Attributed to Hugh Douglas Hamilton (c.1739-1808) Oil on ca...

Estimate

£5,000 - £8,000

Attributed to Hugh Douglas Hamilton (c.1739-1808)
Oil on canvas
Portrait of John Wolfe, 2nd Viscount Kilwarden, three-quarter length, wearing a dark jacket, yellow waistcoat and white cravat, within giltwood and gesso frame, 76cm x 63cm

Provenance
By descent
Property of a gentleman, Gloucestershire.

At an early stage in his career, the young Dublin portrait painter Hamilton was able to attract the attention of wealthy noble and aristocratic patrons including King George III and Queen Charlotte, alongside notable military and theatrical figures of the day such as the actress Elizabeth Hartley and the writer Joseph Priestley. His early portraiture, in the fashionable and intimate medium of pastel, enjoyed immense success and he established long-standing patronage from many important English and Irish families including the Conolly-Leinster family who owned at least nine Hamilton portraits at Castletown House, Co. Kildare.  After returning to Ireland in 1792 following a successful period in London and Italy, he appears to have only worked in oil. A series of portraits in oil were commissioned by the Kilwardens', including that of Arthur Wolfe (1739-1803), a barrister and high-ranking official, who became Lord Chief Justice of Ireland (later murdered at the Emmet rebellion of 1803) and his grandnephew, Richard Wolfe, 1st Viscount Kilwarden (1793-1803) of Newlands in Clondalkin, also murdered by rebels. An unpaid bill dated 1804 (among papers held at Trinity College) records a payment of £73-18-9 in relation to an outstanding bill from 'Mr Hugh Hamilton for the Painter for Portraits bespoke by Lord Kilwarden in his lifetime', Cf. Anne Hodge et al., Hugh Douglas Hamilton, A Life in Pictures, Exhibition Catalogue, National Gallery of Ireland, 2008, p. 96, cat. nos. 56 & 57.  The present portrait of the 2nd Viscount Kilwarden (1769-1830) who became MP for Ardee (1790-97) was painted at around the same time as these portraits in circa 1795, following the artists' return to Ireland. The portrait is recorded by Fintan Cullen, The Oil Paintings of Hugh Douglas Hamilton, The Walpole Society, Vol. 50, 1984, pp. 165-208, see cat. no. 67 and also by W.G. Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists, 2 Volds, London, 1913, p.440.