July 14 & 15, 2020 Fine & Decorative Arts
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/14/2020
James Hamilton was born near Belfast, Ireland and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1834 at the age of fifteen. They settled in Philadelphia, where he secured formal instruction and began his artistic career in the 1840s, exhibiting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and later at the National Academy of Design in New York. Hamilton traveled to Great Britain in 1854 to study the paintings of James M. W. Turner who was to have a great influence on his work. In succeeding decades, Hamilton worked actively as a landscape artist and became best known for dramatic marine scenes of all kinds, including this depiction of a ship burning possibly at the New York harbor with Castle Garden in the background. In 1875, Hamilton auctioned a large group of paintings and moved with his family to San Francisco to paint scenes of the Pacific Coast, with plans to continue a worldwide trip westward. He died in San Francisco unexpectedly three years later in 1878. Relined, inpainting in upper left sky and scattered minor areas.
Item Dimensions: Frame: 25 - 1/2" x 33 - 1/2".
Artist
JAMES HAMILTON (American 1819 - 1878).
Title
SHIP BURNING IN HARBOR.
Signature
Signed lower right.