William Hayley

An intense stare, focused pose and tight composition all lead to an engaging and personal portrait of the English poet and biographer, William Hayley (1745–1820). Painted by George Romney (1734­­–1802), Hayley is shown leaning on the rectangular cover of an open bound volume, perhaps caught in the act of reading or writing.  In this intense head and shoulder pose, the cover serves as a physical support for Hayley’s hand and head, underscoring the intellectual weight of his literary undertakings. Known for his generous yet often controlling character, Hayley is depicted here as a thinker of serious intent and confident manner. The warm and delicate touch of Hayley’s skin tones are typical of Romney’s style that made him popular with late eighteenth-century fashionable society. This portrait is one of three slightly varying versions that the artist painted in September and November 1777, and again in June 1779.

Both Hayley and Romney moved in similar circles, Romney preferring the company of philosophers and literary figures to that of his fellow artists, and for several years he spent his summers with his friend Hayley. A highly successful and productive artist, Romney began his career as a cabinet maker in Lancashire, becoming apprenticed to a local painter before heading for London in 1762. With aspirations to become a painter of history paintings, with Hayley’s patronage he soon established himself as a celebrated portraitist, rivalling his famous artist contemporaries of the day such as Joshua Reynolds (1723–92) and Thomas Gainsborough (1727–88), with an output of one portrait a day at the peak of his career in the 1790s.