"Sir William Hamilton, old and bent, inspects his antiques. He stands in profile to left, looking through spectacles held in his right hand and reversed. He wears a round hat, a spencer over his coat and spurred top-boots, a stick in his (gloved) left hand; an expressive glove issues from his coat pocket. The objects at which he gazes are on a cloth-covered table. In the centre is a bust of 'Lais', the head that of Lady Hamilton, with fashionably dressed hair, but with nose, mouth, and chin broken away. Next it is a nude and headless Bacchante holding up a bunch of grapes (this was one of his wife's famous attitudes). Behind is a term with the head of a bull inscribed 'APIS'. Other objects are a weeping Cupid with a broken arrow, a grotesque goblet, a cracked chamber-pot on which nude figures dance. Against the wall (right) stands a mummy-like figure of 'MIDAS', with ass's ears. Other grotesque and broken objects stand on the carpet. On the wall are four pictures (left to right): 'Cleopatra', Lady Hamilton, three-quarter length, indecently décolletée and holding a bottle of 'Gin'; 'Mark Antony', Nelson, three-quarter length, a sea-fight in the background; a volcano in eruption; 'Claudius', a profile half length of Hamilton turning his back on the other pictures, the frame decorated with a stag's head."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Cognocenti contemplating the beauties of the antique and Cognoscenti contemplating the beauties of the antique
Description:
Title etched below image., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., Temporary local subject terms: Antiques -- Literature reference: Hamilton, Sir William, 1730-1803: Observations on Mount Vesuvius., and Matted to 62 x 49 cm.
Publisher:
Pubd. Feby. 11th, 1801, by H. Humphrey, 27 St. James's Street
"A bedroom scene. Lady Hamilton, grotesquely fat, but with traces of beauty in her features, rises from a curtained bed, arms and one leg extended in a burlesqued gesture of despair. She wears a nightgown and lace-trimmed cap. Behind her in the shadowed depths of the bed the night-capped head of her elderly and (?) sleeping husband, rests on the pillow. She looks, weeping, towards an open sash-window through which is seen a fleet sailing towards the horizon. In the window (left) is a cushioned window seat on which (besides a stocking) is an open book: 'Studies of Academic Attitudes taken from the Life'; on one page is a nude woman lying in sensual abandonment. On the right against the curtains of the bed is a dressing-table on which, besides toilet-articles, are a flask of 'Maraschino', a 'Composing Draught', and a pot of 'Rouge à la Naples'. On the carpeted floor (right) are objects from Sir W. Hamilton's collection, with an open book: 'Antiquities of Herculaneum Naples Caprea &c. &c.'; on the right page is a satyr chasing a nymph. They include an oval gem, a figure of a squatting monster, headless, the base inscribed 'Pri[apus]', a laughing bust of 'Messalina', statues of a Venus and a Satyr, coins or medals, one inscribed 'Ovid', another 'Tibertius'. In front of Lady Hamilton are the slippers she has kicked off, and a garter inscribed 'The Hero of the Nile'."--British Museum online catalogue
Description:
Title etched below image., Four lines of quoted verse, two on either side of title, etched below image: "Ah, where & ah where, is my gallant sailor gone? "He's gone to fight the Frenchmen, for George upon the throne. "He's gone to fight [the] Frenchmen, t' loose t' other arm & eye. "And left me with the old antiques, to lay me down & cry., "Dido" is a reference to a character from Virgil's Aeneid., Sheet trimmed within plate mark., and BAC: British Art Center copy is hand-colored. Bound with (as frontispiece): A new edition considerably enlarged, of Attitudes faithfully copied from nature (London: H. Humphrey, 1807).
Publisher:
Pubd. Feby. 6th, 1801, by H. Humphrey, No. 27 St. James Street, London
Harding, G. P. (George Perfect), 1780-1853, artist
Published / Created:
[not after 1824]
Call Number:
Folio 33 30 Copy 4
Image Count:
1
Resource Type:
still image
Abstract:
Portrait drawing of Sir William Hamilton, bust-length, in profile facing left; apparently after the Wedgwood medallion in Horace Walpole's collection at Strawberry Hill
Description:
Title written in ink in open letters below image., Unsigned; attribution to George Perfect Harding from unverified data in local card catalog record., Date based on date of William Bawtree's death., and Mounted on page 40 of William Bawtree's extra-illustrated copy of: Horace Walpole's A description of the villa of Mr. Horace Walpole (Strawberry Hill : Printed by Thomas Kirgate, 1784). See A.T. Hazen's Bibliography of the Strawberry Hill Press (1973 ed.), no. 30, copy 11.
Subject (Name):
Hamilton, William, Sir, 1730-1803, and Strawberry Hill (Twickenham, London, England)
Portrait drawing of the diplomat and antiquarian William Hamilton; bust length, in profile to the left; hair in a ponytail; wearing a jacket and cravat
Description:
Title inscribed below image, in ink in a contemporary hand., Unsigned; artist unidentified., Place and date of production based on the country of residence and death date of Richard Bull, who owned and likely assembled the album in which this drawing was found., Hamilton's diplomatic position is written on mount below image, in ink in a contemporary hand: English Minister at Naples., Mounted with three other drawings on what was formerly page 89 in an album containing 402 pages, bound in red morocco leather with single gilt ruled line; spine stamped in gold "Drawings." Now disassembled and matted separately: Bull, R. Scrapbook of drawings. [England], [not after 1806]., Matted together with three other drawings to 49 x 37 cm., and Original case shelved separately.
Sketchbook containing 37 watercolors done by Ellis Cornelia Knight while on board Lord Nelson's flagship the Foudroyant with Sir William and Lady Emma Hamilton in 1800. Twenty-six sketches are views taken from the ship off the coast of Sicily, under sail to Malta, and returning from Malta to Palermo. There are also sketches taken in Palermo prior to sailing, and on excursions from the ship near Syracuse. Sketch 2, for example, shows the villa of Prince Ventimiglieri in Palermo; sketch 19 shows an excursion party rowing near Syracuse. There is an index at the back of the volume
Description:
Ellis Cornelia Knight (1757-1837), writer, governess and protégé of Lady Emma Hamilton, whom she broke with after Lady Hamilton's affair with Lord Nelson became public knowledge in England. Knight's works include Dinarbas: A Tale (1790) and Sir Guy de Lusignan (1833)., In English., Inscribed on verso of flyleaf by Knight: "This book was commenced at Palermo in Sicily, 1800. Finished at Windsor, 1806.", and Binding: contemporary full calf; gilt decoration.
"Portrait after Reynolds (Mannings 823); whole-length seated to left, facing and eyes to upper right, wearing sash and star, with a large volume held in both hands and resting on his lap, his left elbow resting on table to right with decorative jug and rolls of paper; the floor scattered with books, papers and artefacts, and a large urn to right; curtain above and landscape through window to left."--British Museum online catalogue
Alternative Title:
Honble. Sir William Hamilton, K.B. and Honourable Sir William Hamilton, K.B.
Description:
Title engraved below image., Imprint from impression in the British Museum online catalogue., Description based on imperfect impression; sheet trimmed within plate mark with loss of imprint., and Bottom two corners also trimmed at an angle; mounted to sheet 693 x 448 mm.
Publisher:
Published Decr. 20th. 1787 by H. Hudson, and sold by J. Young No. 28 Newman Street, London
