Hazlitt was born in Marshfield, Gloucestershire, the son and first-born child of the Reverend William Hazlitt, a Unitarian minister, and Grace Loftus Hazlitt. After living in Maidstone in Kent, and in Bandon in County Cork, the family moved to America in 1783, living first in Philadelphia and then in Boston. In Boston, John Hazlitt attempted to found a drawing school with Joseph Dunkerley, but the pair failed to attract enough subscribers. After trying to earn a living as a painter in Salem, he returned to England with the rest of his family in 1787. His parents and younger siblings settled at Wem in Shropshire, but Hazlitt moved to London, where he studied painting under Sir Joshua Reynolds and became reacquainted with William Godwin, a radical philosopher and novelist. In 1788, he exhibited four miniature portraits derived from the work of Reynolds at the Royal Academy, and would exhibit paintings every year until 1819. In May 1789, he married Mary Peirce of Portsea, Portsmouth at St Anne's Church, Soho, and went on to paint several miniature portraits of her. He also painted the portraits of Mary Lamb, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Joseph Priestley and Edward Jenner. Furthermore, his acquaintanceship with figures such as John Thelwall, Thomas Holcroft, John Stoddart, Charles Lamb and William Godwin meant that it may have been through his brother that William Hazlitt first encountered men who would have an important influence on his career as a writer. When William Hazlitt first travelled to London, he lived with his brother John; and it was John who taught him the art of painting, which he would practise with some success. In 1815, Hazlitt applied for an associateship at the Royal Academy, but did not receive a single vote in support. It is possible that William Hazlitt's strident criticism of the Academy contributed to this failure. John Hazlitt's response was to return to the alcoholism which had blighted his career. John Hazlitt remained a political radical throughout his life, and held views which were even stronger than those of his brother. Following his death in 1837, the Gentleman's Magazine published the following obituary:
May 16. At Stockport, in his 70th year, Mr. John Hazlitt, portrait painter, elder brother to William Hazlitt, the eloquent critic and essayist. His connection with Stockport commenced in May 1832, and there are a great many portraits of his execution in that town. He possessed great conversational ability, and was distinguished for the extent of his information and versatility of his powers; but was, like his brother, of an irritable temperament.
