Prince Hoare

Born in Bath in 1755, he was the son of the painter and printmaker William Hoare and the grandson of the sculptor Prince Hoare, from whom he took his unusual first name. He studied painting under Anton Raphael Mengs and later exhibited at the Royal Academy, but writing for the theatre became his best-known work.

His comedies and musical entertainments were popular in late eighteenth-century London, with No Song, No Supper among the most successful. Alongside his stage work, he also wrote on art and artists, bringing together practical knowledge of painting with a lively literary style.

He died in 1834. Though he is not as widely read now as some of his contemporaries, he remains an interesting figure for the way he connected the worlds of painting, criticism, and the Georgian stage.