2-982-036 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lady Hamilton, by George Romney, in the late exhibition of Old Masters, Burlington House, 1876. 'That too celebrated female beauty, Emma Lyons, a Welsh servant-girl, who became the wife of Sir William Hamilton, British Ambassador at Naples, and whose connection with Lord Nelson unfortunately belongs to our national history, was at one time a paid model for artists in London. When George Romney...set up in London about a hundred years ago, she used to be a favourite subject for his graceful pencil. The famous picture which was so much admired at the last Exhibition of Old Masters in Burlington House is one of Romney's performances upon this fascinating subject. Our Engraving will certainly be acceptable, so far as it preserves some of the characteristics of the form and attitude of the original, as a masterly representation of a very beautiful woman'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.