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SOME OLD TIME BEAUTIES
After Portraits by the English Masters, with Embellishment and Comment
by
THOMSON WILLING
Boston
Joseph Knight Company
MDCCCXCV
CONTENTS
GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE
Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough
MARY, HONORABLE MRS. GRAHAM
Portrait by Thomas Gainsborough.
EMMA, LADY HAMILTON
Portrait by George Romney.
MRS. SHERIDAN
Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
MARGUERITE, COUNTESS BLESSINGTON
Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence.
MARY ISABELLA, DUCHESS OF RUTLAND
Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
LAVINIA, COUNTESS SPENCER
Portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OF HAMILTON
Portrait by Catharine Read.
MARIA, COUNTESS OF COVENTRY
Portrait by Gavin Hamilton.
ELIZABETH, COUNTESS GROSVENOR
Portrait by Sir Thomas Lawrence.
[Illustration: GEORGIANA, DUCHESS OF DEVONSHIRE by GAINSBOROUGH]
HER GRACE OF DEVONSHIRE
The Dashing Duchess,--the impulsive, ebullient beauty whose smile
swayed ministers, and for whose favor princes were beggars! A
loveliness of manner, as of feature, such seductive color,--glowing
carnations,--and such golden-brown hair, with a fine figure, made up
an opulent personality, than which no more consummate type of beauty
has been preserved to us by painter or poet.
Georgiana Spencer was the daughter of Lord Spencer, afterwards first
Earl Spencer; but her impulsiveness, her waywardness, and improvidence
were a legacy from her grandfather, "Jack" Spencer, the grandson and
special favorite of the beautiful Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Her
"Torismond," she called him. His was a career of profligacy, a course
of error and extravagance. His mother was Lady Sunderland, known in
society as "the little Whig," from her small stature and her
persistent politics. Her party badge was always worn,--the black patch
on the left side of the face, as distinguished from the Tory fashion
of wearing it on the right side. So Georgiana came legitimately by her
beauty, her Whiggish politics, and her versatile vivacity of manner,
as well as her improvidence and indiscretion.
But her mother's strong character was a potent influence. She was the
daughter of the Right Honorable Stephen Poyntz, and was of high repute
for generosity, for sensibility, for charity, and for courteous
dignity of demeanor. We hear of Georgiana being a beautiful child; and
Reynolds as well as Gainsborough, both made painted record of that
childish beauty. Her brightness of mind gave her an interest in art,
in music, and in literature; and, though not proficient in the
practice of either, she had more than the society woman's knowledge of
them. At seventeen, she married William, fifth Duke of Devonshire,
ten years her senior. His was a temperament antipathetic to
hers,--unsympathetic, unimpressionable, and taciturn, yet withal of
the Cavendish characteristic persistency of purpose and honest intent.
The Duchess at once became a queen of society in the Carlton House
Court. Devonshire House was an assembly place for the Whigs; and its
lovely mistress was the hostess of many a statesman exalted by his
wit, as of many a politician with following by virtue of his station.
Like all radical companies, it was a motley mixture that found welcome
there. The Prince of Wales was a devotee. The then shining Sheridan
was a frequenter; but with the name of Fox has that of the Duchess
been more associated than of aught other. Her supremacy among these
companions was not in the manner of the French Salon leaders,--while
wit, knowledge, and tact were hers, she lived not by learning, but by
her liveliness and jollity. She was not the scholar in politics, but
the politician among scholars out of school.
It was a roystering, revelling company; and political as well as
personal penury became the portion of many as the result of these
improvident and profligate days. The episode of the Duchess's career
which is most known, is her purchase, by a kiss, of a vote for Fox
when she was championing his cause in an election, and canvassing for
votes in company with her sister, Lady Duncannon. It was said, "never
before had two such lovely portraits appeared on a canvass." A butcher
bargained for his vote by asking a kiss from the lovely lips of the
seductive Duchess. The price was paid, amid the plaudits of the crowd.
An Irish elector, impressed by the fair appellant's vivacity,
exclaimed: "I could light my pipe at her eyes."
Fox was elected for the Tory borough of Westminster, and great was the
rejoicing at Carlton House. A _fete_ was given on the grounds the day
following, and the ordinarily well-apparelled Prince appeared in a
superb costume of the radical colors, blue and buff. This was the
period of the Duchess's greatest glory, as well as of her most superb
charm of personality; and it was about this period that Gainsborough
painted his perennially delightful presentment of her. She was then
twenty-seven years of age, and had been married ten years. Wraxall
wrote what is probably the best contemporary description of her: "The
personal charms of the Duchess of Devonshire constituted her smallest
pretensions to universal admiration; nor did her beauty consist, like
that of the Gunnings, in regularity of features, and faultless
formation of limbs and shape; it lay in the amenity and graces of her
deportment, in her irresistible manners, and the seduction of her
society. Her hair was not without a tinge of red; and her face, though
pleasing, yet, had it not been illuminated by her mind, might have
been considered an ordinary countenance."
