Private Collection, United States
Edwin Hayes was a 19th century Irish watercolourist and marine painter. Born in Bristol but spent much of his childhood living in Dublin and was greatly inspired by the quays and the docks of Dublin, which he lived next to. Growing up next to these busy ports, a love of the sea was firmly imbedded in the artist and he sought to experience it at its rawest. An avid sailor in his youth, Hayes used his knowledge to gain employment as a stewards boy on a ship bound for America and the glory of the Atlantic was laid bare before him.
For artists, such as Hayes, who endured a genuine love affair with the sea, it is this fickleness that yielded an endless source of inspiration and subject matter. Despite a prolific career, each of Hayes seascapes carries its own unique beauty, the shifting colours and weather patterns flitting through his canvases as clouds across the sky.
In 1842, Hayes first exhibited his work at the Royal Hibernian Academy and then in 1855 at the Royal Academy for the next forty-nine years. In 1860, Edwin became an associate at the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours and then a member in 1863. He was eventually elected an associate of the RHA and a full member in 1871.
