Nelson & His World

I have been searching for another 'lost' portrait, this time of Lady Hamilton, to no avail. I have a mezzotint engraved by William Say 'after Masquerier', but have had no luck in locating the original portrait. There is an inscription 'published May 20th 1806 by the engraver 92 Norton Street, Marylebone' so Say's copyright was protected. Masquerier was more highly regarded than Barker and acquired a considerable fortune. It is a lovely, luminous image. I should love to see the original painting, and also to know whether Masquerier worked together with Say, and on what terms, to produce the image. Say also produced an excellent engraving of Nelson that I should love to own.

http://tinyurl.com/64klrjn

Anna

Sorry - no information about the painting.

I don't recall ever seeing that engraving before let alone the original picture that it came from.

But at times like this I can't help thinking of those thousands of containers that have been stuffed with British antiques and shipped over to the U.S. (mainly). An item like this could easily find its way into a private collection on another continent . . . . !

Then of course there's fire and other sorts of accidental destruction.

Quite frustrating when we get used to finding answers to so many of our queries.

But someone else out there may know . . . . . !!

MB

It's beautiful, Anna, and one of my favourite images.

Joseph Faringdon referred to it in his diary in March 1804, saying simply that he'd seen Masquerier who was painting a portrait of Lady Hamilton for the Exhibition and thought it was to be sent to Lord Nelson. Masquerier, as was the fashion, also mentioned that her Ladyship [my words] wasn't exactly a slip of a girl.

Farington quoted Masquerier:

The portrait would have been painted only a very few weeks after the death of 'Little Emma.'

Whether it eventually got to Nelson I don't know, but the original painting appeared in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition that year. Number 67 in the catalogue.

The following comment/crit in the Monthly Mirror was attached to it:

Mollie Hardwick wrote that the Masquerier was the last portrait she ever sat for. I'm not sure if that means the absolute last - or the last known. Perhaps, having sat for so many lauded portraits in the past, the 1804 crit put her off. If so, that would be a sad end to the long catalogue of iconic visual representations of Emma.

'Looking at the Moon' always reminds me of Emma's first experience of Vesuvius erupting in 1787, when writing to Charles Greville:

It's an interesting choice of backdrop for a portrait painted in 1804, but I'm afraid I have no idea what became of it after the Royal Academy exhibition. You may well be right, Mark.

It would be interesting to know, too, whether it actually was the last portrait of Lady Hamilton.

Wonderful background detail, Mira. Thanks!

I wonder who chose the background of Vesuvius? It was an interesting one - not simply because Naples was was where Emma first met Nelson; it was also the place where she 'rendered the state some service.' At a time when she was still pressing for a pension, the reference to Naples might have served as a reminder to those who had sought to deny her entitlement.

As for the critic's reference to the moon, 'the emblem of chastity being 'sub nube' (under or behind a cloud) - that was a poisonous little dart aimed at Emma, was it not?