It is said of Gainsborough that, while painting the Duchess, "he drew
his wet pencil across a mouth all thought exquisitely lovely, saying,
'Her Grace is too hard for me.'"
The lady later knew the cuts of comment, and the keen pain of
justifiable jealousy. The rival in her husband's attentions was Lady
Elizabeth Foster, daughter of the Earl of Bristol, a brunette of
handsome presence, and at the death of Georgiana, in 1806, she became
the second wife of the Duke. There was an apparent friendship between
the ladies, and Lady Elizabeth for a time lived under the same roof as
the Duchess.
Madame d'Arblay, in 1791, visited her at Bath, and made record then of
her introduction to the Duchess, and indicated the premonition of
trouble in this wise. "Presently followed two ladies; Lady Spencer,
with a look and manner warmly announcing pleasure in what she was
doing, then introduced me to the first of them, saying, 'Duchess of
Devonshire, Miss Burney.' She made me a very civil compliment upon
hoping my health was recovering; and Lady Spencer then, slightly, and
as if unavoidably, said, 'Lady Elizabeth Foster.'" Gibbon said of the
latter, that, "No man could withstand her; and that if she chose to
beckon the Lord Chancellor from his woolsack, in full sight of the
world, he could not resist obedience." Reynolds painted a portrait of
her, showing a bright-eyed, smiling lady, with close-curled hair, of
girlish appearance. In Samuel Rogers's "Table Talk" are several
mentions of the famous Georgiana, and especially one which tells of
her love for gambling. "Gaming was the rage during her day; she
indulged in it, and was made miserable by her debts. A faro-table was
kept by Martindale, at which the Duchess and other high fashionables
used to play. Sheridan said that the Duchess and Martindale had agreed
that whatever they two won from each other should be sometimes
_double_, sometimes _treble_, what it was called. And Sheridan assured
me that he had handed the Duchess into her carriage when she was
literally sobbing at her losses, she having lost fifteen hundred
pounds, when it was supposed to be only five hundred pounds." A life
such as she then led surely affected her appearance. In 1783, Walpole
wrote: "The Duchess of Devonshire, the empress of fashion, is no
beauty at all. She was a very fine woman, with all the freshness of
youth and health, but verges fast to a coarseness."
The offspring of the Duchess Georgiana were: Georgiana Dorothy,
afterwards Countess Carlisle, whose letters were lately published, and
exhibit an original observation and a terse style of record; Henrietta
Elizabeth, later Countess Granville; and a son, who succeeded to the
Dukedom. About the latter's birth was some mystery; insinuation was
active. The Duchess had little liking for domestic life, so normal
neglect of child may have been construed into an unnatural dislike.
Her son never married. Through the stress of the home infelicity, her
beauty waned; but her bearing and breeding kept her paramount in her
set. She is known to this later generation only as a superb beauty who
stands with such opulent charm of costume, and of fine hauteur of
manner, amid the noble groves of Chatsworth--as the once potential
original of Gainsborough's greatest portrait. "The bust outlasts the
throne, the coin Tiberius."
A most pathetic tribute to the beauty of the Duchess was paid by
"Peter Pindar" (Dr. Wolcot), who addressed "A Petition to Time in
favor of the Duchess of Devonshire," and implored the Inexorable
thus:--
"Hurt not the form that all admire.
Oh, never with white hairs her temple sprinkle!
Oh, sacred be her cheek, her lip, her bloom!
And do not, in a lovely dimple's room,
Place a hard mortifying wrinkle.
"Know shouldst thou bid the beauteous duchess fade,
Thou, therefore, must thy own delights invade;
And know, 't will be a long, long while
Before thou givest her equal to our isle.
Then do not with this sweet _chef-d'oeuvre_ part,
But keep to show the triumph of thy art."
A dramatic fate has befallen the original canvas. In 1875, it was sold
at auction, and was bought by a firm of dealers for the then highest
price paid for a single picture in England. The publicity gained by
this was taken advantage of by the purchasers to exhibit the picture.
One morning when the gallery was opened, the frame only was there; the
picture had vanished. The canvas is lost.
