(Entrien near Belfast 1819-1878 San Francisco) Coastal Landscape in the Evening Light (Philadelphia Harbour), signed J. Hamilton, inscribed on the reverse in the artist’s own hand Evening on the Seashore JasHamilton Philada 1864, oil on canvas, 68.5 x 106,7 cm, framed, (W)

James Hamilton was the son of Scottish parents who emigrated to Philadelphia in 1834. Artistically Hamilton was probably largely an autodidact although his later patron, John Sartain, claimed he was trained by the best teachers in Philadelphia. It is, however, certain that Hamilton honed his abilities with graphic representations, illustrations and English artists’ handbooks. His first watercolours excited the attention of several important Philadelphia painters. His most famous pupils included the brothers Thomas and Edward Moran. Around 1840 Hamilton established himself as an illustrator, marine painter and drawing teacher in Philadelphia. His most important role model was the English painter William Turner and it was Turner’s dramatic use of light in his marine scenes and coastal landscapes that Hamilton adopted in his own works. His preferred motifs and scenes of storms or battles, depicting the power of the elements. In the 1850s Hamilton also succeeded in becoming established as a painter and contributed to the major “Cyclorama of North America”. The powerful manner of his painting, dramatic choice of colour, loose brushwork and pastose application of colour, together with his focus on natural events and the absence of genre details, are manifestations of a totally American form of impressionism. Hamilton is described as the “American Turner”. He painted maritime scenes, coastal landscapes, beach scenes, landscapes, genre scenes, historical paintings and portraits. In addition to his oil paintings he executed a large body of watercolours and illustrations. (Cf. K.G.Saur/de Gruyter, Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon, Vol. 68, Berlin – New York 2011, p. 475 and 476).