English artists' models

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 36. Chapters: Alice Liddell, Quentin Crisp, Nipper, Emma, Lady Hamilton, Elizabeth Siddal, Isabel Rawsthorne, Marie Spartali Stillman, Lady Caroline Blackwood, Eileen Mayo, Jane Morris, Kitty Fisher, Annie Miller, May Morris, Laura Theresa Alma-Tadema, Mary Nesbitt, Fanny Cornforth, Ruth Herbert, Henrietta Moraes, Rosa Corder, Maud Franklin, Frances Polidori, Dorothy Dene, Garman sisters, Iris Tree, Eleanor Thornton. Excerpt: Emma, Lady Hamilton (26 April 1765; baptised 12 May 1765 - 15 January 1815) is best remembered as the mistress of Lord Nelson and as the muse of George Romney. She was born Amy Lyon in Ness near Neston, Cheshire, England, the daughter of a blacksmith, Henry Lyon, who died when she was two months old. She was brought up by her mother, formerly Mary Kidd, at Hawarden, with no formal education. She later changed her name to Emma Hart. Details of Emma's early life are unclear, but at age 12, she was known to be working as a maid at the Hawarden home of Doctor Honoratus Leigh Thomas, a surgeon working in Chester. Then she worked for the Budd family in Chatham Place, Blackfriars, and met a maid called Jane Powell, who wanted to be an actress. Emma joined in with Jane's rehearsals for various tragic roles. After this short stay in London, Emma went back to her mother, who was living near Oxford Street. Inspired by Jane's enthusiasm for the theatre, Emma started work at the Drury Lane theatre in Covent Garden, as maid to various actresses, among them Mary Robinson. However, this paid little. Emma next worked as a model and dancer at the "Goddess of Health" (also known as the "Temple of Health") for James Graham, a Scottish "quack" doctor. The establishment's greatest attraction was a bed through which electricity was passed, giving paying patrons mild shocks. This supposedly aided conception, and many infertile couples paid high prices to try it. Still only fifteen years old, Emma met Sir Harry Featherstonhaugh who hired her for several months as hostess and entertainer at a lengthy stag party at Sir Harry's Uppark country estate in the South Downs. She is said to have entertained Harry and his friends by dancing naked on the dining room table. Sir Harry took Emma there as mistress but frequently ignored her in favour of drinking and hunting with his friends. Emma soon formed a friendship with one of the guests, the dull but sincere Honourable Charles Francis Greville (1749