Book: Some Old Time Beauties
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Thomson Willing >> Some Old Time Beauties
Romney was a transgressor in this way at times; but Lady Hamilton's
form was used to impart correct form to the conceptions of the
painter,--not the theme used merely to exploit the beauty of the lady.
In the exhibition of fair women in the Grafton Gallery in London this
summer, she greeted us in the guise of Ariadne. In this the painter's
use of the title was apt and justifiable. Here is the lady wholly
clothed in the dress of the time,--a dress superb in its simplicity;
but her pose and mien is indicative of the forsaken, the forlorn,
despairing woman abandoned by her lover,--the fate of which the old
story of the Greeks is the eternal epitome. The pathos of the pose, it
may have been, as well as the classic face, allured the wanderer in
the galleries, and anchored him before this canvas.
The fame of Romney has steadily risen in the several generations from
the beginning to the end of the century. Though the painter of many
men of fame and ladies of fashion, his work was not held in the
greatest regard in his lifetime. Though often spoken of as the rival
of Reynolds, he had not the president's grasp of character or his
ability in giving classic grace to the dress of the period, and he was
never admitted as a member to the Academy.
When Lady Hamilton commenced posing for him, he, perhaps wisely for
his fame, reduced the number of his ordinary sitters, receiving none
until afternoon. The picturing of what he termed "her divine beauty"
became a passion with him; and the enthusiasm of the sitter was nearly
as great as that of the painter, and she enacted his classic
conceptions. The result is a superb series of pictures of faultless
female form, and loveliness of feature. Of the model's immoral career
we have naught now to do. Here is perpetual beauty, and it is ours to
enjoy.
[Illustration: MRS SHERIDAN by REYNOLDS]
ST. CAECILIA
There are few names more associated with the brilliant days of Bath,
the days of its social and artistic prominence, than those of Thomas
Linley, the composer, and of his daughter, Eliza Anne, known abroad as
"the Fair Maid of Bath." Linley was born there, in 1735; and after his
studies in music on the Continent, under Paradies, he returned to the
then fashionable city on the Avon. He conducted oratorios and concerts
there, and became a power in the community. Delicacy, tenderness,
simplicity, and taste were the characteristics of his compositions. It
was said of him, that as Garrick had restored Shakspeare, so Linley
has restored the sublime music of Handel. He trained his family to
take part in the performances. His son Thomas, born in 1756,
developed a marvellous ability in music,--playing the violin with
great brilliancy and expression. He was the friend of Mozart, and took
at times his father's place as conductor of the oratorios. His career
was cut short by drowning, in 1778.
But it was his beautiful daughter Eliza, born in 1754, who made the
sensation of the time, when she sang with her sister, afterwards Mrs.
Tickell. "A nest of nightingales," the family was termed. Walpole
writes, in 1773: "I was not at the ball last night, and have only been
to the opera, where I was infinitely struck with the Carrara, who is
the prettiest creature upon earth. Mrs. Hartley I own to still find
handsomer, and Miss Linley, to be the superlative degree. The king
admires the last, and ogles her as much as he dares to do in so holy a
place as an oratorio, and at so devout a service as 'Alexander's
Feast.'" Musical prominence and personal beauty in this maid of but
twenty made her an attractive flower in bloom to others than the king.
The wits and gallants of the gay city sought and courted her. The
family of Tom Sheridan, the Irish actor, and then a teacher of
elocution in Bath, was intimate with the Linley family. Richard, who
was born in Dublin in 1751, his elder brother Charles, and Nathaniel
Halhed, a companion and literary partner with Richard, all admired the
daughter Eliza. Halhed went to India,--afterwards becoming a judge
there,--and Charles Sheridan retired from the race, and left the
literary youth to win as pure a heart as ever cheered incipient genius
to works of worth. She was lauded in verse by her young Irish suitor,
and championed in deed. He asserts his constancy in a poem, of which
the first stanza is--
"Dry that tear, my gentlest love;
Be hushed that struggling sigh;
Nor seasons, day, nor fate shall prove
More fixed, more true than I.
Hushed be that sigh, be dry that tear;
Cease boding doubt, cease anxious fear;
Dry be that tear."
He proves his devotion by his action when appealed to by his
divinity.
