Joseph Interpreting the Dream of the Chief Baker

Joseph interpreting the dream of Pharaoh’s chief baker was an unusual biblical subject for Hayter, who was primarily a portraitist and history painter dealing in contemporary events. Painted in 1820 during his years in Italy, the work now at Lancaster Maritime Museum shows Hayter attempting the grand manner of biblical history painting that British artists from Reynolds onward had aspired to master. 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 composition arranges the figures in a classical pyramidal grouping, with Joseph’s illuminated face contrasting with the baker’s shadowed anxiety. Hayter’s Italian study is evident in the Italianate warm palette.