Letitia Marion Hamilton
Letitia Hamilton, known as May to her family and friends, was born at Hamwood, Co. Meath. Described by Hilary Pyle as a typical horse Protestant, she enjoyed a privileged start in life: educated at Alexandra College. She studied art under Orpen at the Dublin Metropolitan School, partly, no doubt, through the influence of her elder cousin Rose Barton, then an established professional artist. In Belgium she studied with Sir Frank Brangwyn; further study ensued at the Slade in London. She began exhibiting with the WCSI in 1902, showing mostly garden scenes in the manner of Mildred Anne Butler, a family friend. In 1910 she painted in northern France, and is thought to have then encountered the work of the Impressionists. Certainly by 1920, at which time she was a founding member of the Dublin Painters Society, her work reveals an interest in matters of light and shade, and a painterly concern for texture. This was to increase over following years, leading to her mature trademark style of chalky pastel colours applied in thick impasto. www.whytes.ie Her first recorded visit to the West of Ireland was in 1922, when she took a house in Sligo in order to paint. In 1929 she first showed a Connemara landscape at the RHA, but it was not until 1942 that Roundstone began to figure among her painting subjects. In that year she exhibited three Roundstone scenes at the RHA and further works followed every year or two thereafter throughout the forties and fifties. Her final Roundstone subject was exhibited at the RHA the year before her death. Hamilton seems to have delighted in the villages distinctive harbour front with its impressive backdrop of the Twelve Pins. In the present work the bold touches of red in the Galway womens skirts and the donkey-drawn turf cart act as visual punctuation, arresting the eye as it sweeps along the arc of the harbour road.
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'THE TURF CART, ROUNDSTONE, circa 1940s'
- Price Realised: 32,000
- Sale: 25 April 2006
- inscribed with title and original price (£50) on reverse
- 41 by 61cm., 16 by 24in.
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'BUNBEG, COUNTY DONEGAL, circa 1949'
- Price Realised: 25,000
- Sale: 19 September 2006
- oil on canvas
- 50 by 60cm., 19.7 5 by 23.5in.
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'BOG, UPPER LOUGH MASK, COUNTY MAYO'
- Price Realised: 20,000
- Sale: 28 April 2008
- oil on canvas
- 51 by 61cm., 20 by 24in.
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'A CANAL IN VENICE'
- Price Realised: 19,000
- Sale: 28 April 2008
- oil on canvas
- 51 by 61cm., 20 by 24in.
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'TREE'
- Price Realised: 17,000
- Sale: 08 May 2002
- oil on canvas
- 41 by 51cm., 16 by 20in.
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'NEAR GLENGARRIFF'
- Price Realised: 16,000
- Sale: 28 November 2006
- oil on board
- 46 by 55cm., 18 by 21.5in.
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'THE UPPER TOWN, NAZARι'
- Price Realised: 16,000
- Sale: 18 November 2003
- oil on canvas
- 51 by 61cm., 20 by 24in.
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'COTTAGES ON ACHILL ISLAND'
- Price Realised: 16,000
- Sale: 16 September 2003
- oil on canvas
- 42 by 47cm., 16.5 by 18.5in.
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'THE FISHERMAN'S COTTAGE'
- Price Realised: 15,236
- Sale: 13 June 2001
- oil on canvas
- 41 by 51cm., 16 by 20in.
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'A GARDEN IN THE LIFFEY VALLEY'
- Price Realised: 15,000
- Sale: 26 April 2005
- oil on canvas
- 56 by 66cm., 22 by 26in.
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'THE HARBOUR, DUBRONVIK'
- Price Realised: 15,000
- Sale: 17 September 2002
- oil on canvas
- 51 by 66cm., 20 by 26in.
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'THE COURTYARD OF THE DOGE'S PALACE, VENICE, circa 1924-5'
- Price Realised: 14,500
- Sale: 28 April 2008
- oil on canvas
- 56 by 66cm., 22 by 26in.
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'SAILING BOATS IN A BAY'
- Price Realised: 14,500
- Sale: 21 February 2006
- oil on canvas board
- 29 by 39cm., 11.5 by 15.5in.
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'PINK BRIDGE, VENICE'
- Price Realised: 14,000
- Sale: 26 November 2007
- oil on canvas
- 47 by 58cm., 18.5 by 23in.
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'RURAL VILLAGE WITH HIGH CROSS AND CASTLE, POSSIBLY KELLS, COUNTY MEATH'
- Price Realised: 14,000
- Sale: 25 April 2006
- signed with initials lower left
- 41 by 51cm., 16 by 20in.
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'IN THE COURTYARD, DOGE'S PALACE, VENICE'
- Price Realised: 14,000
- Sale: 27 April 2004
- oil on canvas
- 56 by 66cm., 22 by 26in.
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'A CAMPO IN VENICE, TWILIGHT'
- Price Realised: 13,000
- Sale: 25 February 2008
- oil on canvas
- 65 by 50cm., 25.5 by 19.5in.
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'POPLARS IN THE JURA VALLEY'
- Price Realised: 12,500
- Sale: 29 September 2008
- oil on canvas
- 51 by 61cm., 20 by 24in.
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'VIEW ACROSS A MEDITTERANEAN TOWN, POSSIBLY MENTON'
- Price Realised: 12,500
- Sale: 29 September 2008
- oil on canvas
- 56 by 66cm., 22 by 26in.
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'SHILLELAGH, COUNTY WICKLOW'
- Price Realised: 12,500
- Sale: 27 April 2004
- oil on canvas
- 51 by 61cm., 20 by 24in.
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'BRIDGE SCENE, VENICE'
- Price Realised: 12,500
- Sale: 29 April 2003
- oil on canvas
- 52 by 61cm., 20.5 by 24in.
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'RIVERSIDE LANDSCAPE'
- Price Realised: 12,500
- Sale: 18 February 2003
- oil on canvas laid on board
- 36 by 46cm., 14 by 18in.
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'SNOW SCENE; VIEW OF A RIVER BEND AND TREES'
- Price Realised: 12,000
- Sale: 25 February 2008
- oil on canvas
- 38 by 46cm., 15 by 18in.
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'INSPIRATION, 1912'
- Price Realised: 11,500
- Sale: 25 February 2008
- enamel plaque set into copper
- 33 by 20cm., 13 by 7.75in.
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'A WOOD IN NORTH FRANCE'
- Price Realised: 11,500
- Sale: 18 November 2003
- oil on canvas
- 51 by 61cm., 20 by 24in.
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'LA CHARITΙ SUR LOIRE'
- Price Realised: 11,046
- Sale: 09 October 2001
- oil on canvas
- 66 by 56cm., 26 by 22in.
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'A BRIDGE IN VENICE'
- Price Realised: 11,000
- Sale: 28 April 2008
- oil on canvas
- 61 by 46cm., 24 by 18in.
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'AN EXTENSIVE LAKELAND VIEW'
- Price Realised: 11,000
- Sale: 26 April 2005
- oil on panel
- 30 by 41cm., 12 by 16in.