Letitia Marion Hamilton (30 July 1878 – 11 August 1964) was an Irish landscape artist and
Olympic bronze medallist.
Life
Letitia Marion Hamilton was born in
Hamwood House,
County Meath
County Meath (; gle, Contae na Mí or simply ) is a county in the Eastern and Midland Region of Ireland, within the province of Leinster. It is bordered by Dublin to the southeast, Louth to the northeast, Kildare to the south, Offaly to the sou ...
on 30 July 1878. She was the daughter of Charles Robert Hamilton and Louisa Caroline Elizabeth Brooke. She attended
Alexandra College
Alexandra College ( ir, Coláiste Alexandra) is a fee-charging boarding and day school for girls located in Milltown, Dublin, Ireland. The school operates under a Church of Ireland ethos.
History
The school was founded in 1866 and takes its ...
. Letitia and her sister
Eva
Eva or EVA may refer to:
* Eva (name), a feminine given name
Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters
* Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment
* Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in t ...
were great-granddaughters of the artist
Marianne-Caroline Hamilton, and cousins of watercolourist
Rose Maynard Barton. The sisters' father could only afford one dowry, so Letitia and Eva remained unmarried, with their artistic careers helping to support the household.
Both Hamilton and her sister studied at the
Dublin Metropolitan School of Art
The National College of Art and Design (NCAD) is Ireland's oldest art institution, offering the largest range of art and design degrees at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the country. Originating as a drawing school in 1746, many of th ...
under
William Orpen
Major Sir William Newenham Montague Orpen, (27 November 1878 – 29 September 1931) was an Irish artist who worked mainly in London. Orpen was a fine draughtsman and a popular, commercially successful painter of portraits for the well-to-do in ...
.
Hamilton studied enamelling there also, winning a silver medal in 1912 by both the School and the Board of Education National Commission. Her work showed elements of Art Nouveau, foreshadowing her later modernist leanings.
Hamilton also studied in Belgium with
Frank Brangwyn
Sir Frank William Brangwyn (12 May 1867 – 11 June 1956) was a Welsh artist, painter, watercolourist, printmaker, illustrator, and designer.
Brangwyn was an artistic jack-of-all-trades. As well as paintings and drawings, he produced des ...
and the
Slade School of Fine Art
The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...
.
Artistic career
Hamilton first exhibited in 1902,
she would go on to become a prolific painter of the Irish countryside, exhibiting more than 200 paintings at the
Royal Hibernian Academy
The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the RIA, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became in ...
(RHA).
Both sisters travelled widely in Europe, with Letitia being influenced by modern European artistic trends of the early 20th-century. Hamilton was internationally exhibited,
Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
, Burlington Gallery and Kensington Art Gallery in London, in Scotland, and Paris. Her exposure to
impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...
came from studying with Anne St John Partridge in France. Hamilton's style matured in the 1920s.
That year, she was one of the founding members of the
Society of Dublin Painters
The Society of Dublin Painters or Dublin Painters Group was formed in Ireland in 1920 to promote Irish modern art.
History
The Society of Dublin Painters was founded in 1920 by Paul and Grace Henry, Mary Swanzy, Letitia Marion Hamilton, Jack B. Y ...
, along with
Paul Henry,
Grace Henry
Grace Henry HRHA (10 February 1868 – 11 August 1953) was a Scottish landscape artist, who spent a large part of her career painting in Ireland.
Early life and education
Grace Henry was born Emily Grace Mitchell at Kirktown St. Fergus, near ...
,
Mary Swanzy
Mary Swanzy HRHA (15 February 1882 – 7 July 1978) was an Irish landscape and genre artist. Noted for her eclectic style, she painted in many styles including cubism, futurism, fauvism, and orphism, she was one of Ireland's first abstract pai ...
, and
Jack Butler Yeats
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (29 August 1871 – 28 March 1957) was an Irish art
The history of Irish art starts around 3200 BC with Neolithic stone carvings at the Newgrange megalithic tomb, part of the Brú na Bóinne complex which still stands ...
.
It was around this time that she changed her signature from MH (May Hamilton) to LMH, reflecting her full name. Hamilton worked on small oil sketches, which would later develop into finished works. Her style was rapid, with loose, fluid brush strokes. In the early 1920s, Hamilton travelled to Venice, painting on a gondola studio lent to her by artist and friend Ada Longfield. The works from this trip are considered amongst her best, with her exploring light effects, pastel shades, and strong outlines. Hamilton later employed these elements into her works on Irish landscapes.
She became a member of the RHA in 1943. In 1948 she became the last person to win a
bronze medal
A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...
at the
art competitions at the London Olympic Games.
Hamilton served as president of the Society of Dublin Painters in the late 1950s. Despite her failing eyesight later in life, Hamilton continued to paint, mounting her final exhibition in 1963, a year before her death.
She was also a committee member of the
Water Colour Society of Ireland.
Examples of Hamilton's work are held in a number of collections, including
Hugh Lane Gallery
The Hugh Lane Gallery, officially Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane and originally the Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, is an art museum operated by Dublin City Council and its subsidiary, the Hugh Lane Gallery Trust. It is in Charlemont House ( ...
,
Limerick City Gallery of Art
Limerick City Gallery of Art (LCGA; ga, Gailearaí Ealaíon Chathair Luimní) is an art museum in the city of Limerick, Ireland. It is run by Limerick City Council and is located in Pery Square, in the Newtown Pery area of the city.
The galle ...
,
Crawford Art Gallery
The Crawford Art Gallery ( ga, Áiléar Crawford) is a public art gallery and museum in the city of Cork, Ireland. Known informally as the Crawford, it was designated a 'National Cultural Institution' in 2006. It is "dedicated to the visual arts ...
,
Ulster Museum
The Ulster Museum, located in the Botanic Gardens in Belfast, has around 8,000 square metres (90,000 sq. ft.) of public display space, featuring material from the collections of fine art and applied art, archaeology, ethnography, treasure ...
,
National Gallery of Ireland
The National Gallery of Ireland ( ga, Gailearaí Náisiúnta na hÉireann) houses the national collection of Irish and European art. It is located in the centre of Dublin with one entrance on Merrion Square, beside Leinster House, and another on ...
, and Waterford Art Gallery. Her painting ''Canal Scene In Venice'' attained the highest price for a Hamilton work in 2004, which sold at Sotheby's, in London, for £33,600.
One of her paintings, the ''View of Lough Mask'' was expected to be sold for €9,000 to €12,000 in 2004.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Letitia Marion
1878 births
1964 deaths
19th-century Irish painters
20th-century Irish painters
19th-century Irish women artists
20th-century Irish women artists
Alumni of the National College of Art and Design
Irish women painters
Medalists at the 1948 Summer Olympics
Olympic bronze medalists in art competitions
Olympic bronze medalists for Ireland