Hugh Douglas Hamilton

Hugh Douglas Hamilton ( * 1740, † 1808) was an Irish portrait painter.

Life

Hugh Douglas Hamilton's origin is not clear safely. He was possibly the son of a wigmaker in Dublin. From 1754 he learned well at James Mannin, who taught in Robert West's Drawing School in Dublin. 1755 Hamilton won there the first prize in a competition. In 1764 he moved to London, where he earned his living mainly with pastel portraits. He participated in numerous exhibitions of the Free Society and the Society of Artists. His portrait drawings appear to have been by artists such as Alexander Pope and Anna Tonelli, belonging perhaps to his disciples, imitated, so that some works were later difficult to assign. Hugh Douglas Hamilton before 1769 married a woman named Mary. The marriage produced a daughter, Harriot showed that when traveling through Italy, which took place about 1779, accompanied the parents. In Rome they became obvious later than 1782 attention to the painter, from 1783 to 1786 he lived in Florence. In 1784 he became a member of the Accademia di Disegno. From 1786 to 1791 he lived in Rome, where he in 1788 a trip to Southern Italy undertook, possibly in the company of family Flaxman. During his time in Italy Hugh Douglas Hamilton put on a large art collection, and painted many portraits. In 1792 he returned to Ireland and settled in Frederick Street in Dublin 20. Now instead of the pastel technique he turned mostly to the oil painting. Until 1804 he worked as a portrait painter; thereafter his interest turned to the chemical backgrounds of the color pigments. Some of his unfinished works were completed by his daughter. After his death, an auction of works by the painter took place at Christie's on 15 May 1811. Several portraits, Hugh Douglas Hamilton had painted were more widespread than stitches.

Pictures

Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, with his granddaughter Caroline Crichton in the garden of the Villa Borghese

Mary, Countess of Erne, with her daughter Lady Caroline Crichton, later Lady Wharncliffe

Exhibitions

From 22 November 2008 to 15 February 2009, the exhibition Hugh Douglas Hamilton was the occasion of its 200th anniversary at the National Gallery of Ireland. A Life in Pictures shown.