George Romney

George Romney (Dalton-in-Furness 1734-1802 Kendal) Emma Hamilton as a wood nymph pencil, watermark 'IV' 17 5/8 x 10¾ in. (44.8 x 27.3 cm.) H.S. Reitlinger (L. 2274a). Sir John Witt (L. 646a). The present drawing does not appear to relate to any known oil portrait of Emma Hamilton. She is depicted with a flute as Calypso (Waddesdon Manor), though the pose is quite different and again with a flute in a painting of her as a crouching Bacchante (Kimball Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas). We are grateful to Alex Kidson for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.

LOT 126 PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF LORD MOWBRAY AND STOURTON GEORGE ROMNEY DALTON 1734 - 1802 KENDAL PORTRAIT OF MARY CHRISTINA CONQUEST, LADY ARUNDELL OF WARDOUR (C.1743-1813), IN CORONATION ROBES inscribed on the verso: Mary Christina, wife of Henry. / 8 th Lord Arundell of Wardour. / Died 1813 / By G. Romney F.S.A. oil on canvas 249 by 134.5 cm.; 98 by 53 in.

George Romney (Beckside 1734-1802 Kendal) Portrait of Stratford Canning (1786-1880), three-quarter length, seated, in a blue coat oil on canvas 126 x 104cm (49 5/8 x 40 15/16in). PROVENANCE: Sale, Frant Court premises, 29 October 1908, according to William Roberts's annotated catalogue (T. H. Ward and W. Roberts, Romney: Essay and Catalogue Raisonné (2 vols., London and New York, 1904) The Collection of Sir Philip and Lady Haldin, Lympne Place, Lympne, Kent, circa 1920-1958, and thence by descent to the present owner Romney also painted a portrait of Mrs Stratford Canning and Child, which is now with the National Trust for Scotland at Fyvie Castle. The latter painting had also been at Frant Court but was sold privately by the family to Agnew's prior to the 1904 sale. Stratford Canning, subsequently 1st Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe K.G., G.C.B., P.C., was a British diplomat and politician, best known as the longtime British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. A cousin of the Foreign Secretary and Prime Minister, George Canning, he was Envoy Extraordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary to the United States between 1820 and 1824 and held his first appointment as Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire between 1825 and 1828. He intermittently represented several constituencies in parliament between 1828 and 1842. In 1841 he was once again appointed Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, a position he held for the next 17 years. Canning came to be seen as one of the leading figures in Constantinople, as British influence over the area increased and the Turks became viewed increasingly as British clients. Nevertheless, despite his illustrious diplomatic career Canning's hopes of high political office were frequently dashed. We are grateful to Alex Kidson for his assistance in writing this catalogue entry.

George Romney (Dalton-in-Furness 1734-1802 Kendal) Portrait of a lady and a child, traditionally identified as Mrs Cumberland and her son, Charles, half-length, in a white dress and bonnet oil on canvas 25 1/8 x 21 1/8 in. (63.5 x 53.7 cm.) William Long and by descent to Walter J. Long. Charles Davis, by 1901. Sir Berkeley Sheffield, Bt., Normanby Park, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire; Christie's, London, 16 July 1943, lot 111 (900 gns to Frost & Reed). with Frost and Reed, London. Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 4 October 2007, lot 142 ($187,000 to the present owner). International Exhibition Glasgow: Official Catalogue of the Fine Art Section, 1901, no. 16, p. 2. T.H. Ward and W. Roberts, Romney: A Biographical and Critical Essay with a Catalogue Raisonné of his Works, London, 1904, II, p. 38, as 'Mrs Cumberland and Child'. London, Grafton Galleries, Autumn 1900. Glasgow, International Exhibition Glasgow: Fine Art Section, 1901, no. 16. The playwright Richard Cumberland (1732-1811) was Romney's most important early supporter in London, commissioning a series of portraits of himself and members of his family between 1768 and 1773, when the artist went to Italy. The present picture was once thought to represent Mrs Cumberland and one of her children, but the portrait of Mrs Cumberland with her Son Charles (circa 1770, Tate Britain) shows a woman with very different facial features. This portrait is in fact more likely to be a fancy picture rather than a portrait, given that the features are partly hidden. It also does not appear to be a mother and child, but rather an older sister (or possibly a cousin or other family member) with a young child; perhaps in the act of teaching the child to read. The girl, in her mob cap, calls to mind Romney's Serena Reading canvases (see A. Kidson, George Romney 1734-1802, ex. cat., 2002, no. 97, pp. 165-67). Serena is the heroine of William Hayley's poem The Triumphs of Temper, published in 1780. Romney depicts her reading Fanny Burney's Evelina in the early hours of the morning. Serena wears a simple white gown and white mob cap, like the girl in the present picture. In the Serena canvases, the dress is obviously nightwear; in the present picture it seems to be the same, underlining the intimacy of the scene. The models may be members of Romney's family, or very close friends. Romney's contemporaries Reynolds, Gainsborough and Nathaniel Hone used family members and friends for fancy pictures, Reynolds's great-niece Theophilia Gwatkin posing as Simplicity, for example, and Gainsborough's daughters as Gleaners. David Mannings has described portraits of this kind as 'half-portrait, half-genre' (in N. Penny, Reynolds, ex. cat., 1986, p. 169). A similarity has been noted between the boy in the present picture and the infant 6th Duke of Devonshire as depicted by Romney in 1790-91 (sold Sotheby's, London, 5 June 2008, lot 58). Romney presumably made his small oil sketch of the future Duke on one of the several occasions on which the child's mother, the famous Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, sat to him (see Ward and Roberts, op. cit., p. 45 and p. 128). The similarity seems to be a result of Romney's way of seeing and characterising young children: there are no later portraits of the 6th Duke or his sisters by the artist. In their catalogue of Romney's works Ward and Roberts remark of this picture, 'This lovely sketch was purchased privately by Mr. Davis from the Long Collection' (ibid., II, p. 38). William Long (1747-1818), a surgeon and amateur artist, was a member of the 'Unincreaseables', a club whose membership (originally said to be limited to eight) included literary and professional men including Romney and the actor John Henderson. Richard Cumberland is also known to have attended as a visitor (see D. Cross, A Striking Likeness: the Life of George Romney, 2000, pp. 99, 130, 132). The Unincreaseables met at the Queen's Head, Holborn, at the Shakespeare, Covent Garden, or at members' houses. Long enjoyed a successful professional career. In 1791 he was elected senior surgeon at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and he also became second master of the Royal College of Surgeons (ibid., p. 130). He had a small but notable collection of works by Romney, including the now lost John Henderson as Macbeth which he won in a raffle held by the Unincreaseables (Kidson, op. cit., p. 217, note 5). In his will, Romney left a gold ring to Long (Cross, op. cit., p. 205).

Lot 532 Chinese Export Reverse Painting on Glass, early 19th century, after the painting by George Romney for John Boydell's collection of Shakespeare prints, depicting The Tempest , act I, scene i, in giltwood frame, sight size 19 3/4 x 25 1/2 in. Provenance: Purchased from the Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, in 1998. N.B. Featured in the exhibition Chinese Glass Painting & Export Porcelain at the above gallery in 1996, and included in the catalogue of the same name, fig. 20. Estimate $3,000-5,000