HIS PORTRAITS IN PUBLIC GALLERIES
The National Gallery possesses in "Mrs. Mark Currie," purchased in
1897, a typical and charming Romney. The pose, the reticent colour,
the simplicity of the design, the background landscape, all please the
eye. There is no sign of the labour that he bestowed upon his
Shakespearean picture of "The Tempest," that formidable enterprise,
containing eighteen figures, which was pruned and extended to meet
suggestions of his friends.
Mrs. Mark Currie sits demurely self-conscious, as his quick eyes saw
her in the first impressionistic glance, artfully clad in a simple
muslin dress, relieved by the pale crimson sash and the ribbons of the
same colour that nestle in fichu and sleeves. The fair hair is
powdered; the large eyes gaze from the soft oval face conscious of, and
content with, its comeliness; the landscape is sufficiently reminiscent
of nature to harmonise with the pretty artificiality of the contented
little lady who left Duke Street, Bloomsbury, to sit in the studio of
"the man in Cavendish Square" on May 7, 14, 25, July 1, 9, 22, of the
year 1789. "Paid for," continues the extract from the Diaries in the
_Catalogue Raisonne_ "in full by Mr. Currie, December 1790, L63; sent
home June 20, 1791."
It was through Romney's influence that a delightful change towards
simplicity and slight and delicate colours was made in the feminine
fashions of his day, for he persuaded some of his sitters to discard
the ugly, long-waisted bodices in favour of the simple white gown and
fichu that Mrs. Mark Currie wears.
Emma Hart he clothed according to his fancy. I shall devote a separate
chapter to her, but we must glance at his charming portrait of the
"divine lady" as a Bacchante that hangs near Mrs. Mark Currie.
It is a study, possibly for the larger picture; the light brown curls,
partly confined by the yellowy swathe, escape in disorder over the
smooth brow. The mocking eyes glance sideways, the chin rests upon the
shoulder, which, for Romney, is daringly bare; an impression, a
momentary attitude, roughed in with his favourite red, done in a
morning--a mood of Emma's, who could take any pose at an instant's
notice, always charming and always inspiring to the painter. Near by
is another sketch of Emma, rather hot in colour. The rich brown hair,
in tempestuous disorder, flows over a pillow, the mouth is open, the
eyes are as near to tragedy as the volatile Emma could go. So she must
have looked during that weary time in Naples, when Charles Greville, of
the level head and the tepid heart, whom she truly loved, would not
write, and refused to reopen his arms to his young and deserted flame.
"O, Grevell, what shall I dow? what shall I dow?" she wrote. At a
Spelling Bee, Emma and Romney would have competed for the lowest place.
The oval known as "The Parson's Daughter," a title given by a former
owner to the dainty girl with the large eyes and the tilted nose, is
also essential Romney. She gave him no trouble, you may be sure.
Easily as a thrush sings he painted the powdered hair framing the
pretty face, the long neck springing from the slight body and the note
of green in the auburn curls.
Country cousins who visit the National Gallery always pause before his
"Lady with a Child," attracted by the naturalness of the little one,
whose dark blue eyes gaze with reposeful wonder at the spectator, and
by the clarity of the paint. Romney's genius for design rarely failed
him when his subject was a girl, a mother and child, or children at
play, such as the buoyant group of the little Gower family dancing in a
ring. To realise how hard and tight his handling could be when not
inspired by his subject, look at the early "Portraits of Mr. and Mrs.
William Lindow," in the adjoining room, painted in Lancaster in 1770
before his visit to Italy. If this highly-glazed group was not duly
catalogued under his name, one could hardly believe it to be a Romney.
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PLATE VI.--MRS. ROBINSON--"PERDITA."
(From the picture in the Wallace Collection)
Hanging on the same wall in the Wallace Collection as Reynolds's
seaward-gazing "Mrs. Robinson" and Gainsborough's superb full length,
Romney's portrait of the famous lady is put to a severe test.
Nevertheless, this small picture of "Perdita," with a muff, dressed for
walking, looks very charming.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.--MRS. ROBINSON--"PERDITA."]
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The "Mr. Morland of Capplethwaite," in hunting costume with a dog, is
another hard and uninteresting early Romney. His son, in the
_Memoirs_, grows excited over the dog. "No representation," he wrote,
"can approach nearer to the truth of nature than the portrait of this
dog; the sleekness of the skin, and the characteristic sagacity of the
animal are so well depicted as to give it the appearance of reality."
