George Romney

by George C. Williamson

THE LIFE OF GEORGE ROMNEY

George Romney was a Cumberland lad, born in 1734, of parents who were in humble circumstances living at Dalton in the Fells.

His father was an ingenious man who lived on his own farm as a yeoman, but who followed also the pursuits of a joiner and cabinet-maker, and who was one of the first persons in the north to see and make use of the newly imported wood mahogany, from which he made a chest of drawers out of a sailor's chest brought from the West Indies.

Romney inherited much of his father's ingenuity, and as a lad set about making a fiddle, which he completed in later years and retained all his life. It was a sound instrument of really good tone, and the artist himself played well upon it.

As a lad Romney was sent to a small local school; but he made very slight progress with his studies, and preferred to spend his time in sketching or in copying the pictures that he found in papers or books.

His father, finding that he was making so little progress, took him away from school before he was eleven, and placed him in his own workshop, where he soon began to learn how to ply the tools and to make a creditable use of his new accomplishment.

Still, however, his spare time was filled up by painting, and he made very careful copies of the illustrations in a monthly magazine which one of his father's workmen, who boarded in the house, lent him regularly as it appeared.

He was also asked by a person in the village to paint her portrait, and succeeded in performing the commission in so creditable a way, that it was quite clear to the elder Romney that his son was intended by nature to be an artist.

Accordingly, yielding to the persuasions of the lad himself, backed up as they were by those of many friends, he took steps to apprentice him to an itinerant painter, who was at that time in their neighbourhood, named Steele.

Here he was employed in the more menial work of the craft, grinding colours and preparing the palette; but Steele, although a poor painter himself, had been well trained in Paris, and was able to teach his young pupil much that was of the greatest use to him in his after career.

Steele afterwards eloped with a young lady who was one of his pupils, and Romney had to assist him in his arrangements. They were difficult, and involved a vast amount of trouble and exposure to night air at a time when the youth was far from strong; and after the gay couple had escaped to Gretna Green, Romney fell ill of a fever, and was nursed by a domestic servant named Mary Abbott. With this young person the artist fell violently in love, and on recovering from his illness married her on October 14th, 1756, when only twenty-two years old, and without any means of his own on which to live.

He had to leave his wife very soon after marriage, as Steele had gone to York, where he expected Romney to join him; but after a while the roving life that his master led, and his improvident habits and constant difficulties as to money, disheartened Romney, and he agreed with Steele that, if he would cancel his indenture, Romney would forgive him a debt that he had incurred of £10 from the young apprentice.

This course was adopted, and Romney returned to Kendal, where his wife had been residing.

Here he commenced his own work as a portrait-painter, and from at first painting signboards he soon became known as a clever worker, and was employed by the persons of quality in the neighbourhood to paint their portraits.

Many of the neighbouring landowners employed him, and at this time the artist set about painting historical scenes also and landscapes, in order to turn his time to profitable account. Many of these he sold at Kendal Town Hall by a system of lottery that was then very popular.

By such work the young couple were enabled to save £100, and with some of this money Romney determined to make his way up to London, as he felt that the limited scope that he had in the north was cramping his powers and that he was capable of greater things.

He had but two children, a son and a little daughter, and his wife, who loved him profoundly, was quite prepared to sacrifice herself in order that her husband might prosper. Therefore, taking with him but £30 of their joint savings, and leaving the remainder for her and the children, Romney left his native county for the great and distant city on March 14th, 1762.

The little daughter whom he left behind him died in the following year, and Mrs. Romney, with her son, removed to the house of her father-in-law, John Romney, with whom she continued to live.

During the whole time of his sojourn in London, which, with the exception of brief visits in 1767 and 1779, lasted till 1799, Romney appears to have continued on terms of the closest affection with his wife, and to have remitted to her constantly such sums of money as she required; but he never brought her up to London, and, as has been stated, only visited her in Kendal twice during the thirty-seven years which he spent in London.

This is the incident in the life of the artist upon which much stress has been laid by malevolent writers, and hard things have been said without number about Romney for his so-called desertion of his wife.

