Hayden was born in Warsaw and later moved to Paris in 1907. As a painter of mostly still life and landscape, he held his first solo exhibition there at Galerie Druet in 1911. Throughout his early career, his work was influenced by the artists working in Paris at the time. From 1916 onwards he painted in a Cubist style but after the First World War he returned to a more lyrical and figurative style of painting which proved popular and led to commercial success within his own lifetime.