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George Romney

1734-1802 England/Rococo

Brief Biography-George Romney was born in Lancashire in 1734. His father apprenticed him to one Christopher Steele in Kendal, where he made a good living painting portraits for five guineas per half-length. In 1762 Romney went to London and was awarded twenty-five guineas for his painting The Death of General Wolfe by the Society of Arts. At this stage of his career, he competed with the foremost painters of the day, including Joshua Reynolds. On a visit to France in 1764, he obtained advice from Claude Vernet. His last public exhibitions were at the Free Society of Artists in 1772. After that, he ceased to show works publicly. In 1773 he went to Rome with a recommendation to the Pope and received permission to study and copy Raphael’s work in the Vatican. He stayed there for two years. In 1775 he returned to London and was inundated with so much work that he painted up to four thousand portraits a year. In addition, he did countless drawings and paintings of Lady Hamilton, with whom he had a close friendship up to 1791. On his move to Hampstead Heath, he became mentally unwell and returned to his wife in Kendal, where he died in 1802.

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