,illustration3 cover art ,,masterpieces ,,in ,,colour ,,edited ,,by ,t4 ,,leman ,,hare ,,romney ,,plate ,i4--,,the ,,horsley ,,children4 ,from the picture in the possession of ,messrs4 ,thos4 ,agnew ,sons4 7,frontispiece7 ,few painters have rivalled ,romney in expressing the simplicity and naivete of children4 ,these portraits of ,master ,george and ,miss ,charlotte ,horsley are excellent examples of his mastery of an artless pose1 and of the reticence of his colour4 ,how delightfully the flowers tell against the white dresses4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,i4--,,the ,,horsley ,,children4 ,,romney ,,by ,c4 ,,lewis ,,hind ,,illustrated ,,with ,,eight ,,reproductions ,,in ,,colour ,illustration3 title page art ,,london3 ,t4 ,c4 ,e4 ,c4 ,,jack ,,new ,,york3 ,,frederick ,a4 ,,stokes ,,co4 #aijg ,,contents ,chap4 ,i4 ,three ,periods of ,romney's ,life ,,ii4 ,romney1 ,reynolds1 and ,others ,,iii4 ,his ,vicissitudes of ,fame ,,iv4 ,his ,portraits in ,public ,galleries ,v4 ,his ,portraits in ,private ,collections ,,vi4 ,emma1 and ,the ,end ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,plate ,i4 ,the ,horsley ,children 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,frontispiece ,from the picture in the possession of ,messrs4 ,thos4 ,agnew ,sons ,,ii4 ,sketch ,portrait of ,lady ,hamilton ,from the picture in the ,national ,gallery ,,iii4 ,mrs4 ,mark ,currie ,from the picture in the ,national ,gallery ,,iv4 ,the ,parson's ,daughter3 a ,portrait ,from the picture in the ,national ,gallery ,v4 ,lady with a ,child ,from the picture in the ,national ,gallery ,,vi4 ,mrs4 ,robinson--,perdita ,from the picture in the ,wallace ,collection ,,vii4 ,miss ,benedetta ,ramus ,from the picture in the possession of the ,hon4 ,w4 ,f4 ,d4 ,smith ,,viii4 ,miss ,ramus ,from the picture in the possession of the ,hon4 ,w4 ,f4 ,d4 ,smith ,illustration3 ,romney ,,chapter ,i ,,three ,,periods ,,of ,,romney',s ,,life ,high over the western boundary of ,cavendish ,square rose a tripod wooden scaffolding1 supporting a gigantic crane cutting the arch of the sky2 on windy days the smoke from the engine was blown upwards into space4 ,below1 twentieth-century mansions were growing on the site of old ,harcourt ,house1 for ,cavendish ,square1 like the rest of ,london1 was suffering an architectural change into something strange and new4 ,some of the eighteenth-century houses remain1 and as ,i sought ,no4 #cb1 in the early summer of #aijg1 ,i wondered if this dwelling of memories had escaped the builder4 ,abundant memories6 ,into that house1 through the later years of the eighteenth century1 passed the flower of ,english loveliness1 breeding1 valour1 brains1 wit and frailty4 ,for this was ,romney's house1 with the large painting-room at the back1 which he1 greatly daring1 rented in #agge1 to the satisfaction of the landlord1 whose property had been untenanted since the death of ,francis ,cotes1 ,r4,a41 five years before4 ,soon the great ,sir ,joshua showed signs of ,olympian jealousy at the success of the raw man from the ,north1 reserved1 silent1 moody1 whose acquaintance with the beau monde did not go beyond his studio door2 who worked by night on designs for great or heroic art1 and who had a genius for fixing the fleeting loveliness of a woman's face so simply and fragrantly that we liken a fine ,romney to a rosebud arranged in a pattern of artless leaves4 ,,plate ,,ii4--,,sketch ,,portrait ,,of ,,lady ,,hamilton4 7,from the picture in the ,national ,gallery7 ,her rich brown hair falls in tempestuous disorder over a pillow2 the mouth is open2 the eyes are as near to tragedy as the volatile ,emma could go4 ,this sketch 7circular1 #a ft4 #f in47 was presented to the ,national ,gallery in #ahih4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,ii4--,,sketch ,,portrait ,,of ,,lady ,,hamilton4 ,sir ,joshua1 at work in ,leicester ,square1 realised that the stream of fashion flowing to his studio had been diverted4 ,he did not refer to ,romney by name6 ,he merely called him the man in ,cavendish ,square1 and be sure that some candid friend repeated to him ,thurlow's public declaration3 ,the town is divided between ,reynolds and ,romney2 ,i belong to the ,romney faction4 ,if you think that plain-speech ,thurlow exaggerated1 glance at the verbatim transcript of ,romney's ,diaries1 giving the names and appointments of his sitters1 printed in the monumental work by ,mr4 ,humphry ,ward and ,mr4 ,w4 ,roberts4 ,in less than twenty years over nine thousand sittings in the house in ,cavendish ,square are recorded4 ,if the stones of ,cavendish ,square had language6 ,to ,no4 #cb came ,warren ,hastings1 ,burke1 ,thurlow1 ,garrick1 ,john ,wesley1 lords and ladies innumerable1 the two lovely ,ramus girls1 the beautiful ,mrs4 ,lee ,acton1 ,mrs4 ,mark ,currie1 ,mrs4 ,perdita ,robinson1 and the adorable ,miss ,vernon4 ,other men seek elation in wine1 or spring1 in ,mozart or ,grieg2 ,romney found it in the flash of a new face1 lit with the shock of eager eyes4 ,thither came the pretty ,gower1 ,clavering1 ,warwick1 and ,horsley children1 and one day in #aghb that divine lady ,emma1 when ,romney was forty-eight4 ,in she floated1 laughter in her eyes1 joy on her lips1 sunshine in her presence--shadowed by her cavalier1 ,charles ,greville1 whose emotions were as precisely under control as running motor to a chauffeur4 ,thus joy entered into his life1 and joy left him1 when1 nine years later1 he painted ,emma for the last time after her marriage to ,sir ,william ,hamilton4 ,the syren having departed he was soon to be on his way--a broken man1 still ambitious but ineffectual--to the arms of deserted ,griselda1 patiently awaiting her faithless husband in ,kendal4 ,having reached this point in my meditations1 ,i came abreast of ,no4 #cb1 and found a brand-new1 pleasing house1 without tablet or bust4 ,sir ,joshua marched conquering to the goal3 ,romney fell before the last lap4 ,i paced the square and thought of his life that has given immortality to so many4 ,the eighteenth century is vocal on the canvases of her great painters4 ,the other day ,i saw the two ,ramus girls smiling from a wall in a house by ,henley-on-,thames1 and they seemed more alive than the goggled1 huddled women that had just flashed along the highroad in a motor car4 ,and as ,i mused by the trees in ,cavendish ,square1 dominated by that vast crane--the sign-mark of new ,london--cutting the sky1 ,i saw clearly the three periods of ,romney's life symbolised by a ,horse1 a ,house1 and the words ,home ,again4 ,,the ,,horse ,it is ,march #ad1 #agfb4 ,george ,romney1 aged twenty-eight1 mounts his nag at ,kendal and rides forth1 with fifty pounds in his saddle-bags1 to seek fame and fortune as a painter in ,london4 ,nothing matters but his career4 ,doubtless he is sure--or as sure as an emotional1 impressionable man1 taking his colour from his surroundings1 but conscious of great powers1 can be--that when his pockets are full of guineas1 he will send for ,mary and the children2 but that is all vague4 ,he knows1 if he does not confess it to himself1 that he has outgrown the pretty1 patient creature he married seven years before1 after she had nursed him through fever in his ,kendal lodgings4 ,as he rides he recalls his early days in the farmhouse at ,beckside3 his versatile father--farmer1 cabinet-maker1 draughtsman1 and a dozen other things2 his affection for ,williamson1 watchmaker and musician2 the influence of ,christopher ,steele--itinerant dauber2 his stay in ,york1 where he saw ,sterne2 the first picture he painted--a hand holding a letter for the post-office at ,kendal2 the portraits he produced at two guineas for a head and six guineas for a whole length2 then more success1 and finally that lottery of his unsold works at the ,kendal ,town ,hall1 eighty-two tickets