Hawes Craven

He collaborated with Henry Irving, Richard D'Oyly Carte and Herbert Beerbohm Tree, producing stage sets of unprecedented realism.

His mother, Elizabeth, née Craven (1802 or 1803–1866), was an actress, who left the stage, and published several volumes of prose and verse.

However, his aptitude for painting led him to apply for a place at the Government School of Design at Marlborough House, London.

In 1871 Craven became principal scene-painter at the Lyceum Theatre, a role he held for the next thirty years, first as an employee and later as a freelance artist.

"[1] Irving became well known for his Shakespeare productions, for which Craven painted strongly naturalistic scenery, which won critical applause and occasionally threatened to outshine the performers.

Neither Paris, not Germany, nor New York can commence to approach, let alone rival, the work of the men who furnish London with its stage scenery.

Carte's new theatre, the Savoy, built in 1881, was lit by electricity, unlike the Lyceum, which remained gas-lit for some years.

[6] Settings for these works ranged from a mediaeval Hungarian castle to a Japanese garden, the interior of a picture gallery, a Royal Naval ship modelled on H.M.S.

[9] Craven's last substantial work was the scenery for Arthur Bourchier's revival of The Merchant of Venice at the Garrick Theatre in October 1905.

In its obituary notice, The Manchester Guardian wrote, "The most gifted scene-painters of the coming generation will probably try to suggest more and state less, to give symbols rather than imitations of nature.