Date of Award
2000
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
First Advisor
John Irwin Fischer
Abstract
The on-going comparison of the sister arts (poetry and painting) in the eighteenth century recommends a reassessment of Francis Hayman's role as an artist reading and interpreting literary texts. A founding member of the Royal Academy in 1768, Francis Hayman began his artistic career as a scene painter at the Goodman's Fields and Drury Lane theaters. Although Hayman was one of the most prolific book illustrators in mid eighteenth century Britain, relatively little critical attention has been devoted to his work. Moreover, his circle of friends included such Old Slaughter's and St. Martin's Lane Academy regulars as Henry Fielding, William Hogarth, David Garrick, Hubert Gravelot, Martin Folkes, and the young Thomas Gainsborough. Yet his illustrations in the 1740s for Samuel Richardson's Pamela, Thomas Hammer's elaborate quarto edition of Shakespeare, Thomas Newton's Paradise Lost, and Moore and Brooke's Fables for the Female Sex provide a rich critical resource because they offer visual commentary on the texts of which they are a part. Taken together, Hayman's designs compose an editorial apparatus that recommends a rethinking of critical methods that do not account for illustrations.
Recommended Citation
Raynie, Stephen Alan, "Francis Hayman: an Artist Reading British Literature in the 1740s." (2000). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 7293.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/7293
ISBN
9780599906204
Pages
249
DOI
10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.7293