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. Thomas Hearne died in Macclesfield Street, Soho, London on 13 April 1817, and buried at Bushey, Hertfordshire.

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Works by This Artist