Hawes Craven

Henry Hawes Craven Green (3 July 1837 – 22 July 1910) was an

English theatre scene-painter. He collaborated with Henry Irving,
Richard D'Oyly Carte and Herbert Beerbohm Tree, producing stage
sets of unprecedented realism. Craven's career lasted from 1853 to
1905, spanning the end of the era of gas lighting in theatres and the
beginning of electrical lighting; he developed new techniques to co-
ordinate the appearance of theatre settings during the transition from
gas to electricity. He was regarded as the finest scene-painter of his
day and was the last major scenic designer in the ultra-realistic
tradition.

Contents
Biography
Early years
Hawes Craven
Lyceum and Savoy theatres
Later years
Notes
References

Biography

Early years

Craven was born in Leeds, the son of theatrical parents. His father, James Green (d. 1881), was a comedian
and pantomimist, who had previously been an innkeeper. His mother, Elizabeth, née Craven (1802 or 1803–
1866), was an actress, who left the stage, and published several volumes of prose and verse.[1] He performed
with his father as a youth, shortening his name to Hawes Craven. However, his aptitude for painting led him to
apply for a place at the Government School of Design at Marlborough House, London. He studied there from
1851 to 1853, winning many prizes.[2] On leaving, he was a taken on as an apprentice by John Gray, scene-
painter of the Britannia Theatre, Hoxton, London. When Gray moved to the Olympic Theatre, Craven moved
with him. In 1857 he had his first success, when Gray was ill and Craven did the work on a set depicting the
Eddystone lighthouse for Wilkie Collins's The Lighthouse. He worked from a painting by a well-known
seascape artist, Clarkson Stanfield, with such fidelity that Stanfield presented him with the original painting.[2]

In the late 1850s and early 1860s, Craven worked at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane on pantomimes, and at the
Royal Opera House, Covent Garden on operas.[2] His first post as chief scene-painter was at the Theatre
Royal, Dublin, from 1862 to 1864. In London, during the rest of the 1860s, Craven was an assistant at the
Lyceum, Olympic and Adelphi theatres. In June 1866 he married a dancer, Mary Elizabeth Watson Tees
(1838–1891). There were three sons and three daughters of the marriage.
Lyceum and Savoy theatres

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. At first he worked under the
management of H. L. Bateman, and then Bateman's widow.[1]
Despite early success with his scenery for the melodrama The Bells, in
which Henry Irving made his name, Craven's opportunities were
restricted until Irving became lessee and manager of the Lyceum in
1878. Craven, with Irving's support, carried scenic realism and stage
illusion to new levels.

For some productions, Irving commissioned designs from well-known

painters, which Craven would then re-create as scenery. These artists
included Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones and Lawrence
Alma-Tadema. For other productions, Craven created the original
designs as well as executing them. For his scenes in Irving's 1888
production of Faust, he visited Nuremberg and the Harz mountains
"with admirable results."[1] Irving became well known for his Craven's scenery for Ivanhoe, 1891
Shakespeare productions, for which Craven painted strongly
naturalistic scenery, which won critical applause and occasionally
threatened to outshine the performers. His productions included Hamlet (1874 and 1878), The Merchant of
Venice (1879), Romeo and Juliet (1882), Macbeth (1888), King Henry VIII (1892), King Lear (1892),
Cymbeline (1895), and Coriolanus (1902).[1][2][3] By the mid-1880s, Craven was recognised as among the
élite of his art. The theatrical newspaper The Era wrote, "In the art of scene painting England stands
paramount. 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. Such men as … Hawes Craven … are artists in the truest
and best sense of the word."[4]

For Richard D'Oyly Carte, Craven painted the scenery for seven of
the Savoy operas. Carte's new theatre, the Savoy, built in 1881, was
lit by electricity, unlike the Lyceum, which remained gas-lit for some
years. Craven adjusted his techniques to match the stronger light
produced by electric bulbs. For the Savoy, Craven painted scenery for
Princess Ida (1884),[5] The Mikado (1885), Ruddigore (1887), a
revival of H.M.S. Pinafore (1887), The Yeomen of the Guard (1888),
The Gondoliers (1890) and Utopia, Limited (1893).[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. Victory, the Tower of London, the Piazzetta in Venice, and
a South Sea island.[7] Also for Carte, Craven designed and painted
scenery for Arthur Sullivan's grand opera, Ivanhoe, at the Royal
English Opera House in 1891.[8]

Later years
Programme crediting Craven's sets The pinnacle of theatrical realism was reached, with Craven's help, by
for Ivanhoe
Herbert Beerbohm Tree at Her Majesty's Theatre. Craven painted sets
for stagings that famously included live rabbits running about in the
forest scenes of As You Like It.[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 the same year he was elected president of the Scenic Artists'
Association.[1][2] Craven was the last great practitioner of stage
realism. 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."[3]

Craven died of bronchitis at his home in south London on 22 July

1910, at the age of 73.[2] Obituary tributes in the newspapers declared
him to have been "the greatest of English scene-painters, and perhaps
the finest scene-painter who has ever lived" (The Manchester
Guardian),[3] whose "scenes were real pictures, with the atmosphere
and charm of fine paintings" (The Standard).[10]

Notes
1. "Craven, Hawes (1837–1910)" (http://www.oxforddnb.com/
view/article/32617). Archive version of ODNB article (dated 1894 cartoons of Craven
1912), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford
University Press, 2004; online edition, January 2008,
accessed 22 July 2010. (subscription required)
2. Ingram, Raymond (rev). "Craven, Hawes (1837–1910)" (htt
p://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/32617). Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press,
2004; online edition, January 2008, accessed 22 July
2010. (subscription required)
3. Obituary, The Manchester Guardian, 27 July 1910, p. 14
4. The Era, 1 September 1888, p. 13. The article named W. R.
Beverley, William Telbin, Walter Hann, T. E. Ryan, Stafford
Hall, and William Horford alongside Craven
5. Act II only: see Rollins and Witts, p. viii
6. Rollins and Witts, pp. vii–viii
7. Rollins and Witts, unnumbered photographic pages
8. The Era, 7 February 1891, p. 11. Craven provided the sets
for the three scenes of Act II (The Forest, and two interiors
in the Castle of Torquilstone). Carte's elaborate production
also featured sets by J. Harker (Act I) and Ryan and Telbin
(Act III).
9. Gielgud, p. 44
10. The Standard, 27 July 1910, quoted in the ODNB.

References
Gielgud, John (1979). An Actor and his Time. London: Sidgwick and Jackson. ISBN 0-283-
98573-9.
Rollins, Cyril; R. John Witts (1962). The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in Gilbert and Sullivan
Operas: A Record of Productions, 1875–1961. London: Michael Joseph. OCLC 504581419 (htt
ps://www.worldcat.org/oclc/504581419).

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