William Armfield Hobday

William Armfield Hobday (1771 – 17 February 1831) was an English portrait painter and miniaturist whose clientele included royalty and the Rothschild family.

[1] Showing a capacity for drawing, he was sent to London when still a boy, and articled to an engraver named William Barney, with whom he remained for six years, studying at the same time in the Royal Academy schools.

He was fortunate in soon securing a fashionable clientele, married Elizabeth Ivory (from Worcester), and in 1800 moved to Holles Street, Cavendish Square, where, supported largely by his father, he lived for a short time in a recklessly expensive manner.

In 1817, after the war ended, Hobday returned to the capital, and took a large house in Broad Street, hoping to renew his earlier artistic and social connections.

Hobday's more important clients included the pioneer vaccinologist Dr Edward Jenner, King George IV (the portrait last being sold at Christie’s in 1911) and the Rothschild family.