Portrait Of Mrs Elizabeth Rattray, 18th Century by GEORGE ROMNEY (1734-1802)

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George Romney
Portrait Of Mrs Elizabeth Rattray, 18th Century by GEORGE ROMNEY (1734-1802)

Name: Portrait Of Mrs Elizabeth Rattray, 18th Century by GEORGE ROMNEY (1734-1802)
Brand: George Romney
Rating: 4.9 (34 reviews)

About the Item

Portrait Of Mrs Elizabeth Rattray, 18th Century by GEORGE ROMNEY (1734-1802) Large 18th Century portrait of Mrs Elizabeth Rattray, oil on canvas by George Romney. Excellent quality and condition circa 1790 portrait of Elizabeth Rattray mother-in-law of Admiral Joseph Yorkes. Presented in its original antique gilt frame with plaque. Measurements: 38" x 33" framed approx Artist Biography George Romney was the second son of John Romney, a cabinet-maker in the Lincolnshire town of Dalton-in-Furness, in a family of 10 boys and one daughter. He started working in his father's shop at the age of 10, where it is said that he spent his time making sketches of his father's employees and copying illustrations from a collection of engravings entitled Art's Masterpiece. In 1751, Romney's father apprenticed him for four years to the painter Edward or Christopher Steel (both names are on record), who had studied in Paris under Van Loo. Apprentices tended to be largely ignored by their employer, but Romney would later recall how much he had learned while under Steel's direction. On October 14 1756, Romney married Mary Abbot. The newly-weds were apart for lengthy periods when Romney had to accompany Steel on trips to Yorkshire, and in 1757 he paid a modest indemnity to break his contract. He then acquired a studio in Kendal and embarked on a career as an itinerant portrait painter. However, his prices were modest and he had to paint a large number of portraits to make an adequate living. At the same time, he tried his hand at some original compositions, such as a Landscape with Figures or Pulling a Tooth by Candelight, which eventually earned him enough to enable him to move to London in March 1762, leaving his wife and two infant children in Kendal. In 1763, Romney was awarded a Society of Arts cash prize of 25 guineas - a considerable sum at the time - for his painting of the Death of General Wolfe. The following year he travelled to France, where he met Joseph Vernet, and to Italy. In 1765 he received a second prize for his Death of King Edward. In 1773 he returned to Italy, remaining there for two years in order to study antique statuary and the works of Raphael, Titian and Correggio. In Rome he came into contact with Fuseli and his circle, whose influence would prove critical in terms of Romney's subsequent 'exotic' canvases, such as his illustrations of Aeschylus of 1780. He returned to London in July 1775, and moved into a studio previously belonging to the recently deceased painter Cotes. By then Romney's work was beginning to attract the interest of highly-placed figures, including the Earl of Richmond and Lord Thurlow, the latter declaring that 'London is divided into two camps - one for Reynolds and one for Romney. I am in Romney's camp'. Because of his rivalry with Reynolds, Romney failed to gain admission to the Academy and his sitters were obliged to visit him at home. Despite this, he rapidly established a reputation with the aristocracy, although he continued to resist charging high prices for his work, demanding only 25 guineas for a 'standard' portrait 36 x 30 in (90 x 75 cm) and 30 and 50 guineas for larger versions of 42 x 32 in (105 x 81 cm) and 60 x 48 in (150 x 120 cm) respectively. Even a full-length portrait only cost 80 guineas. However, Romney's total output during his years in London amounted to an astonishing two thousand portraits and assorted canvases. His work at this period revealed distinct Neo-Classical leanings, and although his portraits still looked 'natural' rather than poeticised, they were largely frontal in approach and inspired by Roman low reliefs. Examples include The Leveson-Gower Children of 1776-1777 and The Beaumont Family of 1777-1779. Romney's favourite model for almost a decade was Emma Hart, later to become Lady Hamilton. Romney was largely responsible for her transformation into a society figure and, in his Memoirs, Romney's son lists 24 formal portraits of Emma Hart/Hamilton, represented as anything from a bacchante to Joan of Arc, as well as a considerable number of studies and sketches. Around 1790, Romney appears to have been closely involved in the development of the Shakespeare Gallery and provided Boydell with two major compositions - a Shakespeare as a Child and The Tempest. By now, he had become increasingly preoccupied with monumental painting and had a large house built in Hampstead, completed in 1797, to enable him to produce works on a grander scale. However, his pace of work over two decades had affected his health and he was ultimately obliged to leave London and return to his family in Kendal. After moving to a larger property nearby, he died in November 1802 following a stroke. In its use of line, rhythm and fresh clear colour, Romney's immense body of work made a substantial contribution to the art of portraiture. He exhibited in London from 1763 to 1772, at the Society of Artists (of which he was a member) and the Free Society, but ceased exhibiting altogether after 1773. Group Exhibitions 2006, Gothic Nightmares: Fuseli, Blake and the Romantic Imagination, Tate Britain, London 2007, British Vision: Observation and Imagination 1750-1950, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent 2008, The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting, Tate Britain, London Solo Exhibitions 2002, George Romney 1734-1802: British Art's Forgotten Genius, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (an exhibition to commemorate the bicentenary of his death, also presented at the National Portrait Gallery, London and the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino) Museum and Gallery Holdings Berlin (National Mus.): Miss Sarah Marlot; Mr Edmund Poulter Birmingham: Lady Holte Blackburn: Dr. Scales; Mr Barton Boston (MFA): Portrait of Two Girls (Misses