Michael Angelo Hayes

Michael Angelo Hayes, painter of horse and military subjects and photographer. Born in Waterford on 25 July 1820, Hayes received his first instruction in art from his father. He exhibited for the first time at the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1837 as 'Master Hayes'. He was appointed Military Painter-in-ordinary to the Lord Lieutenant in 1842, and spent a number of years in London. In 1848, he became an Associate of the New Society of Painters in Water-colours, and exhibited at the Royal Academy. He returned to Dublin and resumed exhibiting at the Royal Hibernian Academy. He was elected an associate of the RHA in 1853 and a full member the following year. Hayes was deeply involved, as Secretary, in the reorganization of the Royal Hibernian Academy and, according to Strickland, encountered considerable hostility from members for his draconian measures. Following a struggle within the organization and an attempt to remove him and Martin Cregan, the President, from their positions by George Petrie and Bernard Mulrenin, Hayes was expelled from the Academy in 1857. Catterson Smith, Petrie's successor as President of the Academy in March 1859, declined to reinstate Hayes, but a new charter increasing the number of members allowed him to rejoin in 1860. The following year, he was appointed Secretary for a second time. He continued to exhibit at the RHA until 1874, when he resigned. Hayes married a sister of Peter Paul McSwiney, for whom he served as Secretary during McSwiney's term as Lord Mayor of Dublin from 1864 to 1866. In 1867, he was appointed to the post of City Marshal. He died in an accident on 31 December 1877, falling into a tank at the top of his house, no.4 Salem Place, Dublin, and was buried in Glasnevin cemetery. Hayes was fascinated by locomotion and in 1876 delivered a paper to the Royal Dublin Society entitled 'The Delineation of Animals in rapid Motion'. It was subsequently published as a pamphlet that Hayes himself illustrated. He was a founder member of the Dublin Photographic Society in 1854 and sat on the Dublin Photographic Society Council for many years. Many of his works were engraved, including a series entitled 'Car-travelling in Ireland'.