Hugh Douglas HAMILTON I Essay; Named Sitters
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Neil Jeffares, Dictionary of pastellists before 1800 Online edition NB: This article is divided into the following pdfs: crayons…to the amusement of the ladies…[as] Before 1769, Hamilton married; little is • Part I: Essay; named sitters A–E far preferable to their soiling their fair hands known of his wife Mary or Maria (1734–1789): • Part II: Named sitters F–L with painting in colours in oil.” Apart from one witness in Rome, Henry Quin, would • Part III: Named sitters M–Z remarks of this kind, Hamilton received little describe her as “mad”, which may explain her • Part IV: Unidentified sitters notice from the London critics. But his obscurity; Walpole 1937 noted that her sister Follow the hyperlinks for the remaining three sections. biographer, Thomas Mulvany (writing in 1842, married the Irish painter George Mullins (a misplacing the date to about 1780), suggests that Georgius Mullin married a Clara Dowdall at St HAMILTON, Hugh Douglas he “could scarcely execute all the orders that Andrew’s Catholic church, Dublin, 12.IX.1762; Dublin 2x9.XII.1740–10.II.1808 came in upon him” for these nine-guinea ovals, among the witnesses were “Thomas Flinn, Lucas The son of a peruke-maker in Dublin, and, reporting Hamilton’s own claim, had each Riely & Maria Dowdall: cum pluribus aliis”; but Hamilton’s origins are somewhat obscure, and evening to pick out the guineas “from amongst on 8.IX.1768, at St Catherine’s, Dublin, a Mary his date of birth was only first deduced from the bran and broken crayons, in the several Dowdall married a James Field with a Clare Dublin Society prize records by Cullen (1984). In crayon boxes into which, in the hurry of the day, Dowdall among the witnesses), while Pasquin 1754 he was apprenticed to James Mannin, a he had thrown them.” tells us that Mullins “married a respectable young “pattern drawer” who two years later was Multiple repetitions and portraits of different woman, who kept an alehouse on Temple-bar [in appointed master of the school of ornament at subjects in identical poses have caused much Dublin], called the Horse-shoe and Magpye” the Dublin Society’s drawing school, run by confusion. Works by pastellists such as frequented by actors. Hamilton’s marriage may Robert West (q.v.). Here Hamilton took first Alexander Pope and Anna Tonelli (qq.v.), who have taken place as early as 1764: on 30.VIII.1765 prize in the 1755 competition, winning a may or may not have been his pupils, display there was buried at St Paul’s, Covent Garden, “a premium of £1/16/-. (His future patrons, the La many of the characteristics of these early works, female stillborn of Hugh Hamilton.” It is likely Touche family, were linked to the school – John and are easily confused. that his wife was the Mary, Mrs Hugh Hamilton and Peter won prizes there in 1746.) One of his By the time of the Westminster general whose pocket book was stolen from her person earliest commissions (1760) involved decorating election, 11.X.1774, Hamilton was living in St at St Pancras on 29.VII.1769; the culprit, one maps for the Earl of Kildare’s estates; at the Martin’s Lane. He cast his votes for Earl Percy Joseph Godwin, was acquitted as the indictment same time he made a series of drawings of (i.e. Warkworth, heir to the Duke of had confused the pocket book with the silk Dublin street-vendors. Northumberland), whose portrait he had painted purse of another victim. He was however hanged In 1764 Hamilton moved to London, where, the year before, and Viscount Montmorres (an for stealing the property of a third victim. in that year, the Society of Arts awarded 18 gns Irish peerage). Mary (a Catholic) and their daughter Harriott “for painting in chiaro scuro” to “Mr Hugh The pastellist John Warren (q.v.), writing to or Hariot (a Protestant, like her father) Douglas Hamilton, at the Golden Ball, in Broad his patron Andrew Caldwell from Bath accompanied Hamilton on his travels to Italy Court, Long Acre.” The subject was classical, 23.XI.1776, refers to reports that Hamilton “is which are thought to have commenced in 1779. and further prizes for history paintings followed gone to Ireland”, implying that he had failed in He is not however recorded in Rome until early in 1765 and 1769. But, although he also made competition with Daniel Gardner, to Warren’s 1782. Between .X.1783 (John Ramsay recorded some portraits in oils, he began to specialise in puzzlement as Hamilton “gives such a truth both his visit soon after his arrival, on 22.X.1783: v. small oval pastel portraits for which he is said to of form & colour as makes his works far Ingamells 2003) and .I.1786 