Edward Dayes was an English watercolour painter and engraver in mezzotint

Mezzotint

Mezzotint is a printmaking process of the intaglio family, technically a drypoint method. It was the first tonal method to be used, enabling half-tones to be produced without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple...

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Life

He studied under William Pether, and began to exhibit at the Royal Academy

Royal Academy

The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...

 in 1786, sending views of Waltham

Waltham

-Horology:* Waltham Watch Company, American watch manufacturer, pioneer in the industrialisation of the manufacturing of watch movements** Waltham International, Swiss subsidiary-Places:In Canada:*Waltham, QuebecIn England:...

 and Canterbury

Canterbury

Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....

; in the three following years he exhibited miniatures as well as landscapes. He continued to exhibit there regularly till the year of his death, contributing in all sixty-four works. He also was an exhibitor at the Society of Artists

Society of Artists

The Society of Artists of Great Britain was founded in London in May 1761 by an association of artists in order to provide a venue for the public exhibition of recent work by living artists, such as was having success in the long-established Paris salons....

. He committed suicide at the end of May 1804.

Works

In 1798 he began to send classic and scriptural subjects, such as 'The Fall of the Angels ' (1798), 'John preaching in the Wilderness' (1799), the 'Triumph of Beauty' (1800), and 'Elisha causing Iron to swim' (1801). Many of his drawings were crowded with figures,; among these were two views of the interior of St. Paul's Cathedral on the occasion of the thanksgiving for the king's recovery in 1789, 'The Trial of Warren Hastings in Westminster Abbey,' and 'Buckingham House, St. James's Park' (1780), which was hung in the South Kensington Museum. All these works have been engraved.
He drew from nature in various parts of England, including the Lake District

Lake District

The Lake District, also commonly known as The Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous not only for its lakes and its mountains but also for its associations with the early 19th century poetry and writings of William Wordsworth...

 and Wales, and his sketches in grey tints were precursors of the English school of water-colour. He was the master of Thomas Girtin

Thomas Girtin

Thomas Girtin was an English painter and etcher. A friend and rival of J. M. W. Turner, Girtin played a key role in establishing watercolour as a reputable art form.-Biography:...

, and his influence is seen in the early drawings of J. M. W. Turner

J. M. W. Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...

. He was draughtsman to the Duke of York

Duke of York

The Duke of York is a title of nobility in the British peerage. Since the 15th century, it has, when granted, usually been given to the second son of the British monarch. The title has been created a remarkable eleven times, eight as "Duke of York" and three as the double-barreled "Duke of York and...

. In the South Kensington Museum he was represented by a view of Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral

Ely Cathedral is the principal church of the Diocese of Ely, in Cambridgeshire, England, and is the seat of the Bishop of Ely and a suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon...

 (1792), and views of Windermere

Windermere

Windermere is the largest natural lake of England. It is also a name used in a number of places, including:-Australia:* Lake Windermere , a reservoir, Australian Capital Territory * Lake Windermere...

 and Keswick Lake

Keswick, Cumbria

Keswick is a market town and civil parish within the Borough of Allerdale in Cumbria, England. It had a population of 4,984, according to the 2001 census, and is situated just north of Derwent Water, and a short distance from Bassenthwaite Lake, both in the Lake District National Park...

.

He engraved at least four plates in mezzotint, one after George Morland

George Morland

George Morland was an English painter of animals and rustic scenes.-Life:Morland was born in London, the 3rd son of Henry Robert Morland , artist, engraver and picture restorer...

, another after John Raphael Smith

John Raphael Smith

John Raphael Smith was an English painter and mezzotint engraver, son of Thomas Smith of Derby, the landscape painter, and father of John Rubens Smith, a painter who emigrated to the United States.-Biography:...

, and two humorous scenes called 'Rustic Courtship' and 'Polite Courtship.' He wrote an 'Excursion through Derbyshire and Yorkshire,' 'Essays on Painting; Instructions for Drawing and Colouring Landscapes,' and 'Professional Sketches of Modem Artists.' After his death his works were collected and edited by E. W. Bradley, and published for the benefit of his widow in 1805.

His wife painted miniatures and exhibited four works at the Royal Academy between 1797 and 1800.