Asset number
456933001
Description
A bedroom scene. Lady Hamilton, grotesquely fat, but with traces of beauty in her features, rises from a curtained bed, arms and one leg extended in a burlesqued gesture of despair. She wears a nightgown and lace-trimmed cap. Behind her in the shadowed depths of the bed the night-capped head of her elderly and (?) sleeping husband, rests on the pillow. She looks, weeping, towards an open sash-window through which is seen a fleet sailing towards the horizon. In the window (left) is a cushioned window seat on which (besides a stocking) is an open book: 'Studies of Academic Attitudes taken from the Life'; on one page is a nude woman lying in sensual abandonment. On the right against the curtains of the bed is a dressing-table on which, besides toilet-articles, are a flask of 'Maraschino', a 'Composing Draught', and a pot of 'Rouge à la Naples'. On the carpeted floor (right) are objects from Sir W. Hamilton's collection, with an open book: 'Antiquities of Herculaneum Naples Caprea &c. &c.'; on the right page is a satyr chasing a nymph. They include an oval gem, a figure of a squatting monster, headless, the base inscribed 'Pri[apus]', a laughing bust of 'Messalina', statues of a Venus and a Satyr, coins or medals, one inscribed 'Ovid', another 'Tibertius'. In front of Lady Hamilton are the slippers she has kicked off, and a garter inscribed 'The Hero of the Nile'. Below the design: '"Ah, where, & ah where, is my gallant Sailor gone" ? - "He's gone to Fight the Frenchmen, for George upon the Throne, "He's gone to Fight ye Frenchmen, t'loose t'other Arm & Eye, "And left me with the old Antiques, to lay me down, & Cry.' 6 February 1801 Hand-coloured etching
© The Trustees of the British Museum
Using this image
Commercial use
To license images for charged-for journals and publications, and other commercial uses, please contact sales@bmimages.com and BM Images will advise on the
quality of the existing files. While image files may be relatively large, they may not
be adequately colour-managed and may not accurately reflect the appearance of
the object.
Contact BM Images
Non-commercial use
This image can be shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license. Read more about the British Museum and the Creative Commons licence.
Please use the credit:
© The Trustees of the British Museum. Shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) licence.
Download this image
New photography
If you cannot see an image that you want on the British Museum website, or if the existing image is not of adequate quality, you can order new photography from us.
Order new image
