Lady Hamilton as Nature
published 1784
Medium
mezzotint
Dimensions
sheet: 45.5 × 32.1 cm (17 15/16 × 12 5/8 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.9109
Art Historical Context
**Lady Hamilton as Nature** is a captivating mezzotint print in 1784 by John Raphael Smith after an original painting by the celebrated English portraitist George Romney. Romney, a master of the 18th-century Romantic style, frequently depicted the enchanting Emma Hamilton—then Lady Hamilton—in allegorical guises, capturing her as a muse of beauty and sensuality. Here she embodies "Nature," draped in flowing fabrics amid lush, evocative surroundings, reflecting the era's neoclassical fascination with antiquity and the natural world. Mezzotint, Smith's specialty, revolutionized printmaking with...