[Illustration: MARY, THE HONORABLE MRS GRAHAM by GAINSBOROUGH]
LOVELY MARY CATHCART
Like the happiest countries that have no history, the tranquil life of
joyous content leaves little to chronicle. Only in the nobility of
character of a husband who grieved her loss for years, and in his
strong dignity, and devotion to her memory, do we get a hint of the
gracious and good lady whom Gainsborough has made immortal for us.
And in that phrase of her lifetime, "lovely Mary Cathcart," is a whole
biography of benignity and beauty. She came of one of the most ancient
and noble families in Scotland, and was the daughter of the ninth
Baron Cathcart, called "Cathcart of Fontenoy." Her brother William
became the tenth Baron, and afterwards the first Earl Cathcart. He had
studied law, but abandoned it for the army, and had a gallant career
therein; becoming a lieutenant-general in 1801, and commander-in-chief
of the expedition to Copenhagen in 1807; afterwards acquiring
reputation as ambassador for several years at St. Petersburg. He was
perhaps the earliest of British noblemen to marry American beauties;
having wedded the daughter of Andrew Elliott of New York, in 1779.
In November, 1774, there was rejoicing among the retainers of the
House of Cathcart, for there was to be a double wedding. The eldest
daughter, "Jenny," was married to the Duke of Athole, that same Duke
who became a friendly patron of Burns, and in reference to whom the
poet writes, when addressing some verses to him: "It eases my heart a
good deal, as rhyme is the coin with which a poet pays his debts of
honor and gratitude. What I owe to the noble family of Athole, of the
first kind, I shall ever proudly boast; what I owe of the last, so
help me God, in my hour of need I shall never forget."
The second sister, the Hon. Mary, was married to Sir Thomas Graham of
Balgowan, a descendant of the Marquis of Montrose and of Graham of
Claverhouse. The youngest sister, Louisa, later became Countess of
Mansfield, and her portrait, by Romney,--a seated profile figure with
flowing draperies,--is that artist's most masterly work.
After eighteen years of happy married life, she died childless; one of
those good women that were--
"True in loving all their lives,"--
"a surpassing spirit whose light adorned the world around it." Her
husband grieved greatly. He was ordered to travel to divert his
despair. He visited Gibraltar, and there the dormant martial spirit of
his ancestors was aroused by his environment. Though then forty-three
years of age, he immediately entered the army as a volunteer. He
rapidly rose in his profession, and had an especially brilliant career
in the Peninsular War. In 1811, he became the hero of Barossa, and in
the same year was made second in command to the Duke of Wellington. He
was created Lord Lynedoch of Balgowan, Perthshire, and frequently was
thanked by Parliament for his services. Sheridan said, "Never was
there a loftier spirit in a braver heart." And alluding to his
services during the retreat to Corunna, he said, "Graham was their
best adviser in the hour of peril; and in the hour of disaster, their
surest consolation." Scott eulogizes him in the poem, "The Vision of
Don Roderick," in the lines,--
"Nor be his praise o'erpast who strove to hide
Beneath the warrior's vest affection's wound,
Whose wish Heaven for his country's weal denied;
Danger and fate, he sought, but glory found.
"From clime to clime, wher'e'r war's trumpets sound,
The wanderer went; yet, Caledonia, still
Thine was his thought in march and tented ground;
He dreamed mid Alpine cliffs of Athole's hill,
And heard in Ebro's roar his Lynedoch's lovely rill.
"O hero of a race renowned of old,
Whose war-cry oft has waked the battle swell!"
Old Dr. John Brown, of Edinburgh, wrote of a late Duke of Athole:
"Courage, endurance, stanchness, fidelity, and warmth of heart,
simplicity, and downrightness, were his staples." They are ever the
staples of the Scotch character, and they were all pre-eminent in Sir
Thomas. His life was noble, and his affection was faithful to its
early troth.
A pathetic history attaches to this picture of Mrs. Graham: When its
subject died, the sorrowing husband had it bricked up where it hung,
and it was only by an accident that it was discovered at his death, in
1843. It now hangs in the National Gallery of Scotland at Edinburgh.
The present reproduction shows but a part of the picture, the figure
being full length. It has been excellently reproduced in etching by
both Flameng and Waltner.
In 1885, a most comprehensive exhibition of Gainsborough's works was
made at the Grosvenor Gallery in London. At it was noted the important
part this painter had played in perpetuating the lineaments, bearing,
graces, and gownings of the great persons of the latter half of the
eighteenth century.
