John Hamilton Mortimer

Infobox Person
name = John Hamilton Mortimer
birth_date = 17 September 1740
birth_place = Eastbourne
death_date = 4 February 1779
death_place = London
education = Duke of Richmond's Academy
occupation = Artist
spouse = Jane Hurrel
parents =
children =

John Hamilton Mortimer (1740 - 1779) was a British Neoclassical painter known primarily for his romantic paintings and pieces set in Italy and its countryside, various other works depicting conversations between people,citeweb|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/person.asp?LinkID=mp03194&role=art|title=John Hamilton Mortimer (1740-1779), History painter |accessmonthday=7 September|accessyear=2007] and works drawn in the 1770s portraying war scenes, very similar to those of Salvator Rosa.ref label|Copy|I| Among other things, Mortimer took the place of President of the Society of Artists in 1774, only several years before his death, at age 39.

Not much is known about Mortimer's family, other than that his father was a customs officer. He studied at the Duke of Richmond's Academy, while he was young (by 1757). During this time, Mortimer became a close friend of Joseph Wright, who was a fellow student at the Academy, a friendship which endured throughout Mortimer's life. Mortimer is also known to have had some professional relationship with the artist Samuel Ireland, a man who was involved with etching Mortimer's work [ [http://www.ilab.org/db/detail.php?booknr=71316703&source=vialibri&lang=en Samuel Ireland at ilab.org] accessed 7 September 2007] . He began to display his works on a regular basis from the early 1760s onwards, and became an active member of the Society of Artists. This involvement with the Society of Artists culminated in his rise to presidency of the Society in 1774.citeweb|url=http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp03194&rNo=0&role=art|title=National Portrait Gallery|accessmonthday=7 September|accessyear=2007] In the 1770s, Mortimer was associated with presenting a more masculine, and criminal, presentation of the male form after a period of more effete images. His painting "Sir Arthegal, the Knight of Justice, with Talus, the Iron Man" is used as an example of this style. [ [http://www.tate.org.uk/research/tateresearch/tatepapers/04spring/gothic_paper.htm Gothic Romance and the Quixotic Hero:A Pageant for Henry Fuseli in 1783 by Martin Myrone at Tate.org] accessed 8 September 2007] In 1775 he married Jane Hurrel, Jeffrey Kahan"Reforging Shakespeare: The Story of a Theatrical Scandal" Lehigh University Press, 1998. ISBN 0934223556] which had an effect on his productivity in regards to his creation of artwork. He died of undocumented causes four years later.citeweb|url=http://wwar.com/masters/m/mortimer-john_hamilton.html|title=Biography of artist|accessmonthday=7 September|accessyear=2007]

Very few of Mortimer's paintings have endured to the present day, for a variety of reasons. However, some of his work may still be viewed through their engravings.
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Notes

I Despite his great rate of productivity and his prolificity, Mortimer was often accused of being a "copier" of others in relation to artwork. Horace Walpole, a politician and writer, among other things, was one such accuser, who claimed that Mortimer was nothing more than an "imitator" of Salvator Rosa in his war scene paintings.

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