Over the years a number of important works by Romney have been lost from view. Some will have been destroyed, but it seems likely that others are in attics or dusty rooms somewhere unrecognised and unappreciated. The following is a partial list.
The originals would be very valuable and it would be wonderful if some can be found and identified and brought back into public awareness. So we invite everyone interested in Romney to become a detective. See if you can find a missing Romney. Maybe your own one? If you think you may have discovered one, send details and photographs to the Romney Society and we will give our opinion and advice. |
If you would like to report a missing Romney or request some advise, please contact us.
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Some missing Romneys:
Emma Hart (Lady Hamilton) as Alope
Romney’s original painting was made in 1784-5 and measured 129.5 x 160 cm (50¾ x 63 inches). It was bought by Admiral Vernon and descended in his family to Capt. Bruce Canning Vernon-Wentworth (1862-1951) of Wentworth Castle near Barnsley, in whose possession it was recorded by Herbert Maxwell in 1902.
The work’s appearance is known not only from the engraving by Richard Earlom published in 1787 but also from a small oil copy (illustrated) which may be presumed to follow Romney’s colour scheme. |
A Wood Nymph
Romney’s original painting was painted either when he was in Rome between 1773 and early 1775 or immediately following his return to London in the latter year. It was based on life studies of a Roman female model. One of the first works by Romney to be engraved following his return from Italy, it seems to have remained on his hands until 1786, when Romney sold it to his client the surgeon Thomas Keate (1745-1821). Its size is unknown.
Whether Keate retained the painting until his death is unclear, for a Recumbent Wood Nymph, a Whole Length Figure, Worthy [of] the abilities of this esteemed Master attributed to Romney was sold at Peter Coxe’s auction house on 7 May 1805, apparently consigned by Sir John Boyd, 2nd Baronet (1750-1815). This work had probably been acquired by his father (d. 1800) who was a noted collector. Valentine Green’s engraving (illustrated) is the only known evidence for the appearance of Romney’s painting. |
Thomas Paine
One of Romney’s most celebrated likenesses, the portrait of the radical Tom Paine was painted in 1792. It measured 30 x 25 inches. In 1794 its owner, Thomas Cooper took it with him when he emigrated to America. There it became the basis for several copies, but despite claims that surviving canvases are either Romney’s original or known to have been taken directly from it, there is no certain trace of the picture after the early years of the nineteenth century.
William Sharp’s engraving of 1793 (illustrated) – itself the source of many copies – probably remains the most reliable visual evidence for the appearance of Romney’s picture. |
Two Sisters Contemplating on Mortality
Romney painted this work in 1766-1767 and exhibited it at the Free Society of Artists in the spring of the latter year, where it was described in the catalogue as a half-length (i.e. measuring 50 x 40 inches). There is conflicting evidence as to whether it was a commissioned portrait, which would have entered the possession of one of the sitters after the exhibition, or a fancy picture which remained on Romney’s hands. The strong balance of probability is towards the latter.
Although many sketches for the work are known, Robert Dunkarton’s engraving of 1770 (illustrated) provides the best evidence for its final appearance. It is possible that Dunkarton omitted to return the picture to Romney after making the print. |
Mrs Forster as Circe
Mrs Forster, whose identity is unknown, gave five sittings for her full-length (approximately 90 x 60 inches) portrait in 1776. At the outset Romney seems to have been asked to make two versions of it but the commission was aborted and both canvases, still unfinished, remained on his hands. After his death they were put into his studio sale, where they were acquired by two dealers, Nicholl and Bryan (who bought the more finished of the two). The titles given in the sale catalogue establish that Romney conceived Mrs Forster as a personification of Circe, the enchantress.
Evidence for the appearance of Romney’s composition is tenuous but a series of drawings of a full-length female figure holding a switch or wand which have often been identified as depicting Lady Hamilton as Circe (a painting Romney began in 1782) probably relate instead to the portrait of Mrs Forster. The drawing illustrated here is in the Huntington Art Collections. |
Miss Vernon as the Seamstress
Romney’s painting, whose model was former client Caroline Vernon, later Mrs Bobus Smith, was probably painted in 1785. It was acquired by Admiral Edward Vernon, Miss Vernon’s uncle, and passed by descent to Capt. Bruce Canning Vernon-Wentworth (1862-1951) of Wentworth Castle near Barnsley, in whose possession it was recorded by Herbert Maxwell in 1902. This provenance is the same as that of the missing Lady Hamilton as Alope (q.v.) and it is perfectly possible that the two pictures are still together.
The work’s appearance is known from the 1787 engraving by Thomas Cheesman (illustrated); copies in oil are also known. |
The Johnes Family
Romney’s large group portrait of the family of Col. Thomas Johnes of Hafod, Carmarthenshire, was painted over a long period between 1779 and 1794. Johnes was periodically in financial difficulties and did not pay over the full sum he owed for the picture until 1806, four years after Romney’s death. The following year his mansion at Hafod was badly damaged in a fire. A contemporary source lists the pictures destroyed in the blaze and Romney’s picture is not among them, but there must be a presumption that – assuming it was hanging there by then – this very large painting would have been difficult to rescue and even if not burnt, was later disposed of or written off by the family.
