Lord Edward Fitzgerald 1763-1798 (c.1798). Hamilton, Hugh Douglas 1739-1808. Hamilton was one of the most important Irish portrait painters of the second half of the 18th century. He worked in London and Rome from the early 1760s and returned to Dublin in 1792. Thereafter, his portrait practice until his retirement in 1804 included many important figures in Irish society. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, twelfth child of the Duke of Leinster, was a leading figure in the United Irishmen, whose aim was an independent republic, free from British rule. He died in Newgate Prison from wounds received whilst on the run from government forces. The portrait is one of eight of Fitzgerald by Hamilton, the best-known of which is the three-quarter length in the National Gallery of Ireland.