Lady Emma Hamilton was not so much née, but eventually took the name Hart. She was a young beauty, and became the love of Lord Admiral Nelson’s life. In a codicil to his will, he wrote: “I leave Emma Lady Hamilton, therefore, a legacy to my King and Country, that they will give her ample provision to maintain her rank in life.”Susan Sontag fictionalized their love affair in her novel The Volcano Lover, a book that I enjoy but certainly not for its great worth as a literary text. Partly it means so much to me because of the lover who gave it to me four years ago for my birthday.
The first image is credited to Joshua Reynolds, but she is largely known as the muse of George Romney, whose paintings are below. Life was not kind to Lady Emma. Besides eventually becoming quite large, and disdained, she died in France in 1815 in poverty. Her beauty gone she was largely forgotten–the beauty myth was less myth than fact of life.
