HAMILTON HAMILTON (American, 1847-1928). Haystacks. Oil on canvas. 19-1/2 x 23-1/2 inches (49.5 x 59.7 cm). Signed lower...

Description

HAMILTON HAMILTON (American, 1847-1928)
Haystacks
Oil on canvas
19-1/2 x 23-1/2 inches (49.5 x 59.7 cm)
Signed lower left: Hamilton Hamilton N.A.

THE JEAN AND GRAHAM DEVOE WILLIFORD CHARITABLE TRUST

PROVENANCE:
Shannon's Fine Art Auctioneers, Milford, Connecticut, Fine American and European Paintings, October 26, 2000, lot 51.

Of Scottish descent and born in Oxford, England, Hamilton Hamilton became a renowned American landscape and portrait painter and illustrator. He traveled widely, painting landscape subjects in France, England, the American West (California), and the states of New York and Connecticut where he was one of the founders of the Silvermine Art Guild in Norwalk. He was largely self-taught and pursued his artistic talents in spite of his parents' lack of encouragement. However, in 1870, they relented and financially supported his travels to Europe, where he studied in Paris. After two years, he was forced to return home to help support his family, which he did by opening a portrait studio in 1872. The next year he made a sketching trip West to Colorado and spent much of the summer and winter there, completing forty-seven paintings, some of them shocking to viewers who perceived an indiscriminate piling on of color, likely influenced by Impressionism. Hamilton Hamilton continued painting in New York State, but his Colorado paintings stood out as something new and were chosen as entries at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia.

In 1878-79, Hamilton returned to France where he painted in Pont-Aven alongside artists who identified with the Barbizon School and worked directly outside. In 1881, he moved to New York City, and he rented space at Sherwood Studios on West 57th Street where his friends were Thomas Moran, Robert Blum (represented in the current auction), Winslow Homer, William Merritt Chase and Birge Harrison. By 1889, he was a full member of the National Academy of Design. This painting by Hamilton, which he signed with "N.A." [National Academician] after his name, probably dates from the 1890s although it draws upon a subject he painted often in France. The soft muted palette and rather broad application of paint are distinctive of Hamilton's mature style.


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