Lieutenant-general James Hay (?-25 February 1854) was a

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

officer who saw service during the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

and the

Waterloo Campaign The Waterloo campaign (15 June – 8 July 1815) was fought between the French Army of the North and two Seventh Coalition armies, an Anglo-allied army and a Prussian army. Initially the French army was commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte, but he l ...

. He was the last owner of the Arnolfini Portrait before it was bought by the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

Life

He was born in Braco, Scotland the son of John Hay and joined the 16th Light Dragoons as a cornet on 10June 1795. He was subsequently promoted to Lieutenant on 4March 1795; to Captain on 28February 1799; to Major on 2January 1812 and to Lieutenant-colonel on 18February 1813. During the Peninsular War, Hay was present at the battles of Vittoria and the Nive for which he received the

Army Gold Medal The Army Gold Medal (1808–1814), also known as the Peninsular Gold Medal, with an accompanying Gold Cross, was a British campaign medal awarded in recognition of field and general officers' successful commands in campaigns, predominantly the Pe ...

with one clasp. He had his arm broken at the

Battle of Salamanca The Battle of Salamanca (in French and Spanish known as the Battle of Arapiles) on 22July 1812 was a battle in which an Anglo-Portuguese army under the Earl of Wellington defeated Marshal Auguste Marmont's French forces at Arapiles, ...

. In one engagement he led his regiment against the Lancers de

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during which 70 enemy men and a squadron chief were captured. On 22 June 1815, on the recommendation of

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...

, he was appointed a Companion of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath (CB) for his services at Quatre Bras and Waterloo. 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 Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

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 The Spanish royal collection of art was almost entirely built up by the monarchs of the Habsburg family who ruled Spain from 1516 to 1700, and then the Bourbons (1700–1868, with a brief interruption). They included a number of kings with a seri ...

Joseph Bonaparte it, Giuseppe-Napoleone Buonaparte es, José Napoleón Bonaparte , house = Bonaparte , father = Carlo Buonaparte , mother = Letizia Ramolino , birth_date = 7 January 1768 , birth_place = Corte, Corsica, Republic of ...

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 The Wellington Collection is a large art and militaria collection housed at Apsley House in London. It mainly consists of paintings, including 83 formerly in the Spanish royal collection, given to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, who was P ...

keep them. The Arnolfini painting is well-documented as being in the Spanish royal collection before the war.Campbell, 175–178 Hay offered the painting to the Prince Regent, later King

George IV George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from the death of his father, King George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten y ...

, via Sir

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at ...

. The Prince had it on approval for two years at

Carlton House Carlton House was a mansion in Westminster, best known as the town residence of King George IV. It faced the south side of Pall Mall, and its gardens abutted St James's Park in the St James's district of London. The location of the house, no ...

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

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

for £600, as inventory number 186, where it remains. Hay was given the colonelcy of the 79th Regiment of Foot (Cameron Highlanders) from 1849 to his death. He died at his seat near Kilburn, County Longford on 25February 1854.

References

;Bibliography * Campbell, Lorne, ''The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings'', London: National Gallery, 1998, * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, James 1854 deaths British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars British Army lieutenant generals