Francis Hayman

Francis Hayman was possibly born in Exeter, around 1708 and died in London, February 3, 1776.

Hayman is best known for his role in establishing the popularity of small-scale group portraits known as "conversation pieces." Apprenticed to the decorative painter Robert Brown from 1718 to about 1725, Hayman commenced his professional career as a theatrical scene painter. He began painting portraits and conversation pieces in the late 1730s, and in the early 1740s created light-hearted rural scenes for the supper boxes of Jonathan Tyers's pleasure gardens at Vauxhall. He was a member of the St. Martin's Lane Academy and a friend of William Hogarth, traveling with him to France in 1748. An important figure in the establishment of the Society of Artists (which he chaired from 1765 to 1768), he also became a founding member of the Royal Academy.