Francis Hayman

Francis Hayman RA ( * 1708 in Exeter, † February 2nd 1776 in London) was an English painter and illustrator. He is one of the founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts, London.

Hayman was born the son of John Hayman and Jane Browne in Exeter, went off in 1718 with his uncle, the history painter Robert Browne, in the teaching and cutting himself after his training in the 1730s, first as a scene painter at the Goodman 's Fields Theatre and Drury Lane Theatre in London by, but was then a teacher of painting at the run by his friend William Hogarth St. Martin 's Lane Academy. His students there included Mason Chamberlin, Nathaniel Dance -Holland, Thomas Seton and Lemuel Francis Abbott. He also had a significant influence on the painting by Thomas Gainsborough.

Influenced by French rococo painted Hayman with some artist friends over 50 pictures for " Supper boxes" of the English amusement parks Vauxhall Gardens, which were completed in 1742. In addition, the artist established as acceptable portraitist and history painter. 1746 he participated in the decoration of the London Foundling Hospital with religious paintings. He also worked together with the friends of his landscape painter George Lambert.

Portrait of a Group of gentleman with the Artist, 1740-1745, oil on canvas, 111.8 x 142.2 cm ( Yale Center for British Art )

Robert Clive and Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey, in 1757, about 1760, oil on canvas, 100.3 x 127 cm ( National Portrait Gallery )

As a book illustrator Hayman designed 31 pictures for the 1744 published edition of Shakespeare by Sir Thomas Hanmer. He also illustrated the 1742 novel Pamela by Samuel Richardson, 1749 John Milton's Paradise Lost and 1755 a Don Quixote translation of Tobias Smollett. He also portrayed some famous Shakespearean thespians, including David Garrick as Richard III in 1760.

In the 1760s, commissioned him Jonathan Tyers, the operator of Vauxhall Gardens to paint historical pictures of the glorious British victories during the Seven Years' War.

Hayman was a friend for many years with his fellow artist William Hogarth and Hubert -François Gravelot as well as with the actor David Garrick, with whom he, who was known for his dissolute life, often hoofed it through the London pub scene. In 1752 he married his second wife Susanna Fleetwood, a deceased friend's widow. 1759 Hayman was involved in the founding of the London Society of Artists, a forerunner of Joshua Reynolds in 1768, launched the Royal Academy of Arts, whose honorary librarian Hayman is 1770. In his last years, the artist plagues especially the gout.