Robert Jacob Hamerton, Book Illustrator
(fl. 1830-1891)
Book Illustrator
From A Dictionary of Irish Artists 1913
Was a native of Ireland, and is said to have begun life by teaching drawing in a school in Longford at the age of fourteen. Settling in London he worked as a lithographer with Hullmandel, and from 1831 to 1858 he occasionally exhibited portraits and figure subjects in oil and water-colours in the Royal Academy and the British Institution, and, more frequently, with the Society of British Artists of which he was a member. He also did book illustrations for London publishers, and was on the staff of "Punch" as a draughtsman and wood-engraver for some years down to 1848. He contributed ten cartoons, mostly of Irish subjects, in 1844. He illustrated a Beckett's "Comic Blackstone" and Forster's "Life of Goldsmith," published by Bradbury and Evans, which contains his best work in wood-engraving. A lithograph portrait of "F. W. N. Bayley, journalist," was published by Graves and Co. His latter years down to 1891 were chiefly spent in lithography.