"The lips that laughed an age agone,
The fops, the dukes, the beauties all,
Le Brun that sang and Carr that shone."
There was seen The Hon. Miss Georgiana Spencer, at the age of six, and
again a later portrait of her as the Duchess of Devonshire,--she of
the then irresistibly seductive manners,--and her mother, Countess
Spencer, of whom Walpole wrote as being one of the beauties present at
the coronation of George III., in 1761. There, too, was Anne Luttrell,
daughter of Simon Luttrell, Baron Irnham, who married, first,
Christopher Horton, and, secondly, the Duke of Cumberland, brother of
the king. Of her Walpole wrote: "There was something so bewitching in
her languishing eyes, which she could animate to enchantment if she
pleased, and her coquetry was so active, so varied, and yet so
habitual that it was difficult not to see through it, and yet as
difficult to resist it." And here was another widow who captivated
royalty, Mrs. Fitzherbert, who was a daughter of Walter Smythe of
Bambridge, Hampshire, and married, first, Edward Weld, secondly,
Thomas Fitzherbert of Synnerton, Staffordshire (who died in 1781), and
was said to have been married to the Prince of Wales (George IV.) in
1785. And there also was a more notorious beauty, Miss Grace
Dalrymple, afterwards Mrs. Elliott,--though divorced later, and
becoming the mistress of various aristocrats, notably the Duke of
Orleans.
The Duchess of Montagu, granddaughter of the great Duke of Marlborough
(one of the Churchills,--a family prolific of beauties), was there
seen. Several pictures of the painter's wife (who was a Miss Margaret
Burr), of his youngest daughter, Mary, afterwards Mrs. Fischer, and
one of his friend, Miss Linley, went to augment this superb
congregation of beauties shown. Portraits of Garrick,--that intensely
interesting Stratford portrait,--Earl Spencer, Pitt, Earl Stanhope,
Colonel St. Leger, George IV., Duke of Cumberland, George III., Earl
Cathcart, Canning, Dr. Johnson, Fox, and several showings of himself,
made up a body of work unsurpassed in importance by that of the
president of the Academy himself.
Gainsborough was born in 1727; he moved to Bath, in its most brilliant
period, in 1760. He died in 1788, but had ceased contributing to the
Academy four years before, because of a disagreement with the hanging
committee. His portraits of ladies were always picturesque and
individual, each differentiated from each of his own works as well as
from that of other painters.
This portrait of the Hon. Mrs. Graham is delicate in color, yellowed
somewhat by its long seclusion from the light,--and will remain one of
the most delightful and _spirituel_ creations of the old-English
school.
[Illustration: EMMA, LADY HAMILTON by ROMNEY]
Lady Hamilton
With the name of Lady Hamilton is ever associated the names of
England's most famous sailor and of one of her most famous painters.
Hers was a life redolent of ill-repute. Though her beauty was great,
it served her for ill purposes; but she came by her lack of character
by heredity. She was born in 1761, the daughter of a female servant
named Harte, and at the age of thirteen was put to service as a nurse
in the house of a Mr. Thomas of Hawarden, Flintshire. She found
tending children a tedious task, and forsook it. At sixteen, she went
to London, and became a lady's maid there. Her leisure time was spent
in reading novels and plays, which inspired a love for the drama. She
early developed a rare ability for pantomimic representation; and
this became a favorite form of entertainment in drawing-rooms and
studios. Her duties as a domestic agreed not with the drama, so her
next position was as barmaid in a tavern much frequented by actors and
artists. She formed the acquaintance of a Welsh youth, on whose being
impressed into the navy, she went to the captain to intercede for him.
The boy was liberated, but the comely intercessor was impressed into
the service of the captain. From him she went to live with a man of
wealth; but her extravagance and wilfulness induced him to forego her
company. Then followed a period of the lowest street degradation. From
this state she was taken by a Dr. Graham, who was a lecturer upon
health, and exhibited the finely-formed Emma as a perfect specimen of
female symmetry. She became the topic of the town. Painters,
sculptors, and others came to admire the shapely limbs shown under but
a thin veil of gauze. The young bloods of the time worshipped,--some
not afar off; and one of them, Charles Greville, of the Warwick
family, who had essayed to educate her to become a fit companion for
his elevated existence, maintained her for about four years. It is
recorded, that when he took her to Ranelagh's the sensation was
greater than had ever been produced by any other beauty there. Not the
winsome and witty Mrs. Crewe, nor her friend Mrs. Bouverie; not that
first flame of the amorous Prince of Wales, Mrs. Robinson, nor Anne
Luttrell, also beloved of royalty; not the Marchioness of Tavistock,
whose loveliness has been preserved to us by Sir Joshua, nor the
delightful Duchess of Buccleugh; not Lady Cadogan, and not even the
dashing Duchess of Devonshire herself,--caused the comment and
admiration this low-born unprincipled young woman now excited. Mr.
