Lovers Espied by a Child

This characteristically stylish drawing, not without a touch of humour, dates from the last decade of Romney's career. During the 1790s he partly withdrew from society and settled in Hampstead to concentrate on the historical conceptions he had dreamed of rea1ising all his life. He was, however, already suffering from mental decline and in 1798 gave up painting and retired to Kendal where he died four years later.