Latimer Preaching at Paul's Cross

Hugh Latimer preaching at Paul’s Cross—the outdoor pulpit at Old St. Paul’s Cathedral—was a quintessentially Protestant English subject, commemorating the Reformation martyr who was burned at the stake in 1555. Hayter’s painting, now at the Princeton Art Museum, reconstructs a scene from the 1530s when Latimer’s fiery sermons helped advance the cause of English Protestantism. The subject appealed to Victorian Evangelical sensibilities. George Hayter was the preeminent British history and portrait painter of the early Victorian era, appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to Queen Victoria in 1841.

The complex composition juxtaposes the tiny figure of Latimer at the outdoor pulpit against the vast medieval cathedral and a crowd of Tudor-era listeners. Hayter’s history painting skills manage the challenging spatial relationships effectively.