James Latham (painter)

James Latham (c. 1696 – 26 January 1747) was an Irish portrait painter.

James Latham was born in Thurles, County Tipperary, in the Kingdom of Ireland possibly related to the Latham family of Meldrum and Ballysheehan. After beginning his art practice, Latham studied in Antwerp during the academic year of 1724–25, where he became a Master of the Guild of St Luke. He returned to Dublin by 1725and may have visited England in the 1740s, as his work from this period shows the influence of Joseph Highmore, Charles Jervas, and William Hogarth. Anthony Pasquin memorably dubbed Latham "Ireland's Van Dyck." Latham died in Dublin on 26 January 1747.

Several of James Latham's portraits are in the National Gallery of Ireland collection in Dublin. Notable works include the portrait of MP Charles Tottenham (1694–1758) of New Ross, Co. Wexford, known as "Tottenham in his Boots" (Cat. No. 411), and a portrait of Bishop Robert Clayton (1697–1758) and his wife Katherine (Cat. No. 4370). In 1947, two centuries after the artist's death, the London Tate Gallery purchased Latham's portrait of Sir Capel Molyneux (ref. N05801).

• Anthony Pasquin, Memoirs of the Royal Academicians and An Authentic History of the Professors of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture who have Practised in Ireland, 1796
• W. G. Strickland, Dictionary of Irish Artists, 1913
• A. Crookshank & the Knight of Glin, The Painters of Ireland c. 1660–1920, pp. 38–44, 1978
• Elizabeth Einberg and Judy Egerton, The Age of Hogarth: British Painters Born 1675–1709, 1988

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• "Latham, James" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.