Portrait of a Woman, Said to Be Emma (1765–1815), Lady Hamilton

The Artist: Born in Cork, Buck was the son of a silversmith. He settled in London in 1795 and exhibited until 1833. As well as painting miniatures he made a number of watercolor designs for the sentimental engravings popular at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In 1811 Buck published the illustrated work Paintings on Greek Vases. He died in London.

The Miniature: The miniature is set in a richly jeweled frame of similar form to a watch case, the back of which opens to show a glazed inner back with the initials EH in seed pearls on brown hair.

The famous Emma married Sir William Hamilton (1730–1803), British envoy at Naples, in 1781 and later became the mistress of Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758–1805), 1st Viscount Nelson. The description of this work as a portrait of her is given plausibility by the initials EH in the back of the case. While the miniature was in the Lazarus collection, a photograph of it was sent to the statesman William E. Gladstone, who forwarded it to the publishers for reproduction in a life of Emma Hamilton (Hilda Gamlin, Emma, Lady Hamilton: An Old Story Re-Told, London, 1891, ill. p. 178). A photograph of the present work is filed without comment with portraits of Emma, Lady Hamilton, in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery, London; Richard Walker, however, does not believe that it represents her. E. G. Paine, in 1965, proposed the correct attribution of this miniature to Adam Buck.

The May 17, 1862, issue of Notes and Queries (3rd ser., vol. 1, p. 387) includes a letter requesting information about a miniature of Emma Hamilton in the writer's possession. It was bought by John North at the estate sale of Sir Alexander Davidson, Lord Nelson's private secretary, and is attributed to Dun, a French artist working in Naples (see 26.168.17). It is described as having a lock of hair and the initials EH in small pearls on the back, as does The Met’s work.

[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]

Inscription: Dated (right edge, in black): NOV 15 1804

Moses Lazarus, New York (until d. 1885); his daughters, Josephine and Sarah Lazarus, New York (1885–1888/95)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 5, 1996–January 5, 1997, no. 227.

Graham Reynolds with the assistance of Katharine Baetjer. European Miniatures in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1996, pp. 10, 176, no. 227, colorpl. 227 and ill. p. 177, note that the initials EH on the back of the case support the identification of the sitter as Emma Hamilton, that the miniature was reproduced in a biography of her in 1891, that there is a photograph of it filed with portraits of her in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery, London, but that Richard Walker does not believe it depicts Emma Hamilton.