Francis Hayman

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Portrait of Francis Hayman, by Sir Joshua Reynolds. Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter.

Francis Hayman

Royal Academy
in 1768, and later its first librarian.

Life and works

Born in Exeter, Devon, Hayman begun his artistic career as a scene painter in London's Drury Lane theatre (where he also appeared in minor roles) before establishing a studio in St Martin's Lane.

A versatile artist influenced by the French Rococo style, he achieved some note during the 1740s through decorative paintings executed for the supper boxes at Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens in London. Hayman was also a successful portraitist and history painter.

Combining some of these, he contributed 31 pictures to a 1744 edition of

Thomas Hanmer, and later portrayed many leading contemporary actors in Shakespearean roles, including David Garrick as Richard III (1760). He also illustrated Pamela, a novel by Samuel Richardson, Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, Tobias Smollett's translation of Don Quixote, and other well-known works. In the 1760s Hayman was commissioned by Jonathan Tyers, proprietor of Vauxhall Gardens and the Denbies estate, to paint a series of large-scale history paintings depicting British victories in the Seven Years' War
.

He was an able teacher. His pupils included

Thomas Seton and Lemuel Francis Abbott, and he was also a strong influence on Thomas Gainsborough
.

With

Royal Academy
, during the early 1760s.

Hayman died in 1776 and was buried in an unmarked grave in St Anne's Church, Soho.[1]

Gallery

  • The play scene from Hamlet, c. 1745
    The play scene from Hamlet, c. 1745
  • Dancing milkmaids, c. 1735. The Milkmaid's Garland, Humours of May Day, Reigen der Milchmädchen, or das Manifest
    Dancing milkmaids, c. 1735. The Milkmaid's Garland, Humours of May Day, Reigen der Milchmädchen, or das Manifest
  • Print, 1742, V&A Museum no. 26614:53
    Print, 1742,
    V&A Museum
    no. 26614:53
  • Sir Edward Vernon by Francis Hayman c.1755 (detail)
    Sir Edward Vernon by Francis Hayman c.1755 (detail)
  • Lord Clive meeting with Mir Jafar at the Battle of Plassey in 1757
    Lord Clive meeting with Mir Jafar at the Battle of Plassey in 1757

References

  • Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney, eds. (1891). "Hayman, Francis" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 296–7.
  • Laurent Turcot. The Surrender of Montreal to General Amherst de Francis Hayman et l’identité impériale britannique Mens : revue d'histoire intellectuelle et culturelle, Volume 12, numéro 1, automne 2011, p. 91-135.
Notes
  1. ^ Peter Matthews, Who's Buried Where in London, p.33.

External links