george romney’s titania and her attendants GEORGE ROMNEY’S TITANIA AND HER ATTENDANTS lowell libson ltd · 2011 [ A ] LOWELL LIBSON LTD BRITISH PAINTINGS WATERCOLOURS AND DRAWINGS 3 Clifford Street · Londonw1s 2lf +44 (0)20 7734 8686 · [email protected] www.lowell-libson.com [ B ] GEORGE ROMNEY’S TITANIA AND HER ATTENDANTS LOWELL LIBSON LIMITED LONDON · 2011 George Romney, A study for Titania and her Attendants Pen with brown ink and wash · 61/8 x 7¾ inches · 156 x 196 mm · Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington DC (Art Vol.c59.45) INTRODUCTION Romney has long been regarded as one of the major figures of late eighteenth would have been familiar from his early years in Westmorland as well as on his century portraiture and, albeit, perhaps slightly less highly regarded than Rey- subsequent visits in later years to see his wife who remained there. John Dalton, nolds, Gainsborough and Lawrence, his technical confidence, adventurous sense the natural philosopher who developed atomic theory was teaching in Kendal of design – especially strong in the period after his return from Italy – and his between 1786 and 1793 and recorded some 250 sightings of the Aurora Borealis dur- ability to record his sitters with elegance and sophistication has always maintained ing that period, including spectacular displays in 1787. his reputation. In recent years there has generally been a greater critical apprecia- The late series of paintings inspired by Shakespeare and especially by Midsum- tion for his drawings than his portraits and this is not entirely unfounded. Rom- mer Night’s Dream are perhaps the apogee of his career and mark Romney out as ney’s solid skills as a draughtsman were transmuted by his time in Rome where he one of the most innovative and inspired painters of the early Romantic move- was exposed to the glories of seventeenth century Roman drawing, the influence ment. Remarkable for their poetry and the extra ordinary breadth and confidence of which is clearly seen in his later drawings, large and small, executed in ink with of their handling they are not only the antithesis of the ‘Grand’ manner as pro- brush and pen. These vibrant drawings are now often regarded as an end in them- mulgated by Reynolds but even the works of his friend and competitor Fuseli. We selves but for Romney they were a means of distilling his ideas for subject paint- are grateful to Alex Kidson for placing this picture and its related works in context ings into harmonious and poetic form. Although Romney was dogged by the in the illuminating essay that he has written for this catalogue. Our beautiful pic- unrelenting pressure on his time as a fashionable portrait painter, as were Reyn- ture represents the culmination of Romney’s long artistic journey combining, as olds and Gainsborough, his slight disconnection from ‘Society’ did enable him to it does, the high artistic ideals derived from his study of ancient, renaissance and devote much time to expanding his thoughts relating to these compositions, as can baroque art in Italy with his ambitions inspired by his literary mentor, the poet be seen by the evidence of the plethora of surviving sketchbook studies, many Thomas Hayley. Romney, ever introspective, sought to make a direct and emo- very slight, which serve to underline the importance of subject painting to him. tional impact on his viewer and in the present picture, perhaps the most ethereal The ethereal nature of this remarkable work is heightened by Romney’s paint- of what Kidson has called this ‘remarkable cluster of paintings’, one glimpses not erly transcription of the Aurora Borealis, ‘The Northern Lights’, with which he only Romney’s true artistic sensibility but a vision of his perfect world. lowell libson [ 5 ] George Romney 1734–1802 TITANIA AND HER ATTENDANTS A rugged eminence where fairy children prepare Titania Collections for sleep in the lee of a tree, whilst others chase a bat, play with with Agnew; a slug and stalk an owl. mysterious figures gather in a cave N.C. Neill; whilst the northern lights illuminate the plain below Mrs A. Buxton, to 1959; Leger Galleries, acquired from the above; Richard & Julia Rush, acquired from the above in 1961; Oil on canvas · 47 x 59 inches · 1194 x 1499 mm And by descent to the Richard H. Rush Charitable Trust Literature Titania: Rev. John Romney, Memoirs of the Life and Works of George Romney, 1830, Come now, a roundel and a fairy song; pp.128, 234; Then, for the third part of a minute, hence: Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds; Humphrey Ward and William Roberts, Romney, a Biographical and Critical Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings, Essay, with a Catalogue Raisonné of his Works, 1904, vol.II, pp.195–196, To make my small elves coats; and some keep back under ‘Titania Reposing with her Indian Votaries’; The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders