Biographical sources on Hamilton Hamilton differ on many counts, including whether he arrived in the United States as a child or as a young adult. His family, however, settled in upstate New York, and by 1872 Hamilton was painting portraits in Buffalo. Soon after, he spent time in the Rocky Mountains and, several years later, traveled to France, where he studied in Paris and Pont-Aven. (It has also been suggested that he made these trips prior to his time in Buffalo; see the biography in the Forbes Watson Papers.) Hamilton came to New York City in 1881 (the year he first appeared in an Academy annual) and soon began to experiment with genre painting and etching. He married Helen McIlhenney, sister of the artist C. Morgan McIlhenney.
Through the 1880s, he consistently participated in Academy annual exhibitions, giving a New York studio address. Over the next several decades, the Hamilton family led a peripatetic existence, living in upstate New York, Long Island, Colorado, and England. After the turn of the century, the artist began spending time in southern California because of ill health. He moved to Pasadena for a short time but ultimately retired in Connecticut. Hamilton settled in Norwalk in 1912 and promptly became a member of the Silvermine (Connecticut) Group of Artists. Perhaps because he was then the only one in the Silvermine group who had the distinction of being a National Academician, Hamilton was identified as its unofficial dean. He continued painting until two years before his death. His daughter Helen also became an artist.
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