Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 49.djvu/202

 by William Hayley [q. v.], whose acquaintance he had made in 1772. The then popular author of ‘The Triumphs of Temper’ constituted himself Romney's laureate. Romney relied greatly on his companionship and advice, and for twenty-two years never failed to spend his annual holiday in the poetaster's home at Eartham in Sussex, where Flaxman, Cowper, Blake, and others were his fellow-guests at various times. Some of Romney's most graceful fancies were inspired by passages from Hayley's poems, among them the ‘Serena’ in South Kensington Museum and the famous ‘Sensibility’ in Lord Burton's collection.

No reasonable doubt of his continuous success in London could have long survived Romney's establishment in Cavendish Square, and considerations of prudence no longer excused his separation from his wife and son, yet he made no attempt to bring them south. There was apparently no estrangement between them. He visited his family at intervals, and contributed liberally to their maintenance. In later years his son was often a visitor in his house. It may therefore be inferred that Mrs. Romney, conscious of her own humble origin and defective education, was herself unwilling to share the burden of honours to which she was not born. For the old scandal, which sought to account for Romney's indifference to his wife by alleging a liaison with his beautiful model, Emma Hart (afterwards Lady Hamilton) [q. v.], no serious evidence exists. The painter did not see her until July 1782, when she was living under the protection of his friend Charles Greville, who brought her to Romney for her portrait. Greville, who kept her in the most jealous seclusion, would certainly have resented the slightest encroachment on his own claims, whereas his friendly correspondence with the artist clearly shows that he looked upon Romney's interest in his protégée as quasi-paternal. ‘I heard last week from Mrs. Hart,’ he writes in a letter of 1788, ‘she desired me to tell you that she designs to captivate you by her voice next spring, and that few things interest her more than the remembrance you and Mr. Hayley honour her with.’

After her marriage to Sir William Hamilton, Emma herself writes to Romney from Naples as ‘My dear sir, my friend, my more than father.’ Romney's admiration for the ‘divine lady,’ as he called her, verged, indeed, on infatuation, but it was probably platonic. Hayley was little less enthusiastic; the one celebrated her with his pen, the other with his brush. For several years Romney refused commissions and reduced the number of his sitters, in order to devote more time to that series of studies in which he has immortalised Lady Hamilton's loveliness. Besides many portraits and sketches of her in her own character, he painted her as ‘Circe,’ as both ‘Tragedy’ and ‘Comedy’ in ‘Shakespeare nursed by Tragedy and Comedy,’ as ‘Alope with her Child in the Woods,’ as ‘Cassandra,’ ‘Euphrosyne,’ ‘Joan of Arc,’ ‘Calypso,’ the ‘Magdalen,’ ‘The Spinstress’ (the famous picture in Lord Iveagh's collection), a ‘Bacchante,’ a ‘Sibyl,’ a ‘Saint,’ a ‘Nun,’ &c. The ‘Magdalen’ and the ‘Calypso’ were painted for the Prince of Wales, who paid 100l. each for them. The last portrait of her was a half-length, seated, with a miniature of Sir William Hamilton in her belt, painted just before her marriage. Between her first appearance in Cavendish Square in 1782 and her departure for Italy in 1785, after Greville had transferred her to the protection of his uncle, she was Romney's chief source of inspiration. The list of his other works is short. He painted, however, portraits of Lord Thurlow's two daughters at the harpsichord, of Lord Derby on horseback, of Gibbon (to whom Hayley had introduced him), of the second Lord Chatham the younger, Pitt, and Edmund Burke, as well as the Lady Russell and her child, and the picture known as ‘The Sempstress.’ From 1786 to 1790 was perhaps the most prolific period of his career. He was at the zenith of his prosperity, making an income of over 3,000l. a year; and the entries in his pocket-books record innumerable names of notable men and women. The archbishops of Canterbury, York, and Dublin, Richard Watson, bishop of Llandaff, John Wesley, the Duchess of Cumberland, Mrs. Billington, Mrs. Jordan (of whom he painted two pictures for the Duke of Clarence), Mrs. Fitzherbert, Lord Ellenborough, Lady Milner, the Duchess of Leeds, and Lady Betty Foster (afterwards Duchess of Devonshire) were among the more remarkable of his sitters. The notebooks, extending over a great many years, are still extant. They were sold at Christie's in 1894, and then passed into the possession of Mr. Humphry Ward. The brief entries consist merely of dates, names of sitters, and sums received on account or in full payment. Romney seems generally to have been paid half his money when he undertook a commission, and the balance on delivering the picture; but his accounts are not always intelligible. The highest price he ever received for a portrait was 120 guineas. His portrait of Caroline, viscountess Clifden, and her sister, Lady Elizabeth Spencer, was sold to a dealer at Willis's Rooms on 11 June 1896 for 10,500 guineas.