at half-a-guinea each4 ,the proceeds1 added to his savings1 made him master of a hundred guineas4 ,half went to ,mary2 and here he is1 with the other fifty in his saddle-bags1 a free man1 jogging towards ,london4 ,somehow he will find the intricate key to fame4 ,but first he must seek a lodging4 ,he scans bewildering ,london1 puts up at the ,castle ,inn1 and a fortnight later moves to ,dove ,court1 near the ,poultry end of ,cheapside4 ,,the ,,house ,it is ,march #bg1 #aggf--;fourteen years have passed4 ,romney is in his ,cavendish ,square house waiting for the first sitter recorded in his ,diaries--,lord ,parker at #i o'clock4 ,two more are to follow that day1 ,miss ,vernon at half-past #aj1 and ,lady ,betty ,compton at #a_/d to #b4 ,seven more are booked for the three following days1 and on ,sunday he expects ,at two a lady4 ,he is well pleased4 ,fame is at his elbow4 ,fourteen busy years have glided by since his nag first clattered on the ,cheapside cobbles4 ,he has painted many pictures1 always believing that heroic art is his forte1 and portraits merely a means of living1 and he has refused to exhibit at the ,royal ,academy1 holding that public competition is bad for a man with aspen nerves1 shy1 private1 studious1 and contemplative4 ,in those fourteen years the gauche north countryman has seen something of the world4 ,he has visited ,paris1 and he has made a tour lasting two years and three months through ,italy1 without which the education of an eighteenth-century painter was considered incomplete4 ,troubles he has had1 of course4 ,there was that cruel affair of the ,society of ,arts' competition1 in which his picture of ,the ,death of ,wolfe won the prize2 but the award of fifty guineas was1 for some mysterious reason1 withdrawn1 and he had to be content with a consolation gift4 ,romney believes that ,reynolds had a hand in it2 but that is hard to credit4 ,italy and success and the ,cavendish ,square venture have blotted out that early disappointment4 ,taking ,francis ,cotes' large house was a bold step1 and it had been complicated1 at the critical moment1 by an offer from ,lord ,warwick to visit ,warwick ,castle and paint a companion to the very respectable portraits1 chiefly by ,vandyke1 collected by the ,earl4 ,romney refused that tempting offer 7he painted the family group later71 determined to let nothing delay the ,cavendish ,square plunge4 ,how well it has turned out6 ,like ,sir ,joshua he has begun a ,diary of his sitters4 ,the hands of the clock point to nine4 ,it is time ,lord ,parker arrived4 ,and at half-past ten1 joy6 he will be shyly welcoming the beautiful ,miss ,vernon4 ,the image of ,mary1 in the far-away north1 is very faint4 ,,home ,,again ,more than twenty years have passed4 ,the ,cavendish ,square house is let to ,sir ,martin ,archer ,shee3 ,romney has given up portrait painting1 and in the ,hampstead studio purposes to devote himself to heroic art and win immortality with his ,miltonic subjects4 ,but his health grows worse4 ,the game is up4 ,oppressed1 conscious of numbness in his hand and a swimming in his head1 chagrined at the muddled failure of his building experiments at ,holly ,bush ,hill1 ,hampstead--that whimsical structure covering half the garden1--where some of his pictures were destroyed by weather and others stolen1 he longs only for peace and escape from himself4 ,yet how triumphant has been the course of those twenty years in ,cavendish ,square4 ,never throwing off the mask of the recluse1 he has made friends after his own kind2 he has moved in the ,eartham set which revolved round the orb of the preposterous ,hayley4 ,there he met ,cowper1 and that elegant female1 ,miss ,seward1 the ,swan of ,lichfield1 who would address him as beloved and honoured ,titiano1 or as ,raphael1 while he would greet her as ,sappho2 ,flaxman1 too1 he has known1 who bought for him in ,italy ten large cases of casts--the ,laoecoon1 the ,apollo ,belvedere1 and so on4 ,these the painter would exhibit to his select friends and pupils in his studio at night1 a powerful lamp shining down upon the ,laoecoon4 ,then was ,romney happy4 ,away from the distraction of the new face lit with the shock of eager eyes1 he could bemuse himself with the contortions of the ,laoecoon1 and believe that he was surrounded by the creations of great art4 ,but the game is now up4 ,sorely hurt in the battle1 seeing nothing clearly1 little dreaming how famous his portraits--that cursed drudgery--would make him in the twentieth century1 he leaves ,london and makes his way back to ,mary4 ,she nurses him1 and buries him after two years of complete imbecility4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,plate ,,iii4--,,mrs4 ,,mark ,,currie4 7,from the picture in the ,national ,gallery7 ,a typical and charming ,romney4 ,miss ,elizabeth ,close married ,mr4 ,mark ,currie on ,january #ah1 #aghi1 and sat to ,romney for the first time on the #gth of ,may in the same year4 ,the painter received sixty guineas for this portrait4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iii4--,,mrs4 ,,mark ,,currie4 ,the sun is shining cheerfully in ,cavendish ,square1 and ,romney's troubles have been long quieted1 forgotten in the pleasure his work gives us4 ,no6 ,i do not feel any sadness in recalling his life4 ,death pays all debts4 ,no4 #cb looks very spick and span in the bright sunshine1 and as ,i gaze at it ,i perceive above the tall ground-floor windows two heads of cherubs in stone1 just like ,sir ,joshua's ,heads of ,angels in the ,national ,gallery4 ,is it intentional1 ,i wonder8 ,did the architect of this new house wish subtly to suggest that he1 like ,lord ,thurlow1 belonged to the ,sir ,joshua faction8 ,maybe4 ,i don't know1 but ,i shall never pass the house without thinking so4 ,poor ,romney6 ,he hated irony and wit--and irony in stone is more enduring than irony in words or paint4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,,romney1 ,,reynolds1 ,,and ,,others ,the rivalry between ,reynolds and ,romney1 that echoes faintly from eighteenth-century memoirs1 is focussed by ,thurlow's remark made in #agha3 ,the town is divided between ,reynolds and ,romney2 ,i belong to the ,romney faction4 ,romney returned the compliment by proclaiming that his full-length of ,thurlow was his best production in portraiture--a judgment with which everybody disagrees4 ,romney was an ill judge of his own work4 ,like most creative artists1 he honoured the things that he did with difficulty1 and cheapened those that were the true expression of his temperament4 ,this cursed portrait painting1 he wrote to ,hayley1 at the age of fifty-two1 how ,i am shackled with it4 ,i am determined to live frugally1 that ,i may enable myself to cut it short as soon as ,i am tolerably independent1 and then give myself up to those delightful regions of the imagination4 ,in another letter he refers to portrait painting as the trifling part of my profession4 ,but that was when he was shattered and feeble1 and tired of the interminable sitters4 ,it is by his portraits that ,romney lives1 not by the heroic designs that were so near to his heart4 ,we esteem him for his lovely faces set in a simple decorative design2 his ambition was to excel as a painter of sublime and historical subjects--scenes from ,shakespeare and ,milton1 and poetical themes for which his egregious friend ,hayley ransacked the ,eartham ,library4 ,romney was sensitive1 eternally in love with the fleeting loveliness of women and children1 the artist born in him again each time he saw a new face1 but constantly diverted by his ambition1 and by the bombastic sentimentalists moving in the ,hayley mutual admiration circle at ,eartham1 where1 for twenty years1 he spent his summer vacation4 ,it would have been to ,romney's advantage had he seen more of ,lord ,thurlow and less of ,hayley4 ,before you paint ,shakespeare1 cried the tonic ,thurlow1 for ,god's sake read him6 ,on another occasion when the ,chancellor was asked to subscribe to the ,shakespeare that ,romney and others were illustrating1 he said3 ,what6 is ,romney at work for it8 ,he cannot paint in that style2 it is out of his way4 ,by ,god1 he'll make a balderdash business of it6 ,i suspect that it was not altogether artistic convictions that made the ,chancellor ally himself to the ,romney faction4 ,there was more of the man in ,sir ,joshua than in ,romney2 and when ,thurlow suggested to ,reynolds that ,orpheus and ,eurydice would be an excellent subject for a series of pictures1 ,sir ,joshua snubbed him4 ,the pliable ,romney1 when ,thurlow broached the idea to him1 was delighted4 ,he listened so sympathetically 7we can imagine the appreciation in his large liquid eyes7 to the ,chancellor's translation of the episode from ,virgil1 that the great man was delighted with his protege1 asked him to paint the portraits of his daughters1 and bought one of the four pictures which ,romney had painted in illustration of ,hayley's poem1 ,the ,triumphs of ,temper4 ,the composure of the benign ,sir ,joshua must have been ruffled by ,thurlow's championship of his rival2 but ,romney1 who was a modest man1 may be said in his quiet way to have belonged to the ,reynolds faction4 ,he is recorded to have said that no man in ,europe could have painted such a picture as ,reynolds's ,hercules strangling the ,serpents2 and when a pupil told him that his picture of ,mrs4 ,siddons was considered superior to ,reynolds's portrait1 he answered1 ,the people know nothing of the matter1 for it is not4 ,romney never sent a picture to the ,royal ,academy1 and consequently his name never came up for election4 ,he seems to have thought that to a man of his excitable temperament it would be better to pursue his art cloistrally and to avoid competition4 ,hayley encouraged him in this4 ,romney was his private preserve1 and the painter submitted to the ring-fence that his cunning friend built about him4 ,in #agha the town may have been divided between ,reynolds and ,romney1 but posterity has a clear idea of the rank of the masters of eighteenth-century portraiture4 ,ahead of all stand ,reynolds and ,gainsborough1 followed at no great distance by the virile ,raeburn2 ,romney takes rank above ,hoppner1 and below them is ,lawrence of the decadence and his followers in the curtain and column school4 ,looking at a fine ,romney1 such as ,mrs4 ,lee ,acton1 or ,mrs4 ,mark ,currie1 or ,lady ,hamilton1 with her left hand tucked beneath her chin1 or the earlier painted ,ramus girls1 one feels that exquisiteness and simplicity of design can go no further2 but pass from ,mrs4 ,mark ,currie to ,raeburn's ,portrait of a ,lady1 hanging on the staircase of the ,national ,gallery1 from ,mrs4 ,lee ,acton to1 say1 ,reynolds' ,nelly ,o',brien at ,hertford ,house1 or from ,romney's ,mrs4 ,robinson to ,gainsborough's ,mrs4 ,robinson1 and the superiority of ,reynolds1 ,gainsborough1 and ,raeburn sounds out like a thunder-clap4 ,romney at his best is one of the glories of ,english portraiture1 but in many of his multifarious portraits he is not at his best4 ,few painters are able to stand the test of a collected exhibition of their works1 and it is no wonder that ,romney did not emerge artistically scatheless from the ,grafton ,gallery ordeal of his collected works in #aijj4 ,the first impression was delightful4 ,charming6 one murmured1 but in the end monotony ruled1 and1 satisfactory as his clear colour often is1 the ,romney brick-dust red is not eternally agreeable4 ,yet through him ,lady ,hamilton and other delightful creatures have achieved immortality4 ,we may criticise1 belittle1 and place him2 but a fine ,romney produces the elation of sudden sunshine1 or the first sight in spring-time of a bank of primroses4 ,he had no recreations except his violin3 his life was entirely devoted to his art4 ,at ,eartham1 during his summer holiday1 he worked incessantly4 ,there1 in a riding-house of wood converted into a studio1 which afforded him a walk of a hundred feet under cover1 he meditated on the various pictures from ,shakespeare that he meant to produce4 ,in ,london1 at the height of his prosperity1 he worked till bedtime1 occasionally when the days grew longer drinking tea at ,kilburn ,wells1 or dining at the ,long ,room1 ,hampstead4 ,married early1 he left his wife1 as all the world knows1 to seek fame in ,london at the age of twenty-eight1 found it1 enjoyed it1 lost his health1 became hypochondriac1 and returned to his wife1 at the age of sixty-five1 a broken and shattered man4 ,his biographers have censured or excused his marital conduct4 ,mary seems to have made no complaint4 ,she knew ,george and understood him1 knew that he had ceased to care for her1 and that his art held1 and would always hold1 chief place in his affections4 ,i am not tempted to play the part of moralist4 ,romney's niche in the ,temple of ,fame is as painter1 not as husband4 ,tennyson treated the domestic side in his poem ,romney's ,remorse4 ,the painter1 according to the bard-- 444 made ,the wife of wives a widow bride1 and lost ,salvation for a sketch4 ,edward ,fitzgerald1 a bachelor1 observes in one of his letters3 ,when old1 nearly mad1 and quite desolate1 he went back to her1 and she received him and nursed him till he died4 ,this quiet act of hers is worth all ,romney's pictures2 even as a matter of ,art1 ,i am sure4 ,romney supported his wife1 no great tax on a man who made nearly ,l#djjj in one year1 and he paid her two or three visits in the course of his triumphant career4 ,the ugly part of the story is that he posed in ,london as a bachelor4 ,,plate ,,iv4--,,the ,,parson',s ,,daughter3 ,a ,portrait4 7,from the picture in the ,national ,gallery7 ,this dainty portrait was called ,the ,parson's ,daughter by a former owner4 ,romney must have enjoyed the brief task of painting her4 ,she gave him no trouble1 you may be sure4 ,easily as a thrush sings he suggested the powdered hair framing the coquettish face masked in demureness1 the long neck springing from the slight frame1 and the note of green in the auburn curls4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,iv4--,,the ,,parson',s ,,daughter3 ,a ,portrait4 ,shy1 something of a recluse1 impressionable1 with delicate perceptions that made him a favourite among women1 he was a man of good physical strength and robust appearance4 ,according to ,cumberland1 he talked well4 ,his harangues on art were uttered in a hurried accent1 an elevated tone1 and very commonly accompanied by tears1 to which he was by constitution prone4 ,we are also informed that a noble sentiment never failed to make his eyes to overflow and his voice to tremble4 ,the early biographies of ,romney were written to counteract one another4 ,hayley's foolish volume of #ahji was composed to correct the coarse representation of ,cumberland1 which was published in the ,european ,magazine4 ,cumberland was a sensible man1 and he wrote well4 ,the useful but too appreciative volume by his son1 ,john ,romney1 was a counterblast to ,hayley4 ,later lives have been ,george ,paston's admirable study1 and the indispensable ,catalogue ,raisonne by ,mr4 ,w4 ,roberts1 with a biographical and critical essay by ,mr4 ,humphry ,ward1 which also includes the text of ,romney's ,diaries from #aggf to #agie1 acquired at ,miss ,romney's sale in #ahid4 ,romney lived in an age when men and women of sensibility wrote poems of praise to one another4 ,cowper's is perhaps the best known4 ,but this ,i mark1 that symptoms none of woe ,in thy incomparable work appear4 ,it is poor stuff2 but better than the effusions of ,hayley1 ,miss ,seward1 and ,john ,halliday4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,,vicissitudes ,,of ,,fame ,to-day--one hundred and five years after his death--no millionaire's gallery is complete without a ,romney1 and the desire to possess a fine example grows fiercer yearly4 ,doubtless1 the purchasers at public auction in #ahif of the ,ladies ,caroline and ,elizabeth ,spencer1 in white and red dresses1 for ,l#aj1ejj1 and1 in #aijb1 of ,miss ,sarah ,rodbard fondling a ,skye terrier curled up upon a stone pedestal1 for the same price1 were well content with their bargains4 ,romney received ,l#hd apiece for these pictures4 ,his ,lady ,hamilton as ,nature1 which was bought by ,mr4 ,fawkes of ,farnley1 ,turner's friend1 for #ej guineas in #ahaf was resold after the ,grafton ,exhibition for1 it is said1 #bj1jjj guineas4 ,the picture is now in ,paris4 ,the witchery of his portraits of dainty dolls1 the sweet composure of his young matrons1 the charm of his children1 the delicacy of his presentments of men1 such as the ,wesley and the ,warren ,hastings1 captivate the unlearned as well as connoisseurs4 ,the appeal of his gift for expressing momentary loveliness is instantaneous4 ,he was a poet in paint to a far greater degree than the so-called poets of the ,eartham set were in words4 ,no problem is offered2 the freshness of the flower-like faces is stated simply and without hint of cleverness4 ,the reticent colour lingers on sash or ribbon1 and beneath the powdered fair hair the rose and cream tints of these pretty mondaines bloom like the petals of carnations against the light4 ,so virginal are the typical ,romney ladies1 that it is almost a shock to read that some of the portraits were never paid for1 because the bright creatures had been passed on from the protector who gave the commission for the portrait4 ,john ,romney found a neat phrase when he said that his father could impart to his female figures that indescribable something--that je ne sais quoi--which captivates the spectator without his being able to account for it4 ,,plate ,v4--,,lady ,,with ,a ,,child4 7,from the picture in the ,national ,gallery7 ,the dark blue eyes of the child gaze out upon the world in reposeful wonder4 ,the pose is delightfully natural4 ,romney's genius for design never failed him when his subject was a girl1 a mother and child1 or a group of children at play4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,v4--,,lady ,,with ,a ,,child4 ,strange it is that until the middle of the nineteenth century1 when the ,romney revival began1 fostered by the ,old ,masters' ,exhibitions and auction sales1 his fame had suffered an almost total eclipse4 ,his portraits were hidden in private collections1 the ,national ,gallery set had not been acquired1 and nobody cared about his heroic and historical cartoons and studies1 at ,cambridge and elsewhere4 ,the eclipse of the fame of ,romney is no doubt partly due to the fact that he never exhibited at the ,royal ,academy1 which in those days meant that outsiders1 so far as the public was concerned1 were truly in outer darkness4 ,when ,romney retired from contact with the fashionable world1 with which he never associated himself except as a painter2 when he forsook his disastrous building experiments at ,hampstead1 for the living death 7of his later years7 at ,kendal1 he passed out of public life4 ,his portraits ceased to be a topic4 ,there were no weekly art columns in newspapers to fan the embers of his fame2 the ,national ,gallery was not founded1 and the age of illustrated essays on private collections had not dawned4 ,the pages of the ,diaries record1 as ,i have already said1 about nine thousand sittings in less than twenty years--a colossal labour2 but some of the portraits were never finished1 others have been lost or stolen4 ,he kept no ,diary until he had settled in ,cavendish ,square in #agge1 after his journey to ,italy4 ,before that period ,romney had painted hundreds of pictures of which but scanty records remain4 ,a few examples may still be found in the houses of the descendants of the original owners around ,kendal4 ,forty-five portraits of ,lady ,hamilton are recorded in ,messrs4 ,ward and ,roberts' ,catalogue ,raisonne1 sixteen illustrations of ,shakespeare1 two of ,milton1 and over fifty miscellaneous and ,fancy subjects4 ,in the ,fitzwilliam ,museum at ,cambridge are a number of ,pictorial ,designs and studies presented by the ,rev4 ,george ,romney in #ahag1 and at the ,liverpool ,royal ,institution are eighteen cartoons1 presented in #ahbc4 ,it would be unjust to call these historical and heroic subjects a monument of misdirected effort2 but if ,romney's claim to fame rested upon them1 he would be of less account even than ,west and ,fuseli4 ,his ardour was indefatigable1 but it often spent itself when the novelty of beginning a sketch or portrait had worn off4 ,in reading1 too1 his quick imagination soon flagged4 ,at the end of one act1 even of one scene1 of ,shakespeare's1 he was ready to begin his picture4 ,the more he painted1 says ,hayley1 the greater was his flow of spirits4 ,a friend surprised him one night working at an ,accusation of ,susannah by the two ,elders by lamplight4 ,it was never finished4 ,late in life he conceived a ,gargantuan scheme of founding a ,milton ,gallery which should rival ,boydell's ,shakespeare ,gallery4 ,the most attractive of his fanciful subjects is ,shakespeare nursed by ,tragedy and ,comedy1 perhaps because ,lady ,hamilton was the model for ,comedy 7not in person2 she was in ,naples at the time71 and ,romney's brush was always inspired when he painted her adorable face4 ,shakespeare--a robust1 nude babe--sits on a cradle in the landscape holding a flageolet1 to the accompaniment of endearments from the pretty ,tragedy and ,comedy ladies4 ,the least attractive1 indeed the silliest1 is the ,shipwreck1 an early work engraved in ,hayley's ,life4 ,a huddle of exaggeration and emphasis1 it has all the vices of the melodramatic heroic pictures of the period4 ,romney had some talent as a musician1 and as a boy he debated whether he should be a musician or a painter4 ,cumberland records that once he heard the painter perform on his own home-made violin in a room hung with his own pictures--a singular coincidence of arts in the person of one man4 ,reviewing his life1 ,i seem to see him drawing1 like ,paganini on a memorable occasion1 exquisite strains from one string only--,romney of the one string--a fantasia on the beauty of fair and fragile women1 pretty and graceful children1 and delicate-visaged men1 the sweetest sounds coming when he extemporised in praise of ,emma1 the divine lady who came into his life when he was forty-eight1 and who renewed his youth4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,,his ,,portraits ,,in ,,public ,,galleries ,the ,national ,gallery possesses in ,mrs4 ,mark ,currie1 purchased in #ahig1 a typical and charming ,romney4 ,the pose1 the reticent colour1 the simplicity of the design1 the background landscape1 all please the eye4 ,there is no sign of the labour that he bestowed upon his ,shakespearean picture of ,the ,tempest1 that formidable enterprise1 containing eighteen figures1 which was pruned and extended to meet suggestions of his friends4 ,mrs4 ,mark ,currie sits demurely self-conscious1 as his quick eyes saw her in the first impressionistic glance1 artfully clad in a simple muslin dress1 relieved by the pale crimson sash and the ribbons of the same colour that nestle in fichu and sleeves4 ,the fair hair is powdered2 the large eyes gaze from the soft oval face conscious of1 and content with1 its comeliness2 the landscape is sufficiently reminiscent of nature to harmonise with the pretty artificiality of the contented little lady who left ,duke ,street1 ,bloomsbury1 to sit in the studio of the man in ,cavendish ,square on ,may #g1 #ad1 #be1 ,july #a1 #i1 #bb1 of the year #aghi4 ,paid for1 continues the extract from the ,diaries in the ,catalogue ,raisonne in full by ,mr4 ,currie1 ,december #agij1 ,l#fc2 sent home ,june #bj1 #agia4 ,it was through ,romney's influence that a delightful change towards simplicity and slight and delicate colours was made in the feminine fashions of his day1 for he persuaded some of his sitters to discard the ugly1 long-waisted bodices in favour of the simple white gown and fichu that ,mrs4 ,mark ,currie wears4 ,emma ,hart he clothed according to his fancy4 ,i shall devote a separate chapter to her1 but we must glance at his charming portrait of the divine lady as a ,bacchante that hangs near ,mrs4 ,mark ,currie4 ,it is a study1 possibly for the larger picture2 the light brown curls1 partly confined by the yellowy swathe1 escape in disorder over the smooth brow4 ,the mocking eyes glance sideways1 the chin rests upon the shoulder1 which1 for ,romney1 is daringly bare2 an impression1 a momentary attitude1 roughed in with his favourite red1 done in a morning--a mood of ,emma's1 who could take any pose at an instant's notice1 always charming and always inspiring to the painter4 ,near by is another sketch of ,emma1 rather hot in colour4 ,the rich brown hair1 in tempestuous disorder1 flows over a pillow1 the mouth is open1 the eyes are as near to tragedy as the volatile ,emma could go4 ,so she must have looked during that weary time in ,naples1 when ,charles ,greville1 of the level head and the tepid heart1 whom she truly loved1 would not write1 and refused to reopen his arms to his young and deserted flame4 ,o1 ,grevell1 what shall ,i dow8 what shall ,i dow8 she wrote4 ,at a ,spelling ,bee1 ,emma and ,romney would have competed for the lowest place4 ,the oval known as ,the ,parson's ,daughter1 a title given by a former owner to the dainty girl with the large eyes and the tilted nose1 is also essential ,romney4 ,she gave him no trouble1 you may be sure4 ,easily as a thrush sings he painted the powdered hair framing the pretty face1 the long neck springing from the slight body and the note of green in the auburn curls4 ,country cousins who visit the ,national ,gallery always pause before his ,lady with a ,child1 attracted by the naturalness of the little one1 whose dark blue eyes gaze with reposeful wonder at the spectator1 and by the clarity of the paint4 ,romney's genius for design rarely failed him when his subject was a girl1 a mother and child1 or children at play1 such as the buoyant group of the little ,gower family dancing in a ring4 ,to realise how hard and tight his handling could be when not inspired by his subject1 look at the early ,portraits of ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,william ,lindow1 in the adjoining room1 painted in ,lancaster in #aggj before his visit to ,italy4 ,if this highly-glazed group was not duly catalogued under his name1 one could hardly believe it to be a ,romney4 ,,plate ,,vi4--,,mrs4 ,,robinson--,,perdita4 7,from the picture in the ,wallace ,collection7 ,hanging on the same wall in the ,wallace ,collection as ,reynolds's seaward-gazing ,mrs4 ,robinson and ,gainsborough's superb full length1 ,romney's portrait of the famous lady is put to a severe test4 ,nevertheless1 this small picture of ,perdita1 with a muff1 dressed for walking1 looks very charming4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vi4--,,mrs4 ,,robinson--,,perdita4 ,the ,mr4 ,morland of ,capplethwaite1 in hunting costume with a dog1 is another hard and uninteresting early ,romney4 ,his son1 in the ,memoirs1 grows excited over the dog4 ,no representation1 he wrote1 can approach nearer to the truth of nature than the portrait of this dog2 the sleekness of the skin1 and the characteristic sagacity of the animal are so well depicted as to give it the appearance of reality4 ,neither is the remaining ,romney in the ,national ,gallery1 ,portrait of ,lady ,craven1 a first-rate example1 although it has its own sedate and simple charm4 ,this oval once hung in the breakfast-room at ,strawberry ,hill1 and inspired ,horace ,walpole to compose the following lines3-- ,full many an artist has on canvas fix'd ,all charms that ,nature's pencil ever mix'd-- ,the witchery of ,eyes1 the ,grace that tips ,the inexpressible douceur of ,lips4 ,romney alone1 in this fair image caught ,each ,charm's expression and each ,feature's thought2 ,and shows how in their sweet assemblage sit1 ,taste1 spirit1 softness1 sentiment and wit4 ,romney does not shine in the ,wallace ,collection4 ,his sole example1 ,mrs4 ,robinson1 is but a twinkling star 7his own phrase to express the charms of the greatest beauties of the eighteenth century compared with ,lady ,hamilton7 in the galaxy of masterpieces in the large gallery at ,hertford ,house4 ,hanging on the same wall is ,reynolds's version of seaward-gazing ,mrs4 ,robinson1 and the superb full length by ,gainsborough that dominates the ,gallery1 quite eclipsing our ,romney's modest presentment of the famous lady1 dressed for walking1 with her hands in a muff4 ,her high powdered hair is crowned by a cap1 the strings of which are tied beneath her plump chin4 ,there is more character and resolution in the face than in the generality of ,romney's portraits4 ,indeed1 she is almost matronly1 but the complexion has all his rose-leaf freshness2 the touch of colour he permits in the sleeve is characteristic4 ,this room at ,hertford ,house1 with its three portraits of ,mrs4 ,robinson1 by ,reynolds1 ,gainsborough1 and ,romney1 is the place to brood over and speculate upon the dazzling career of this charming woman4 ,a recital of the facts is enough2 imagination can supply the rest4 ,first a protege of ,hannah ,more2 then the attraction of the town as ,perdita at ,drury ,lane1 she dazzled the ,prince of ,wales and became his mistress4 ,in receipt of a pension of ,l#ejj a year at the age of twenty-five1 she amused herself writing novels1 poems1 and plays1 was a member of the ,delia ,cruscan ,school1 and died1 poor and palsied1 in #ahjj at the age of forty-two4 ,among the nine ,romneys at the ,national ,portrait ,gallery is a winsome and smiling ,emma4 ,her elbows are upon a table1 and her firm chin rests upon her hands2 but face and hands suffer from an excess of the ,romney red4 ,here also is the crayon sketch of ,cowper which inspired the poet's sonnet to ,romney1 and of which ,cowper wrote1 ,romney has drawn me in crayons1 and1 in the opinion of all here1 with his best hand and with the most exact resemblance possible2 his friend ,richard ,cumberland gazing upwards for inspiration2 a ,flaxman modelling the ,bust of ,hayley1 an example of heroic portraiture2 and the ,adam ,walker family group--the last picture ,romney painted1 and interesting for its connection with ,william ,blake4 ,in a letter to ,hayley1 after ,romney's death1 ,blake1 who was collecting material for the ,life by ,hayley1 wrote in #ahjd3 ,he 7,adam ,walker7 showed me also the last performance of ,romney4 ,it is of ,mr4 ,walker and his family1 the draperies put in by somebody else4 ,it is an excellent picture1 but unfinished4 ,unfinished also is the large autograph portrait of himself as he appeared in the most active season of his existence1 painted at ,eartham in #aghj4 ,he looks a man of genius is the comment of visitors to the ,national ,portrait ,gallery4 ,certainly he looks an impressionable1 sensitive1 and easily moved man1 with his large1 somewhat mournful eyes and the high brow4 ,place beside ,romney's portrait a photograph of ,huxley1 and you have two types1 poles apart1 remote as a ,perugino from a ,frans ,hals4 ,a noble portrait is that of ,warren ,hastings at the ,india ,office1 everything subservient to the finely-cut head with its fringe of silvery hair1 and the dark grey eyes looking shrewdly out at the world4 ,romney took his colour from