Emma Hart as Circe
- Artist: George Romney
- Date: c.1782
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 533 x 495 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
**George Romney’s relationship to Emma Hamilton (Lady Hamilton) in the painting “Emma Hart as Circe”** - **Artist‑subject pair** – Romney was the portrait‑painter, Emma Hart was the sitter and model. - **Intimate working relationship** – She sat for him during several sittings in the early 1780s, and Romney painted her in a series of studies and finished portraits. - **Unfinished “study”** – The canvas in Tate Britain is regarded as a study (or an early version) for the later full‑length “Emma Hart as Circe,” indicating a close, collaborative artistic process. - **Social connection** – Both were members of the fashionable London circle; Romney’s portrait of her, and her subsequent fame as Lady Hamilton, were part of the same social network that promoted their reputations.
In short, the painting reflects a direct artist‑subject relationship in which George Romney painted Emma Hart as a portrait model, producing an unfinished study that became an iconic representation of their artistic collaboration.
See it in person
Emma Hart as Circe is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
