William Shayer English landscape painter Country: Great Britain

1. Biography of William Shayer
2. Life and Work
3. Legacy and Exhibitions

Biography of William Shayer

William Shayer was an English landscape painter who lived a long life from 1787 to 1879. He was a self-taught artist who began his career by painting wicker chairs and then moved on to painting carriages in the town of Guildford in southern England. Eventually, he became interested in heraldic painting. In the end, he started painting with oil on canvas and gained a great deal of experience in depicting genre scenes with people and animals at rural inns, farmhouses, fishermen with their boats on the coast, and more.

Life and Work

Shayer spent most of his life in Shirley, a district of Southampton in southern England. However, his paintings mainly depicted Hampshire, specifically the forested areas in the southwest known as the New Forest. Michael Hoy, a wealthy merchant from Southampton, was one of his most generous patrons and purchased many of his landscapes. Shayer sometimes collaborated with other artists, particularly Edward Charles Williams, another Victorian landscape painter. Williams would paint the landscapes while Shayer would add people and animals to the scenes. Shayer also collaborated with other members of the creative Williams family, including his second wife, Elizabeth Waller. Examples of their joint work include paintings such as "The Old Roadside Inn" and "Near Wantage, Berkshire."

Throughout his long life of 92 years, Shayer was married twice and had ten children. His eldest son, William Joseph Shayer Jr. (1811-1892), followed in his father's footsteps and became an artist, painting in a style very similar to his father's. Their works are often confused, especially since the father and son often painted together in the later years of William Shayer Sr.'s life. Three of the artist's younger sons, Edward Dasherwood Shayer (1821-1864), Henry Thring Shayer (1825-1894), and Charles Walker Shayer (1826-1914), also pursued careers in art and helped their father in his studio.

Legacy and Exhibitions

William Shayer Sr. passed away on December 21, 1879, in his home at Bladon Lodge near Southampton. While he was an experienced and skilled landscape painter, he is best known for his depiction of animals and genre scenes in forests, rural areas, and on the coast. His works are somewhat reminiscent of the paintings of George Morland, another popular English painter, although Morland was twenty years older and tragically died at the beginning of the 19th century when Shayer was just beginning his serious painting career.

Researchers note that Shayer's paintings stand out for their depth and vibrancy, achieved through his skilled use of varnish, which was lacking in many of his contemporaries' works. Six of his paintings were exhibited at the Royal Academy, 82 were shown at the British Institution, and an additional 338 were displayed at the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Society of British Artists. Shayer's exhibitions also took place in many lesser-known museums and galleries of the Victorian era. Today, his works can be found in the collections of numerous museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate Gallery, Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.