HEARNE, Thomas

1744 - 1817

Thomas Hearne was born at Marshfield, Gloucestershire on 22 September 1744, his father William died when Thomas was young when Thomas and his mother Prudence, moved to Brinkworth, Wiltshire where his mother died in 1799. Thomas was apprenticed to his uncle, a pastry-cook in Maiden Lane, Covent Garden whose premises were next door to Miller's the engraver's print shop which may have been his inspiration for art. By 1765 he had become apprenticed to the engraver William Woollett (1735-1785), with whom Thomas remained for six years and in 1771 Hearne, together with George Beaumont, were staying with Beaumont's tutor, Revd Charles Davy (1722-1797) at Benacre, Suffolk and later that year travelled to the Leeward Islands with the governor-general Sir Ralph Payne, later Lord Lavington (1739-1807) where he remained for some three and a half years. For Beaumont it proved the inspiration for his future profession as a landscape painter and he would later accompany Hearne on location to the north of England and to Scotland in 1777 and 1778. In 1777, in conjunction with engraver William Byrne (1743–1805), Hearne began work recording and illustrating the country's historic monuments for 'The Antiquities of Great Britain' 1777-1781, also for many of the plates for 'Britannia Depicta' 1806-1818. Hearne was a landscape painter, engraver and illustrator, his watercolours were typified by applying a wash of subtle subdued colours over a clear outline in fine brush, pen, or pencil. He exhibited at the Royal Academy and the Society of Artists of Great Britain. Thomas Hearne died in Macclesfield Street, Soho, London on 13 April 1817, and buried at Bushey, Hertfordshire.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 1 St Martin's Street, Leicester Fields, London
1781 254 View of the Park at Heveningham Hall
         399 Landscape with portraits
         419 View of Heveningham Hall, in Suffolk, the seat of Sir Gerard Vanneck, Bart.
         433 ditto
from 5 Macclesfield Street, Soho
1786 453 View upon the Teme at Dowton in Herefordshire the seat of Sir Francis Sykes, Bart
         469 View upon the Teme at Dowton in Herefordshire the seat of R P Knight, Esq.
         492 Scene described in Recess Vol. 1
         574 ditto
         588 ditto
1787 586 Scene at Lodore, Cumberland
1788 159 Tintern Abbey
         557 Barnard Castle
         561 View of Bredwardine, Herefordshire
1789 116 Chepstow Castle, Monmouthshire
         149 View of Mecca's Court in the city of Hereford, the seat of Sir George Cornwall, Bart.
1790 539 View in the Park of Sir George Cornewall, Bart. at Moccos, Herefordshire
         544 Park of the Great Hall in Kenilworth Castle, Warwickshire
1791 62 Scene at the Rookery, Surr[e]y
1792 511 View of Bath
         535 Ludlow Castle
1793 594 View near Lymington, Hants.
         595 Newark Castle on Trent
1806 375 Caister Castle, Norfolk

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Works by This Artist