shayer was a competent landscape artist, but he is best known as a figure painter. his work is reminiscent in some respects to the paintings of george morland, another very popular figure painter. shayer's work though has a depth and brightness to it missing from the paintings of many of his contemporaries, due to his skillful application of glaze (i.e., spreading a thin, oily, transparent layer of paint over a dry opaque paint). he exhibited at the royal academy (6 works), the british institution (82 works), and at the suffolk street gallery of the society of british artists (338 works). he also exhibited in many of the lesser-known victorian art venues as well. his works are on display at many museums, including the victoria and albert museum, the tate gallery, the glasgow art gallery, and the new york metropolitan museum of art.