James Latham (c. 1696 – 26 January 1747) was an Irish portrait painter.

James Latham, Self-Portrait, c.1730

Biography

James Latham was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, in the Kingdom of Ireland. Possibly related to the family of Lathams of Meldrum and Ballysheehan. After some practice of his art, Latham studied for an academic year in Antwerp (1724–25) where he became a Master of the Guild of St Luke. He returned to Dublin by 1725, and may have visited England in the 1740s, as the influence of Joseph Highmore, as well as Charles Jervas and William Hogarth, is evident in his work of this period. Anthony Pasquin memorably dubbed Latham "Ireland's Van Dyck". Latham died in Dublin on 26 January 1747.

Portrait of a girl, seated, wearing a blue dress and holding a rose.
James Latham (1696-1747)
Portrait of a girl holding a rose.
The Rt Hon. Sir Capel Molyneux 1740 James Latham 1696-1747 Purchased 1947 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N05801

Several of James Latham's portraits are in the National Gallery of Ireland collection in Dublin; one is of the famous MP Charles Tottenham (1694–1758) of New Ross, Co. Wexford, "Tottenham in his Boots" (Cat. No.411) and a second is a portrait of Bishop Robert Clayton (1697–1758) and his wife Katherine (Cat. No. 4370). In 1947 the London Tate Gallery purchased Latham's portrait of Sir Capel Molyneux (ref. N05801), two centuries after the artist's death in Dublin.

References

  • Anthony Pasquin, Memoirs of the Royal Academicians and An Authentic History of the Professors of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture who have Practised in Ireland, 1796
  • W. G. Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists, 1913
  • A. Crookshank & the Knight of Glin, The Painters of Ireland c. 1660–1920, pp. 38–44, 1978
  • Elizabeth Einberg and Judy Egerton, The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675–1709, 1988
Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Latham.
  • "Latham, James" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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