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.

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. 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.

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), 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). 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. Also for Carte, Craven designed and painted scenery for Arthur Sullivan's grand opera, Ivanhoe, at the Royal English Opera House in 1891.

Later years

The pinnacle of theatrical realism was reached, with Craven's help, by 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. 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. whose "scenes were real pictures, with the atmosphere and charm of fine paintings" (The Standard).