Portrait of James Hamilton, 1st Duke of Hamilton (1606-1649)

Painted by Daniel Mytens (1590-1656) in 1629
PG2722
The painting was in the Hamilton Collection until it was purchased by the Scottish National Galleries in 1987 with help from Art Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and the Pilgrims Trust.

The duke was a leading royalist, the close friend and principal Scottish adviser to Charles I. In the 1630s, as a member of the Whitehall group of courtier collectors he amassed an outstanding private collection of paintings which included many renaissance master pieces. His collection by 1643 consisted of at least 300 Venetian paintings, bigger than the Venetian collections created by Charles 1 or his favorite the Duke of Buckingham. These were acquired between 1636-38 through his brother-in-law, Basil, Lord Feilding, who in 1634 became English ambassador to the republic of Venice. The collection was dispersed at the outbreak of the civil war and when his English possessions were confiscated in 1643 his pictures were taken too. However, they were handed over to the custody of none other than his brother-in-law Basil, Lord Feilding, now a supporter of the parliamentary cause. By 1651 the collection had left this country and had been sold to Archduke Leopold Wilhelm the Austrian governor of the Southern Netherlands.

Hamilton was executed at Whitehall on 9 March 1649 and buried in the family vault in Hamilton Parish Church on 1 May. His brother William succeeded to his titles as 2nd Duke of Hamilton.

The painting is listed in the following inventories:
Hamilton Inventory M4/20 Entry 85
1704 Hamilton Inventory M4/42/entry 159
It may be listed in:
Hamilton Inventory M4/21 - 'The twenty sixt case'
Hamilton Inventory M4/22/ - 'An Inventory of the Pictures that are Rolled [Up] This is 26 Case'
Hamilton Inventory M12/1 Page 4 Line 12 - In His Grace's Outer Room - 'Duke James Hamilton's picture '. It is assumed that portraits of James, 1st Duke of Hamilton and Mary Feilding, Marchioness of Hamilton both by or after Van Dyck are probably refered to on the same page as 'Duke James Hamilton and his Duchess's pictures'.

For an earlier portrait at Tate Britain by Daniel Mytens see James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, Later 3rd Marquis and 1st Duke of Hamilton, Aged 17 1623
Tate Britain N03474 Presented by Colin Agnew and Charles Romer Williams 1919