Biography
Hewitt 'Hewie' Henry Rayner (b. Melbourne, Australia 1902 - d. 1947) travelled to the UK in 1923 to pursue his artistic ambitions, and won a place at the Roya Acdemy Schools in 1925. One of the visiting teachers was Walter Sickert (1860-1942), who took a special interest in his work. In 1926 Hewitt married Therese Zecchin, a former artist’s model. In 1926/7, he left the Royal Academy Schools and set out to earn a living as a drypoint etcher, adopting 'Henry Rayner' as his professional name. In the following two decades he etched more than 500 drypoint plates, including many London scenes, but struggled to earn a living. An asthma sufferer since childhood, he was rejected as unfit for military service in the 1939-45 war. In 1940 a bomb exploded next to his basement studio in Gospel Oak, north London, leaving him with permanent lung damage. There were other war-related injuries. In 1945, London’s Brook Street Gallery staged a one-man exhibition of his drypoints. In 1955 he moved to Ramsgate, Kent. On 25 April 1957 he took his own life, leaving a widow and two daughters.
