Lady Hamilton
after the famous painting: Emma as a Bacchante by George Romney, 1785
Emma, Lady Hamilton (26 April 1765; baptised 12 May 1765 – 15 January 1815) is best remembered as the mistress of Lord Nelson and as the muse of George Romney.
She was born Amy Lyon in Ness near Neston, Cheshire, England, the daughter of Henry Lyon, a blacksmith who died when she was two months old.
She was raised by her mother, the former Mary Kidd, at Hawarden, and received no formal education. She later changed her name to Emma Hart.
Emma gave birth to Nelson's daughter Horatia, on 29 January 1801.
By the autumn of the same year, Nelson bought Merton Place, a small ramshackle house on the outskirts of modern day Wimbledon.
The newspapers reported on their every move, looking to Emma to set fashions in dress, home decoration and even dinner party menus but Emma's great days were over.
She had become fat, and Nelson did not like the social life she craved.
She had turned down the offer from the Royal Opera in Madrid to sing for money.
She was desperately lonely, preoccupied with attempting to turn Merton Place into the grand home Nelson desired, and frantic for his return.
The child, a girl, died a few weeks after her birth in early 1804.
Emma reportedly distracted herself by gambling, and spending lavishly.
Now she was free to marry Nelson, if he could only obtain a divorce.
Emma spent a year in a virtual debtors' prison, in the company of Horatia, before moving to France (despite the ongoing Napoleonic War) to try to escape her creditors.
Turning to drinking, living in poverty in Calais, she died in January 1815, aged 49, of amoebic dysentery.
waterbased painting on a sheet of ivory
frame chips of ivory, with inlay of nacre
not signed
no backside information
Condition painting: excellent
Condition frame: excellent
convex glass
suspension ring
dimension frame vertically: 104 mm
inner dimension frame: 46 mm
stock number 461
