Gavin Hamilton (4)

Gavin Hamilton (1723, Lanarkshire – 4 January 1798, Rome) was a Scots neoclassical history painter, who is more widely remembered for his hunts for antiquities in the neighbourhood of Rome. These roles in combination made him an arbiter of neoclassical taste. Gavin Hamilton was born in Lanark in 1723, into the prominent family for whom the town of Hamilton, South Lanarkshire was named, the Hamiltons of Murdiston, linked to the Dukes of Hamilton. By 1744 he was in Italy, and probably studied in Rome in the studio of Agostino Masucci. From 1748 to 1750 he shared an apartment with James Stuart, Matthew Brettingham and Nicholas Revett, and with them visited Naples and Venice. On returning to Britain, he spent several years portrait-painting in London (1751–1756). At the end of that period, he returned to Rome. He lived there until his death in 1798.