- 23
George Romney
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Description
George Romney
1734-1802
serena in contemplation
oil on canvas, in a carved wood frame
74 by 62 cm., 29 1/4 by 24 1/4 in.
!99000-132000
This beautiful picture is a study of the central figure in Romney's Serena in the Boat of Apathy, a poetic subject based on Canto III of the Triumphs of Temper by Romney's friend William Hayley. In the picture Serena is shown being rowed across the Gulf of Indolence towards the figure of Apathy. The passage reads:
' ..... The obedient maid
Her form along the narrow vessel land:
But oh; what terror shake her tender soul,
As from the shore her bark begins to roll,
And, sever'd from her friend, her eyes discern
The steering spectre wading at the stern'.
Hayley wrote the Triumphs of Temper in the autumn of 1780 at his home at Eartham in Sussex and Romney visited him during this period. The poem was an enormous success and fashionable ladies were said to model their behaviour on the heroine Serena. The Duchess of Devonshire was enthusiastic about it and according to Gibbon her enthusiasm greatly encouraged its popularity. Romney was also very moved by his friend's poem and painted a group of pictures based on it. In some Serena is shown reading Evelina by candle-light, and one of these was bought from the artist by John Christian Curwen of Workington Hall, an important patron of the artist. Curwen also bought Serena in the Boat of Apathy in 1788.
When the present picture was sold from the Northcliffe Collection in 1923 it was described as 'A Study of Lady Hamilton as Serena', and we know from a letter which Emma wrote to Romney in 1791 that she admired the poem ('Tell Hayley I am allways reading his Triumphs of Temper'). In the sense that Emma Hamilton was always Romney's ideal woman, the identification is not impossible. In his biography of 1910, Arthur Chamberlain refers on page 126 to an unfinished version of the large picture being bought by Mr Permain in 1905 and adds that 'The background with the figure of Apathy who guides the boat, had been only hastily indicated, and since its purchase a part of it has been cut away, and the effect of the picture improved. It has been re-christened 'Serena in Contemplation''. The present portrait is probably this same picture and it makes a very successful portrait in its own right.
Provenance:
Probably Christie's, 8th July 1905, lot 33, bt. Permain for £31.10.0;
Mary Elizabeth, wife of Arthur Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (1865-1922) and secondly of Sir Robert Hudson, her sale, Christie's, 20th April 1923, lot 41, bt. Leger for £110.5.0;
Frederick 1st Viscount Maugham, his sale Christie's, 22nd June 1945, bt. Frost and Reed for £336
Literature:
See H. Ward and W. Roberts, Romney, 1904, Vol.2, p.186
1734-1802
serena in contemplation
oil on canvas, in a carved wood frame
74 by 62 cm., 29 1/4 by 24 1/4 in.
!99000-132000
This beautiful picture is a study of the central figure in Romney's Serena in the Boat of Apathy, a poetic subject based on Canto III of the Triumphs of Temper by Romney's friend William Hayley. In the picture Serena is shown being rowed across the Gulf of Indolence towards the figure of Apathy. The passage reads:
' ..... The obedient maid
Her form along the narrow vessel land:
But oh; what terror shake her tender soul,
As from the shore her bark begins to roll,
And, sever'd from her friend, her eyes discern
The steering spectre wading at the stern'.
Hayley wrote the Triumphs of Temper in the autumn of 1780 at his home at Eartham in Sussex and Romney visited him during this period. The poem was an enormous success and fashionable ladies were said to model their behaviour on the heroine Serena. The Duchess of Devonshire was enthusiastic about it and according to Gibbon her enthusiasm greatly encouraged its popularity. Romney was also very moved by his friend's poem and painted a group of pictures based on it. In some Serena is shown reading Evelina by candle-light, and one of these was bought from the artist by John Christian Curwen of Workington Hall, an important patron of the artist. Curwen also bought Serena in the Boat of Apathy in 1788.
When the present picture was sold from the Northcliffe Collection in 1923 it was described as 'A Study of Lady Hamilton as Serena', and we know from a letter which Emma wrote to Romney in 1791 that she admired the poem ('Tell Hayley I am allways reading his Triumphs of Temper'). In the sense that Emma Hamilton was always Romney's ideal woman, the identification is not impossible. In his biography of 1910, Arthur Chamberlain refers on page 126 to an unfinished version of the large picture being bought by Mr Permain in 1905 and adds that 'The background with the figure of Apathy who guides the boat, had been only hastily indicated, and since its purchase a part of it has been cut away, and the effect of the picture improved. It has been re-christened 'Serena in Contemplation''. The present portrait is probably this same picture and it makes a very successful portrait in its own right.
Provenance:
Probably Christie's, 8th July 1905, lot 33, bt. Permain for £31.10.0;
Mary Elizabeth, wife of Arthur Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe (1865-1922) and secondly of Sir Robert Hudson, her sale, Christie's, 20th April 1923, lot 41, bt. Leger for £110.5.0;
Frederick 1st Viscount Maugham, his sale Christie's, 22nd June 1945, bt. Frost and Reed for £336
Literature:
See H. Ward and W. Roberts, Romney, 1904, Vol.2, p.186