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Lot Essay
The present work along with lots 181 and 182 were collected by Patricia Jaffé (née Milne-Henderson), who was the leading figure in Romney studies in the UK in the second half of the 20th century. Her interest in the artist was kindled initially when, on a Fulbright scholarship to Smith College, Northampton, Mass. in the early 1960s, she encountered the huge collection of his drawings owned by the local collector J. Richardson Dilworth. She exhibited a selection of these drawings at Smith College Museum of Art in 1962, her catalogue for which was essentially the first serious contribution to the study of Romney's graphic work. On her return to Cambridge, she began to grapple with the huge collection of Romneys in the Fitzwilliam Museum, which resulted in her second exhibition, held at the museum in 1977, again accompanied by a state-of-the-art catalogue.
Without Patricia Jaffé's sustained efforts to identify the often-recondite subjects of Romney's drawings, present-day knowledge of the artist would be very much the poorer. The Romney drawings that she acquired for herself reflect an interest in the wellsprings of his creativity. Jaffé owned the remarkable four-leaved screen whose sale to Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal Christie's negotiated in 2020-21: a unique first locus for Romney's engagement with the classical female figure that was to be the cornerstone of his fashionable society portraiture in years to come. She also owned a remarkably well-preserved late sketchbook (now in the Huntington Art Collections, San Marino, Ca.) that shed an almost unique light on the ways Romney developed his subjects, working on several over the same short period in clusters.
Emma, Lady Hamilton, whose extraordinary rise from humble origins to the heart of British high society captivated her contemporaries, was among the most celebrated women of her time. She first sat for Romney whilst mistress of his friend the Hon. Charles Greville (1749-1809), a keen art collector, who was later responsible for introducing her to his widowed uncle Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803). She would also become the mistress of the celebrated naval hero, Lord Horatio Nelson.
Lady Hamilton provided Romney with the inspiration for dozens of sketches and portraits drawn from the worlds of literature and mythology, and was undoubtedly his favourite muse.
Without Patricia Jaffé's sustained efforts to identify the often-recondite subjects of Romney's drawings, present-day knowledge of the artist would be very much the poorer. The Romney drawings that she acquired for herself reflect an interest in the wellsprings of his creativity. Jaffé owned the remarkable four-leaved screen whose sale to Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal Christie's negotiated in 2020-21: a unique first locus for Romney's engagement with the classical female figure that was to be the cornerstone of his fashionable society portraiture in years to come. She also owned a remarkably well-preserved late sketchbook (now in the Huntington Art Collections, San Marino, Ca.) that shed an almost unique light on the ways Romney developed his subjects, working on several over the same short period in clusters.
Emma, Lady Hamilton, whose extraordinary rise from humble origins to the heart of British high society captivated her contemporaries, was among the most celebrated women of her time. She first sat for Romney whilst mistress of his friend the Hon. Charles Greville (1749-1809), a keen art collector, who was later responsible for introducing her to his widowed uncle Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803). She would also become the mistress of the celebrated naval hero, Lord Horatio Nelson.
Lady Hamilton provided Romney with the inspiration for dozens of sketches and portraits drawn from the worlds of literature and mythology, and was undoubtedly his favourite muse.