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Edward Wilbur Dean Hamilton
1864–1943
BirthplaceSomerfield, Ohio, United States of America
Death placeKingston, Massachusetts, United States of America
BiographyEdward Wilbur Dean Hamilton painted landscapes, portraits, and scenes of everyday life using the bright colors, loose brushwork, and emphasis on contemporary experience typical of the mode known as impressionism. Hamilton was born in Sommerfield, Pennsylvania. He studied painting in Boston at the Massachusetts Normal Art School, from which he graduated in 1883, and he also studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, in nearby Providence, Rhode Island, under Italian-born artist and designer Tomasso Juglaris (1844–1925). Traveling to Paris for further study, Hamilton enrolled in 1889 at the prestigious Académie des Beaux-Arts, where his teachers included French figural painters Jules-Elie Delaunay (1828–91) and William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1825–1905). Hamilton exhibited paintings at the important juried annual exhibition known as the Paris Salon in 1890, 1891, and 1892. During summer stays in the rural village of Grez-sur-Loing, not far from Paris, he came under the influence of impressionism as he painted the local landscape, undoubtedly with the encouragement of painter Robert Vonnoh, whom he had known in Boston.
Hamilton returned to Boston in 1892 and began exhibiting his landscapes and portraits widely, in exhibitions in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York as well as Boston, where he was a member of several artists’ organizations. Hamilton’s work was admired for its refinement and attention to detail. Two of his landscapes were on display at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and he won a gold medal at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Hamilton taught for some forty years at the Massachusetts Normal Art School and also taught at Boston University and at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Hamilton and his wife spent eleven summers on the island resort of Campobello, New Brunswick, which yielded subjects for many of his paintings. He also painted on several return visits to Europe, notably in the French coastal province of Brittany and in Venice, Italy. In addition to landscapes, Hamilton painted many commissioned portraits for institutions and did decorative painting for a Boston church and for Lincoln College, Oxford, England. In the mid-1920s, he purchased and restored a colonial-era house in Kingston, Massachusetts, from which he later ran a summer academy known as the Jones River Art School. Hamilton died in Kingston at the age of eighty-one.
Hamilton returned to Boston in 1892 and began exhibiting his landscapes and portraits widely, in exhibitions in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New York as well as Boston, where he was a member of several artists’ organizations. Hamilton’s work was admired for its refinement and attention to detail. Two of his landscapes were on display at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, and he won a gold medal at the Panama Pacific Exposition in San Francisco in 1915. Hamilton taught for some forty years at the Massachusetts Normal Art School and also taught at Boston University and at the Rhode Island School of Design.
Hamilton and his wife spent eleven summers on the island resort of Campobello, New Brunswick, which yielded subjects for many of his paintings. He also painted on several return visits to Europe, notably in the French coastal province of Brittany and in Venice, Italy. In addition to landscapes, Hamilton painted many commissioned portraits for institutions and did decorative painting for a Boston church and for Lincoln College, Oxford, England. In the mid-1920s, he purchased and restored a colonial-era house in Kingston, Massachusetts, from which he later ran a summer academy known as the Jones River Art School. Hamilton died in Kingston at the age of eighty-one.