Hugh Douglas Hamilton

He studied art under Robert West and James Mannin at the Dublin Society House - and won some early success with crayon and pastel portraits there.

Hamilton found great success in London through his pastel oval portraits, portraying royalty, politicians and celebrities of the day through this medium.

In 1779 he travelled to Italy, where he remained for the next twelve years,[3] occasionally visiting Florence but mainly based in Rome, where he knew Antonio Canova.

On the advice of artist John Flaxman Hamilton turned to oil painting, and achieved great success with small oval portraits of Irish and British visitors.

For these oval portraits, Hamilton used handmade cream or off-white paper, usually medium in thickness, that was finished with gelatin glue.

While it is unclear how Hamilton prepared his paper for the pastels, it is thought that he did not use preparatory drawings and that the portraits were usually completed in one sitting from life.

Hamilton most likely applied each tone to the portrait separately before blending to avoid dulling the image, using the pastel sticks both wet and dry.