William Hoare of Bath, English painter and printmaker, part of a family of artists. He received a gentleman's education in Faringdon, Berks. Showing a marked aptitude for drawing, he was sent to London to study under Giuseppe Grisoni (1699-1769), who had left Florence for London in 1715. When Grisoni returned to Italy in 1728, Hoare went with him, travelling to Rome and continuing his studies under the direction of Francesco Fernandi. He remained in Rome for nine years, returning to London in 1737. He failed to establish himself there and settled in Bath, an expanding spa town with a constant influx of visitors eager for portraits, whose needs he met by producing pastels influenced by Rosalba Carriera. He was closely involved with the running of the Royal Mineral Water Hospital in Bath from 1742 and became acquainted with its notable visitors and the neighbouring landed families. He obtained numerous commissions for oil portraits, the most important being for official portraits of political men (e.g. William Pitt the Elder, c. 1754; London, National Portrait Gallery); there are several versions of most of these, suggesting that he had a studio, and they were further publicized by the production of mezzotints by leading engravers of the day. Hoare himself was a delicate etcher and published a number of private plates, mostly of family and friends, including Miss Hoare (probably Mary), Henry Somerset, 3rd Duke of Beaufort and Christopher Anstey (all London, British Museum). //