Of her he did a portrait which was hung up in her room, and was so much admired by her customers that the artist soon found himself overwhelmed with business, and he could scarcely execute all the orders that came to him.
Ireland, an apothecary, part of which was occupied by a fashionable milliner. In 1770 he established himself in Pall Mall, at the house of a Mr. In the following year he was in Orchard Street, Portman Square, and sent three small whole-lengths to the Society of Artists and in 1767, from Broad Street, he contributed a small whole-length of a lady and a "Portrait of Lord Halifax in conversation with his Secretary." In 1769 he sent over to the Society of Artists in Dublin two small full-length portraits.
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Lee's, Broad Court, Long Acre," he sent to the exhibition of the Free Society of Artists two small whole-length portraits in crayons.
Though all these were in oil, Hamilton continued his work in pastel, and his portraits in that medium became as popular in London as they had been in Dublin. In that year he was awarded a premium by the Society of Arts for a "chiaro-oscuro" of "Priam and Hercules lamenting over the corpse of Hector." In 1765 he won the prize of sixty guineas for an oil picture of "Boadicea and her daughters in distress," and obtained another prize in 1769. He arrived there in, or perhaps a little previous to, 1764. † These portraits are ovals about 9 ½ by 7 ½ inches in size, slightly executed upon grey paper in black and white chalk, finished with coloured chalks.Īfter some years successful practice in Dublin Hamilton was tempted to try his fortune in London.
#Irish portrait painter full
His little portraits, being faithful likenesses, full of expression and charm, quickly done and cheap, became the vogue, and the artist soon obtained a considerable practice. Soon afterwards he commenced practice as a portrait-painter in crayons. In a competition for pattern-designing in 1756 he produced the best drawing, but the prize was withheld owing to his being then just over sixteen years of age he was, however, given a bounty of four pounds. In 1750 he was placed by the Dublin Society under the tuition of Robert West in his drawing school in George's Lane, where his industry was rewarded with several prizes. As, according to the records of the Dublin Society, Hamilton was "just over sixteen" in 1756, his birth may be fixed as in the year 1739. But O'Keeffe is inaccurate in his dates even about himself. John O'Keeffe, who was born in 1747, says that "he might have been five years my elder" ("Recollections"), which would place his birth about 1742, certainly too late. No record of his birth has been found but the date was certainly later than "about 1734," as usually given. Hugh Douglas Hamilton was the son of a peruke-maker in Crow Street, Dublin. In Bryan's and in Redgrave's Dictionaries and in the "Dictionary of National Biography" his birth is stated to have taken place "about 1734," the year of his death is given as 1806, and he is credited as having been a member of the Royal Hibernian Academy, a body which did not come into existence until some fifteen years after his death. Of the artist himself few details either of his life or works have hitherto been recorded the published biographical notices of him are meagre even the date of his birth and death are incorrectly given. Within the last few years the art of Hugh Douglas Hamilton has begun to attract attention in the London sale-rooms, and his little pasted portraits, facile in art and harmonious in colour, so popular in his life-time, are now again sought for. Picture by George Chinnery in Royal Hibernian Academy.
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