provide for her.

She appears to have left England in complete ignorance that she had been transferred to Sir William Hamilton, and, from her pathetic letters to her old lover, to have been most anxious to leave Naples and return to him.

This was, however, impossible, and Greville, who was, it is clear, attached in some measure to her, and somewhat ashamed of his part in the bargain, had to make it clear to her that their connection was at an end, and that she had better yield to the persuasions of his uncle. Eventually she did so, but later on, in 1791, prevailed upon him to marry her, and they were married at Naples.

He then brought her back to London, as it was needful that she should be married according to the rites of the Church of England and presented at Court in order that she should take the position that was now rightfully hers as the wife of an English ambassador; and accordingly they were again married, and this time in Marylebone Church, on September 6th, 1791.

Then again she sat to Romney as _Joan of Arc_, as _Cassandra_ and as _The Seamstress_, before she returned to Naples as Lady Hamilton.

Into the long history of her life in Naples there is no need to enter in these pages, nor to relate the story of the attachment which, as the wife of Sir William Hamilton, she formed for Nelson. She exercised great influence and power at Naples during the war, and was of the greatest assistance to Nelson, who for her sake deserted and cast off his wife, and entered into a close connection with Lady Hamilton, who was, it is clear, the mother of his child Horatia.

After the recall of the ambassador when the conduct of his wife had become notorious, Nelson took up his residence in the same house as that occupied by the Hamiltons; and when Sir William died in 1802 she went to reside with Nelson at Merton with the distinct understanding that so soon as Lady Nelson was dead he would make her his wife.

Nelson, however, died before his wife, and by his will left to Lady Hamilton certain property; but her extravagant manner of living soon exhausted her means, and as the nation did nothing of importance for her, an execution was put in and Merton and all its contents were sold. She then retired to a smaller house, and later on to lodgings, but was arrested for debt; and when she was able to do so she left the country and went to Calais, where, in 1814, she settled down, first in a farmhouse and then in apartments.

Her means were by this time greatly reduced, as she had only the interest of the money settled upon her daughter and the wreck of her own estate; but, as her daughter stated in later years, although "certainly under very distressing circumstances, she never experienced actual want." Her loveliness had left her, the beauty of her form had given place to corpulence, and it was in distress of mind and body that she died, attended only by her faithful daughter and by a rough hired servant, in her lonely apartments in the Rue Française, Calais, on January 15th, 1815.

She had some years before become a Catholic, and was at the very last attended by a priest and was buried with full Catholic rites outside Calais in the cemetery; but the land has for many years ceased to be used as a burying-place, and all trace of her grave has been lost. Her daughter survived her, and as the wife of the Rev. P. Ward died in March, 1881, at the age of eighty-one years.

THE ART OF ROMNEY

Romney is almost exclusively known as a painter of portraits, his historical scenes attracting but little attention. In their way they were remarkable, but they were forced in their conception and over-sentimental in their design, as was the fashion of the day. In his portraits he struck a much truer note and by them his repute will stand.

It is almost impossible, taking into consideration the time in which he lived, to avoid comparing him with his great rivals Reynolds and Gainsborough, and perhaps it is well that it should be so, as by thinking of him in connection with these two men it will be possible to obtain a better impression of his capabilities and a knowledge of his faults.

He was, it is quite certain, a far less important man than Gainsborough, who must certainly be reckoned as the greatest of the three.

He lacked the colour sense that distinguished that great artist; he was by no means his equal in technical merit; and he had no ability to produce landscape-work that gave so great a charm to the pictures of the Sudbury artist.

The wonderful poetry that streamed from the brush of Gainsborough and refined all his works, the delicacy, the grace and the sweetness of his figures are all superior qualities to those which Romney possessed, whilst as a colourist Gainsborough stood head and shoulders above both his rivals.

When we come to draughtsmanship we are, however, on a different footing, as Romney was the superior both of Reynolds and Gainsborough in ability to draw with accuracy and truth, and he also surpassed both of them in the manner in which he obtained his effects.

Where Reynolds laboured Romney achieved the same effect with the greatest ease and simplicity; and, in fact, the word "simplicity" may be taken as the key-word in anything like a critical survey of Romney's work.

He was not so varied as was Reynolds. His pictures have a certain monotony about them which is more apparent than real. 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. There is further a certain monotony about his colouring, as he so greatly favoured the rich golden browns and deep roses that distinguish his best works.

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.

There are instances in which his ability reaches a very high plane. Some of his portrait figures are really sublime, and the superb dignity of such portraits as those of Lady Hamilton as _Circe_ and _Cassandra_ will not be easy to exceed.

Other important characteristics of this great artist were his love of children and his ability to paint them in all their brisk childish humour. 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.

Romney had a very real sense of grace. His ideas were circumscribed by the fashion for classic attire which ruled the day, and the delight which his sitters had in being represented, not in their usual garb and posture, but as some goddess or mythological creation, and clothed in the robes of Greece or Rome.

Whatever position or costume, however, he adopted, it was always graceful, refined and decorous; but some of his sweetest pictures were those where the simplest of gowns and the most natural of attitudes were selected, as, for example, _The Seamstress_.

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.

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. 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.

One of the great advantages which the portraits of Romney have over those of Reynolds consists in the fact that the colours in them have stood the test of time. Even in Reynolds's own time the colours were beginning to fly from many of his works, and it is recorded that, having displeased the great connoisseur Horace Walpole, by some disparaging remarks upon a picture of Henry VII. that had been shown to the President, Walpole had his revenge by saying that Sir Joshua was not very likely to admire any picture in which the colours had stood.

Even Hayley, addressing Sir Joshua in poetry, desires him to "teach but thy transient tints no more to fly," and so draws attention thus early to what is the great blemish of the art of the President.

Romney avoided the constant experiments which were the bane of his great rival. Reynolds was never satisfied with the result that he obtained, but desired something finer and richer, and he was therefore always experimenting with new media, fresh colours and subtle underpainting, in order to produce some unusually brilliant effect. Romney was of far simpler mind. He was able to obtain all the effect he desired in the plainest and most simple means, and, having found a scheme of colouring which delighted him and a technique which he considered sufficient, he rested content.

The use by Reynolds of such ephemeral colours as lake and carmine in his flesh tints had no attraction for Romney. He was never bitten with the desire which characterized the President to use bitumen or asphaltum in his backgrounds and shadows, or to employ wax in his medium; and by the avoidance of all these pitfalls he was able to secure for his colours that quality of secure tenure which those used by the President so lacked.

Doubtless the search by the President after greater excellence was a characteristic in his favour, and the regular method adopted by his rival was not so praiseworthy, but the result has been to the satisfaction of the present generation; and where the works of Reynolds are but wrecks of what they once were (especially in the early and middle parts of his career), albeit they are notable wrecks, those of Romney are as fresh to-day as when first painted.

There is also, it must be acknowledged, a greater force and brilliance in the faces of Romney's sitters than in those of Reynolds.