William Hamilton was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 painter and illustrator.

Hamiliton was born in Chelsea, London

Chelsea, London

Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...

, but travelled and worked in Italy with Antonio Zucchi

Antonio Zucchi

Antonio Zucchi was an Italian painter of the Neoclassic period. Born in Venice and died in Rome. He married the painter Angelica Kauffmann, who late in life, moved with him to Rome. He produced a number of etchings of capriccio and veduta of classical buildings or ruins. He worked with Robert Adam...

 for several years. He trained first as an architectural draftsman, but soon moved to theatrical portraits and scenes from plays. Hamilton became very well known for his paintings depicting episodes from the plays of Shakespeare and for his illustrations of poems. He was commissioned to create works for John Boydell

John Boydell

John Boydell was an 18th-century British publisher noted for his reproductions of engravings. He helped alter the trade imbalance between Britain and France in engravings and initiated a British tradition in the art form...

's Shakespeare Gallery

Boydell Shakespeare Gallery

The Boydell Shakespeare Gallery in London, England, was the first stage of a three-part project initiated in November 1786 by engraver and publisher John Boydell in an effort to foster a school of British history painting...

, Macklin's Bible and Bowyer's English History. These were widely reproduced in popular prints. Francesco Bartolozzi

Francesco Bartolozzi

Francesco Bartolozzi was an Italian engraver, whose most productive period was spent in London.He was born in Florence...

 engraved a number of Hamilton’s best known works.

He also painted modern events, such as the execution of Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette

Marie Antoinette ; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793) was an Archduchess of Austria and the Queen of France and of Navarre. She was the fifteenth and penultimate child of Holy Roman Empress Maria Theresa and Holy Roman Emperor Francis I....

, in the manner of epic historical drama. Several battle scenes were also exhibited including The destruction of the Spanish battery ships before Gibraltar in the night of the 13th of Sept. last (1783) and Defence of the Breach at Jean d'Acre by Sir Sidney Smith (1800).

Hamilton's style shows the influence of the cult of sentiment typical of the period, resembling the work of Angelica Kauffmann

Angelica Kauffmann

Maria Anna Angelika/Angelica Katharina Kauffman was a Swiss-Austrian Neoclassical painter. Kauffman is the preferred spelling of her name; it is the form she herself used most in signing her correspondence, documents and paintings.- Early years :She was born at Chur in Graubünden, Switzerland,...

. He also sometimes adopts aspects of Fuseli's dramatic distortions in composition and figure drawing.

He became an associate member of the Royal Academy from 1784, and was made a full member in 1789.