William Evelyn of St Clere, Kent, holding a spaniel

William Evelyn of St Clere, Kent, holding a spaniel

Hugh Douglas Hamilton

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hamilton belonged to a group of accomplished pastellists trained at the Dublin Society School of Drawing, run by Robert West (ca. 1720–1790) and James Mannin (active 1746–79). The artist moved to London around 1764 and worked from a Pall Mall address in London’s fashionable West End. His patrons included members of the royal family and grandees such as the Duke of Northumberland, with his success indicated by the fact that he typically charged nine guineas for a small pastel. In 1779 Hamilton moved to Italy and adopted a neo-classical style, so the present work represents his English career. It is a charming depiction of a boy aged four or five, the son of a Member of Parliament for Hythe in Kent, and thus a substantial figure in society. The sitter's youth is emphasized by the easy pose and tousled hair, a conception that reflects a newly fashionable “natural” approach to child-rearing. The attitude of the spaniel’s head indicates an affectionate intimacy between Evelyn and his pet, and Hamilton brilliantly and unassumingly captured the new mood of freedom in this small portrait, aided by the medium of pastel that allowed him to work at speed.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

William Evelyn of St Clere, Kent, holding a spanielWilliam Evelyn of St Clere, Kent, holding a spanielWilliam Evelyn of St Clere, Kent, holding a spanielWilliam Evelyn of St Clere, Kent, holding a spanielWilliam Evelyn of St Clere, Kent, holding a spaniel

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.