Circle of Hugh Douglas Hamilton

Circle of Hugh Douglas Hamilton
Portrait of Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798)
Oil on canvas
23 1/4 x 19 1/2 inches (58 x 49.5 cm)
Lord Edward Fitzgerald, fifth son of the Duke of Leinster, fought with the British army in the American Revolution. Developing sympathy for the revolutionary cause, in 1792 he traveled to Paris, where he attended the debates of the French Convention. Influenced by these experiences, he became an advocate for the estabishment of an independent Irish republic. Becoming involved in an Irish revolutionary conspiracy, he was shot while being arrested in Dublin on a charge of treason, and died of his wounds several days later.

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