Details of Sculptor

Surname

Bell

Alternative Surname

First Name

Lady Maria

Initial of Surname

B

Year of Birth/Baptism

1755

Flourished

Year of Death

1825

Biographical Details

Maria Hamilton was born in Chelsea on 26 December 1755 and baptized at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Westminster, the daughter of William Hamilton, an architect of Scotttish descent, and his wife Sarah. She studied painting under her brother, William Hamilton RA, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, many of whose works she copied. These copies, which were principally portraits of celebrated ladies, were much admired by the Gentleman’s Magazine, which considered them ‘the more valuable because they retain their fine colouring of which time has deprived the originals’ (GM, 1825, i, 570). She also copied the works of Rubens at Carlton House. She exhibited at the British Institution in 1807 and 1809 and at the Royal Academy between 1816 and 1820, showing mainly pictures. About 1808 she married Thomas Bell, sheriff of Middlesex, who was knighted in 1816. Her 1819 RA exhibits included a portrait bust of her husband and another of a Miss Bell, who may have been her daughter (1, 2). She died in London at her home, 47 Dean Street, Soho, on 9 March 1825.
Literary References: Gunnis 1968, 49-50; ODNB (Peach)
Portraits of the Sculptor: G Clint, mezzotint (after self-portrait by M Bell), BM; E Scriven, stipple, published 1821 (after miniature by W S Lethbridge), NPG; W S Lethbridge, miniature (untraced)