James Hamilton

Best known as a marine painter, Hamilton was born in Ireland and moved to Philadelphia as a teenager. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and traveled to England in 1854–55, where he studied J.M.W. Turner's paintings. A great admirer of Turner, Hamilton would establish a reputation as a marine painter. He exhibited in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and London—as well as Philadelphia—and was supported for a time by the patronage of Henry Lea Tatnall, in Wilmington, Delaware. Hamilton also taught painting, and his students included Peter and Thomas Moran.