Lady Holland (Lady Mary Fitzpatrick)

Hamilton employed pastel sticks to achieve smooth, luminous skin tones, supplementing the surface with graphite for fine detailing. The medium allowed for subtle gradations and a soft glow, characteristic of mid‑century portraiture that sought a lifelike immediacy through delicate color transitions.

An Irish artist who trained and worked in London and Rome before establishing himself in Dublin in the early 1790s, Hamilton focused on pastel portraiture until the mid‑1770s. This drawing belongs to the period when he was actively producing works for patrons associated with the Anglo‑Irish elite, including the Fitzpatrick family.

During the 1770s, pastel became a favored medium for portraiture in Britain and Ireland, valued for its capacity to render soft flesh tones and rapid execution. Hamilton’s use of the medium aligns with contemporary practices that emphasized immediacy and a tactile sense of surface.