The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (217 page)

(1707/8–76).
English painter and book illustrator. He was the most versatile British artist of his period, painting portraits, subjects from literature and the theatre (notably Shakespeare), and scenes of rural folklore; he also had the reputation of being ‘unquestionably the best historical painter in the kingdom before the arrival of
Cipriani
’ (Edward Edwards,
Anecdotes of Painters…
, 1808), but little of his decorative work survives. In addition he was a prolific designer of book illustrations, sometimes collaborating with
Gravelot
. His largest undertaking was the painting of decorations for the boxes and pavilions at Vauxhall Gardens, the fashionable London pleasure resort, of which two are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. His
conversation pieces
anticipated those of the early
Gainsborough
, who almost certainly worked with him in Gravelot's studio. Hayman was President of the
Society of Artists
, 1760–8, and became a foundation member of the
Royal Academy
in 1768 and its librarian in 1771. His best work has a certain
Rococo
charm, but there is some justification in Horace
Walpole's
comment that his paintings are ‘easily distinguishable by the large noses and shambling legs of his figures’.

 
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(1792–1871).
English historical and portrait painter. The son of a
miniaturist
,
Charles Hayter
(1761–1835), he studied at the
Royal Academy
Schools and in Rome, and was appointed portrait and history painter to Queen Victoria in 1837. On the death of
Wilkie
in 1841 he was made ‘principal painter in ordinary to the queen’. He is known chiefly for his royal portraits and his huge groups (
House of Commons
, NPG, London, 1833), unexciting in their handling, but composed with dexterity and accomplished grandiloquence. In spite of his royal favour he was never a member of the Royal Academy, seemingly because, after an unfortunate early marriage, he lived with a woman who was not his wife.

 
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(1901–88).
British engraver and painter, a descendant of Sir George
Hayter
. He spent most of his life in Paris, where in 1927 he founded an experimental workshop for the graphic arts—Atelier 17—that played a central role in the 20th-cent. revival of the print as an independent art form. (The name was adopted in 1933 when Hayter moved his establishment from its original home to 17 rue Campagne-Premiène.) In 1940–50 he lived in New York, taking Atelier 17 with him. Hayter was a chemist by training and had an unrivalled knowledge of the technicalities of printmaking, on which he wrote two major books,
New Ways of Gravure
(1949) and
About Prints
(1962). Although his historical importance has long been acknowledged (probably no modern British artist has been so influential internationally), it is only recently that his own work has won him belated recognition as one of the outstanding graphic artists of his time. His prints are varied in technique and style, but most characteristically are influenced by the abstract vein of
Surrealism
and are notable for their experiments with texture and colour.

 
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(1778–1830).
English essayist. He is known mainly for his literary criticism, but he also wrote much on the fine arts and he ranks as the most important British writer on the subject between
Reynolds
and
Ruskin
. Although he studied painting and did some portraits (one of Charles Lamb, 1804, is in the National Portrait Gallery, London), he lived mainly by journalism, publishing essays in various radical journals. Hazlitt was a
Romantic
critic in placing much more importance on the role of genius in artistic creation than on rules or theories. Thus he admired Reynold's paintings, but attacked his ideas. A significant characteristic of Hazlitt's writing is that (unlike most previous art criticism) it was written for the general reader rather than for the connoisseur or practising artist.

 
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(1891–1968).
German painter, graphic designer, and journalist, a leading light of
Dada
in Berlin, best known as one of the pioneers and perhaps the greatest of all exponents of
photomontage
. With
Grosz
he Anglicized his name during the First World War as a protest against German nationalistic fervour and his finest works are brilliantly satirical attacks—often in the form of book covers and posters—against militarism and Nazism. Harassed by the Nazis he left Germany in 1938 and moved to London, where he lived until 1950. He died in Berlin, his native city.

 
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