The work’s appearance is known from a miniature copy (illustrated) which was presumably made by a student while the painting was still in Romney’s studio. |
The Death of General Wolfe
Romney’s early historical masterpiece was exhibited and awarded a prize in 1763. It made waves and other artists, most notably Benjamin West, followed him in depicting the event, one of the climactic moments of the recent Seven Years War. It is known from a contemporary comment that the figures in the painting were life size, which suggests that it was probably around seven or eight feet high. It became the property of Harry Verelst, the Governor of Bengal from 1767 to 1769, who hung it in the Council Chamber at Calcutta. It is unclear whether he brought it back with him when he returned to England at the end of the latter year, and its subsequent fate is unknown.
Although three oil sketches for the figures of Wolfe and one of his fellow officers survive, the best evidence for the whole composition (illustrated) is a thumbnail pencil study in one of Romney’s sketchbooks of the period. This conforms closely to Horace Walpole’s written description of the composition. |
John Henderson as Macbeth
Although probably begun some years earlier, Romney’s painting of the actor John Henderson in the role of Macbeth, with Banquo and the three witches in the first act of Shakespeare’s play, was mostly carried out in 1785. It was completed after Henderson’s death in that year and measured approximately 55 x 64 inches. It was won in a raffle by the surgeon William Long, a member of Romney’s close circle, and descended in his family until 1896. Numerous copies of the picture are known, but it was probably the original which was shown in 1897 at the Grafton Galleries’ Exhibition of Dramatic and Musical Art, lent by J. H. Leigh. It has not re-appeared since.
The engraving by John Jones published in 1787 (illustrated) provides evidence of the work’s appearance. |
The Introduction of Doctor Slop into the Parlour of Tristram Shandy
This is one of three subjects from Laurence Sterne’s new novel Tristram Shandy painted by Romney in the early 1760s under the influence of Hogarth’s illustrations for the book. This one – the only one for which any visual record survives, was included in Romney’s lottery held in Kendal Town Hall and measured 30 x 25 inches. It was last traced in the early years of the 19th century in the ownership of Romney’s patron, the Kendal-born judge Sir Alan Chambré, who died in 1823.
The engraving by William Haines (illustrated) was commissioned by Romney’s friend William Hayley for his biography published in 1809. |
Copy of the lower half of Raphael’s The Transfiguration
This was the last and most significant of the copies from Old Master paintings that Romney made during his stay in Rome between June 1773 and January 1775, and must have been a fascinating testament to his creative dialogue with the great artists of the past. It was made in ‘oil and umber’ [i.e. in monochrome] on sheets of paper which were joined together and fixed onto a large canvas. The work remained in Romney’s studio for the rest of his life and was included in his posthumous sale, where it was bought by the dealer Woodburn. It may be the same work that resurfaced the following year in Sir William Hillary’s sale as Romney’s Cartoon representing the lower part of Raphael’s celebrated picture of the Transfiguration… a noble transcript of this capital Subject. This was described in the sale catalogue as eight feet square (Raphael’s original is nine feet wide and the bottom half of it is not square, but Romney could have made slight adjustments). Hillary’s picture was bought in and he retired to the Isle of Man shortly afterwards – possibly taking the work with him.
No image of Romney’s copy is known but Raphael’s own canvas provides evidence of what it would have looked like. |
Mater Dolorosa
The subject of the Virgin Mary mourning Christ on the cross was commissioned from Romney in 1776 by his former patron Thomas Orde, as an intended altarpiece for King’s College Cambridge. It was in a state of ‘great forwardness’ when the commission was aborted and was ‘never afterwards touched’. The canvas appeared in Romney’s posthumous sale where it was bought by the dealer Bryan for a guinea.
Many of Romney’s studies for the painting, chiefly in ink and wash, survive. The one illustrated is in a British private collection. |
Shipwreck at the Cape of Good Hope
Although the event depicted took place in 1773 and Romney may have made the first of his studies for a painting of the subject soon afterwards, it was the mid-1790s before he began a sustained campaign of work on it. Besides several drawings he made a remarkable oil sketch, which was salvaged from Romney’s last house at Hampstead by his friend William Hayley. He seems to have stored it with Romney’s framemaker and general agent William Saunders, and never taken it into his personal possession. There is tenuous evidence that it measured 64 x 87 inches.
The engraving for Hayley’s biography (illustrated) was by William Blake. He reported returning the work to Saunders – the last known reference to its whereabouts – in December 1805. |
King Lear Awakened by his Daughter Cordelia
Painted in Lancaster in 1761 and measuring 42 x 52 inches, this stood at the head of the list of the pictures in Romney’s Kendal lottery of March 1762. It was later discovered in a broker’s shop in Kensington by one of the sons of Romney’s friend Adam Walker, who had modelled the figure of King Lear. Walker junior gave the painting to his father, who is recorded as owning it in 1804 when William Blake reported on seeing it that it was ‘an incomparable production… exquisite for expression… the heads of Lear and Cordelia can never be surpassed’. It has not re-emerged since.
Although no image of the painting is known, two of Romney’s oil studies for the heads of Cordelia (illustrated) and Lear survive together in a private collection in the USA. |