Miniature Eye Portraits

tycho · **Posted:** Mon Jul 21, 2008 1:35 pm

I have just come across an article by Hanneke Grootenboer in The Art Bulletin of September 2006: 'Treasuring the Gaze: eye miniature portraits and the Intimacy of Vision' in which she explores the late 18th century fashion for miniature portraits of the eye alone, which were exchanged as private tokens of intimacy. Though the article focuses on the Prince of Wales and his paramour Mrs Fitzherbert, HG also mentions not only the miniature of Emma that Nelson carried with him, but also that 'the notorious couple exchanged eyes'.

Does anyone know any more about this? Mira, I'm sure you do, but I know you have many professional demands on you at the moment.

I should like to know more: do the miniature portrait eyes of Nelson and Emma still exist?

Mira · **Posted:** Wed Jul 23, 2008 5:53 pm

I wish I could offer a more definitive answer Tycho, but from hazy memory past, I have seen the miniature referred to in the article.

I'm sure someone will come up with better information, but I believe it was one of a pair of rings, only one an eye miniature, the other a more common enamelled on gold monogrammed ring.

They were, I think, described as being said to have been exchanged by Emma and Nelson, I don't recell a 100% unimpeachable provenance.

Where? I had thought the NMM collections online - but searching today I can't find them there. Perhaps one of the major 2005 auction sales catalogues, and I'm also working through the bookshelf.

These eye portraits in ring, brooch, pendant form were popular for a decade or two during Nelson's lifetime, and you will see them come up occasionally at auctions and online. They are often very beautiful personalised pieces, and I too had read that they were a more private, secretive if you will, method of exchanging sentimental endearments.

Sorry not to be able to help more, but the 'Emma and Nelson' attributed eye does exist somewhere.

Will let you know if I spot them again.

tycho · **Posted:** Fri Jul 25, 2008 6:38 am

Many thanks for the information, Mira.

I have not been able to read the whole article as it is only available on Amazon to those with a US billing address. The author points out that Lady Spencer remarked that she was aware that the Prince and Mrs Fitzherbert had exchanged eye portraits and surmised that this was an indication that they were secretly married. So it would be fitting if HN and Emma exchanged similar portraits in view of his 'married in the eyes of heaven' declaration.

HG also points out that an eye portrait is not readily identifiable except to the recipient, so it would be a perfect way of preserving secrecy.

Tony · **Posted:** Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:33 am

The article is available to read online here: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... _n16788657

A footnote provides a little more information: The exhibition of eye portraits organized by Williamson in London in 1905 included two eyes attributed to Richard Cosway that were believed to be those of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton. The attributions as well as the identifications are doubtful, however; an eye with the name of Lady Hamilton engraved on the reverse used to be part of the collection of the Musee Carnavalet in Paris. This eye disappeared, probably stolen. Williamson, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Miniatures, 7, cat. no. 21. See also David W. Bain, "A Tale of Two Rings," Nelson Disparu 4 (January 1991): 9-11.

Is it the stolen one that you spotted, Mira?

Mira · **Posted:** Tue Jul 29, 2008 9:33 pm

I can't say Tony - Cosway rings a bell, but there were two rings displayed together (as a pair) and only one of them an eye portrait.

Lady Hamilton engraved on the reverse does not ring any bells.

It was a modern colour photograph, and a recent listing of the last few years, so it would depend on when the Paris eye was last displayed/pictured and also when it was stolen.

The David Bain article 'A Tale of Two Rings' may shed more light on the story. Has anyone got any further information about that?

Tycho - on a different tack - the Dowager Lady Spencer's comments on Mrs. Fitzherbert and the POW's eye portrait are very interesting. Thank you for that.

Thanks also for the link to the full article.

tycho · **Posted:** Fri Oct 02, 2009 10:00 am

I came across this 18th century miniature painting of an eye just as an example, but have not been able to trace the two reputedly made of Nelson and Lady Hamilton.

http://www.artofmourning.com/images/ite ... /eye_f.jpg

Mira · **Posted:** Mon Oct 19, 2009 5:31 pm

Anna,

The actual image of the two rings still eludes me. There is one out there though - and I'll keep looking.

The ring Tony unearthed, attributed to Emma, exhibited in 1905 and probably stolen, I don't think is the one. However, the article mentioned: 'A Tale of Two Rings' is referred to in the following description from Rina Prentice's 'The Authentic Nelson' (page 130). I think these are the rings we're looking for:

Quote:

Pair of Rings

Another pair of rings was displayed in 1973 at the British Antique Dealer's Association Internation Art Treasures Exhibition in Bath Assembly Rooms. Here a dealer, Morton Lee, exhibited a pair of George III gold rings (item 268), one bearing a miniature painting of an eye, with a letter 'h' engraved on the back of the bezel, and the other an initial 'H' in gold framed in seed pearls on a background of hair, and the date '13 9bre'on the back. This pair of rings was claimed to be from a lady directly descended from Nelson. The eye is said to be that of Lady Hamilton, the hair Nelson's and the date to represent 13 September 1805, the day Nelson left Merton for the last time, when they may have exchanged rings.
However the interpretation of the rings has been challenged on various counts. Emma's biographer Flora Fraser thinks that the inscribed date on the ring could be the Italian 13 Novabre (November). Diana Scarisbrick, an expert on rings, thinks that the style is of an earlier period, 1785-90, and that the initial 'H' may stand for Hamilton rather than Horatio. Richard Cosway is known to have painted similar eye miniatures in the 1780s. One suggestion is that Emma retained both rings after Sir William Hamilton's death and may later have given the one with the eye to Nelson. (David W Bain: 'A Tale of Two Rings', Nelson Dispatch, Vol. 4 part 1, Jan, 1991, pp.9-11.)

Having only just embarked on a Berlitz speak Italian quickly course, I can't comment on the possible interpretation of the date. But did Emma ever use the name Horatio, Horace or Hor? As far as I can recall (when she wasn't having fun with Baron Crocodile, Prince Victory and so on) to her, he was always simply Nelson.

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Miniature Eye Portraits

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