Beauty is often in the eye of the beholder. Women who were considered the epitome of beauty in bygone years, might not be considered beautiful a century later. However, some aspects of beauty never change. According to a recent scientific theory, the features of classically beautiful people conform to the proportions of Phi.
It is generally acknowledged that Lady Emma Hamilton was the beauty of her age. Despite her base background and lack of education, she managed to attract the admiration of artists, writers, and aristocratic lovers and husbands.
“Emma was luscious,” history tells us, “with a lovely girlish face on a full woman’s body barely concealed by the thin muslin dresses she wore” (Russell 31). And it was the juxtaposition of those soft facial features with a decadently opulent figure–a voluptuous goddess with the face of an angel–that made Lady Hamilton the definitive contemporary incarnation of timeless beauty:
Nothing could be more beautiful than her countenance or more commanding than her figure at this time; the first had an unusual mixture of angelic softness . . . the other . . . would equally have served for the splendour of an Imperial throne, or the couch of voluptuous sensuality. (Sherrard 232)
Her peaches-and-cream complexion, a “velvet skin of lilies and roses“ (Barrington 375), endowed her with the fair features that have been revered as the epitome of feminine loveliness throughout history. In her letters, Emma herself marvelled: “I am remarkably fair, that every body says; I put on red and white” (Sherrard 93). She also possessed “long auburn hair (with a hint of gold) and blue-grey eyes” (Peakman 7). Society raved about her “rounded arms” (Barrington 96). For the source of the above quotes, click here to enter The Judgment of Paris site.
The painter George Romney became obsessed with Lady Hamilton’s features, depicting her in a variety of mythical disguises over the years. Viewing his paintings of her, one can gain a fairly accurate idea of the kind of beauty Jane Austen was thinking about when she described Emma Woodhouse:
“I either depend more upon Emma’s good sense than you do, or am more anxious for her present comfort; for I cannot lament the acquaintance. How well she looked last night!””Oh! you would rather talk of her person than her mind, would you? Very well; I shall not attempt to deny Emma’s being pretty.”
“Pretty! say beautiful rather. Can you imagine any thing nearer perfect beauty than Emma altogether—face and figure?”
“I do not know what I could imagine, but I confess that I have seldom seen a face or figure more pleasing to me than her’s. But I am a partial old friend.”
“Such an eye!—the true hazel eye—and so brilliant! regular features, open countenance, with a complexion! Oh! what a bloom of full health, and such a pretty height and size; such a firm and upright figure! There is health, not merely in her bloom, but in her air, her head, her glance. One hears sometimes of a child being ‘the picture of health;’ now, Emma always gives me the idea of being the complete picture of grown-up health. She is loveliness itself. Mr. Knightley, is not she?”
“I have not a fault to find with her person,” he replied. “I think her all you describe. I love to look at her; and I will add this praise, that I do not think her personally vain. Considering how very handsome she is, she appears to be little occupied with it; her vanity lies another way. – Emma, Volume 1, Chapter 5
Learn more about Emma Hamilton in the following links:
- Emma Hamilton, Wikipedia Article
- Introducing Emma Hamilton, Walker Art Gallery
- Emma and George Romney, National Portrait Gallery
Jane Austen's World 
Ha! I have often wondered who painted that first picture you posted. I first saw it on the cover of a Wuthering Heights paperback. A lovely, memorable face. Thanks for enlightening us.
You have paired my two fav Emma’s. Thanks, Laurel Ann
Lovely post! I’ve always been kind of fascinated by Emma Hamilton. If you haven’t seen it there’s a very lovely Leigh-Olivier vehicle called both Lady Hamilton and also That Hamilton Woman sometimes. It’s a neat little film and has the distinction of apparently being Winston Churchill’s favorite. No surprises there though, pretty woman and Nelson, that’s Churchill all over.
I have a small cameo picture of her on my bedroom wall. Have you heard of the Hubak Lady, I have 2 cameo pictures of her she is lovely also, very ladylike.
spam is not allowed on this blog
Thank-you for your beautiful blog!
Hazel eyes, I believe, are eyes with bands of two or more colors. Or at least that is what we usually are refering to when we use the term now. In many cases, hazel eyes seem to change colors with the light, and with the color of clothing being worn by the person who posesses them.
What do you think a “true hazel eye” means here though?
I have always thought it was a very cryptic description.
The “true” seems to imply these sort of eyes are somewhat rare, or that what is often described as a hazel eye is often not.
Does a “true” hazel eye perhaps mean one that _does not_ appear to shift color? Or is it a commentary on Emma’s changeable or “true” nature, as percieved by Knightly and Mrs. Weston in turns? Are Emma’s hazel eyes a window on her soul?
Is it possible the term here means something slightly different than it does to Americans today? If so, what would we call this color today? Or is the color not important? Does a “true hazel eye” hint at something else, something Mrs Weston wishes to convey to Knightly, or convince herself of?
We know that Harriet’s eyes are a soft blue, and I think that is easy to coceptualize for most of us. Because of the descriptions we are given of Harriet, we know one other thing about Emma’s eyes – that they _are not_ soft. When Emma considers Mr. Elton’s puzzle late Christmas Eve after their unfortuitous tete-a-tete in the coach, she realizes that the lines which seemed to be complimenting Harriet in a very pointed way (“…beam in that soft eye”), had been in fact been intended for herself, and were as ill-descriptive as they were unwelcome – a “jumble” in more than one sense. Emma’s eyes eyes are not soft, but rather, we imagine, sharp and discerning – even though she has been misguided in this one instance.
We can never be as hard on Emma as she is on herself that night because, we know that most real-life love stories, like most good poems and riddles are more jumbles than not – at least until they get sorted out.
Mrs. Weston also informs us that “where Emma errs once, she is in the right a hundred times.” “She will never lead any one really wrong ; she will make no lasting blunder,” and this gives us comfort that all will work out right in the end with Emma.
What is more interesting though, is that this description from the person who knows Emma best, could suggest an alternate reading of the entire novel, one where Emma instead of being put through the paces of a Bildungsroman, is the heroine precisely because she values woman’s intuition and ways of knowing, posesses self conviction, and does, in fact, as she claims, have insight into the the human phsyche and heart . Miss Austen certainly did. Perhaps Emma was right throughout at least to a certain degree and Mr. Elton’s feelings toward her and her friend were as jumbled as his verse. Perhaps Emma has more insight into the hazel shaded world of feelings in the cat’s cradle of Highburry’s romantic entanglements we ourselves become eagerly woven into as the story developes than we are often led to believe. (Mr. Elton would seem unreasonably small and bitter (even for himself) against Harriet otherwise later.) But I will say no more. If you have before you pleasure of reading Emma for the very first time, oh, how I envy you.
For the rest of us, lets pull out a well worn copy and read Emma with new _eyes_.
M.D.
If Romney was such a fan why didn’t he help her when she was down and out after Nelson and Hamilton died????????