William Hamilton (1795-1879) was born in Lanarkshire and studied painting in Paris and London where he became a close friend of Sir David Wilkie. After leaving London, he settled in Hamilton, where he painted many landscape scenes and portraits for the Duke of Hamilton, before deciding to emigrate to America. He settled in New York where he became an associate member of the Academy of Design, regularly exhibiting portrait groups upto 1840. Hamilton continued to remain a popular portrait painter in New York society until his death on 7 July 1879.