Triumphs of Temper: George Romney’s
Serena
In 1780, the poet William Hayley (1745–1820) published
Triumphs of Temper, a lengthy poem which chronicled the
ordeals of the long-suffering heroine, Serena. A morality tale for
young women of the day, the poem climaxes with Serena emerging
triumphant: her virtues of a pleasant nature and unfailing sweet
temper securing for Serena a good husband and a happy marriage.
George Romney (1734–1802), one of the most
celebrated artists of eighteenth-century England, chose Hayley’s
Serena as the subject for a series of paintings executed in the
early 1780s, some of which were appropriated by printmakers to
illustrate later editions of Triumphs of Temper. In this
display, one of Romney’s paintings, Serena Reading (c.1782
– on loan from a private collection) is displayed alongside
Dulwich’s own portrait of William Hayley by Romney (c.1777–79), who
was also a subject of the artist’s brush on more than one occasion.
The result affords an insight into a painter’s re-interpretation of
a poet’s work through the genre of portraiture.