It must be remembered, however, that Romney's son and biographer does not say any hard things about his father in this matter, nor does he upbraid him for leaving his wife far away in the Fells. Mrs. Romney did not write letters of expostulation to her husband, or demand that she should be brought up to London; and when her husband returned to her as an invalid, she received him lovingly and nursed him with great devotion till his death. She in no way suffered pecuniary loss by his absence, as he regularly sent sums of money to her; and when their son was old enough to come to town, Romney had him to his house, treated him with the greatest affection, and took him about with him.

Surely it ill beseems those who consider the life of this gifted artist so to condemn his action, when those who were the ones best fitted to blame him specially abstained from doing so!

Mrs. Romney, be it remembered, came of very humble parentage, and was a homely person of but slight education. She appears to have had her own circle of friends in the places where she lived, to have been a person of simple tastes, not anxious to mix in the world of fashion or to receive its comments and its sneers. She would have been in all probability unhappy in London, have in no wise enjoyed the life that her husband lived, and have been an encumbrance to him and a clog on his progress; and Romney very possibly feared to expose her simplicity to the contempt of the people of fashion whom he met and whose portraits he painted.

She may have desired to avoid such society and have preferred her quiet at home, and it may have been a refinement of kindness on his part which led him to shelter her from the troubles which he knew would await her in London.

There is nothing which, with any degree of accuracy, can be stated against the moral character of Romney whilst he was away from her, and all such charges against him fall to the ground by reason of the absence of proof, and it seems clear that it was no such cause that kept him from sending for his wife. Even the reports as to Romney and Lady Hamilton, to which reference is made in a succeeding chapter, are gainsaid by the letters of Lady Hamilton herself which are in the Morrison collection, and no one has ever been able to produce one single piece of evidence in support of the statements that have been too wildly made. Mrs. Romney from the very first showed her deep attachment to her husband by sacrificing herself for his advancement; and she continued, as her letters show, throughout her life, to act in the same way for him, and to give him her deepest and tenderest affection: and we are therefore justified in accepting as normal a state of affairs as to which the chief persons concerned made no complaint, and in declining to attribute to the artist any unworthy motives for his conduct.

Romney did not come to London provided with references or introductions, nor with much money, and the consequence was that for the first ten years of his life in town it was a struggle for him to do any more than keep himself and remit small sums to his wife in Kendal.

He seems to have known only two persons in London, neither of whom was in a position to do much to assist him.

His first important effort proved a disappointment to him in its result. He competed for a premium offered by the Society of Arts, and his picture of The Death of General Wolfe, sent in 1763, received the second prize of fifty guineas. Later on, however, it was stated that the picture was not painted at all by this unknown artist, but by someone else, and that a fraud had been practised; and then, when that was disproved, the costume of the picture, which was not the usual one adopted at the time, was objected to; and it was further claimed that the event was not strictly historical, having only so recently happened. The prize was accordingly taken away from Romney; but, in consideration of the merits of the work, an ex-gratia payment was made to the artist by the Council of the Society of twenty-five guineas. The leading artists of the day had in this way given a slight to this new-comer which he never in after years forgot.

Whether, as has been stated, Sir Joshua Reynolds was at the head of this movement to crush the young artist we cannot tell; but it seems likely that the bitter jealousy which existed between the two men in after years, and which Reynolds never lost an opportunity of increasing, took its rise at this time, and certain it is that Reynolds hated to hear Romney praised, and was ever ready to say and do things that would annoy and irritate his rival.

Romney had always been convinced that the study of the great artists of the Continent was needful for him before he would be able to accomplish what he felt was within him, and he made every effort to get to Italy in order to study the Old Masters.

At this time he was unable to accomplish his cherished desire for want of funds, but he saved all that he could, and contented himself with a journey to Paris.

Here he copied all the works that appealed strongly to him, and spent every hour of his time in visiting galleries and churches and feasting his eyes on the treasures which they contained. His acquaintance with Vernet was of great service to him at this issue.

On his return to London after some seven weeks' absence he again set valiantly to work, and in 1765 carried off a premium from the Society of Arts of fifty guineas against all his competitors.

Then, in 1767, he went down to see his wife, and when he returned to London he brought with him his brother Peter, hoping to be able to assist him in some measure. Peter was not, however, steady or industrious, and, although he sat to his cleverer brother more than once, he did not remain with him long, but drifted away and eventually settled down to a more or less precarious life in Manchester.

