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.

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. 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. 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.

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. 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.

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