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Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798)
Aliases: Gavin (1723) Hamilton
Professions: Painter
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GAVIN HAMILTON Scottish 1723-1798
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MANNER OF GAVIN HAMILTON (1723-1798), 'Mars and
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GAVIN HAMILTON, R.A. 1723-1798
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GAVIN HAMILTON, R.A. 1723-1798
Gavin Hamilton Biography
(b Murdieston, Lothian, 1723; d Rome, 4 Jan 1798). Scottish painter, archaeologist and dealer, active in Italy. He was educated at Glasgow University and in 1748 arrived in Rome to study portrait painting under Agostino Masucci. He lodged with the architects James Stuart and Nicholas Revett; they probably encouraged him to visit Herculaneum and the recently discovered archaeological site of Pompeii, which had a profound effect on his subsequent career. Convinced that ‘the ancients have surpassed the moderns, both in painting and sculpture’, Hamilton undertook a systematic study of Classical antiquities during the 1750s and 1760s. In 1751 he was briefly in Scotland, where he painted a full-length portrait of Elizabeth Gunning, Duchess of Hamilton (Lennoxlove, Lothian), in a conventional style derived from van Dyck. He returned to Rome in 1752 and remained there, with the exception of short visits to England, for the rest of his life. In 1755 he was introduced by Anton Raphael Mengs to Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who was to become one of the leading theorists of Neo-classicism. In the same year Hamilton entertained Robert Adam (i), who studied in Rome from 1755 to 1757. He was to know and encourage almost all the British artists who worked in Rome during the second half of the 18th century. Henry Fuseli, who was not an uncritical admirer, wrote of Hamilton in 1805, ‘however eminent his talents or other qualities were, they were excelled by the liberality, benevolence and humanity of his character’.
Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art OnlineGavin Hamilton Sold at AuctionView all Gavin Hamilton Sold at Auction
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Gavin Hamilton
Old Sheffield Plate "Warwick Vase" Wine Cooler, second quarter 19th century, after the Antique as discovered in Rome at Hadrian's Villa, excavated 1769-1770 by Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798) and currently in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow, h. 9-3/4",
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