George Romney (Dalton-in-Furness, Lancashire 1734-1802 Kendal, Cumbria)

The life of Emma Hart (1765-1815), whose beauty and vivacious character took her from humble origins as the daughter of an illiterate Welsh blacksmith to become the mistress and later wife of the diplomat, antiquarian, collector and vulcanologist Sir William Hamilton (1730-1803), the king's Minister Plenipotentiary at the Bourbon Court in Naples, and later mistress of the celebrated naval hero, Lord Horatio Nelson (1758-1805), was both extraordinary and, in the end, tragic. The beauty that captured the hearts of both Hamilton and Nelson exerted a similarly magnetic attraction on the imagination of several of the leading artists of the day and none more so than Romney. He first met Emma when she was still the mistress of his friend, the Hon. Charles Greville (1749-1809), who was later responsible for introducing her to his widowed uncle, Sir William Hamilton. Greville brought Emma to Romney's studio in 1782 to sit for a portrait and soon became his muse. Romney was deeply affected by Emma’s departure for Naples with Hamilton in 1786 and slumped into an artistic decline. When they returned to London in 1791 in order to marry, Romney wrote excitedly to his future biographer, William Hayley: ‘at present, and for the greater part of this summer, I shall be engaged in painting pictures from the divine lady. I cannot give her any other epithet, for I think her superior to all womenkind’ (W. Hayley, The Live of George Romney, London, 1809, p. 158).
This painting of Emma as a Magdalene was one of two works commissioned from Romney, together with a Bacchante, by George, Prince of Wales (1762-1830), future George IV of England, during the summer of 1791. Taken together, the paintings can be seen as an exercise in thematic contrast: personifications of religious emotion against secular, or sorrow against joy (Kidson, op. cit., 2015, p. 684). The two paintings were still unfinished when Emma left London for Naples in September 1791. On her arrival in Naples, she wrote to the artist enquiring whether the Prince had been to the studio to see the paintings, which suggests that they were near to completion and may also imply that Emma had been somehow instrumental in procuring the commission (op. cit., p. 683). Romney replied in early 1792 that the Prince had sent Benjamin West, newly elected President of the Royal Academy, to inspect the two paintings and that ‘they were near finished’. Romney eventually received payment for the works in 1796. In 1810, the paintings were gifted to Francis, 2nd Marquess of Hertford (1743-1822), who served as Lord Chamberlain between 1812 and 1822. The works passed by descent in his family until 1875, when they were sold at Christie’s, catalogued as The Tragic Muse and The Comic Muse. Originally of larger dimensions (120.5 x 154.4 cm.), this painting was reduced at some point after the 1939 sale at Christie’s. Kidson recorded three smaller versions after this composition (all untraced; op. cit., pp. 684-5, nos. 1494a-c), attesting to the image’s appeal amongst contemporaries.