Artist Biographies

Eva Henrietta Hamilton 1876 - 1960

Born in 1876, Eva Hamilton lived at Hamwood, Dunboyne Co. Meath with her sister, the artist Letitia Hamilton. Eva attended Alexandra College in Dublin, before going on to study at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art and at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She earned her living, for a period, painting portraits and included Lady Gregory among her subjects. When Hugh Lane organised the exhibition of work by Irish artists at the Guildhall in London in 1904, she was represented by her work, A Lady in Pink. In that same year, she showed portraits of her sisters at the Royal Hibernian Academy, where she continued to exhibit for some 40 years, a total of 121 works. A 1913 portrait of her cousin Rose is in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland. In 1924, she exhibited in Dublin alongside her sister Letitia, and their work was warmly received. Theo Snoddy reports that Mary Swanzy described Eva as having ‘red hair and a temper to match’. Eva continued to exhibit with Letitia, whom we are told, was the dominant personality. From 1898 to 1950, Eva showed more than 90 works at the Watercolour Society of Ireland exhibitions, while also exhibiting in Belfast in 1927 and at the Exhibition of Irish Art in Brussels in 1930, again in Dublin in 1937, alongside her sister Letitia and also at the New Burlington Galleries in London. Paintings of Connemara and Roundstone feature among her exhibited work during the 1930’s and 40’s. The present work of a Fair Day in Clifden may be from a slightly earlier period and depicts the centre of Clifden, looking up towards the Church of Ireland church, on a busy fair day. Eva was closely associated with the Dublin Painters and many of her exhibitions with Letitia were held at 7, St. Stephen’s Green, even as late as 1951. She also exhibited at the Irish Exhibition of Living Art, at the Fine Art Society in London and the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Her work is included in many important public collections, including the Ulster Museum, the Crawford Gallery in Cork, Aras an Uachtarain, Trinity College, NUI Galway, Kilkenny Arts Society, the Niland Centre Sligo, Limerick City Gallery and the National Gallery of Ireland.
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