Bernardo Hay also Bernard Hay (* 1864 in Florence, † between 1916[1] and 1935) was a British painter. The artist lived and worked mainly in Italy.

Bernardo Hay was born in 1864 as the son of the British painter Jane Benham Hay, who was living in Florence at the time. His mother was one of the seminal figures in the Pre-Raphaelite movement in England. She had been separated from her husband, the painter William Hay, for a long time when the child was born, so that he was out of the question as the father. Her mother later married the Italian painter Francesco Saverio Altamura, who belonged to the Macchiaioli group of artists and with whom she had been romantically involved since the late 1850s.

Bernardo Hay studied painting with Altamura in Naples. In the early 1880s he lived briefly in Venice, Florence and Bruges. In 1883 he took part in the annual art exhibitions in Milan (with four paintings: Field of flowers, Summer in Posillipo and two views of Venice) and Rome (views of the Grand Canal, the city of Bruges and a view of the Belgian countryside). He exhibited in Turin around 1885 (Portrait of Carmanella, Spring Flower and Seascape in Resina). In the late 1880s he returned to Naples and thereafter mainly produced views of scenes and people around the Gulf of Naples. In 1889 he was still living in Naples and later settled in Capri.

Apart from the few known views of Bruges and Belgium, landscape views of the Gulf of Naples and portrait studies of the simple Neapolitan population were among the artist's favorite subjects. In addition, some views of Venice were created. Only oil paintings by Hay are known. Information on the artist's death varies with 1931 on Capri and with 1934 in Naples. He was known by the nickname Pito (German the little one).

Literature: Comanducci "Italaian artist lexicon"; Thieme/Becker, XVI, 1923, 168.

Inscription: signed lower right.

Technique: oil on canvas. Original period frame.

Measurements: unframed w. 31 1/8" x h.19 1/4" (79 x 49 cm), framed 39 3/4 " x 28" (101 x 71,5 cm)

Condition: very good condition.