Seymour Haden

A River Bank

c.1863

Sir Francis Seymour Haden was an etcher, collector and surgeon, born in the UK in 1818. He studied at the Derby School, Christ's Hospital and University College in London. He also studied at the medical schools of the Sorbonne in Paris and Grenoble. He became a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1842, and he was made a fellow in 1857. He was an honorary surgeon to the Department of Science and Art from 1851–67 and in 1847, he settled into private practice. Haden was a vice-president of the obstetrical society of London and one of the founders of the Royal Hospital for Incurables in 1850. In 1858, Haden encouraged James McNeil Whistler to work from nature and consequently, Whistler dedicated his first set of etchings entitled French Set, to Haden. The etchings were printed by Auguste Delâtre in Paris and marketed, with some help from Haden, in London. In 1859, Whistler settled in London and often visited Haden's Sloane Street home. Haden became the president of the Society of Painter-Etchers, and he was partly responsible for the Rembrandt exhibition at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1879. His published works include The Etched Work of Rembrandt (1879), The Art of the Painter-Etcher (1890) and the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers (1891). In 1891, he was elected a member of the Athenæum and in 1894 his public service was rewarded with a knighthood. In 1905, his distinction was recognized abroad by honorary membership of the Institut de France, the Académie des Beaux-Arts and the Société des Artistes Français. He was awarded medals for etching at the Expositions Universelles in Paris in 1889 and 1900.