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Artist: Letitia Marion Hamilton RHA (1875-1964) Title: Slieve Donard, Co. Down Signature: signed with monogram lower left Medium: oil on canvas Size: 43 x 47½cm (16.9 x 18.7in) Framed Size: 57 x 60.7cm (22.4 x 23.9in) Provenance: Private Collection a#morebtn { color: #de1d01; } a#morebtn:hover { cursor: pointer;} Depicting perhaps the most famous of the Mourne Mountains, seen between two gnarled and ancient trees, Slieve Donard, Co. Down is one of Letitia Marion Hamilton's most accomplished works. The painting conveys a sense of vitality, the bare branches of the trees forming a Japanese-style pattern in the... Read more Letitia Marion Hamilton Lot 20 - 'Slieve Donard, Co. Down' Estimate: €8,000 - €12,000 Depicting perhaps the most famous of the Mourne Mountains, seen between two gnarled and ancient trees, Slieve Donard, Co. Down is one of Letitia Marion Hamilton's most accomplished works. The painting conveys a sense of vitality, the bare branches of the trees forming a Japanese-style pattern in the grey sky, above the distant mountain top. A label on the back provides useful information on both artist and painting. Describing Hamilton as 'ARHA' indicates it was painted between 1934, when she was elected an associate of the Royal Hibernian Academy, and a decade later, when she became a full member. The address locates her as living at Dunsinea Castle Tower, Dublin. This is most likely Dunsinea House at Scribblestown, near Dunsink Observatory, now the Teagasc Food Research Centre. A painter whose style reveals the influence of French artists of the 1930's, and of Raoul Dufy in particular, Letitia Marion Hamilton (1878-1964) was one of a generation of Irish women from relatively privileged backgrounds who turned to art as a profession. Her paintings are bright and breezy, combining the light palette of impressionism with an essentially nineteenth-century Realist approach to subject matter. Together with her older sister Eva, she spent her life painting, traveling and exhibiting. The two sisters did not marry and, with their genteel lifestyle and dedication to art, became known as 'The Hamwood Ladies'. The daughter of Charles Robert Hamilton and Louise Brooke, Letitia was born into a family of ten, at Hamwood House in Co. Meath. After attending Alexandra College, she enrolled as a student at the Metropolitan School of Art, as did Eva. The sisters then moved to London, where Letitia studied for a time under Anne St. John Partridge (1860-1836) at the Chelsea Polytechnic and also under Frank Brangwyn She first showed at the RHA in 1909, submitting a view of her local village, Dunboyne, and thereafter exhibited regularly at the Academy. After the death of their father in 1913, Letitia and her mother and sisters lived at the family's Dublin townhouse, 40 Lower Dominick Street, but three years later they moved to Monasterevin, in Co. Kildare. By 1920, when Letitia was one of the founder members of the Society of Dublin Painters, the family were living at Font Hill in Palmerstown, close to Dublin. Letitia spent time in Sligo, painting West of Ireland landscapes but also travelled extensively on the Continent, particularly in Italy and Yugoslavia. In 1924, at the invitation of Ada Longfield, the two sisters spent the year in Venice, the first of several visits. During this period, Letitia began to paint using a palette knife. She exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1925, and also in London, at the Goupil, Walker's and French galleries, as well as showing with the RA, RSBA and the Fine Art Society, and winning a bronze medal at the 1948 Olympic Games in London, for her painting of a Meath Hunt point-to-point race. Bears label on verso 'Slieve Donard by Letitia M. Hamilton ARHA Address: Dunsinea Castle Tower, Dublin £10' Peter Murray, March 2022