Item description
- William Joseph Shayer, snr (1787 – 1879)
- Landscape with figures
- beside a horse and cart
- Oil on canvas 12” x 14”
- Provenance: Cooling Galleries, 92 New Bond Street, London W1
William Joseph Shayer was born in Southampton and was a self-taught artist, who began by painting decorations on rush-bottom chairs. He then moved on to painting carriages in the town of Guildford, after which he started doing heraldic painting. Ultimately, he began painting oil on canvas and became skilled at portraying woodland scenes with people (including Roma) and animals in front of country inns and farm houses, and beach scenes crowded with boats and fishermen.
He lived mainly in the south of England, in Shirley, Southampton, but painted throughout Hampshire and in a wooded district in the southwest part of Hampshire called the New Forest. Michael Hoy, a wealthy Southampton merchant, was one of his most enthusiastic patrons and bought many of Shayer’s paintings of the area.
