When Benjamin West, the American artist who later became president of the Royal Academy, arrived in Rome in 1760 to learn how to paint history, he was mentored by Gavin Hamilton (1723–1798), a Scottish artist who was one of the leading narrative painters of the day. Hamilton was born on an unknown date in 1723, three centuries ago, and this article celebrates his life and work.
Little is known of Hamilton’s early life. He was born in Lanarkshire, Scotland, in 1723, but it wasn’t until he was in Italy at the age of 21 that reliable records start. He’s thought to have studied in Rome under Agostino Masucci, then visited Naples and Venice between 1748-50. The following year he came back to Britain, and painted portraits in London until 1756. He finally returned to Rome and worked there as a neoclassical history painter, until his death on 4 January 1798.
All his surviving paintings appear to be from his long career in Rome, when he painted some portraits, but predominantly large narrative works showing classical subjects, both mythological and historical.
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The Death of Lucretia (1763-67) is among Hamilton’s most influential paintings, and is thought to have inspired Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii (1784), one of his neoclassical masterpieces. Despite its title, this doesn’t show the moment of Lucretia’s suicide, but the oath of vengeance made by Brutus immediately following her death. Lucretia’s corpse is being supported as Brutus and others swear their oath on the blood-stained dagger that she used to stab herself.
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Hebe Giving Drink to the Eagle of Jupiter (1767) shows the Greek goddess of youth, in her role as cup-bearer to the gods, providing ambrosia and nectar to the eagle of her father Zeus.
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Agrippina Landing at Brindisium with the Ashes of Germanicus (1772) shows a scene following the death of Germanicus Julius Caesar (15 BCE – 19 CE), husband of Agrippina the Elder. He was a Roman general who attained fame in his campaigns in Germania, and died in Syria in suspicious circumstances. His wife, clad in a widow’s black cloak, clutches the urn containing his ashes following her disembarkation in the Roman port.
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Hamilton’s painting of Venus Giving Helen to Paris as His Wife from 1782-84 shows a better-known story from classical legend, that of the elopement of Paris of Troy with Menelaos’ wife Helen, that initiated the war against Troy detailed in the Trojan Cycle. Paris is on the left in Phrygian cap, as Venus (behind) reveals Helen’s beauty. Three amorini are encouraging Helen to take more interest in Paris.
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His Portrait of Emma Hamilton as a Sibyl (1780-98) is likely to depict Amy Lyon (1765-1815), who at that time was married to Sir William Hamilton, British Ambassador to Naples, thus known as Lady Emma Hamilton, and no relation to the artist. She adopts similar classical roles in her many other portraits, and is most famous as the mistress of Lord Horatio Nelson.
Although Hamilton’s paintings were much admired at the time, his most lasting legacies rest in his influence. Whether he was a help or hindrance to Benjamin West is debatable, but he was surely instrumental in West’s career and his involvement with the Royal Academy. Hamilton was also an archaeologist and dealer who salvaged marble sculpture from the remains of Hadrian’s Villa in Tivoli, and other sites in Italy. He worked closely with Giovanni Battista Piranesi, who documented many of the remains of classical Rome, and in 1785 bought Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks which eventually made its way into the collection of the National Gallery in London.