Romney now made close friends with Richard Cumberland, who was known at that time as a writer of odes and a man of no small literary grace. Cumberland wrote about his new friend and also introduced him to many other persons, and in this way the artist obtained commissions for portraits from several notable personages.

Another important friend whom he made at this time was the miniature-painter Ozias Humphrey, with whom he made several excursions, and who was one of his closest friends for many years.

Two more efforts he made at this time to visit Italy, which was ever the goal of his desire; but on neither occasion was he able to start. The death of a friend on one occasion and his own serious illness on another prevented his leaving England, but in 1773 the long-desired visit took place.

The two friends, Romney and Humphrey, set out on March 20th, and after resting at Knole, near Sevenoaks, as the guests of the Duke of Dorset, to whom both artists were well known, they left England by water and arrived in Rome on June 18th.

He was provided this time with the best of introductions, especially bearing with him a letter to the reigning Pope Clement XIV., who received him most graciously, and allowed him to have scaffolding specially erected in the Vatican that he might study the works of Raphael.

Other introductions which the artist took with him were from Sir William Hamilton and his nephew Greville.

Romney was not yet a man of any means, and he supported himself whilst in Rome by painting portraits and some historical works, and by copying the great masterpieces which he found in the Eternal City; but he had to make every effort to be economical, as his pictures did not meet with a ready sale in Italy, and he desired to visit many other cities whilst in the country besides Rome.

He actually did see Venice, Bologna, Florence, Padua, Castel-franco, and even some of the smaller cities, as Modena, Reggio and Mantua. Then he slowly made his way back to England by way of Aix and Paris, arriving in London after two years' absence in high spirits, full of ideas, and overwhelmed with enthusiasm for all he had seen, but in a pecuniary condition poorer than he had ever been in his life.

He had, in fact, had to borrow money to carry him through France, and almost to starve himself in his journey, as his small means had long ago vanished, and he had withdrawn all the money that he had banked ere he left Italy.

When he arrived he was met by demands for immediate assistance on the part of his clever but ne'er-do-well brother Peter, but was for the moment unable to assist him.

He found, however, that his own fame had increased during his absence, and the demand for work from his brush was considerable, so much so that he was overwhelmed with the commissions that flowed in.

He felt now that he was in a position to take a larger house in a more fashionable neighbourhood than he had possessed before; and accordingly, as Francis Cotes, R.A., the painter in pastel, had died, and his house in Cavendish Square was still vacant, Romney took it and moved in on Christmas Day, 1775.

Cotes had died in 1770, and the sale of his effects took place in February, 1771; but after that the house stood vacant for a long time, and when Romney took it needed some considerable repair.

Romney had ever a fondness for bricks and mortar, and was delighted at the prospect of altering and adding to the house.

He bought the lease, which had some thirty years to run, and was subject to a rental of £105 per annum; and, although there was already a good studio attached to the premises in the form of a double room with sky-light and domed ceiling, yet the artist must needs set about building another and adding to the accommodation of the house, and so again exhausting his savings.

He also foolishly declined many of the commissions sent him, because he did not possess a studio which was, according to his ideas, fit for the reception of his clients, and in this way an idea got about that he was not desirous of doing any more work. The public taste accordingly veered round, and for a short time Romney found himself deserted by the crowds of would-be-sitters who had just before poured in upon him.

Then the Duke of Richmond, who had befriended the artist before, and had opened his gallery of sculpture to his use at any time, looked in upon him at his new residence and gave him several commissions, besides bringing with him many of his own friends, and was delighted to have the artist for a while practically to himself and his own circle of acquaintance. This turned the tide once more in the artist's favour, and prosperity never again deserted him.

ELIZABETH, COUNTESS-DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND.

He now became the serious rival of Reynolds, who spoke of him in slighting manner as "the man in Cavendish Square," pretending, with studied insult, to have entirely forgotten his name.

All the world of fashion and wealth sat to the artist, and his list of portraits reads like a page from the fashionable gazette of the day, including as it does all the persons who were then well known in town and who constituted the cream of society.

The opportunity now arose for Romney to show how indifferent he was to the slights and contempt of his fellow-artists who ranged themselves around Sir Joshua.

The Royal Academy had at this time sprung into being, and its members desired to include all the chief artists in their ranks, and to show that those outside their membership were not worthy of attention. All their efforts, however, to include the name of the most fashionable artist of the time, or to hang his pictures on the walls of the exhibition, were in vain.

