Born in Dromore, Co. Down, Hugh Frazer studied in the Dublin Society Schools in 1812 and exhibited regularly with the Society of Artists and the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA). In 1830 he was elected an Associate of the RHA, then a member in 1837, becoming professor of painting from 1839 to 1853. Frazer painted in both Dublin and Belfast. He executed views and scenes of Irish life and, occasionally, portraits. He was president of the Association of Artists, founded in Belfast in 1836. In July 1861 he resigned his membership of the Academy, ‘owing to future absence from Dublin and perhaps from Ireland’, and nothing further is known of his movements. Frazer wrote extensively on art; his Essay on painting (1825), propounding the History painting aesthetic, was published in both Dublin and Belfast.