his environment4 ,with a lovely woman before him he painted loveliness2 confronted by ,warren ,hastings he painted intellect and power2 confronted by a ,wesley1 intellect and spirituality4 ,but he failed when he tried to imagine something noble and heroic1 such as the melodramatic ,milton ,dictating ',paradise ,lost' to his ,daughters1 or a story picture such as the replica of ,serena reading ',evelina' by ,candlelight1 at the ,south ,kensington ,museum4 ,what inspiration could he derive from ,hayley's ,triumph of ,temper4 ,the personality of ,warren ,hastings or ,charles ,wesley could stimulate his genius--not such verses as the following3-- ,sweet ,evelina's fascinating power ,had first beguil'd of sleep her midnight hour2 ,possesst by ,sympathy's enchanting sway ,she read1 unconscious of the dawning day4 ,,chapter ,v ,,portraits ,,in ,,private ,,collections ,the names of ,reynolds1 ,gainsborough1 ,raeburn1 ,romney1 and ,hoppner are universally known1 and many of their pictures1 not always the best examples1 are familiar2 yet how few ,britons have any idea of the chronological life-work of these masters4 ,their pictures in our public galleries are chance acquisitions1 sometimes representative1 often mere byways of their achievement4 ,romney was an unequal painter4 ,a classification of his achievement in order of merit would begin with the score or so of masterpieces1 and dwindle downwards through his good1 fair1 poor1 and bad pictures4 ,there is no other word but bad for such productions as ,the ,shipwreck and ,the ,infant ,shakespeare surrounded by the ,passions2 and if bad be an unfair description of ,newton ,displaying the ,prism1 it is certainly a poor picture1 although better than ,milton ,dictating ',paradise ,lost4' ,i have only seen a photograph of ,newton ,displaying the ,prism1 but ,redgrave1 who examined the picture in the early sixties1 describes it as poor in drawing1 dirty and hot in colouring1 and weak and common-place in treatment4 ,romney stands or falls by his portraits and portrait groups1 by the score or so of masterpieces that he painted better than he knew4 ,these are the true great art1 the presentment through the eyes of temperament and training of the thing seen1 that he was always striving to escape from in his pursuit of a false great art1 which he struggled to approach through the portals of literature guided by other eyes and other brains4 ,the inequality of ,romney was shown at the #aijg ,old ,masters' ,exhibition at ,burlington ,house4 ,in the six contributions from his brush1 or ascribed to him1 there was one superb example1 the second ,mrs4 ,lee ,acton2 one good example1 the first ,mrs4 ,lee ,acton1 and one bad example1 the hard and discordant sketch of ,edward ,wortley ,montagu4 ,the muddy portrait of a ,lady in a ,white ,dress1 and the dull and common painting of the ,rev4 ,thomas ,carwardine1 although not as bad as the ,edward ,montagu1 were indeed poor ,romneys4 ,one only had to turn from the ,lady in a ,white ,dress to the ,raeburn1 ,mrs4 ,anderson of ,inchyra1 to realise the difference between journeyman-work and inspiration1 between a muddy amalgam of paint1 and quality and vivacity4 ,but the second ,mrs4 ,lee ,acton6 ,ah6 there was ,romney at his loveliest1 easy in mind1 seeing the completed design from the inception1 unworried by any literary groping after arrangement on the lines of great art1 instantly inspired by the beauty of this second wife of ,nathaniel ,lee ,acton of ,livermere ,park and ,bramford1 ,sussex1 when she rustled into his vision one day in #agia4 ,this ,dryad1 masquerading in the pretty clothes of a mortal1 lurks in a glade2 her dainty feet rest near a pool of blue water2 her white dress1 the simple gown that no doubt ,romney persuaded her to wear1 golden in the sun1 which is setting behind the distant hills and flushing the trees to warmth4 ,her complexion has the peach-like porcelain quality in which ,romney1 at his best1 rivalled ,gainsborough2 and as for her fair powdered hair1 ,i think the secret of its touch-and-go1 intimate rendering is now lost4 ,there is hardly any colour in the picture1 and yet it is all colour4 ,time1 no doubt1 has co-ordinated the glow that enwraps and illuminates this sophisticated ,dryad1 whose folded hands and arch simper seem to announce that her momentary condescension has given the painter immortality4 ,,plate ,,vii4--,,miss ,,benedetta ,,ramus4 7,from the picture in the possession of the ,hon4 ,w4 ,f4 ,d4 ,smith7 ,the younger of the beautiful ,ramus girls1 who afterwards became ,lady ,day4 ,miss ,benedetta of the lovely eyes1 that languish and sparkle as if pleading against oblivion1 rests her hands upon a book in reverie4 ,this beautiful girl and her sister were also painted by ,gainsborough4 ,that lovely work was most unfortunately destroyed by fire4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,vii4--,,miss ,,benedetta ,,ramus4 ,recalling the pleasure that a beautiful ,romney such as this gives1 and eager to pass on my delight to my friends1 ,i imagine a room hung with reproductions of fine ,romneys1 where the twentieth century could burn a little incense to the eighteenth-century master4 ,but there must be two rooms1 for ,lady ,hamilton must have a compartment to herself1 as in this little book4 ,the ,romneys in the first room would include a reproduction of this ,mrs4 ,lee ,acton from the collection of ,lord de ,saumarez2 ,mrs4 ,mark ,currie1 ,the ,parson's ,daughter1 and the ,lady with a ,child from the ,national ,gallery1 with ,mrs4 ,robinson from the ,wallace ,collection4 ,beside them ,i would place those adorable girls1 ,miss ,ramus and ,miss ,benedetta ,ramus1 who were also painted together by ,gainsborough in the picture known as ,the ,sisters4 ,that lovely work was1 alas6 burnt in the fire at ,waddesdon4 ,i remember a poem by ,mr4 ,andrew ,lang in ,longmans' ,magazine on one of these sisters4 ,a verse ran-- ,mysterious ,benedetta6 ,who ,that ,reynolds or that ,romney drew ,was ever half so fair as you ,or is so well forgot8 ,those eyes of melancholy brown1 ,those woven locks1 a shadowy crown1 ,must surely have bewitched the town2 ,yet you're remembered not4 ,forgotten8 ,remembered not8 ,living and very near seemed the sisters when ,i made an expedition to ,henley-on-,thames1 and was allowed to see ,romney's portraits of ,miss ,ramus and ,miss ,benedetta in the hall of ,greenlands1 ,mr4 ,w4 ,f4 ,d4 ,smith's country house4 ,these half-figure portraits have not the frolic daintiness of the ,mrs4 ,lee ,acton1 or the ,mrs4 ,mark ,currie4 ,they antedated those sparkling full-lengths by nearly fifteen years4 ,compared with them ,miss ,ramus and ,miss ,benedetta are almost prim4 ,if ,romney had wished to make them the centre of a sumptuous decorative scheme1 the artist in him knew that such was not the way to treat those dark and dainty gentlewomen4 ,nowhere1 ,i think1 are there better examples of his simplicity of design and handling1 his frank statement1 without a fleck of personal cleverness or pride1 than these sisters who smile on either side of the doorway that issues from the hall at ,greenlands4 ,miss ,benedetta of the lovely eyes1 that languish and sparkle as if pleading against oblivion1 lost in reverie1 rests her hands upon a book4 ,the binding of the volume is light brown1 the table dark brown2 there is a rosy flush in her cheeks and down the tips of her slim fingers2 in the grey band1 looped with pearls1 that binds her hair there is a glint of green2 otherwise1 the portrait has little colour save in the break of blue sky that surges across the background4 ,i suppose every one compares and makes a choice between the two sisters4 ,the appeal of ,benedetta is swiftest1 yet when ,i look at ,miss ,ramus ,i know that ,i should not like to be obliged to choose4 ,the bow of her red lips may