Gawen Hamilton

These are works that depict groups of friends, families and acquaintances often engaging in a variety of genteel activities such as playing cards or taking tea.

[3] Hamilton and Goupy, as well as other sitters in the portrait such as John Wootton, were part of a wider artistic social group including George Frideric Handel.

[4] Vertue described Hamilton as the superior of Hogarth ‘in Colouring and easy gracefull likeness’ - a possibly prejudiced view given their association.

[5] Vertue notes that he was born at Hamilton, near Glasgow, was trained by a little-known artist named Wilson, and excelled at groups with numerous small figures, which Vertue compares with William Hogarth, mentioning a group portrait of John Wootton and His Family and a portrait of the Earl and Countess of Strafford and Their Family.

Horace Walpole, who used Vertue's notes, makes no mention of Gawen Hamilton in his Anecdotes of Painting in England.