Emma, Lady Hamilton (1765-1815), a celebrated beauty and the mistress of Lord Nelson, sat for Romney for several portraits and became an important source of inspiration for his art. This informal study, taken from a sketchbook, exemplifies Romney’s free and vigorous draughtsmanship, which contrasts starkly with the careful finish of his paintings. Half the sheet shows Lady Hamilton in one of the classical ‘attitudes’ for which she was renowned. Romney used the remaining space to study her disembodied lips no less than seven times.

This is a page from sketchbook D.1952.RW.2504, from between current pages 46 and 47. Page 47 bears the counterproof. This must have been removed before the sketchbook was sold in 1932 as this appeared in a different sale in 1937. According to the National Portrait Gallery, between 1782 and 1786 Emma Hamilton sat for Romney over 100 times. She last sat for him in 1791 (https://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/exhibitions/2002/george-romney/emma-hamilton).

by descent to the artist's granddaughter, Elizabeth Romney, Whitestock Hall, Ulverston (d. 1893); her estate sale, Christie's (London), 24 - 25 May 1894, any number of lots; Martin Henry Colnaghi (1821-1908); Xavier Haas, Paris (1876-1936); his widow’s sale, Christie's (London), 12 July 1937, lot 19 (with D.1952.RW.2877); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b (£2); Witt Bequest 1952 Romney drawings 2875-2884 all passed through the Christie's 12 July 1937 sale of Xavier Haas's widow (see the Lugt entry for L.4541), which had written above the lots "These Drawings came from the Sale of Romney's Studio in 1894, the contents of which had been most carefully preserved in the same house since the Artist's death in 1802". All of these Romney drawings are marked on their index cards as coming from the sale of Romney's studio in 1894, with their lot numbers. It appears these lot numbers came from old labels on the former mounts, all of which have since been removed and are now missing, with the exception of D.1952.RW.2877, which also records that this drawing was formerly in Colnaghi's collection. However, these lot numbers do not correspond to the lots in the actual catalogue, which is available online. A search of the 1894 catalogue also does not reveal that any of Witt's drawings are described as such in this sale, though there are several lots just described as 'Studies of Figures' or 'Studies for Pictures', in which these drawings could well have been included. The lot numbers on the Witt cards also do not correspond to those in Romney's 1807 estate sale or his son's 1834 estate sale. In the file for D.1952.RW.2875 is an index card which quotes W. Roberts as saying he examined an album with 250 photographs of Romney drawings, and he says he recognises all of them as coming from this 1894 sale, he says as mentioned by the late Mr Fairfax Murray, late Mr Martin Colnaghi, Mr C. Newton Robinson and Mr E. Duveen. In the annotated catalogue of the 1894 sale, of those names just listed, only Murray appears as a buyer of any drawings - of lots 128 ('Studies of Figures'), 129 ('Studies of heads and figures') and 200 (under 'Unfinished studies', 'Study for Titania'; and two landscapes, which could be D.1952.RW.2880). Colnaghi and Robinson appear on the index cards of some of these drawings as the former owners, so while it appears they were not buyers at the 1894 sale (unless through an intermediary), there must have been labels of some kind attesting to their former ownership, again likely on former mounts now missing, which, again, D.1952.RW.2877 attests to with the label on its extant mount. A further complication is that all of these Witt cards, although they bear clippings of the lots from the Christie's 1937 catalogue on their versos, are typed on the rectos as having been bought from Sotheby's. Troutman thought this meant Sotheby's acted as buyer for Witt at the Christie's sale, but in an annotated catalogue of the Christie's sale (in the Courtauld library) Witt's name is written as the buyer of lots 5, 19 and 36. It seems more likely, therefore, that while typing the index cards he merely forgot which auction house the clippings came from - an easy mistake to make.

Drawings Gallery Display - Unseen, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 15/01/2015-29/03/2015

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 41

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower right edge, graphite: "Lady Hamilton".

Label: Detached from old mount, now kept separately from file: graphite: artist's name and dates, title, collector and sale.

Collector's mark: Support (removed, see photo), Recto: lower left corner, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).