James Hay

Lieutenant-General James Hay (1780 – 25 February 1854) was a British Army officer who saw service during the Peninsular War and the Waterloo Campaign. He was the last owner of the Arnolfini Portrait before it was bought by the National Gallery.

Life

During the Peninsular War, Hay was present at the battles of Vittoria and the Nive for which he received the Army Gold Medal with one clasp. He had his arm broken at the Battle of Salamanca. In one engagement he led his regiment against the Lancers de Berg during which 70 enemy men and a squadron chief were captured. He was so seriously injured at Waterloo that he could not be moved from the field for eight days.

He later claimed (very implausibly) that the Arnolfini Portrait hung in the room in Brussels where he recovered further, and he bought it from the landlord. It is far more likely that he had acquired it in Spain after the Battle of Vitoria, when a coach loaded with treasures from the Spanish royal collection by Joseph Bonaparte was captured and looted by British soldiers. Wellington ordered the recovery of as much as he could, and offered the works back to the King of Spain, who later let the Wellington Collection keep them. The Arnolfini painting is well-documented as being in the Spanish royal collection before the war.

Hay offered the painting to the Prince Regent, later King George IV, via Sir Thomas Lawrence. The Prince had it on approval for two years at Carlton House before eventually returning it in 1818. Around 1828, Hay gave it to a friend to look after, not seeing it or the friend for the next thirteen years, until he arranged for it to be included in a public exhibition in 1841. It was bought the following year (1842) by the recently formed National Gallery, London for £600, as inventory number 186, where it remains. He died at his seat near Kilburn, County Longford on 25February 1854.