Arthur B. Chamberlain, George Romney, 1910, pp.189–191; At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep; Elizabeth Johnston, George Romney, 1734–1802, Paintings and Drawings, Then to your offices, and let me rest. exhibition catalogue, 1961, no.37; The fairies sing A.M. Frankfurter, ‘Rediscovering Romney as a Fantastick’, Art News, September 1961, no.34; First fairy: Yvonne Romney Dixon, ‘Designs from Fancy’: George Romney’s You spotted snakes with double tongue, Shakespearean Drawings, exhibition catalogue, 1998, pp.78, 143, 195–96, 198; Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen; David Cross, A Striking Likeness: The Life of George Romney, 2000, p.192; Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong, Come not near our fairy Queen. Alex Kidson, George Romney 1734–1802, exhibition catalogue, 2002, p.227; To be included in Alex Kidson’s forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the Chorus : works of Romney to be published by Yale University Press Philomel with melody Sing in our sweet lullaby. Exhibited Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby. London, Kenwood, George Romney, 1734–1802: Paintings and Drawings, Never harm June 1961, no.37; Nor spell nor charm Nottingham University Art Gallery, Shakespeare in Art, 1961, no.34; Come our lovely lady nigh. New York, Finch College Museum of Art, The Richard H. Rush Collection, So good night, with lullaby. 25 February – 25 April, 1971, no.41; Washington DC, Folger Shakespeare Library: ‘Designs from Fancy’, George Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act II, Scene II Romney’s Shakespearean Drawings, 1998, no.82 [ 6 ] This picture illustrates a scene from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s made in the early 1790s based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Academic precepts Dream at the beginning of Act II, scene 2, where Titania is falling asleep to the of the primacy of the figure or the importance of finish are swept away in favour of a fairies’ lullaby. magical ethereality of colour, and where the subject, from a position of familiarity with John Flaxman pointed out in his ‘Sketch of Romney’s Professional Charac- Shakespeare’s text, is at first glance almost incomprehensible. The play itself was very ter’, that Romney was gifted with peculiar powers for historical and ideal paint- rarely performed in the eighteenth century and this may have been an added ing, so his heart and soul were engaged in the pursuit of it, whenever he could attraction to Romney who could forge his compositions without the preconcep- extricate himself from the importunate business of portrait painting. It was tions deriving from an audience familiar with the play. his delight by day and study by night, and for this his food and rest were often It is interesting to note that Romney visited Paris in the summer of 1790 when neglected (John Flaxman in William Hayley, The Life of George Romney Esq, 1809, he made a study of Titian’s Pardo Venus in the Louvre. The reclining Venus seen p.310). Indeed, Shakespeare was to provide the central platform for what Rom- in the right-hand of Titian’s painting appears to have been the inspiration for the ney described as those delightful regions of the imagination (Hayley, op.cit. p.123) reclining Titania in Romney’s Midsummer Night’s Dream compositions. Alex Kid- and his first ‘History’ painting, executed prior to 1761, was of King Lear in the son (op.cit. p.207) suggests that the large drawing (Private collection, UK) directly storm. However, it was Romney’s two year period of study in Rome (1773–75) derived from the Titian was inspired by Romney’s Parisian mistress, Thélassie, a that resolved and released both his technical capability and imaginative capac- dancer. However, it would appear that tenderly executed nude figure of Titania ity, which in the field of history painting was to find its most immediate and seen in the present work may well have been inspired by the return to London in constant release in the stream of ink wash drawings which seem to mark the 1791 of Romney’s muse, Emma Hart. almost fevered frustration of his desire to devote himself to this more elevated The small group of late history paintings, especially those based on A Mid- and inspiring art. summer Night’s Dream can now be seen to represent the culmination of Romney’s Romney’s interest in this area was further stimulated in 1786 when Alderman artistic journey, executed at a pivotal point in the history of both British and Euro- John Boydell initiated his ambitious scheme to found a Shakespeare Gallery, pean painting. These paintings have often been characterized as being unfinished, which was to comprise a gallery in Pall Mall containing one hundred large and even by John Romney, the painter’s son, but given Romney’s developing views of one hundred small paintings illustrating scenes from the plays.