Romney was begged by his great friend Jeremiah Meyer, one of the leading miniature-painters and an original member of the new Academy, to come within its shelter. He was also approached by Mrs. Moser, by Humphrey, and by Angelica Kauffmann, all of whom desired him to exhibit his works. But it was in vain, and never did Romney send a single picture to the exhibitions of the Royal Academy. He completely ignored it, would not suffer it to be mentioned in his presence, considered that it was not worthy of any recognition, and went on painting pictures of all the loveliest women of society, but declining to allow a single one of them to be shown in the exhibitions of the Academy.

This determination was partly dictated, no doubt, by modesty, as there is every evidence that Romney was a modest, retiring, shy man, and even at the very zenith of his fame was not found in the brilliant society in which the President delighted. He was fond of his home and of his son, and was not a gay but a quiet man; but there is little doubt that his refusal to share in the glories of the Academy was also partly the result of his wish to show to those who had been bitter and who were still jealous of his fame that he was quite able to stand alone, and did not require the aid of any Academy to render his works popular or to enhance his fame.

The determination cost him the patronage of the Court and of a certain select group of persons who followed the lead of the King and did not select for themselves, but it is probable that in the long run the artist did not really suffer thereby.

He was a self-respecting and unassuming man at all times, and was not in the habit of forcing his way into any society or of appealing for commissions from his friends.

No flattery escaped his lips, no adulation of those who could assist him by their introductions and so render him the aid which he required; and in all these ways he was the reverse of those who were around him, and who used every artifice to bring themselves into popular notice and shrank from no ignoble effort to obtain patronage.

In 1779 he seems to have paid one of his infrequent visits to his wife in Kendal, and to have refreshed himself by a sight of his native county; but he was soon back again and hard at work.

It was perhaps at about this time that he first made the acquaintance of William Hayley, a poet, who had a great celebrity at that time, but whose chief work, "The Triumphs of Temper," is now never read.

The influence of this man upon Romney was not good, and of it his son, the Rev. John Romney, in after years spoke with much bitterness. Romney was, as has been already stated, fond of building work, and pleased to see an opportunity of increasing a house or studio; and this propensity of his was encouraged by Hayley, who loved to make a sensation and to live in a large house; and although Hayley was fond of Romney and brought him many commissions, yet on the whole the judgment of later days is certainly to the effect that it would have been better for Romney if he had never met this attractive friend.

For over twenty years the two men continued fast friends, and Romney used often to go down to stay with Hayley at Eartham, near Chichester, and spent some weeks during each autumn with him. He decorated part of the house, painting some delightful pictures to be placed in the new library that Hayley built; and he met there many pleasant friends, amongst whom were the poet Cowper and his friend Mrs. Unwin, in connection with whom is the chief claim that Hayley has for remembrance, and also the young sculptor Flaxman, for whom Romney acquired a deep friendship.

Hayley was a man of fine taste, personal fascination and amiability, and fond of associating with men of culture and quality; and it is for his friends rather than for any work that he himself did that his memory is kept in honour. Romney is said to have first met him when, returning from Kendal, he stopped awhile at Tabley as the guest of Sir John Leicester; and, as they were all of them great admirers of Pope, the acquaintance began which lasted for so many years, brought them into contact with Cowper and with Gibbon, and eventually made Hayley one of the biographers of Romney.

In 1790 Romney again went to Paris, this time accompanied by his friend Hayley and by the Rev. Thomas Carwardine, whose portrait he had painted.

They were well received in that city, and visited many of the chief galleries, with introductions from the English Ambassador, who at the time was Lord Gower, afterwards second Marquess of Stafford and first Duke of Sutherland.

During this visit Hayley is said to have obtained the first of several loans that he got from Romney and never repaid. In this case it was £100.

On his return to London he was again almost overwhelmed with work, as more than ever he had become the fashion, and his portraits were desired by all who could afford to sit to him. The strain, however, of such constant work was beginning to tell upon the artist, who by this time was sixty years old, and he was glad of any excuse to leave town for a while to rest himself in the country.