Neither is the remaining Romney in the National Gallery, "Portrait of
Lady Craven," a first-rate example, although it has its own sedate and
simple charm. This oval once hung in the breakfast-room at Strawberry
Hill, and inspired Horace Walpole to compose the following lines:--
"Full many an artist has on canvas fix'd
All charms that Nature's pencil ever mix'd--
The witchery of Eyes, the Grace that tips
The inexpressible douceur of Lips.
Romney alone, in this fair image caught
Each Charm's expression and each Feature's thought;
And shows how in their sweet assemblage sit,
Taste, spirit, softness, sentiment and wit."
Romney does not shine in the Wallace Collection. His sole example,
"Mrs. Robinson," is but a "twinkling star" (his own phrase to express
the charms of the greatest beauties of the eighteenth century compared
with Lady Hamilton) in the galaxy of masterpieces in the large gallery
at Hertford House. Hanging on the same wall is Reynolds's version of
seaward-gazing "Mrs. Robinson," and the superb full length by
Gainsborough that dominates the Gallery, quite eclipsing our Romney's
modest presentment of the famous lady, dressed for walking, with her
hands in a muff. Her high powdered hair is crowned by a cap, the
strings of which are tied beneath her plump chin. There is more
character and resolution in the face than in the generality of Romney's
portraits. Indeed, she is almost matronly, but the complexion has all
his rose-leaf freshness; the touch of colour he permits in the sleeve
is characteristic.
This room at Hertford House, with its three portraits of Mrs. Robinson,
by Reynolds, Gainsborough, and Romney, is the place to brood over and
speculate upon the dazzling career of this charming woman. A recital
of the facts is enough; imagination can supply the rest. First a
_protege_ of Hannah More; then the attraction of the town as "Perdita"
at Drury Lane, she dazzled the Prince of Wales and became his mistress.
In receipt of a pension of L500 a year at the age of twenty-five, she
amused herself writing novels, poems, and plays, was a member of the
Delia Cruscan School, and died, "poor and palsied," in 1800 at the age
of forty-two.
Among the nine Romneys at the National Portrait Gallery is a winsome
and smiling Emma. Her elbows are upon a table, and her firm chin rests
upon her hands; but face and hands suffer from an excess of the Romney
red. Here also is the crayon sketch of Cowper which inspired the
poet's sonnet to Romney, and of which Cowper wrote, "Romney has drawn
me in crayons, and, in the opinion of all here, with his best hand and
with the most exact resemblance possible"; his friend Richard
Cumberland gazing upwards for inspiration; a "Flaxman modelling the
Bust of Hayley," an example of "heroic portraiture"; and the Adam
Walker family group--the last picture Romney painted, and interesting
for its connection with William Blake. In a letter to Hayley, after
Romney's death, Blake, who was collecting material for the _Life_ by
Hayley, wrote in 1804: "He (Adam Walker) showed me also the last
performance of Romney. It is of Mr. Walker and his family, the
draperies put in by somebody else. It is an excellent picture, but
unfinished."
Unfinished also is the large autograph portrait of himself "as he
appeared in the most active season of his existence," painted at
Eartham in 1780. "He looks a man of genius" is the comment of visitors
to the National Portrait Gallery. Certainly he looks an
impressionable, sensitive, and easily moved man, with his large,
somewhat mournful eyes and the high brow. Place beside Romney's
portrait a photograph of Huxley, and you have two types, poles apart,
remote as a Perugino from a Frans Hals.
A noble portrait is that of Warren Hastings at the India Office,
everything subservient to the finely-cut head with its fringe of
silvery hair, and the dark grey eyes looking shrewdly out at the world.
Romney took his colour from his environment. With a lovely woman
before him he painted loveliness; confronted by Warren Hastings he
painted intellect and power; confronted by a Wesley, intellect and
spirituality. But he failed when he tried to imagine something "noble
and heroic," such as the melodramatic "Milton Dictating 'Paradise Lost'
to his Daughters," or a story picture such as the replica of "Serena
reading 'Evelina' by Candlelight," at the South Kensington Museum.
What inspiration could he derive from Hayley's "Triumph of Temper."
The personality of Warren Hastings or Charles Wesley could stimulate
his genius--not such verses as the following:--
"Sweet Evelina's fascinating power
Had first beguil'd of sleep her midnight hour;
Possesst by Sympathy's enchanting sway
She read, unconscious of the dawning day."