Lot 155: GAVIN HAMILTON, R.A. 1723-1798

PROPERTY SOLD BY ORDER OF HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF HAMILTON AND BRANDON

PORTRAIT OF JAMES, 6TH DUKE OF HAMILTON AND 3RD DUKE OF BRANDON (1724-1758)

measurements note
238 by 146 cm., 93¾ by 57½ in.

Full length, standing in a landscape, wearing a grey coat, yellow waistcoat and red breeches and holding a shotgun, his dog by his side

Oil on canvas

PROVENANCE

By descent from the sitter

EXHIBITED

Edinburgh, Scottish National Portraits, 1884, no. 130

LITERATURE

Julia Lloyd Williams, Gavin Hamilton, 1994, p. 7

NOTE

This imposing portrait was painted in 1752 in the same year as the portrait of the sitter's beautiful wife, Elizabeth Gunning, to commemorate their marriage in February that year. The two portraits are the first pictures painted following the artist's return to Britain after his six year stay in Rome, where he had studied with the great Italian painter Agostino Masucci. His intention had been to establish himself in Britain as a history painter whilst painting portraits to help with his finances, but he obtained few new commissions and dispirited by the cold climate, he returned to Rome in 1756. This portrait remains therefore, a rare example of this short but important period of the artist's career.

The sitter was the eldest son of James, 5th Duke of Hamilton and his first wife, Lady Anne Cochrane, daughter of John Cochrane, 4th Earl of Dundonald. Educated at Winchester and St Mary Hall, Oxford, he was intelligent and a great lover of literature, but also a dedicated gambler and a heavy drinker. At a masquerade ball on 16th January 1752 he met the beautiful Elizabeth Gunning, the daughter of Colonel John Gunning of Castle Coote. Elizabeth and her elder sister, Maria, were brought up at Abbeytown in Ireland, and both were regarded from their early years as great beauties. With the help of a pension from Lord Harrington, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, their mother bought them over to London to introduce them to society. As expected, they created a great stir and at a ball in Windsor in July 1750, George Coventry, Viscount Deerhurst fell in love with Maria. When two years later Elizabeth had attracted the attentions of the Duke of Hamilton, their mother saw her plans for their future come to fruition. On 11th February 1752 the two sisters went to a ball held by Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, and the Duke proposed to Elizabeth that evening. They were married two nights later, by the Reverend Alexander Keith at a chapel in Curzon Street. It is recorded that the Duke forgot the ring and that a ring from a bed-curtain had to be fetched from his house. Maria married Lord Deerhurst (who had become Earl of Coventry) a few days later.

The Duke took his new bride back to Scotland, and they spent the summer at Hamilton Palace, moving on to Holyroodhouse in the autumn. On 26th January 1753 their daughter Elizabeth was born, followed by their son and heir, George on 18 February 1755 and a second son, Douglas, in 1756. Both sons were eventually to succeed to the dukedom, whilst Elizabeth married Edward, 12th Earl of Derby. The Duke and Duchess entertained lavishly in Scotland, their guests including James Wolfe and Oliver Goldsmith. However the Duke's health had suffered from his earlier excesses, and early in 1758 he caught a chill whilst hunting in Oxfordshire where he was staying with Anthony Keck at Great Tew, and on 18th January, he died at the early age of thirty-three.

Gavin Hamilton's introduction to the Duke of Hamilton proved very fruitful. The Duke's second son Douglas came to Rome in 1775 with his tutor, Dr John Moore, and met the artist there. He commissioned from the artist his portrait with his tutor (National Gallery of Scotland) as well as Hector's Farewell to Andromache, and also acquired from him a large statue of Venus.