William Hamilton (1751–1801) was an English painter and illustrator who helped turn late-Georgian Britain’s appetite for theater, poetry, and history into images people could hang on their walls. Born in Chelsea, he was first trained as an architectural draughtsman, then headed to Italy, working alongside the decorative painter Antonio Zucchi. Back in London, Hamilton shifted toward figure painting—portraits, dramatic “stage” scenes, and literary subjects rendered with clean drawing, expressive gesture, and a taste for narrative cliffhangers. His career rose with the booming print market. Publishers commissioned Hamilton for prestige series such as John Boydell’s Shakespeare Gallery, Thomas Macklin’s Bible, and Robert Bowyer’s English History. Engravers—including the celebrated Francesco Bartolozzi—translated his compositions into prints that circulated widely, putting Hamilton’s storytelling into thousands of homes. He became an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1784 and a Royal Academician in 1789, exhibiting regularly until his death. Hamilton is best remembered for episodes from Shakespeare and other poems, and for treating contemporary events with the gravity of history painting. In an age addicted to stories, he painted like a director: spotlight here, emotion there, and always a sense that something just happened—or is about to.