Letitia Hamilton won an Olympic bronze medal in the painting section at the 1948 London Olympic Games for her work Meath Hunt Point-to-Point Races, displayed in the Sport in Art exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington - Ireland's only medal at those Games.
From Hamwood, the family homestead in Dunboyne, County Meath, she was educated at Alexandra College, Dublin and studied at the Dublin Metropolitan School of Art under Sir William Orpen, before studying in London and Belgium under the Anglo-Welsh artist Frank Brangwyn. She first exhibited at the Watercolours Society of Ireland and showed at the RHA from 1909, though election to full membership came in 1944.
In 1920, alongside Jack B. Yeats and Paul Henry, she co-founded the Society of Dublin Painters - an organisation established to provide a forum for younger artists engaged with avant-garde artistic trends and to counterbalance the conservatism of the RHA. Everyday scenes of Irish life, midland town markets, and hunting and racing subjects were recurring themes in her work. She also exhibited at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, contributing a painting entitled Punchestown Races to that year's arts competition.
Arts