A certain Captain Matthews, one of a numerous breed in Bath in those
days,--that is, a fashionable scoundrel and a married man,--made
himself obnoxious to Miss Linley by improper addresses. He annoyed and
harassed her, threatening to destroy himself unless she gratified him,
and later attempted to sully her reputation by calumnies. This brought
about the culmination of her attachment to Sheridan. She fled her
father's house and sought the protection of her lover. Accompanied by
a chaperon, they left for France. After some romantic adventures, they
were married in March, 1772, at a little village near Calais; but it
was a wedding without the wherewithal to maintain a home, so the bride
entered a convent, and, later, the house of an English physician,
until literature should be remunerative. The eloping lady's father
sought the runaways; and, after some explanations, they returned with
him to England. It was shortly after this that Sheridan fought two
duels with Matthews, being wounded in the later one to such an extent
that his recovery was doubtful. "Sweet Betsy" claimed the right of a
wife to tend her hurt husband, and so revealed the fact of the
marriage in France. The old actor rejected his impulsive son, but
Linley's aversion to the union of his daughter being at last set
aside, the pair were re-married in England in April, 1773.
The sweet singer had been admired by another, an elderly suitor of
much fortune, whom her father had approved, but to whom she was
averse. This gentleman now became the benefactor of the pair. He
settled a moiety of three thousand pounds on the bride. Her father
retained half of this as compensation for the loss of the services of
his daughter. On the balance, the youthful couple lived. Sheridan had
entered himself a student of the Middle Temple shortly before his
marriage. Though their income was small, he would not allow his wife
to accept several proffered professional engagements; he did not wish
his helpmeet to become a servant of the public. This action incited
some discussion, and much acrimonious comment, in her family and among
their friends. Johnson upheld his course. Sheridan, in this instance,
understood himself and understood the times. He knew of the flippant
attitude of the young blades of the town toward all public performers;
so he sought to save her, who was so sacred to him, from such insult,
insincere adulation, and insinuation as she had heretofore suffered
from. They retired to a cottage at East Burnham; and there she, who
had received the plaudits of the public as a vocalist, won as noble a
name in the character of the ideal wife, one in whom were united all
the attributes of loveliness,--temper, manners, virtues, and
surpassing beauty. What the then public lost, later generations have
gained in the picture of that lovable woman, making a golden age of
happiness for her greatly-gifted husband in the little cottage at East
Burnham.
Fanny Burney records her pleasant impressions of the bride,--"I was
absolutely charmed at the sight of her. I think her quite as beautiful
as ever, and even more captivating; for she has now a look of ease and
happiness that animates her whole face. Miss Linley was with her; she
is very handsome, but nothing near her sister; the elegance of Mrs.
Sheridan's beauty is unequalled by any I ever saw, except Mrs. Crewe.
I was pleased with her in all respects. She is much more lively and
agreeable than I had any idea of finding her; she was very gay, and
very unaffected, and totally free from airs of any kind."
In 1775, the husband's genius was acknowledged by the town; for in
January, that year, was first presented "The Rivals." In that play he
draws from the material displayed by the superficial, flashing, and
piquant society of the day at Bath, and from his own experience the
inimitable duel scene therein.
Much success followed for the dramatist. In the following year, in
conjunction with his father-in-law, he purchased from Garrick the
Drury Lane Theatre. They brought out several operas together; Linley's
music in "The Duenna" and "The Beggar's Opera," being especially fine.
Hazlitt speaks of the songs in them as having a joyous spirit of
intoxication, and strains of the most melting tenderness.
In 1777, appeared "The School for Scandal," a theme also suggested by
scandal-mongering Bath. His fond and faithful wife lived not to see
the dimming of the genius that produced these classics; she died of a
decline, at Bristol, in 1792. Her daughter, too, died within the same
year. Two of her accomplished descendants, through her son, have
displayed some of her romantic taste and charm of manner to a
generation just preceding our own,--her granddaughters, Lady Dufferin,
mother of the English ambassador to France, and Hon. Caroline Norton,
author of "Love not, love not, ye hapless sons of men."
Though she whom he had adored was but three years dead, Sheridan
married, in 1795, Esther Jane Ogle, daughter of the Dean of
Winchester. With her he obtained some money and this, added to his
own, purchased the estate of Polesdon, in Surrey. His wife was, at
that time, spoken of as young, amiable, and devoted to him. She died
at about the same time as he, in 1816.
In the first flush of those romantic wedded days of their youth how
impressive must have been the appearance of that markedly clever young
man, eager in the fight for fame, and of his beauteous bride from
Bath. Reynolds painted, in 1779, the standard presentment of Sheridan.
