Description
Miranda
Portrait de Lady Emma HAMILTON
dans la pièce de Shakespeare, La Tempête, Acte 1, Scène 1
Gravure au pointillé de Caroline WATSON (Londres 1760 ou 1761 – Londres 1814)
d’après George ROMNEY (Dalton-in-Furness 1734 – Kendal 1802)
Publié à Londres par Thomas PAYNE, Pall Mall
14 Avril 1809
Impression à l’encre brune
Alexander 99
Feuille : 320 x 255 mm
Coins carrés : 215 x 180 mm
Épreuve coupée au coup de planche
A print after a painting of Emma Hart, by George Romney. This dramatic sketch shows Emma posing as Miranda, from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’. She looks upwards, lips parted, in an expression of concern and pleading as she urges her father to calm the tempestuous seas. Romney’s painting of the dramatic moment between Prospero and Miranda (in act 1, scene 2), was his first contribution to Alderman John Boydell’s celebrated Shakespeare Gallery. The largest and most ambitious painting he ever completed, it was destroyed in the 1950s and only a few heavily restored fragments now survive. There are however several sketches of Emma as Miranda, for which she sat before her departure for Naples in March 1786.
Emma met Romney in 1782, when she was about 16, through her ‘protector’ Charles Greville. Romney was captivated by her beauty and she became his favourite model until Greville passed her on to the protection of his uncle, Sir William Hamilton, the British ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples. They married in 1791, but in 1799 she also became the lover of Admiral Horatio Nelson in an affair that has become legendary.
Caroline Watson engraved works by Reynolds and Romney and was engraver to Queen Caroline. The print is inscribed, ‘Engraved by Caroline Watson 14 Aug 1809, (engraver to Her Majesty) from the original Picture’. While this edition of the print is just inscribed ‘Miranda’ a later one bears the title ‘Lady Hamilton as Miranda’.
Lady Hamilton, née Amy Lyon le 26 avril 1765 à Ness (en), près de Neston, dans le Cheshire (Angleterre) et morte le 16 janvier 1815 (à 49 ans) à Calais (France), est connue pour son destin exceptionnel, d’une enfance modeste à la bonne société britannique, puis aux fastes de la Cour de Naples. Avant son mariage, elle préférait changer son nom, pour se faire appeler Emma Hart. Elle devient Lady par son mariage avec Sir William Hamilton, en 1791. De cette date jusqu’en 1800, elle tient le rang d’épouse d’ambassadeur britannique, à Naples. Lady Hamilton est également connue pour avoir été la maîtresse du lord-amiral Nelson (alors qu’ils étaient tous deux mariés) et le modèle du peintre George Romney. (source wikipédia)
