Lady Hamilton

'Lady Hamilton as a Bacchante'
Aritst: Elizabeth Vigée-Le Brun

This is a picture of Lady Hamilton. Elizabeth Vigee-Le Brun made four portraits of her during her visits to Naples between 1790 and 1792. Bacchantes were female assistants at the rites and celebrations of the Roman God of wine, Bacchus. In this portrait Lady Hamilton is wearing vine leaves in her hair and her classical clothing is flowing. She is also holding a tambourine and her pose suggests that she is entertaining . As for her gaze, the portrait shows she is happy and vibrant. Lady Hamilton is often shown having expressive gestures and her mime acts that she created to entertain friends. She eventually became famous for this. This picture was thought to be painted in naples because of the background. And actually the background caught my attention along with her facial expression. I remembered in class that we had not seen any portraits done outside until this week. I also liked that this picture showed her being happy and expressive and doing something she loved. She loved to entertain and you can tell in this picture. I think this shows her being real. I like the way her face is portrayed and how the colors really bring out her eyes. It's almost like your not even looking at a picture.