Walpole's comment on it was: "Praise cannot overstate the merits of
this portrait. It is not canvas and color, it is animated nature--all
the unaffected manner and character of the great original." The artist
said that among all his sitters none had such large pupils of the
eyes. With the brilliance of that mind informing the face, his
features, though not regular, were handsome. Of all the portraits of
Miss Linley, perhaps the one by Gainsborough, in which she is
portrayed with her young brother, gives the best idea of the special
character of her type of beauty. Here are the large lustrous eyes and
the very delicately modelled, sensitive, refined features; here, the
luxuriant hair, the slender neck, and the sloping shoulders; and here,
the superb poise of head and of mind. There is another fine picture of
her by Gainsborough, for this painter was one of the brilliant men
who frequented her father's house at Bath. A musician he was, too,
and an excellent performer on the violin, so was congenial company in
that musical family. He admired the daughter, and wrought for us the
delightful records of her beauty. His change of residence, from Bath
to London, coincided in date with that of the Sheridans. Opie, too,
painted her portrait; not an ideal one, but good in respect to her
eyes. And Romney has given us good pictures both of her and Mrs.
Tickell. Reynolds's portrayal is supreme in indicating the exaltation
of spirit, by the poise of head and perfection of profile. This
picture of her as the patron saint of song was exhibited at the
Academy, in 1775, just about the time its subject had abandoned public
singing. It has been most beautifully engraved by Bartolozzi, and
ranks as one of his best plates. When the days of sorrow came to
Sheridan,--when his weaknesses of character brought him to a low
estate; when poverty became his portion, and the long lost days of
romantic love became but a memory; when treasure after treasure,
manuscripts, and sumptuous books were disposed of, and presentation
pictures were pawned,--this picture of St. Caecilia, a reminder of the
days that had vanished, was the last valued possession to be parted
with.
[Illustration: MARGUERITE COUNTESS OF BLESSINGTON by LAWRENCE]
LADY BLESSINGTON
The brilliant Blessington,--brilliant in beauty and in intellect!
Throughout her life of romance she was fortunate in her literary
friendships, through whom a knowledge of her abilities has grown to
tradition, but most fortunate in the portrayer of her beauty. Lawrence
has painted a picture which it is a perpetual pleasure to behold,--the
superb arms and shoulders, the serene, steadfast gaze of the eyes, and
the conscious, yet confident, poise of the head forming a record to
justify the tradition of great personal beauty and alertness of mind.
Marguerite Blessington's youth was ill-regulated and penurious. She
was born in 1789, the second daughter of Edmund Power, of Knockbrit,
near Clonmel, in the county of Tipperary. Her father came of a good
family, as did also her mother, who spoke unduly often of her
ancestors, the Desmonds. Marguerite was not comely in her early
girlhood, though her sister Ellen and her brother Robert were handsome
children. As a child, she was sensitive and sentimental, and her
delight was to browse in a library,--and it was this taste that
equipped her for her later friendships. Her power of imagination was
uncommonly strong, and she became the entertainer of her
children-companions with stories of her own imagining, as well as by
her recitals of legends and romance learned in the library. Her father
removed to Clonmel, and became editor of a paper there. He was not
prosperous, and was a man of perverse temper, which grew with
adversity. Marguerite and her sister were fancied by some wealthy
maiden-lady relatives, and were taken by them to a home of comfort. On
their return to Clonmel,--beautiful, and with the distinction of
knowledge and a clever use of it,--they were a contrast to the
ordinary Irish country girl, whose whole equipment of dress and
accomplishments was "two washing gowns and a tune on the piano." The
girls took part in all the gayeties of the town, and, besides the
charm of their conversation, were graceful dancers; and though
Marguerite was less beautiful, she was most tasteful in dress, and
this became always a noted characteristic of hers. They became the
attraction of an English regiment recently stationed in the town, and
Marguerite was soon married, through the insistence of her father, to
a Captain Farmer, when less than fifteen years of age. This was the
great misfortune of her life.
Her husband was subject to fits of insanity, and her whole feeling
towards him was that of aversion. Cruelty and caprice were the chief
components of his character. From his tyranny she fled,--first to her
father's house, but was denied solace there, so sought it elsewhere.
