Explore: Edwin Hayes

(1819 - 1904)

Marine painter Edwin Hayes was born in Bristol, where his father ran the Bristol and Glasgow Hotel and Tavern. He studied at the Kildare School of Art, Dublin, and also spent much of his youth at sea. Hayes exhibited his work, first at the Royal Hibernian Academy in Dublin (1842), and then at the British Institution, Royal Academy, Grosvenor Gallery, New Gallery, New Watercolour Society (becoming a member in 1863); and overseas in Chicago, St Louis, Paris and Brussels. He was elected a member of the Hibernian in 1871. In 1847 he married Ellen Briscoe, with whom he had eleven children, including painter Claude Hayes. In 1852 he moved to London, remaining there for the rest of his life. He died at his home in Westbourne Park at the age of 85.