Life Study of Lady Hamilton as the Cumaean Sybil

This 1792 life study of Lady Hamilton as the Cumaean Sibyl captures the most famous beauty of the late 18th century in one of her celebrated “attitudes.” Emma Hamilton, wife of the British ambassador to Naples, was renowned for her classical poses that recreated ancient art, and Vigée Le Brun painted her in multiple mythological guises during her Neapolitan sojourn. Vigée Le Brun was the most technically accomplished and socially successful woman painter of the eighteenth century, achieving membership of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1783 and a clientele that extended from the French royal family to the courts of Russia, Austria, and Italy during her decade of exile following the Revolution. Her portrait manner combined the neoclassical formal values of her training with a quality of feminine intimacy and emotional warmth that made her portraits of women and children especially celebrated. Her ability to make her sitters appear simultaneously dignified and approachable was the technical foundation of her social success.

The sibylline pose allows dramatic drapery and expressive gesture. Vigée Le Brun renders Hamilton’s celebrated beauty with particular attention to the flowing classical costume and prophetic expression.