Moses Haughton, sometimes spelt Horton (c. 1734 – 24 December 1804) was a British designer, engraver and painter of portraits and still lifes.
Life and work
Haughton was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire, and baptised on 27 March 1735. He trained as an enamel painter and was employed at the workshop of Hyla Holden in Wednesbury, before moving to Birmingham to work for John Baskerville and Henry Clay in 1761, where he worked on enamelled, japanned and papier-mâché products. He was married to Elizabeth Haughton (1741 – 13 January 1816).
In 1809, together with Samuel Lines, he established a Life Academy in Peck Lane, a street leading out of New Street, close to what was the Free Grammar School (on a site now occupied by New Street station). This life school was so successful that in 1814 it was moved to a larger space in Union Passage. In this year it held its first public exhibition. In 1821 the (Royal) Birmingham Society of Artists grew from this venture.
Haughton was noted for his portraits, such as that of Lady Louisa Tollemache, Countess of Dysart, and still-life paintings of dead game, exhibiting at the Royal Academy between 1788 and 1804. He also illustrated a notable edition of the Bible in the late eighteenth century.
Haughton was said to be of a "quiet and retiring disposition" and was not much known outside Birmingham during his lifetime. He lived for many years at Ashted, outside the city. He died there on 24 December 1804 and was buried in Wednesbury; a marble monument with his portrait, sculpted by Peter Rouw was erected in his memory at St Philip's Church, Birmingham.
His son, Matthew Haughton, was an artist and engraver, and his nephew, Moses Haughton the Younger (1773–1849), a painter and engraver.
References
- Weinglass, D. H. (2004). "Haughton, Moses, the younger (1773–1849)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/12615. Retrieved 29 February 2008.
- "Biography for Moses Haughton". BMAGIC. Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery. Retrieved 12 December 2008.
- ^ Cust 1891.
- Attribution
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Cust, Lionel Henry (1891). "Haughton, Moses (1734-1804)". In Stephen, Leslie; Lee, Sidney (eds.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 25. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
External links
- 8 artworks by or after Moses Haughton the Elder at the Art UK site
- Moses Haughton the elder on Artnet
- A Shepherd (Drawing at the Tate Collection, London)
- Engraved portrait of Joseph Johnson (National Portrait Gallery, London)
- 1730s births
- 1804 deaths
- English engravers
- 18th-century English painters
- English male painters
- 19th-century English painters
- English illustrators
- English portrait painters
- English enamellers
- 18th-century enamellers
- 19th-century enamellers
- People from Wednesbury
- Painters from Birmingham, West Midlands
- Members and Associates of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists
- 19th-century English male artists
- 18th-century English male artists