Around 1782 he met Emma Hart before she married Lord Hamilton. She was being kept by someone who wanted to marry someone rich, so was dumping her on Hamilton without her knowledge. Hamilton collected beautiful things and she was. They fell in love and the last portrait Romney painted of her was the afternoon after she married Hamilton. He was older and was agreeable when she started an affair with Admiral Nelson. They had children together. She died, as with most of these situations, poor. Romney was fixated on her and painted her between 40 and 60 times. Went into a depression when she left town.
I flipped out over her as a college student in nyc when I saw a portrait of her at the Frick. In London several years ago I visited a home where she posed for a portrait. She ended up very badly this poor lady.