Eva Henrietta Hamilton

Who was Eva Henrietta Hamilton?

Eva Henrietta Hamilton, an Irish artist, was a portrait, landscape, and watercolour painter.

Eva Henrietta Hamilton was born in Dunboyne, County Meath. She was a daughter of Charles Robert Hamilton of Hamwood, eldest of her sisters Amy and Letitia Marion, and cousin of Rose Barton, the watercolourist. Eva was the great-granddaughter of the artist Caroline Hamilton. Eva and her sister Letitia painted, exhibited and travelled together. Eva specialised in portraiture, particularly of children. She turned to landscape painting when she moved to Castleknock.

Eva was educated at Alexandra College, Dublin. She began exhibiting with the Water Colour Society of Ireland at the age of 22. Eva studied under Sir William Orpen at the Metropolitan School of Art. She went on to study under Henry Tonks at the Slade School of Fine Art. In 1904 she showed two portraits of her sisters at the Royal Hibernian Academy. She exhibited around 120 works at the Royal Hibernian Academy from 1904 to 1945, and also at the Irish International Exhibition in 1907.

She painted such people as Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory. The National Gallery bought an oil painting of hers, called Rose Dorothy Brooke for £1,806.25, in 1997. She has a piece at the Model Arts Centre in Sligo.