William Hoare RA (c. 1707 - 12 December, 1792) was an English painter, noted for his pastel.
His father apprenticed him to Guiseppi Grisoni with whom Hoare travelled to Rome in 1728. On returning to England in 1738, Hoare settled in Bath, where he became a governor of the hospital. During the 1740's and 1750's he painted a great number of influential politicians and social leaders, including Prime Minister's Pitt and Walpole, and the composer, Handel. He was the first fashionable portraitist to settle in Bath, and he remained as the leading portrait painter there until the arrival of Thomas Gainsborough in 1759. However, he remained the favourite of his powerful patron the Duke of Newcastle, his family and political associates. Included amongst his other important patrons were the Earls of Pembroke and Chesterfield, and the Duke of Beaufort. With Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds he was a founding member of the Royal Academy. Chalmers described him as 'an ingenious and amiable...
