Gustavus Hamilton, Portrait of a Woman, 1769

Chicago:

Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, “Gustavus Hamilton, Portrait of a Woman, 1769,” catalogue entry in Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan, The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, vol. 3, ed. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan (Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), https://doi.org/10.37764/8322.5.1414.

MLA:

Marcereau DeGalan, Aimee. “Gustavus Hamilton, Portrait of a Woman, 1769,” catalogue entry. Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, Blythe Sobol, and Maggie Keenan. The Starr Collection of Portrait Miniatures, 1500–1850: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, edited by Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, vol. 3, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024. doi: 10.37764/8322.5.1414.

See the artist’s biography in volume 4.

Although the identity of this doe-eyed Dublin beauty remains unknown, she was most certainly a lady of fashion. In describing Hamilton’s portrait-painting practice, fellow Irishman and near-contemporary John O’Keeffe remarked that “Hamilton was patronized by ladies of the first rank . . . and made a power of money by his pencil.”¹ Indeed, Hamilton drew his clientele from the most fashionable sections of central Dublin. He set up shop from 1765 to 1768 on Parliament Street, then moved around the corner to Dame Street, and then to College Green, which positioned him closer to the Irish Houses of Parliament.² These were centers of the ever-changing political, social, and fashionable life of Dublin.

The sitter appears in three-quarters view within a tightly circumscribed oval and sits stiffly against a gray-blue background. Hatch marks emanate in a sunburst pattern away from her head and body. Typical of Hamilton’s style, the sitter has large, dark eyes set beneath prominent brows. The shadows within the orbits of her eyes and under her nose, lower lip, and chin appear blue, which are also hallmarks of Hamilton’s style.³ She wears a cornflower blue and white satin robe encrusted with pearls at the neckline and shoulders. A choker of pearls appears around her neck to draw attention to her smooth, white décolletage, and pearls are also interwoven through her curly, loose, upswept brown hair. Hamilton paints these details of costume and jewels with a thick gouache mixed with gum to achieve greater textural contrast.

Her gown is a type of dress that evolved from a fashionable vogue for rustic masquerade costumes in the late 1740s, including those of shepherdesses and milkmaids, combined with an artistic preference for historic costume that could withstand the test of time.⁴ Inspiration for the historic aspects of her dress is borrowed from seventeenth-century painters Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641) and Peter Lely (1618–1680), whose classically inspired satin dresses, with scallop-edged sleeves, are also trimmed with pearls. The effect of combining the familiar mixture of the fashionable with elements of the historical was an invention by period artists that helped the sitter achieve a timeless look.⁵

Notes

1. John O’Keeffe, Recollections of the Life of John O’Keeffe: Written by Himself (London: H. Coburn, 1826), 20.

2. Shortly before his death, he moved to Cork Hill. See Walter G. Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists (Dublin and London: Maunsel & Co: 1913), 1:427. This source notes that Hamilton lived at “No. 1 Dame Street at the house of Stock the hosier.” Luke (Lucas) Stock was a hosier who lived and worked out of 1 Dame Street at least until 1740, when his son, Joseph Stock (1740–1813) was born there. Daly’s Club, a private gentleman’s club, occupied 1–3 Dame Street from 1750 to 1790, although I believe it is possible that Hamilton occupied a portion of 1 Dame Street during its tenure.

3. Daphne Foskett was the first to observe this tendency in Hamilton’s work. See Daphne Foskett, British Portrait Miniatures: A History (London: Methuen, 1963), 99.

4. Aileen Ribeiro, The Art of Dress: Fashion in England and France 1750 to 1820 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995), 200.

5. Ribeiro, Art of Dress, 200.

Mr. John W. (1905–2000) and Mrs. Martha Jane (1906–2011) Starr, Kansas City, MO, by 1958;

Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.

The Starr Foundation Collection of Miniatures, The Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, December 8, 1972–January 14, 1973, no cat., no. 48, as Unknown Lady.

Ross E. Taggart, The Starr Collection of Miniatures in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery (Kansas City, MO: Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, 1971), no. 48, p. 20, (repro.), as Unknown Lady.