Lady Emma Hamilton was one of only four miniatures that Christine painted. This is another portrait of a free spirited woman who lead a life outside the norms of society. Despite a humble beginning, Emma made good use of her looks and intelligence to become a model and actress, not to mention the mistress of a Baronet who became a Member of Parliament. This painting is based on one of sixty paintings done by George Romney, Emma being his muse around that time. She eventually married Sir William Hamilton, British Envoy to Naples, who was 34 years older than her. It was while in Naples that she met and became the mistress of Lord Nelson, hero of the British Navy, and cemented her place in history. See the extensive Wikipedia article for details, or a well illustrated article from the National Portrait Gallery, UK website.

The miniatures were purchased by Christine’s stepfather, Oliver Butcher, ostensibly to sell on after exhibiting them in the lobby of the Royal Hotel in Weymouth where he worked part time in his retirement as their accountant. He ended up keeping them all and left them to his mistress who many years later returned them to the family.

Regarding the technique used to paint the miniatures, Christine used a very simple wooden stick with a single small woodcock’s pin-feather mounted in the end. When the feather would wear and become dull, she would use tweezers to stick a new one in its place. Apparently, this was the traditional favored brush of Victorian miniaturists. For the substrate of the painting, she used a product called Ivorine, a small sheet of Cellulose Nitrate that had the appropriate color and texture to simulate the ivory sheets used by miniaturists in less enlightened times. Be sure to click on the source image to see a greatly magnified view of the original.

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