Portrait of Emma Hart [later Lady Hamilton] as Miranda

Currently not on view

Portrait of Emma Hart [later Lady Hamilton] as Miranda

1785 or 1786

George Romney (English, 1734–1802)

Emma Hart, a beautiful woman of modest means, gained fame through her liaisons with English aristocrats. While married to Sir William Hamilton, British ambassador to Naples, she openly carried on a stormy romance with the naval hero Admiral Lord Nelson. In her youth she was one of Romney's favorite models. She is shown here as Miranda, the heroine of Shakespeare's Tempest, at the moment in act I, scene 2 when she begs her magician father Prospero to spare sailors shipwrecked in a storm he had raised.

Currently not on view

Object Details

Title:

Portrait of Emma Hart [later Lady Hamilton] as Miranda

Date:

1785 or 1786

Artist:

George Romney (English, 1734–1802)

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Dimensions:

14 1/8 x 15 1/2 inches (35.9 x 39.4 cm)

Classification:

Paintings

Credit Line:

The John Howard McFadden Collection, 1928

Accession Number:

M1928-1-34

Geography:

Made in Great Britain, Europe

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Currently not on view