Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1981.25.538
Gallery Label:
In September 1795, George Romney began this portrait, one of his last and greatest, to commemorate the close friendship between the four sitters. It shows John Flaxman working on a monumental bust of the poet William Hayley with help from his apprentice, Thomas Alphonso Hayley, the poet’s illegitimate son. To the far left is a self-portrait of Romney hiding behind his cloak and clutching a palette. The painting proved to be a source of contention between Romney and Hayley. Thomas died young in 1800, and Hayley wanted the painting to remember his son, claiming “it was painted explicitly for me!” The ailing Romney was willing to bequeath it to Hayley but demanded Hayley in turn bequeath it to his friend Thomas Greene. The situation was never resolved and, what had been conceived as a memorial of friendship, ultimately caused a painful dispute between the two during Romney’s last years. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016