Charles Hayter

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Charles Hayter in 1811, by his second son John Hayter (1800-1895)

Charles Hayter, 1761-1835, Portrait of an Unknown Woman and Two Children, About 1800, Watercolour on ivory, Museum no. P.23-1923 Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Charles Hayter, 1761-1835, Portrait of an Unknown Woman and Two Children, About 1800, Watercolour on ivory, Museum no. P.23-1923^[1] Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Charles Hayter (1761-1835) was the son of Charles Hayter (1728-1795) an Architect from Twickenham and his wife Elizabeth Holmes. He first trained with his father, but showed an inclination for drawing by producing some small pencil portraits, principally of family members and so he was entered in the Royal Academy Schools in London in 1786 at the late age of about 25. From then he worked as a Miniature Painter in London, and also Essex, and in 1832 in Winchester. He exhibited 113 portrait miniatures between 1786 and 1832, principally at the Royal Academy and had a reputation for getting a good likeness.

Hayter married Martha Stevenson in 1788 and his two sons and daughter were all successful artists; Sir George Hayter (1792-1871), John Hayter (1800-1895), and Anne Hayter who, like her father, was a miniature painter.

Charles Hayter taught perspective (on which he was an authority) to Princess Charlotte, King George IV's daughter, to whom he was later appointed Professor in Perspective and Drawing. He also dedicated to her, his book "An Introduction to perspective, adapted to the capacities of youth, in a series of pleasing and familiar dialogues" first published in 1813 in London. He later published "A New Practical Treatise on the Three Primitive Colours Assumed as a Perfect System of Rudimentary Information" (London 1826) in which he described how all colours could be obtained from just three.

An album containing 443 studies for miniature portraits is in the V&A. Hayter noted inside the cover that these were sketches which he 'placed behind the Ivory, which being transparent, gave the artist the aid in making his outline on the ivory'.