Lady Emma Hamilton as a Bacchante (watercolour, gilt, glass, silk)

Creator: probably Nicolas-Francois Dun (1764-1832) An oval miniature in watercolour on ivory in an oval gilt metal suspenion frame, enclosed in a brown/red leather and case lined with red velvet. It is based on a painting by the famous French female artist, Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun, who visited the Hamiltons at Naples and painted her there, and it records Emma in one of the roles of her celebrated 'attitudes', as a Bacchante, a follower of Bacchus god of wine, with vine leaves in her loosened hair. She is shown from behind looking back over her bare left shoulder, her body swathed round in a classical style white robe. The signature 'Dun' appears in the woodland background to the left of her head. The reverse of the frame is glazed and contains a lock of woven human hair. The signature and other comparisons more probably suggest it is by Nicolas-Francois Dun (1764-1832), a French/ Flemish artist working mainly in Naples from at least as early as around 1790.