Painters of Wallingford - Jessica Hayllar
Jessica Hayllar
Jessica was the eldest daughter of James Hayllar. She was also the most
prolific of her siblings, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1880 to 1915.
However following an accident around 1900, (family tradition has it that she
was crippled after being knocked down by a carriage), she turned to flower
pictures, especially the azaleas which feature in so much of her earlier work.
She died unmarried in 1940, in Bournemouth, where she and her father had moved
in 1899. Jessica derived her main inspiration from the happy and contented
domestic life enjoyed at Castle Priory, Wallingford, where the Hayllars lived
from 1875 to 1899. The house was full of halls, corridors, and rooms leading
into one another, each of which had long windows looking out on to the garden
and the river beyond.
Works by Jessica Hayllar include the following.
A Coming Event, The Forbes Collection, Old Battersea
House, London. Castle Priory was the setting for this picture, which is
remarkable for the clever recession through which the eye is led. In each room
a stage on the marital journey is represented. In the first are the
accoutrements of the coming event, with gown, slippers and flowers, described
in detail. In the second a man and woman converse while in the third, a widow,
in black, is glimpsed.
Fresh from the altar, 1890
Fresh from the altar