Elizabeth Craven, Nelson and Emma Hamilton

Emma, Lady Hamilton was a beautiful artist's model who became, because of her love affair with Admiral Nelson, one of the most celebrated women in Georgian England. 


Emma Hamilton painted by George Romney.

Elizabeth Craven was also famous, or perhaps one should say notorious, for her love affairs, in the same period, and although they came from vastly different social backgrounds, their paths did cross and they had quite a few friends and acquaintances in common.
Emma painted by Romney again.

The luscious Emma was painted by Romney many times, as he could sell the pictures to collectors who wanted to contemplate her classical beauty, often arrayed in some mythological or theatrical costume.

Elizabeth Craven was also painted by Romney, and this oval portrait is dated 1778.

Craven moved in the upper echelons of society then found herself relegated to its periphery when she transgressed its codes of behaviour.  Emma, whose original name was Amy Lyon, came from a poor and obscure family and had to make her way using her looks first as a prostitute then as an artist's model. Her face was her fortune. She persuaded an elderly ambassador to marry her and thus got the title of Lady Hamilton. When she met Admiral Nelson, he too was married, but passion swept them away and as the mistress of the man who was England's greatest naval hero, she found that most of society was willing to receive her and draw a veil across her past.
Elizabeth and Emma never met in England. It was on the Continent that they encountered each other, when Elizabeth was on her travels in the company of the Margrave of Ansbach.
We do not know what Emma thought of Elizabeth Craven as she did not record her thoughts on paper. But we know exactly what Elizabeth Craven thought of Emma, as she put some detailed accounts of her in her letters. As usual with Craven, it was the comical side of things that interested her. She was never happier than when writing some amusing anecdote or observation in her letters, stories and plays - or even in her poems.

 If you would like to know more about Elizabeth Craven and exactly what she said about Lady Hamilton, read Elizabeth Craven: Writer, Feminist and European, [Vernon Press, 2017].

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