LONDON, ENGLAND.- Sotheby’s will hold a strong sale devoted to British Pictures that will include works by the nation’s finest artists. Among a selection of interesting portraits on offer is Portrait Study of Emma Hamilton as Miranda by George Romney (1734-1802). This is a study for Romney’s enormous depiction of the drama of the first act of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, his first and most ambitious contribution to Alderman John Boydell’s celebrated Shakespeare Gallery. The original painting, the largest he ever completed, was destroyed in the 1950s and only a few heavily restored fragments survive. However there are several sketches of the head of Miranda for which Emma Hamilton sat before her departure for Naples in March 1786. Admiral Horatio Nelson arrived at the Bay of Naples in 1793 and began a love affair with Emma in 1798 which only ended with Nelson’s death in 1805. The study is estimated at £20,000-30,000. In January of this year Sotheby’s achieved a new world record for George Romney when Portrait of Mary, Mrs Sullivan sold for £539,380.

Portrait of Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Argyll (1733-1790) (est. £40,00-60,000) by Allan Ramsay (1713-1784) is another striking image. The three beautiful Gunning sisters from Ireland enjoyed unparalleled admiration in London. Walpole reports how people would gather outside their house in order to witness them go out in their carriage and how 700 people sat up all night in and around a Yorkshire inn to see the young Duchess of Hamilton leave in the morning. The 19-year-old Elizabeth so caught the eye of James, 6th Duke of Hamilton, that after a torrid courtship he became impatient to marry her and sent for a parson during an evening assembly at Bedford House on St Valentine’s Day. The Duchess was of irreproachable character and the object of lifelong admiration of the King. When she was presented at court even eminent courtiers clambered on chairs to look at her. The Duke died in 1758, aged 33 and only one year later, his Duchess married General John Campbell, late 5th Duke of Argyll.

Other important works include a charming group of portraits from Dallam Tower consigned for sale by the trustees of the late Brigadier Tryon-Wilson; from the same collection comes Portrait of Sir William Lowther, 3rd Bt. (1727-1756) by Sir Joshua Reynolds, P.R.A. (1723-1792), expected to sell for £30,000-50,000. An important marine painting by Thomas Whitcombe (1763-1824) entitled The Battle of the Glorious 1st of June 1794 (est. £40,000-60,000) depicts Lord Howe’s great victory on June 1st 1794, the first great naval battle of the French Revolutionary Wars. The battle lasted five days and culminated in one of the British Navy’s greatest successes.