he was based in have charged nine guineas (entries in the Duke superior”. An advertisement appeared in the Florence (with a trip to Venice in .V.1784), and of Montagu’s expenses book show that he paid Daily advertiser on 26.XII.1777 and later dates for was elected to the Accademia del Disegno in 7½ gns for a portrait and frame on 24.V.1771 an auction on 26.I.1778 of – 1784. He returned to Rome in 1786, remaining and £7/11/- for another on 3.VI.1772 – ). In The Lease of that capital and spacious Dwelling- there until 1791, apart from a trip to Naples and June 1769 he made portraits of the king and four House and Premises, which are particularly rich and Pompeii in 1788. These trips may have been of his sons in small ovals, using graphite and elegantly fitted up, the Cielings, Staircase &c. made with John Flaxman and his wife, who coloured chalk on buff paper; a more painterly pleasingly decorated, finished by the first Artists, in befriended Harriott. Hamilton acquired a use of pastel was employed in the portrait of the the Possession of Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Esq., significant collection of old master pictures while whose singular and refined Taste among the Artists in Rome. queen two years later. needs no Comment. He exhibited prolifically at the Free Society During his thirteen years or so in Italy he (1765, 1777) and at the Society of Artists (1766– A sale of his picture collection followed on produced numerous portraits, particularly of 75) from various addresses (still at Mr Lee’s, 9.II.1778. British subjects on the Grand Tour. Initially the Broad Court in 1765; Orchard Street, 1766; Over the next three years Hamilton made a portraits were again small ovals, such as that of Bond Street, 1767; at Mr Ireland’s, apothecary, large number of small oval pastels of members Norton which John Ramsay saw in Rome and of the Irish aristocracy, many for his great recorded in his diary on 3.III.1783, noting a week Pall Mall, 1770; St Martin’s Lane, 1773–75). nd Many of the items catalogued have no patron, the 2 Duke of Leinster: in the 1885 later that this one (like the lost portrait of description, but Walpole annotated the “twelve inventory of Carton and other FitzGerald Piranesi) was “very resemblant”: it was portraits of ladies and gentlemen; in chalk”, properties, no fewer than 38 Hamilton pastels presumably local framing constraints that had explaining that they “are upon a flesh-coloured were listed (28 small ovals were arranged in the this sheet in a rectangular frame with an oval paper, black and white chalk, and here and there study at Carton: FitzGerald, 1936, fig. 8). He also spandrel. When Hamilton caught up with a touch of crayons”. In fact Hamilton made spectacular full-length pastels of the Duke Ramsay a month later in Florence, a series of at consistently used an off-white laid paper for his and Duchess, the dating of which has caused least six sittings took place, each of an hour or pastels. His technique was quite variable, some some debate. Evidently made in Ireland, some two; the diary breaks off at 5.V.1784, and it is not of these works being slight sketches in which put them to the 1790s after Hamilton’s return known if the portrait was completed. unblended strokes and even graphite outlines from Rome, but his willingness to undertake Later Hamilton favoured full-lengths in small- remain undisguised (he often applied graphite more ambitious compositions for special clients scale formats. Most of the full length pastels, for surface details), while others are very highly is evidenced by the much earlier oil portrait of such as the portrait of his friend Canova with finished. By 1772 a critic discussing another Sir Rowland and Lady Winn at Nostell Priory Tresham with the model for Cupid and Psyche artist’s small oils noted that they were “in the (1767–68), while the studies made for the large (sent from Rome to the Royal Academy style of Mr Hamilton, who has of late succeded pastels belong to the late 1770s. That of the exhibition of 1791), were much more highly so much in crayons”, although Mr Taylor’s work Duke holding his estate plans matches the drama finished than the routine oval pastels. The two had the advantages of better colouring and of the composition with a tour de force of versions of this pastel have caused confusion. durability because they were oil. An anonymous contrasting textures: shot silk, velvet, ermine; Tresham was acting on behalf of John Campbell, critic in 1773 recommended “Mr Hamilton in paper, wood, stone, all depicted with Hamilton’s later Baron Cawdor who commissioned the Pall Mall’s manner of taking likenesses in characteristic economy and intelligence.