George William Campbell, 6th Duke of Argyll

Hugh Douglas Hamilton was trained in his native Dublin and enjoyed a successful portrait practice, working both in oil and pastel, in Dublin and London. In 1781, however, he travelled to Italy and would spend the next 13 years in Rome. There, Hamilton moved in a circle of Italian and foreign artists that included Antonio Canova, Francesco Piranesi, Christopher Hewetson, and John Flaxman, and he was associated with some of the most important art dealers in the city, such as James Byres and Christopher Norton. He received portrait commissions from the exiled Stuart royal family and from the most important figures associated with the Grand Tour. His 1788 pastel portrait of the Marquess of Lorne, the future 6th Duke of Argyll, was executed when the artist was at the height of his career, at a time when he was the portraitist of choice for British visitors to Rome.