Sir George Hayter (1792-1871), English portrait and historical painter, studied briefly at the Royal Academy Schools as a teenager, running away to sea before returning to assist his father, an artist who tutored Princess Charlotte. Appointed the Princess’s miniature painter, he won the patronage of the duke of Bedford and studied in Italy; on his return to England in 1818 he embarked on a series of large documentary paintings. At the end of the 1820s he lived in Italy and France for a few years, but was back in England by 1831, painting contemporary historical works including Moving the Address to the Crown on the Opening of the First Reformed Parliament in the Old House of Commons 5 Feb 1833, which comprised 400 individual likenesses and took him ten years. On Victoria’s accession to the throne he became her portrait and historical painter, then, in 1841, her Principal Painter in Ordinary. He painted her Coronation, her State Portrait, and her wedding (the figures in the two group portraits including Melbourne.) Under the influence of Prince Albert, Victoria began to favour the German, Winterhalter; and Hayter’s day in the sun was over.
