Hildegarde Hume Hamilton (1898 - 1970) Portrait of a gentleman. Possibly Robert E. Lee. Signed lower right. Oil on Canvas. Hildegard Hume Hamilton was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1898. After her education there, and brief training at the age of six in art schools in Venice, Italy, while on a European sojourn with her father, she studied fine art at the Acad?mie Julian, the ?cole des Beaux-Arts and the Acad?mie Grande Chaumi?re in Paris, France, during the 1920s and 1930s. After returning to the United States, Mrs. Hamilton studied at the Art Students League, New York, New York, and the Cincinnati Art Academy, Cincinnati, Ohio.Hamilton exhibited her topographical street-scenes and landscapes widely throughout the United States with shows at the Syracuse, New York, Museum of Fine Art; the University of Kentucky; the University of Georgia, and most importantly, New York City?s Society of Independent Artists from 1929 to 1933, 1938, 1939, 1943 and 1944. Hamilton?s paintings are included in the collections of Wesleyan College, Virginia Military Institute, the University of Georgia, and Hanover College. Sight Size: 18 x 14 in. Overall Size: 23 x 19 in.