- David Ramsay Hay
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David Ramsay Hay (1798-1866), Scottish decorator and colour theorist.
David Ramsay Hay was the son of a published poet and friend of Robert Burns, Rebekah Carmichael.[1] After her husband died, David was educated at the expense of an uncle, then apprenticed as a painter with the house-painters Gavin Beugo & Robertson in Edinburgh, as was his friend the topographical artist David Roberts. In April 1820 he commenced work at Abbotsford for Walter Scott.[2] In 1850 he decorated Holyroodhouse for Queen Victoria. In the 1920s, Queen Mary had these decorative schemes painted over, but watercolours commissioned by Victoria in 1863 give some idea of their appearance.[3]
Entrance Hall at Abbotsford, decorated by David Ramsay Hay, 1824
Hay was an advocate of imitative finishes such as graining and marbling, and textured paints to imitate brocade fabrics.[4] From 1828, he developed his theory of colour harmony over six successive editions of his book, The Laws of Harmonious Colouring Adapted to Interior Decorations.[5]
External links
- National Portrait Gallery page with biography of Hay
- Carmichael, Rebekah, Poems by Miss Carmichael, Edinburgh (1790) (list of subscribers names of interest)
- Hay, David Ramsay, The Laws of Harmonious Colouring Adapted to Interior Decorations, 3rd edition (1836)
- Hay, David Ramsay, The Laws of Harmonious Colouring Adapted to Interior Decorations, 6th edition (1847) digitised by Historic Scotland
- Hay, David Ramsay, Proportion or, The Laws of Beauty Analysed, Blackwood (1843)
- Hay, David Ramsay, The Principles of Beauty in Colouring Systematized, Blackwood (1845)
- Hay, David Ramsay, First Principles of Symmetrical Beauty, Blackwood (1846)
- Hay, David Ramsay, The Natural Principle of Beauty, as developed in the Human Figure, Blackwood (1852)
- Hay, David Ramsay, The Harmonic Law of Nature Applied to Architectural Design, Blackwood (1855)
- Hay, David Ramsay, The Science of Beauty: as developed in Applied Art and Nature, Blackwood (1856)
References
- ^ Lonsdale, Roger H., ed., Eighteenth Century Women Poets: an Anthology, OUP (1990) 445.
- ^ Hay, Harmonious Colouring, 6th edition (1847), 182.
- ^ Morton, Theresa-May, Royal Residences of the Victorian Era, The Royal Collection (1991), 53-59
- ^ Bristow, Ian C., Interior House Painting Colours & Technology, 1615-1840, Yale (1996), 141.
- ^ Bristow, Ian C., Architectural Colour in British Interiors, 1615-1840, Yale (1996), 191
Categories:- Scottish interior designers
- 1798 births
- 1866 deaths
- People from Edinburgh
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