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ROMNEY, GEORGE (1734-1802)
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See also:ROMNEY, See also:GEORGE (1734-1802) , See also:English See also:historical and portrait painter, was See also:born at See also:Dalton-in-See also:Furness, See also:Lancashire, on the 26th of See also:December 1734. His See also:father was a builder and See also:cabinet-maker of the See also:place, and the son, having manifested a turn for See also:mechanics, was instructed in the latter See also:craft, showing considerable dexterity with his fingers, executing carvings of figures in See also:wood, and constructing a See also:violin, which he spent much See also:time in playing. He was also busy with his See also:pencil; and some of his sketches of the neighbouring rustics having attracted See also:attention, his father was at length induced to apprentice the boy, at the See also:age of nineteen, to an itinerant painter of portraits and domestic subjects named See also:Steele, an artist who had studied in See also:Paris under See also:Vanloo; but the erratic habits of his instructor prevented Romney from making See also:great progress in his See also:art. In 1756 he impulsively married a See also:young woman who had nursed him through a See also:fever, and started as a portrait painter on his own See also:account, travelling through the See also:northern counties, executing likenesses at a couple of guineas, and producing a See also:series of some twenty figure compositions, which were exhibited in See also:Kendal, and afterwards disposed of by means of a lottery. Having, at the age of twenty-seven, saved about boo, he See also:left a portion of the sum with his wife and See also:family, and started to seek his See also:fortune in See also:London, never returning, except for brief visits, till he came, a broken-down and aged See also:man, to See also:die. See also:Credit must, however, be given him `for recognizing to some extent his family responsibilities. He did not allow his wife and See also:children to fall into poverty, and he gave help to his See also:brothers, who seem to have resembled him in a See also:kind of shiftlessness of temperament. In London he rapidly See also:rose into popular favour. His " See also:Death of See also:General See also:Wolfe " was judged worthy of the second See also:prize at the Society of Arts, but a word from See also:Reynolds in praise of See also:Mortimer's " See also:Edward the See also:Confessor " led to the See also:premium being awarded to that painter, while Romney had to content himself with a donation of £50, an incident which led to the subsequent coldness between him and the See also:president which prevented him from exhibiting at the See also:Academy or presenting himself for its honours. In 1764 he paid a brief visit to Paris, where he was befriended by See also:Joseph See also:Vernet; and his portrait of See also:Sir Joseph See also:Yates, painted on his return, bears distinct traces of his study of the See also:works of See also:Rubens then in the Luxembourg See also:Gallery. In 1766 he became a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists, and three years later he seems to have studied in their See also:schools. Soon he was in the full See also:tide of prosperity. He removed to Great See also:Newport See also:Street, near the See also:residence of Sir See also:Joshua, whose fame in See also:portraiture he began to See also:rival in such works as " Sir George and See also:Lady See also:Warren " and " Mrs Yates as the Tragic Muse "; and his professional income rose to £1200 a See also:year. But this marked increase in his popularity had the effect of enlarging his ambitions, and he became anxious to See also:attempt subjects which required more experience than he possessed. Realizing as he did the need for more thorough knowledge, he was seized with a longing to study in See also:Italy; and in the beginning of 1773 he started for See also:Rome in See also:company with Ozias See also:Humphrey, the See also:miniature painter. On his arrival he separated himself from his See also:fellow-traveller and his countrymen, and devoted himself to solitary study, raising a See also:scaffold to examine the paintings in the Vatican, and giving much- time to See also:work from the undraped See also:model, of which his See also:painting of a " Wood Nymph " was a See also:fine and graceful result. At See also:Parma he concentrated himself upon the productions of See also:Correggio, which fascinated him and greatly influenced his practice.