Cumberland) (1772-1773, oil on canvas); John Bensley Thornhill as a Boy (c. 1874-1785, oil on canvas); Anne, Lady de la Pole (c. 1876, oil on canvas); William Chafyn Grove (oil on canvas) Bradford (Cartwright Hall AG): James Ainslie Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Mus.): A Portrait of Mrs. Beal Bonnell (1779-1780, oil on canvas) Cardiff (Nat. Mus. of Wales): Elizabeth (Warren), Viscountess Bulkeley (1757-1826) as Hebe (1775-1776, oil on canvas); Mrs Newbery (1782-1784, oil on canvas) Copenhagen (Statens Mus. for Kunst): Portrait of a Man (uncertain attribution) Detroit (IA): Thomas Grove of Ferne, Wiltshire (1788, oil on canvas) Dublin (Nat. Gal. of Ireland): Titania, Puck, and the Changeling'; Portrait of a Lady; Mrs Edward White; Portrait of the Artist's Wife Edinburgh (Nat. Gal. of Scotland): Mary Bootle, Mrs Wilbraham Bootle (1781, oil on canvas) Frankfurt am Main: Portrait of a Man Harrogate (Mercer AG): Portrait of the Rev. J. Hadfield (oil on canvas) Liverpool (Lady Lever AG): Sarah Rodbard (1784, oil on canvas) Liverpool (Walker AG): large collection of cartoons London (Corporation of Trinity House): Captain Sir William Fraser London (Dulwich Picture Gal.): William Hayley (1777-1779, oil on canvas); Joseph Allen (c. 1778, oil on canvas) London (NPG): large collection of portraits; Self-portrait at the age of forty-nine (1784) London (Tate Collection): Jacob Morland of Capplethwaite (1763, oil on canvas); Mrs Richard Cumberland and her Son Charles (c. 1770, oil on canvas); Mr and Mrs William Lindow (1772, oil on canvas); Mrs Johnstone and her Son (?) (c. 1775-1780, oil on canvas); The Beaumont Family (1777-1779, oil on canvas); Elizabeth, Countess of Craven, Later Margravine of Anspach (1778, oil on canvas); Lady Emilia Kerr (1779-1780, oil on canvas); Lady Hamilton as Circe (c. 1782, oil on canvas); Lady Hamilton (as a Figure in `Fortune Telling') (c. 1782-1784, oil on canvas); William Pitt the Younger (c. 1783?, oil on canvas); A Lady in a Brown Dress: `The Parson's Daughter' (c. 1785, oil on canvas); Mrs Robert Trotter of Bush (1788-1789, oil on canvas); Mrs Mark Currie (1789, oil on canvas) London (Victoria and Albert Mus.): sketch; Young Girl Reading London (Wallace Collection): Mrs Mary Robinson ('Perdita') (c. 1780-1781, oil on canvas) Melbourne (Nat. Gal. of Victoria): The Leigh Family (c. 1768, oil on canvas); Edmund Law, Bishop of Carlisle (1771-1773, oil on canvas mounted on wood) Montreal (Learmont): Lady Aylesford New Haven (Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection): John Howson Visiting a Prison (c. 1790-1794, pen and brown ink, watercolour and wash over pencil) New York (Frick Collection): Lady Hamilton as 'Nature' (1782, oil on canvas); Henrietta, Countess of Warwick, and Her Children (1787-1789, oil on canvas); Charlotte, Lady Milnes (1788-1792, oil on canvas) New York (Metropolitan Mus. of Art): Self-portrait (c. 1795); The Hon. Mrs Tickell; Lady Elizabeth Hamilton (1753–1797), Countess of Derby (1776-1778, oil on canvas); Mrs Fitzherbert Paris (Louvre): large collection of sketches and drawings; Self-portrait; The Lappish Witch Watching a Shipwreck in a Storm (c. 1775-1780, pen, sepia ink, brush, brown wash over lead pencil) Philadelphia (MA): Portrait of Lady Grantham (1780-1781, oil on canvas); Portrait of John Wesley(1788-1789, oil on canvas) San Marino (Huntington Gal.): Clavering Children (1777, oil on canvas) St Petersburg (Hermitage): Portrait of Mrs Harrit Greer (1781, oil on canvas); Count S. R. Vorontsov Washington DC (NGA): Mrs. Thomas Scott Jackson (c. 1770-1773, oil on canvas); Miss Juliana Willoughby (1781-1783, oil on canvas) Bibliography Hayley, W.: The Life of George Romney, Esq., London, 1809. Romney, J.: Memoirs of the Life and Works of George Romney, London, 1830. Humphry Ward, Thomas/Robert, William: Georges Romney, C. Scribner's Sons, New York, T. Agnew and Sons, London, 1904. Gower, R.S.: George Romney, London, 1904. Ward, H.Roberts, H.: Romney: A Biographical and Critical Essay, with a Catalogue Raisonné of his Works, 2 vols, London, 1904 (contains transcriptions of his sitter books). Chamberlain, A.B.: George Romney, London, 1910. Gatty, H.: ‘Notes by Horace Walpole’ in Walpole Society, xxvii, 1938-1939. Burke, J.: ‘'Romney's Leigh Family: A Link between the Conversation Piece and the Neo-classical Portrait Group’ in Ann. Bull. N. Gall. Victoria, ii, 1960. Conran, G. L. (ed.), et al.: George Romney, 1734-1802, exhibition catalogue, Kenwood House, London, 1961. Milne-Henderson, P. (introduction): The Drawings of George Romney, exhibition catalogue, Smith Coll. Mus. A., Northampton (MA), 1962. Waterhouse, E. K.: Three Decades of British Art, 1740-1770, Philadelphia, 1965. Agnew, G.: Eton Portraits, London, 1970. Wark, R.: The Drawings of George Romney, Alhambra (CA), 1970. Kitson, Michael (ed.)/Clark, Kenneth (preface): La Peinture romantique anglaise et les préraphaélites, exhibition catalogue, Musée du Petit Palais, Paris, 1972. Rump, G. C.: George Romney: Zur Bildform der bürgerlichen Mitte in der englischen Neoklassik, 2 vols, Hildesheim, 1974. Dixon, Y. R.: The Drawings of George Romney in the Folger Shakespeare Library, i, dissertation, Baltimore U. MD, 1977. Jaffe, P.: Drawings by George Romney from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, exhibition catalogue, Fitzwilliam Mus, Cambridge, 1977. Garlick, K./Mackintyre, A. (eds.) (i-vi)/Cave, K. (ed) (vii-xvi): The Diaries of Joseph Farington, 16 vols, New Haven and London, 1978-1984. Pressly, N.L.: The Fuseli Circle in Rome: Early Romantic Art of the 1770s, exhibition catalogue, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1979. Watson, J.: George Romney in Canada, exhibition catalogue, Kitchener-Waterloo A.G., Kitchener (Ontario), 1985 (summary of pictures exhibited in Romney's lifetime, recent exh. cats and MSS material). Kidson, Alex: Romney, exhibition catalogue, National Portrait Gallery, London, 2002. Kidson, Alex: Those Delightful Regions of Imagination: Essays on George Romney, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, the Yale Center for British Art, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2002.