be a thought too precise1 but how vibrant she is in spite of her composure6 how keen and quick the look of that high-bred face6 ,no2 ,i should not like to have to choose between the merry languishing ,benedetta and the merry alert ,miss ,ramus1 in her pink dress1 with the flaming green gauze veil1 and the gleams of gold in hair and gown4 ,another beautiful girl1 ,miss ,vernon as ,hebe1 now in ,warwick ,house1 would have an honoured place in my roomful of fine ,romney productions4 ,well may this charming goddess claim to restore beauty and youth to those who have lost them4 ,abundant brown hair crowns the pure1 untroubled brow2 she glides forward1 bearing the wine cup1 and looking upwards as she advances4 ,as in the ,miss ,ramus1 candour and nobility have here taken the place of the ,romney prettiness4 ,perhaps it is the curling powdered hair1 perhaps the pout of disdain on the lips or the flicker of contempt in the eyes1 that gives to ,lady ,altamount 7,lady ,sligo7 the air and very essence of an eighteenth-century aristocrat4 ,this proud and fragile beauty found in ,romney1 son of a cabinet-maker1 the man who could perfectly interpret her exquisiteness4 ,does the large white hat1 tied with blue ribbons beneath her chin1 that ,miss ,cumberland wears1 suit the lady8 ,i think so1 and so thought ,romney1 when this dark-eyed daughter of his friend ,richard ,cumberland decked herself one day in an old-fashioned hat to amuse her family4 ,romney happened to call1 saw the charm of the decoration1 and saw his picture4 ,when ,i come upon a portrait of a fragile blonde by ,romney1 ,i feel that he is at his best with fair women2 when ,i see one of his bold beauties1 such as ,lady ,morshead1 the tangle of her profuse brown hair contrasted with the simple folds of her muslin fichu1 ,i feel that he is at his best with dark women4 ,this ,lady ,morshead1 doing nothing1 but looking charming2 bright-eyed ,mrs4 ,raikes1 playing on a spinet2 the dark ,cholmeley girls2 bewitching ,sarah with the ringlets2 and the more dignified ,catherine--they were painted on ,romney's best days4 ,a few of his ,mother and ,child groups must also have place on the walls of my imaginary room--the ,mrs4 ,russell1 in a green dress at ,swallowfield ,park1 holding the sash of her small child1 who is standing upon a table1 back to the spectator1 regarding its chubby face in a circular mirror--a happy design this1 most natural and winning2 the ,mrs4 ,canning1 seated beneath a tree and clasping her infant to her bosom1 but quite conscious that her portrait is being painted2 and the ,mrs4 ,carwardine1 in a high white cap1 who is consoling her baby and ignoring the painter--a charming and restful group4 ,also the boy ,lord ,henry ,petty1 at ,landsdowne ,house1 a quaint figure in his blue tail-coat and amber-coloured trousers1 standing in an affected attitude1 with his fingers marking the passage in a book1 which he pretends to have been reading4 ,the boy is posing4 ,romney did not always succeed in suggesting the simplicity of childhood4 ,even in the famous group of the ,children of the ,earl of ,gower1 now in the possession of the ,duke of ,sutherland1 delightful as it is1 one is conscious that the actions of the children are not spontaneous4 ,clasping each other's hands1 the lively creatures dance round in a ring1 their sandalled feet tripping to a measure played by ,lady ,anne upon a tambourine held in the grand manner above her left shoulder4 ,this group has been called ,romney's masterpiece4 ,the murmur of pleasure that rises to the lips at the first sight of the ,clavering ,children is checked by the feeling that the small boy must eternally and wearily hold his right arm outstretched on a level with his head4 ,so ,romney has fixed him1 holding high aloft the leash that confines the two spaniels4 ,otherwise1 the group is delightful4 ,the little girl fondles a puppy1 her brother's left arm clasps her waist1 and the children1 conscious that they are being watched1 trip forward through the landscape4 ,in another of the large groups1 ,the ,countess of ,warwick and her ,children1 there is something very taking in the small old-fashioned figure of the boy with the hoop1 and in the intimate movement of the girl1 who is whispering to her listening mother4 ,the group of ,the ,horsley ,children1 so simply painted and so sure1 was designed on one of ,romney's happy days4 ,george and ,charlotte stand on the steps of a garden terrace beneath a tree1 in white dresses with blue sashes4 ,in her right hand the girl holds poppies2 in her left a corn-flower4 ,,plate ,,viii4--,,miss ,,ramus4 7,from the picture in the possession of the ,hon4 ,w4 ,f4 ,d4 ,smith47 ,connoisseurs in beauty have long disputed as to which is the lovelier of the two ,ramus girls painted by ,romney4 ,the bow of ,miss ,ramus' lips may be a thought too precise1 but how vibrant she is in spite of her composure ,i how keen and quick the look of her high-bred face6 ,it would be hard to make a choice between ,miss ,ramus and ,miss ,benedetto4 ,illustration3 ,,plate ,,viii4--,,miss ,,ramus4 ,two portraits of men ,i should include in my collection of significant ,romneys--the ,warren ,hastings1 with its watchful dignity1 and the inward smile that flickers on the calm1 purposeful face of ,john ,wesley4 ,from the following extract1 printed in ,wesley's ,journal1 ,january #e1 #aghi1 ,i judge that he1 like ,thurlow1 belonged to the ,romney faction3 ,mr4 ,romney is a painter indeed4 ,he struck off an exact likeness at once1 and did more in an hour than ,sir ,joshua did in ten4 ,no one ever accused ,romney of a lack of quickness4 ,he could always begin2 he could not always continue to the end4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,,emma1 ,,and ,,the ,,end ,the life of ,romney1 apart from his paintings1 has interested the world in two particulars--his desertion of his wife and his passion for ,emma ,lyon4 ,this extraordinary woman1 the daughter of a blacksmith1 began as a nursemaid3 she suffered from libertines1 loved ,charles ,greville and lived under his protection1 married ,sir ,william ,hamilton1 became world-famous as the beloved of ,nelson1 and died in ,calais1 an exile1 where she was buried at the expense of a charitable ,english lady4 ,romney did not meet her until the year #aghb1 when he was forty-eight1 although it has been suggested that the acquaintance began earlier4 ,certain it is that ,greville brought the lovely girl to the studio in ,cavendish ,square in #aghb1 and that1 until her departure for ,naples in #aghi1 she was the joy1 the light and the inspiration of ,romney's life4 ,mr4 ,humphry ,ward quotes in his ,essay a letter ,romney wrote to her at ,naples1 astonishing in its orthography4 ,a passage runs3 ,i have planned many other subjects for pictures1 and flatter myself your goodness will indulge me with a few sittings when you return to ,england--,i have now a good number of ,ladys of 78 fashion7 setting to me since you left ,england--but all fall far short of the ,sempstress4 ,indeed1 it is the sun of my ,hemispheer1 and they are the twinkling stars4 ,when ,i return to ,london ,i intend to finish the ,cassandra and the picture of ,sensibility4 ,it was during her absence that the dejection darkening his latter years began4 ,she returned in #agia1 and joy revived when she tripped into his studio attired in ,turkish costume4 ,sunshine again flooded his clouding brain1 and the man of fifty-seven writes thus to ,hayley3 ,at present1 and the greatest part of the summer1 ,i shall be engaged in painting pictures from the divine lady4 ,i cannot give her any other epithet1 for ,i think her superior to all womankind4 ,shortly afterwards the painter was plunged into gloom by an apparent coolness on the part of the lady1 but it passed4 ,she again sits to him1 and we read of ,romney1 