Portrait of a Woman, Said to Be Emma (1765–1815), Lady Hamilton 1804

Adam Buck painted this miniature portrait, believed to be of Emma, Lady Hamilton, in the late 18th or early 19th century. Set within a pearl-bordered gold frame, this precious object reflects the fashion for portable portraiture among the British elite. But what does it mean to be a celebrity, or a muse? Lady Hamilton, a celebrated beauty and mistress of Lord Nelson, occupied a precarious position in British society. She was celebrated and vilified in equal measure, a product of a society that both fetishized and punished female beauty and sexuality. This raises important questions about the production and consumption of images and the way they shape our perceptions of individuals and their roles in society. Understanding an image like this involves exploring the diaries, letters, and caricatures of the period. It is through these sources that we can come to understand the social forces that shaped both the image and the life of the sitter. The historian's role, then, is to unpack these complex layers of meaning and to reveal the social and institutional contexts that gave rise to them.