Creator:
George Romney (1734 - 1802, English)
Dimensions:
Height: 38 in (96.52 cm)Diameter: 33 in (83.82 cm)
Medium:
Canvas,Oil
Period:
19th Century
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Blackwater, GB
Reference Number:
Seller: 7832951stDibs: LU1577215660602

Shop All George Romney

George Romney

George Romney is best known as one of British society’s foremost portrait painters of the 18th century, rivaling other widely acknowledged portraitists such as Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds.

Born in 1734 in Dalton-on-Furness, Romney was the son of a cabinetmaker. In 1755, he began his artistic career as an apprentice to portrait painter Christopher Steele before traveling to northern England to establish a painting studio in Kendal. Romney’s talent in portraiture proved fruitful. By 1762, he had made enough money to set up a studio in London, where he became renowned for an “ability to paint flattering images regardless of personality.”

During the 1760s, Romney had hoped to become a history painter but was unsuccessful. To refine and improve his technique, he traveled to Rome in 1773, where he spent two years studying the Old Masters, including Titian, Correggio and Raphael. While there, he was also influenced by the works of Swiss painter Henry Fuseli.

Upon his return to London, in 1775, and with his newly honed painting style, Romney became even more popular among the British aristocracy and nobility. Although his primary aspiration was to make a living as a historical painter, Romney was in demand as a portraitist. His favorite subjects were children and women, particularly his muse, Emma Hart — who later became Lady Hamilton and mistress of Admiral Lord Nelson. Romney painted several Romantic portraits and drew many sketches of Lady Hamilton, whom he considered to represent the ideal of feminine beauty.

In his later years, Romney produced several portraits and drawings of Shakespearean subjects for John Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery in 1790.