Lot 136: Martin Cregan PRHA PRIA (1788-1870) PORTRAIT OF MASTER GEORGE ALEXANDER HAMILTON with a contemporary inscribed label on reverse stating artist,

Martin Cregan PRHA PRIA (1788-1870) PORTRAIT OF MASTER GEORGE ALEXANDER HAMILTON with a contemporary inscribed label on reverse stating artist, title and date [1848] oil on canvas 76 by 64cm., 30 by 25in. Exhibited: RHA, Dublin, 1849, catalogue no. 122 Literature: Walter Strickland, A Dictionary of Irish Artists, Vol. I, Irish University Press, Shannon, 1969, page 227 Born in Co. Meath, Cregan was sponsored by the Stewarts of Killymoon, Co. Tyrone, to study at the Royal Dublin Society's Drawing School, where he won medals in 1806 and 1807. Such was his aptitude he was sent to London to further his studies and there became the first and only pupil of Sir Martin Archer Shee PRA. In London he befriended Constable and Landseer among others, and began exhibiting at the RA. He returned to Dublin in 1822 and the following year became a founding member of the RHA. He was elected President of the RHA in 1832 and held the post for twenty- three years. During these years Cregan was the leading portrait painter in Ireland and by 1849 held the post of Portrait Painter to the Lord Lieutenant. Strickland described Cregan's portraits as 'marked by feeling and refinement, and a good sense of colour'. Cregan painted several members of the Hamilton family and their relations the Glanvilles. For a list of known works see Strickland, Vol. I, pages 224-233.