He took a little cottage at Hampstead, to which he could retire for quiet; he stayed more and more with Hayley at Eartham, desiring some of his clients to come to him there, that in the quiet of that restful spot he might do fuller justice to their charms than he was able to do amid the turmoils of London life.

Whilst there he often rode over to Petworth, where he was painting portraits for Lord Egremont, and in these ways he got the country air and rest that were out of the question when he was in town. He did not, however, improve in mental vigour; but the old mania for building came on with greater force than ever, and unfortunately Hayley did not scruple to encourage it for his own ends.

THE PARSON'S DAUGHTER.

In 1796 he was found one day by his son busy with extravagant ideas and designs for a great mansion in Edgware Road, and it was only the fact that his son was able to point out the folly of such an idea which dissuaded him from its accomplishment. The proposed purchase was eventually broken off, and Mr. John Romney records in his volume most gratefully his thankfulness to the solicitor, who behaved very handsomely in this matter.

Romney was, however, determined to leave Cavendish Square, and, acting on the advice of his son to buy a ready-built house rather than to erect one, he purchased an old dwelling-house near Holly Bush Hill, Hampstead, now identified with that known as The Mount, Heath Street, Hampstead, close to where he had been in the habit of lodging for some little while, and where he found the quiet and retirement which he desired.

This happened in 1796, and Romney let the residence in Cavendish Square and went to reside at Hampstead.

The accommodation did not, however, content him, and he acquired two copyhold plots of ground at the back of the house, on which he forthwith erected what Hayley describes as "a singular fabric," but which Cunningham calls a "strange new studio and dwelling-house."

He adds that it "cost £2,733, and was an odd whimsical structure, in which there was nothing like sufficient domestic accommodation, though there was a wooden arcade for a riding house in the garden, and a very extensive picture and statue gallery."

There is little doubt that this structure forms part of what is at present the Constitutional Club, the large room being Romney's picture gallery, although considerable additions have been made to the building.

In 1798 he had sold his London house to Mr., afterwards Sir Martin Shee, and, as this strange structure was ready, he moved into it, and let off to a Mrs. Rundell the old adjacent house in which he had been residing.

The new "whimsical" structure was not really complete when the artist went to live in it. The walls were not dry, the roof let in water; but the artist insisted on moving into his fanciful residence, and on taking with him the vast stock he had of his own pictures and those by other artists which he had collected.

Many of them were quickly injured by the damp of the house, and others by being placed in the open arcade; and Flaxman in a letter records the distress that he felt at seeing so fine a collection of works perishing.

Romney was now more than ever under the influence of Hayley, which was being used to its full and baneful extent, and other persons were taken into the house on the advice of the poet to assist the artist and to look after him, who were all more or less creatures of Hayley.

Hayley was considerably in Romney's debt, and was anxious, it is clear, that no one of repute should look into the affairs of the painter, but that his influence should reign supreme.

In 1798, however, Romney broke away from this state of affairs, and, accompanied by his son, who was devoted to him, and whose absence at his religious duties was the only reason which prevented his dwelling always with the artist, visited the north of England, not, however, as far as can be ascertained, going to Kendal.

A pleasant holiday was spent in the Lake district, but the mental vigour of the old artist did not gain much increase of strength by the change, and when he returned to London his health had completely broken down.

The following year he was again at Eartham with Hayley, but for the last time. Hayley's good nature towards his friends, his extravagant habits and his luxurious life, combined with utter neglect of monetary matters, had brought about the necessity for stern retrenchment, and Eartham was to be sold. He removed to Felpham, where he built a cottage near the sea, and there he and his son resided till the death of the latter, shortly afterwards; but at the earnest advice of Flaxman and his wife, coupled with the entreaties of his son, Romney went north back again to his wife, of whom he had seen so little for many years. She received him gladly and with open arms, and nursed him to the end with the most touching tenderness.

The last event of his life was the return from India of his brother, Colonel James Romney, to whom he had always been greatly attached, and for whom he had suffered some privations in order that the requisite sum needful for the Colonel's advancement might be sent him many years before.

The aged artist was, however, hardly able to recognize his beloved brother. He soon afterwards became completely childish in mind, and never again regained his intellectual powers.

EMMA, LADY HAMILTON.

He died on November 15th, 1802, at the age of sixty-eight, passing away in the arms of his wife, who devoted herself entirely to him up to the moment of his death. She survived him for many years.