Greville would have married her had not his uncle, Sir William
Hamilton, interfered. It is variously stated that Sir William agreed
to pay his nephew's debts if he would yield up his mistress; and also
that, in endeavoring to free the young man, the old gentleman himself
fell into the snare of her charms. "She is better than anything in
Nature. In her own particular way she is finer than anything that is
to be found in Greek art," exclaimed this _savant_ on first seeing
her. She was a most enchanting deceiver, and a finished actress in the
parts of candor and simplicity, so succeeded in marrying Sir William,
in 1791. He was over sixty years of age, a man of much classical and
scientific erudition, and had been for many years ambassador at the
court of Naples, to which place he was soon accompanied by his bride.
She became a favorite with the queen, and a frequent visitor at the
palace, also somewhat of a social success among the British residents.
She sang well, and made a specialty of showing herself in "attitudes,"
or what we term now "living pictures," for the delectation of her
guests. "You never saw anything so charming as Lady Hamilton's
attitudes," wrote the Countess of Malmesbury to her sister, Lady
Elliot; "the most graceful statues or pictures do not give you an idea
of them. Her dancing the Tarantella is beautiful to a degree." It was
here began that intimacy with Nelson which became the great blot on
his fair fame. He was then commanding the Agamemnon, and she became
his constant companion, and was sometimes useful to him as a political
agent. After the victory of Aboukir Bay, when Naples went wild in its
enthusiastic reception of the naval hero, Lady Hamilton shared the
honors of the pageant. She accompanied him in a tour through Germany;
and most reprehensible was their conduct, at times, in defying the
decencies of polite life. After the Treaty of Amiens, Nelson,
accompanied by Sir William and Lady Hamilton, retired to his seat at
Merton, in Surrey, and on the death of the ambassador, in 1803, he
vainly endeavored to procure an allowance from the government for the
widow, on the pretext of the services she had rendered the fleet in
Sicily. Failing this, he himself granted her an annuity of twelve
hundred pounds. We all know how at Trafalgar, when the hero was dying,
he spoke of "dear Lady Hamilton, his guardian angel," and left to her
all his belongings, and recommended her to the grateful care of his
country. Notwithstanding this, she died almost in poverty, in 1815.
In 1813 she had been imprisoned for debt, and when out on bail she
fled to Calais, and there the career was closed. It was extraordinary
that this woman should subjugate and hold in thrall men of great force
of character. She had great loveliness of person; but physical beauty
alone is ineffectual to charm such as these. Though not regularly
educated, she acquired much general knowledge, and was tactful in the
display and use of it.
It was during the period of her posing for Dr. Graham, that Romney
became enamoured of her beauty, and painted for us more than a dozen
important pictures of her. Those were the days when ladies of rank and
beauty were deified; and, following this fashion, Romney rendered
"Fair Emma" in many guises. Her ability in acting made her a most
useful model. Her features had much mobility, and were capable of
expressing, with facility, all gradations of passion and niceties of
feeling. Emma took pride and pleasure in serving Romney. He repeated
to his friend, the poet Hayley, her request, that in the biography of
the painter, Hayley would have much to say of her. One of his earliest
classical conceptions painted from her, was a full length of Circe
with her wand. Following this was a "Sensibility," which became the
property of Hayley. Though we remember Romney chiefly in connection
with his Lady Hamiltons, yet he had acquired his reputation and much
fortune ere he met her. The great bulk of his portrayals of the
nobility preceded his classical subjects, which took form from his
superb model. She was Cassandra; she was Iphigenia, St. Caecilia,
Bacchante, Calope, The Spinstress, Joan of Arc, The Pythian Princess
Calypso, and Magdalene,--the two latter subjects painted to order for
the then Prince of Wales.
Allan Cunningham has this to say in his sketch of Romney's life: "A
lady in the character of a saint. This sort of flattery, once so
prevalent with painters, is now nearly worn out: we have now no Lady
Betty's enacting the part of Diana; no Lady Jane's tripping it
barefoot among the thorns and brambles of this weary world, in the
character of Hebe. We have none now who either 'sinner it or saint it'
on canvas; the flattery which the painter has to pay is of a more
scientific kind,--he has to trust alone to the truth of his drawing
and the harmony of his colors."