She led a somewhat vagabond existence for about nine years, living
first with one friend, then with another; thankful for any home, and
accommodating herself to any companions. Of this period of her life
not much is recorded, save her beauty, for it was shortly after this
that her peerless portrait was painted, ere her sorrow and suffering
had time to efface the vivacity of youth, but only to give depth to
the eyes and interest to the face. She lived in London with her
brother Robert until in 1817, when her husband's death occurred by his
falling out of a window when in a state of drunken frenzy. Four months
after this she became the second wife of an Irish nobleman of a
dashing person and little brains, Charles John Gardiner, second Earl
of Blessington, when she was twenty-eight and he was thirty-five years
of age. With this marriage came a reversal of her misfortunes. Her
generosity, sympathy, and good heart soon prompted the improvement of
the conditions of her own family, and in this gave emphatic evidence
of that devotedness to duty and friends which became her strongest
trait. Her youngest sister, Marianne, was adopted and educated by her,
and became her travelling companion, and long afterwards her modest
biographer. Her sister Ellen married first, Mr. Home Purves, and
afterwards, Viscount Canterbury, speaker of the House of Commons.
Lord Blessington's income was great, but his tastes were extravagant
as were also his wife's, and luxurious was their home in St. James's
Square, and magnificent the manner in which they entertained the
brilliant society gathered there; and for three years their brilliant
companies of beauty and intellect outshone the congregations at
Holland House. In 1822, Count D'Orsay, a polished and accomplished
young Frenchman, visited London, and was made most welcome by the
Blessingtons. In August of that year they started for a leisurely tour
of the Continent. The Countess kept a diary during this journeying,
which was published in 1839, under the title of "The Idler in Italy,"
revealing a keen observation and a capacity for entertaining comment.
Her ladyship was ever ambitious of literary eminence. Possessed of
great beauty, and after a time high station and wealth, she yet
yearned for the recognition by great writers of her position as one of
them. She had published, previous to her continental trip, two
volumes,--one called "The Magic Lantern," the other, "Sketches and
Fragments," both being accounts of and comments upon London society;
both were unsuccessful. Her one book which will remain in literature
was consequent upon her meeting with Lord Byron in Genoa, in 1823, and
is a record of her conversations with the poet. She who aspired to
make her mark in literature has made it, but as the chronicler of the
sentiments, vanities, whims, and oddities of another. But it was no
ordinary ability that was competent to persuade the great poet,
usually unapproachable, to avow, in picturesque language, his opinions
on men, women, and manners,--to provide for later times the data from
which to gauge his strange personality.
She has written much of herself into her records; and calumny urged,
at the time of publication, that she insinuated in her writings a far
greater degree of friendship on the poet's part than really existed.
Yet, in refutation of this is Byron's letter to Moore:--
"I have just seen some friends of yours, who paid me a visit
yesterday, which, in honor of them and of yours, I returned to-day, as
I reserve my bear-skin and teeth and paws and claws for our enemies.
"Your allies, whom I found very agreeable personages, are Milor
Blessington and _epouse_, travelling with a very handsome companion,
in the shape of a 'French count' (to use Farquhar's phrase in the
'Beau's Stratagem'), who has all the air of a _cupidor dechaine_.
Milady seems highly literary; to which, and your honor's acquaintance
with the family, I attribute the pleasure of having seen them. She is
also very pretty, even in a morning; a species of beauty on which the
sun of Italy does not shine so frequently as the chandelier."
The Countess Guiccioli was among those who depreciated the
Blessingtons' accounts of the conversations; but then, perchance,
there may have been some jealousy of the attractive English woman's
influence over the poet. The Blessingtons left Genoa in June of 1823,
and continued their journeyings throughout Italy until 1828. In the
preceding year, Count D'Orsay had become the husband of the Earl of
Blessington's daughter, Lady Harriet Frances Gardiner, when she was
but little over fifteen years of age; but they lived together but
three years. In 1829, the Earl died in Paris; and the Countess
continued there until after the Revolution of 1830, when she returned
to England. Her journal of the trip from Naples to Paris, and her stay
in that city, was published in 1841, under the title of "The Idler in
France." In England she took a house in Seamore Place, Mayfair, and
later removed to Gore House, Kensington, with which place is
associated the traditions of her elegant entertainings and her
intercourse with many men of eminence, but also with a course of
living which compromised her reputation in society. Her son-in-law,
the Count, continued to form one of her household, though separated
from his wife, the Lady Harriet. Though not received in general
society, the Countess surrounded herself with celebrities of all
nations; and it was at her house that Louis Napoleon was a cherished
guest in his years of exile, and from whence he proceeded to head the
government of France. Here Bulwer came as perhaps her most intimate
friend; here Thackeray was made most welcome, and Lord John Russell
and Lord Palmerston, Canning and Castlereagh were frequent guests.