In 1775 Romney returned to London, establishing himself in See also:Cavendish Square, and resuming his extensive and lucrative employment as a portrait painter, which in 1785, according to the estimate of his See also:pupil See also:Robinson, yielded him an income of over £3600. The admiration of the See also:town was divided between him and Reynolds. " There are two factions in art," said See also:Lord See also:Thurlow, " and I am of the Romney See also:faction "—and the remark, and the rivalry which it implied, caused much annoyance to Sir Joshua, who was accustomed to refer contemptuously to the younger painter as " the man in Cavendish Square." After his return from Italy Romney formed two friendships which powerfully influenced his See also:life. He became acquainted with See also:Hayley, his future biographer, then in the See also:zenith of his little-merited popularity as a poet. His See also:influence on the painter seems to have been far from salutary. Weak himself, he flattered the weaknesses of Romney, encouraged his excessive and morbid sensibility, disturbed him with amateurish fancies and suggestions, and tempted him to expend on slight rapid sketches, and See also:ill-considered, seldom-completed paintings of ideal and poetical subjects, talents which would have found fitter exercise in the steady pursuit of portraiture. About 1783 Romney was introduced to Emma See also:Hart, afterwards celebrated as Lady See also: Her bewitching See also:face See also:smiles from numerous canvases; he painted her as a Magdalene and as a See also:Joan of Arc, as a See also:Circe, a Bacchante, a See also:Cassandra; and he has himself confessed that she was the inspirer of what was most beautiful in his art. But her fascinations seem to have been too much for the more than See also:middle-aged painter, and they had their own See also:share in aggravating that See also:nervous restlessness and instability, inherent in his nature, which finally ruined both See also:health and mind. In 1786 See also:Alderman See also:Boydell started his great See also:scheme of the See also:Shakespeare Gallery, apparently at the See also:suggestion of Romney. The painter at least entered heartily into the See also:plan, and contributed his See also:scene from the See also:Tempest, and his " See also:Infant Shakespeare attended by the Passions," the latter characterized by the Redgraves as one of the best of his subject pictures. Gradually he began to withdraw from portrait painting, to limit the See also:hours devoted to sitters, and to turn his thoughts to mighty schemes of the ideal subjects which he would execute. Already, in 1792, he had painted " See also:Milton and his Daughters," which was followed by " See also:Newton making Experiments with the See also:Prism." He was to paint the Seven Ages, Visions of See also:Adam with the See also:Angel, " six other subjects from Milton—three where Satan is the See also:hero, and three from Adam and See also:Eve,—perhaps six of each." Having planned and erected a large studio in Hamsptead, he removed thither in 1797, with the fine collection of casts from the See also:antique which his friend See also:Flaxman had gathered for him in Italy. But his health was now irremediably shattered, and the man was near his end. In the summer of 1799, suffering from great weakness of See also:body and the profoundest depression of mind, he returned to the See also:north, to Kendal, wherehis deserted but faithful and See also:long-suffering wife received and tended him. He died on the 15th of See also:November 1802. The art of Romney, especially his figure subjects, suffered greatly from the waywardness and instability of the painter's disposition, from his want of fixed purpose and sustained See also:energy. He lacked the steadfast perseverance needful to the accomplishment of a great picture. Afflicted as he was throughout his life by an unreasonable timidity and by a self-consciousness which led him at one moment into assertive affectations and at another into exaggerated humility, he avoided the society of his See also:brother artists and lost many opportunities of receiving that See also:frank professional See also:criticism which might have stimulated him to more serious effort. In unwholesome surroundings he steadily deteriorated. His See also:imagination flashed and flickered fitfully upon him, like See also:April See also:sunshine. His See also:fancy would be captivated by a subject, which was presently embodied in a See also:sketch, but the toil of elaborating it into the finished completeness of a painting too frequently overtaxed his See also:powers; he became embarrassed by technical difficulties which, through defective See also:early training, he was unable to surmount, and the See also:half-covered See also:canvas would be turned to the See also:wall. Even in the pictures he finished he was unable to keep to any consistent level of achievement. He produced some fine things, very See also:personal in See also:style and very skilful in handling; but much that he did seems too tentative and too plainly deficient in shrewdness of insight to deserve serious See also:consideration. His See also:colour, too, was often unpleasant, hot and monotonous, and his See also:composition was See also:apt to be See also:stilted and artificial. It is in the best of his portraits that we feel the painter's real ability. These, especially his See also:female portraits, are full of See also:grace, See also:charm, distinction, and sweetness. When we examine his heads of See also:Cowper and Wilkes, his delicate and dignified full-length of See also: But the great work upon the artist is Romney, by See also:Humphry See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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