Hugh Douglas Hamilton, Irish, 1740-1808
Title: Denis Daly of Dunsandle (1747-1791), M.P.
Date: 1770s
Medium: Pastel and graphite on paper
Dimensions:
24 x 20 cm
Credit Line: Purchased, 1889
Object Number: NGI.6993
DescriptionThis delicate image is typical of the hundreds of pastel portraits of the fashionable upper classes of Ireland and England that Hamilton created in the first 20 years of his career. He began working in Dublin, moved to London around 1764 and finally went to Italy in 1782. The sitter, Denis Daly, of Dunsandle Estate in County Galway, was elected a Member of Parliament for the city of Galway in 1767, aged 20. Hamilton’s pastel portrays a fresh-faced young man dressed simply, with his hair swept back in the fashionable style of the day. In 1780 Daly married Lady Henrietta Maxwell, only daughter of the first Earl of Farnham, an alliance that increased his land-holdings enormously.
Hugh Douglas Hamilton returned to Dublin in 1791 and continued producing portraits, offering support and encouragement to younger painters. A handwritten inscription on the back of the frame of this pastel indicates that Hamilton presented this portrait to a young Irish portraitist called Martin Cregan.
March 2016
Hugh Douglas Hamilton returned to Dublin in 1791 and continued producing portraits, offering support and encouragement to younger painters. A handwritten inscription on the back of the frame of this pastel indicates that Hamilton presented this portrait to a young Irish portraitist called Martin Cregan.
March 2016
ProvenancePurchased, Mrs Darby, Dublin, 1888
Exhibition HistoryIrish Portraits 1660-1860, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 14 August - 14 October 1969; National Portrait Gallery, London, 30 October 1969 - 4 January 1970; Ulster Museum, Belfast, 28 January - 9 March 1970