Dickens,--then a dandy like unto D'Orsay, who seemed to be his
model,--"Rejected Addresses" Smith, the banker-poet Rogers, Kemble,
Wilkie, and Dr. Parr engaged in sparkling converse with their hostess,
who sat in a deep arm-chair while Tom Moore was privileged to perch
himself on a footstool at her feet; and by all these men she was
held in unqualified respect. Her income became impaired and unequal to
the expense of entertaining. She resorted to literature to add to her
resources. She was engaged by Heath, the engraver, to edit a certain
class of annuals popular in those days. For some years her income from
"The Keepsake" and "The Book of Beauty" exceeded one thousand pounds a
year. Her novels, too, were a source of some profit. For "Strathern"
she received about three thousand dollars. These romances were weak in
character and plot, but were fair pictures of society portrayed with
much piquancy. In one, "Grace Cassidy," she describes interestingly
scenes of her youth in Ireland. But interest in her work waned, and as
she seems not to have thought of retrenchment of her expenditure,
disaster rapidly descended. In 1849, she had perforce to sell out, and
then moved to Paris, where she died in the same year. She was buried
at Chambourcy, near St. Germain-en-Laye, the residence of the Duc and
Duchesse de Grammont, the sister and brother-in-law of Count D'Orsay.
She was a woman of great tact, of a sweet delicacy of manner, and of a
chivalrous devotedness to friendship. Her friends were carefully
chosen, and never deserted. Perhaps no woman of the century has had so
many men of mark as her friends and admirers. She had charity towards
others' failings. She gave pleasure where she could. She was elegant
and dignified in her bearing, though possessed of Irish wit withal.
She was very beautiful.
Lord Byron was induced to sing the praise of her picture here
given:--
"Were I now as I was, I had sung
What Lawrence has painted so well;
But the strain would expire on my tongue,
And the theme is too soft for my shell.
"I am ashes where once I was fire,
And the bard in my bosom is dead:
What I loved I now merely admire,
And my heart is as gray as my head.
"Let the young and the brilliant aspire
To sing what I gaze on in vain,
For sorrow has torn from my lyre
The string which was worthy the strain."
[Illustration: MARY ISABELLA DUCHESS OF RUTLAND by REYNOLDS]
HER GRACE OF RUTLAND
Rowlandson, the caricaturist, once published a cartoon entitled "Juno
Devon, All Sublime." The rival goddesses in competition with her
before that modern Paris, the Prince of Wales, being their Graces of
Gordon and Rutland. Beyond the various written records of the opposing
beauty of those aristocratic dames who dominated society in their day,
we have ample painted evidence of their loveliness. Of her Grace of
Devonshire, we have, first, the engraved renderings of "the lost
Gainsborough." There are other Gainsboroughs, too,--Georgiana as a
child, and a full-length of her standing at the edge of a lawn, her
face looking down, wearing a white dress, her right elbow on the base
of a column, a scarf in both hands, her hair piled high, but without
the hat, as in the more famous picture. There are then several by Sir
Joshua. The first, where she stands as a child beside her mother;
then, she as a mother with her own child,--a very charming profile,
and a picture that insinuates the vivacity of demeanor and the abandon
so characteristic of her.
Walpole wrote of this as "Little like and not good." Yet, as to
goodness, a modern authority has said: "It is a superb work; and, in
motive, color, and composition, it ranks as a triumph alike of nature
and art." Again, there is a whole-length showing her about to descend
some steps to a lawn, her superb shoulders and neck bare, and her hair
highly bedecked with feathers. Walpole writes of another portrait,
drawn by Lady Di Beauclerck, and engraved by Bartolozzi: "A Castilian
nymph conceived by Sappho and executed by Myron, would not have had
more grace and simplicity. The likeness is perfectly preserved, except
that the paintress has lent her own expression to the Duchess, which
you will allow is very agreeable flattering." In the Royal collection
of miniatures at Windsor, are three charmingly executed ivories of her
by Cosway. Lawrence, too, made a chalk drawing of her, which now hangs
at Chiswick House, in the room in which Charles Fox died. This is an
interesting work from being a very early effort of the after-time
President of the Academy, and showing that then he had not attained
the trick of flattering his sitters, even when they were noted
beauties. Angelica Kauffman painted her, and John Downman also made a
portrait replete with elegance and picturesqueness. In fact, the
comely Duchess pervaded the art of the period. Of her Grace of Gordon,
we have, as our ideal presentment of her, the portrait by Sir Joshua.
In it her hair is done up high, and two rows of pearls are intertwined
therein. The dress is of the Charles the First period, and shows the
sweetly modulated shoulders leading up to--