the recluse1 giving a party in ,cavendish ,square in her honour3 ,she is the talk of the whole town and really surpasses everything1 both in singing and acting1 that ever appeared4 ,then followed her marriage to ,sir ,william ,hamilton at ,marylebone ,church and return to ,italy4 ,romney and ,emma never met again4 ,from ,caserta she wrote him a long letter1 which shows the innate goodness and sweetness of this beautiful butterfly1 who was always pursued1 and who was sometimes 7not always unwillingly7 caught4 ,here is a passage from that letter of simple self-revelation3 ,you have known me in poverty and prosperity1 and ,i had no occasion to have lived for years in poverty and distress if ,i had not felt something of virtue in my mind4 ,oh1 my dear ,friend6 for a time ,i own through distress virtue was vanquished4 ,but my sense of virtue was not overcome4 ,emma was not only a versatile actress2 she was also an artist's model of genius1 able to give charm and personality to any character she was asked to assume1 and she was shrewd enough to see that there was no surer and more enjoyable avenue to a popular appreciation of her beauty than ,romney's brush4 ,other men1 including ,sir ,joshua1 painted the auburn hair1 the perfect mouth1 the flower-like complexion1 the bewitching eyes1 and the infinite phases of expression2 but ,romney limned her with the insight of a lover4 ,for him there was no disillusion4 ,he alone made her eternally beautiful4 ,did she love him8 ,i think not4 ,she liked him unfeignedly and was flattered by his admiration1 but all her love1 before the ,nelson epoch1 was given to ,charles ,greville4 ,her marriage to ,sir ,william ,hamilton was a bargain for social advancement4 ,he1 at the instigation of nephew ,charles1 appraised her beauty1 and succumbed4 ,her early admirer1 ,sir ,harry ,featherstonehaugh1 of ,up ,park1 succumbed and rode away4 ,sir ,william ,hamilton placed the nuptial ring upon the slender finger of his charmer4 ,emma sat to ,romney once only after she had become ,lady ,hamilton1 and after that sitting1 on ,september #f1 #agia1 there is not a single entry in his ,diary until the #abth of the following month4 ,we may infer that the marriage and departure of the sun of his ,hemispheer put him temporarily out of humour with painting4 ,the most bewitching of his sitters could not fill her place4 ,as well offer ,charmian or ,iras to ,antony when ,cleopatra was away4 ,in the ,catalogue ,raisonne1 already mentioned1 which contains all the extant information about ,romney's pictures1 the authors state that very many so-called ,lady ,hamiltons are neither by ,romney nor of ,lady ,hamilton4 ,over eighty authentic examples remain detailed in their list4 ,romney painted many renderings of some of the fanciful characters for which ,emma sat--as a ,bacchante1 for example1 of which twelve versions are catalogued4 ,the half-length in the ,national ,portrait ,gallery with the eloquent eyes1 her rich hair confined in a long linen swathe tied turban-wise1 ,i have already mentioned2 also the mocking study in the ,national ,gallery4 ,the parent of all the ,bacchantes was the half-length painted about #aghd and sent to ,sir ,william ,hamilton at ,naples1 with ,greville's comment3 ,the dog was ugly1 and ,i made him paint it again4 ,the best known is the full length in the possession of ,mr4 ,tankerville ,chamberlayne4 ,laughing1 with head on one side1 she glides beneath a tree1 leading a goat that is fading into nothingness2 but the dog1 leaping and barking at the prospect of a scamper with his pretty mistress1 is as lively as the lovely priestess of ,bacchus4 ,romney's earliest picture of ,emma was the ,lady ,hamilton as ,nature1 an attraction1 in coloured reproductions of varying merit1 of ,london print-shops4 ,she is seated before a formal but charming landscape background holding a dog1 almost too large for a pet1 in her arms4 ,the red dress is cut low1 her bright hair is bound with a double green fillet4 ,she is the personification of youth and gaiety1 but let the eighteenth-century poet1 who sang her praises as ,nature1 speak-- ,flush'd by the spirit of the genial year1 ,her lips blush deeper sweets--the breath of ,youth2 ,the shining moisture swells into her eyes ,in brighter glow2 her wishing bosom heaves ,with palpitations wild4 ,so a picture may preserve minor verse4 ,it is amazing to recall that the full-length ,circe realised but fourteen and a half guineas at the ,romney sale in #ahjg4 ,twenty years later1 in #ahca1 ,croker's contemptuous query1 ,what is a ,ramsey or a ,romney worth now8 shows that the star of ,romney was still obscured2 but in #ahij1 at the sale of ,long's effects1 with the figures of the animals painted in by that artistic surgeon1 this same ,circe realised #chej guineas4 ,bare-footed1 with left hand upraised1 she advances from the gloom of the rocks1 lit on the left by a gleam of sky and sea4 ,her dress is pale red1 the fillet in her hair and the veil that flows behind are pale blue2 but it is the face at which we gaze1 the pure1 childlike1 lovely face whose subtleties of simplicity were revealed to the eyes of her constant lover1 so sure that in her he had found the realisation of the artist's dream4 ,it is difficult to say which of the ,romney ,lady ,hamiltons is the most beautiful4 ,hard it is to choose between those ,i have mentioned and the lovely mystery of ,sir ,arthur ,ellis's sketch for the ,cassandra2 or the dark hair hooded in white of ,the ,spinster2 or the startled eyes ,reading the ,gazette2 or the half-length1 belonging to ,lord ,rothschild1 seated in pensive mood1 with her left hand under her chin1 the brow shadowed by the black hat1 and the eyes pensive as a nun's4 ,a print-shop near ,bond ,street utilises a reproduction of this portrait as a hanging sign1 as a tailor in ,holborn uses the ,moroni ,portrait of a ,tailor4 ,men whose route from office to train lies through the neighbourhood have been known to go out of their way for the sake of a glance at ,emma4 ,she cheered ,romney4 ,she cheers still4 ,i might well end on this note4 ,the rest1 if not silence1 is best forgotten4 ,it has been referred to in the first chapter4 ,romney lived for eleven years after ,emma's marriage and painted some good pictures1 but he suffered increasingly from failing health and depression4 ,in #agih after the disastrous building experiment at ,hampstead he sold the lease of #cb ,cavendish ,square to ,martin ,archer ,shee and returned to his wife and child4 ,he bought an estate at ,whitestock1 near ,ulverstone1 but did not live to build the house4 ,his brain was clouded during the last two years of his life1 and his wife1 nursing him1 watched the ,worn-out ,reason dying in her house4 ,to faithful ,mary he murmurs1 in ,tennyson's poem1 these valedictory words-- ,beat1 little heart1 on this fool brain of mine4 ,i once had friends--and many--none like you4 ,i love you more than when we married4 ,hope6 ,o yes1 ,i hope1 or fancy that1 perhaps1 ,human forgiveness touches heaven1 and thence-- ,for you forgive me1 you are sure of that-- ,reflected1 sends a light on the forgiver4 ,the plates are printed by ,,bemrose ,,dalziel1 ,,ltd41 ,watford ,the text at the ,,ballantyne ,,press1 ,edinburgh ,,in ,,the ,,same ,,series ,,artist4 ,,author4 ,,velazquez4 ,s4 ,l4 ,bensusan4 ,,reynolds4 ,s4 ,l4 ,bensusan4 ,,turner4 ,c4 ,lewis ,hind4 ,,romney4 ,c4 ,lewis ,hind4 ,,greuze4 ,alys ,eyre ,macklin4 ,,botticelli4 ,henry ,b4 ,binns4 ,,rossetti4 ,lucien ,pissarro4 ,,bellini4 ,george ,hay4 ,,fra ,,angelico4 ,james ,mason4 ,,rembrandt4 ,josef ,israels4 ,,leighton4 ,a4 ,lys ,baldry4 ,,raphael4 ,paul ,g4 ,konody4 ,,holman ,,hunt4 ,mary ,e4 ,coleridge4 ,,titian4 ,s4 ,l4 ,bensusan4 ,,carlo ,,dolci4 ,george ,hay4 ,,luini4 ,james ,mason4 ,,tintoretto4 ,s4 ,l4 ,bensusan4 ,others in ,preparation4