Edward Haytley was an English portrait and landscape painter of the 18th century. Little is known about him, but the background of some of his sitters and professional contacts suggest he may have come from Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

.

Few of his works survive, but he appears to have specialised in the "conversation piece" form popular with the landed gentry

Gentry

Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....

 of mid-18th century England, a group portrait against an idealised backdrop of the subjects' estates.

His works of this form include one of Elizabeth Robinson with her parents, Edward and Elizabeth Montagu, at Sandleford Priory near Hythe

Hythe, Kent

Hythe , is a small coastal market town on the edge of Romney Marsh, in the District of Shepway on the south coast of Kent. The word Hythe or Hithe is an Old English word meaning Haven or Landing Place....

, Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

; six portraits of the Stanley family including one of Sir Robert and Lady Bradshaigh in front of Haigh

Haigh, Greater Manchester

Haigh is a village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan in Greater Manchester, England. Historically a part of Lancashire, it is located next to the village of Aspull. The western boundary is the River Douglas which separates the township from Wigan. To the north a small brook...

 Hall; and two of the Brockman

Brockman

The Brockman surname is not common, but has spread to several countries around the world. The name can be a topism combining "wet/water" and "man". However, in Old English and in heraldry a "brock" is also a badger, and some have claimed it to mean "broker". Thus, there may be multiple meanings of...

 family on its Kent estate, Beachborough

Beachborough Manor

Beachborough Manor was a manor in Beachborough, Kent, UK purchased by Sir William's great-grandfather Father Henry Brockman ca. 1500 and subsequently passed through various squires in the English Brockman family. Like many buildings in the UK, it found use in World War II by the Allies, as an...

, both showing the newly-constructed Temple Pond. One of the latter may include Susanna Highmore, daughter of the portrait painter Joseph Highmore

Joseph Highmore

Joseph Highmore was an English portrait and historical painter, illustrator and author.-Life:Highmore was born in London, the third son of Edward Highmore, a coal merchant, and nephew of Thomas Highmore, Serjeant Painter to William III. He displayed early ability but was discouraged by his family...

.

His best known works are the oil

Oil painting

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...

-on-canvas roundel

Roundel

A roundel in heraldry is a disc; the term is also commonly used to refer to a type of national insignia used on military aircraft, generally circular in shape and usually comprising concentric rings of different colours.-Heraldry:...

s of Bethlem

Bethlem Royal Hospital

The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in London, United Kingdom and part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Although no longer based at its original location, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses....

 and Chelsea

Royal Hospital Chelsea

The Royal Hospital Chelsea is a retirement home and nursing home for British soldiers who are unfit for further duty due to injury or old age, located in the Chelsea region of central London, now the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is a true hospital in the original sense of the word,...

 Hospitals donated in 1740, at the behest of William Hogarth

William Hogarth

William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...

, to the Foundling Hospital

Foundling Hospital

The Foundling Hospital in London, England was founded in 1741 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word "hospital" was used in a more general sense than it is today, simply...

, London.

His last recorded work was a conversation piece of William Milner, second baronet, dated 1764, and he is assumed to have died shortly after this date.

External links

• Haytley roundels, Foundling Museum