Vortigern
and Rowena
WILLIAM HAMILTON,
RA
(1750/51 – 1801)
Oil on Canvas
79 x 59 inches (200 x 150cm)
Signed and dated
1793
Collections:
Commissioned by Robert Bowyer, c. 1793;
Bowyer’s Historic Gallery sale, Peter Coxe,
30 May 1807 (40); John Green, Dell Lodge,
Blackheath; his sale, 23-26 April 1830, (59), bt.
Henry Bone for Joseph Neeld; thence by descent
through Captain L.W. Neeld, Grittleton House,
Gloucestershire to Miss C.K Neeld, sold
Christie’s 16 November 1962 (85), bt. Brain
Leary, from whose collection sold Sotheby’s
12 July 1989 (98)
Exhibited:
By Robert Bower in the ‘Historic
Gallery’ of his house, Pall Mall, 1793 (9)
and 1795 (17)
Literature:
Catalogue of Pictures painted for Mr.
Bowyer’s magnificent edition of Hume’s History
of England (Historic Gallery, Pall Mall) n.d;
Boase op cit 1963, pp.174, 177; R.W. Hutton,
Robert Bowyer and the Historic Gallery,
unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Chicago, Illinois, 6
vols, typescript, repr in facsimile, 1992, vol. 2
part 3 pp.421-5 cat.no.3
Engraved:
By Jean Marie Delattre
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This painting was
commissioned from Hamilton by Robert Bower to be
engraved for his illustrated edition of David
Hume’s History of England (see
introduction).
The
story of Rowena and Vortigern, taken from ancient
legends, was recounted with some romantic license
by Geoffrey of Monmouth (d.1155), acquiring added
‘authenticity’ by being included first
in John Speed’s History of Great Britain…(1611),
then in Paul de Rapin-Thoyras’s more solid
13 volume History of England…, first
published in French, 1724-36, then in English,
1725-31, and subsequently republished in an
elaborate illustrated folio edition, 1742-47,
which included a small engraved head piece
illustrating the story of Rowena and Vortigern.
Hume’s narration of the story seemed to
convert legend into established historical fact.
The
story from Hume may be summed up as follows:
Vortigern, a Saxon [sic!] King of Britain in the
fifth century, strives to transfer all Britain to
Saxon rule. He arranges to confer with Hengist,
leader (with Horsa) of the Jutes. Before
attending their conference, Hengist secretly
armed his men with long knives: the result was
the massacre known as ‘the night of the long
knives’, in which some 460 Saxon noblemen
were killed (where in fact the martyrs
originally were British lords!). In a scene,
perhaps adapted from the conclusion of
Shakespeare’s Henry V – political
reconciliation through an arranged marriage
– Vortigern marries Rowena, Hengist’s
daughter.
Hamilton
depicts Vortigern, wearing a simple Saxon crown,
ready to pledge his love for Rowena with a goblet
of wine. The elderly man who stands behind the
banqueting table, robed in vaguely Druidical
white, is presumably her father, Hengist. Some
allusion to ‘the night of the long
knives’ is imparted by the fact that some of
Hengist’s court carry such weapons.
One
of the first illustrations of the subject was an
engraving by Scotin after a design by Nicolas
Blakey, published in 1752, one of only six of a
projected series of 50 prints of English
History Delineated actually to be published
(by Knapton and Dodsley). The illustration of
1752 was soberly entitled Settlement of the
Saxons in England; but it was soon perceived
that even if the marriage of Vortigern and Rowena
was politically contrived, there was a romantic
element in the story which artists might treat
with some license. In the following decades, the
subject inspired a pen and ink drawing by Henry
Fuseli, and paintings by Angelica Kauffman, John
Hoppner, John Hamilton Mortimer and J.F. Rigaud
among others.
The
story gained a certain notoriety in the mid
1790’s, after inspiring the disreputable
William Henry Ireland to concoct Vortigern, a play which he claimed
to be from a lost manuscript by Shakespeare;
quickly exposed as a forgery, it had one
performance only, at Drury Lane on 2 April 1796.
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