Galerie Paul Prouté

A master engraver, Francis Seymour Haden was one of the six founding members of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers in the United Kingdom in 1880. He also served as its first president, a position he held until his death in 1910. A physician by profession, Haden was largely self-taught as an artist, honing his skills through the study of the old masters, including Rembrandt, whom he admired and collected.

As the brother-in-law of Whistler—whose sister he married—Haden learned a great deal from the American painter and printmaker, and the two collaborated on a series of London landscapes. He had a particular preference for English landscapes and enjoyed etching from life, notably in Erith in the company of his friend Charles-François Daubigny, a French painter and etcher. Francis Seymour Haden is recognized as a great champion of etching in England, having contributed to the renewed interest in the technique during the second half of the 19th century.