William Simson

Last updated

William Simson
Born(1799-10-17)17 October 1799
Died29 August 1847(1847-08-29) (aged 47)
NationalityScottish

William Simson (17 October 1799 - 29 August 1847) was a Scottish portrait, landscape and subject painter. [1] [2]

Contents

Biography

Simson was born at Dundee in on 17 October 1799 and baptised there on 20 October 1799. His parents were Alexander Simson and Jean Wilson. [3] He studied under Andrew Wilson at the Trustees' Academy on Picardy Place in Edinburgh, and his early pictures of landscape and marine subjects found quick sales. He then turned his attention to figure painting, producing the Twelfth of August in 1829, which was followed by Sportsmen Regaling and a Highland Deer-stalker in 1830. [4]

Once finished his studies at the Trustees Academy, he adopted a teaching role there, his pupils including Andrew Somerville RSA. [5]

In 1830 he was elected as a member of the Scottish Academy. Having acquired some means by portrait-painting, he spent three years in Italy. On his return in 1838 he settled in London, where he exhibited his Camaldolese monk showing Relics, Cimabue and GiottoDutch Family and Columbus and his Child at the Convent of Santa María de la Rábida . [4]

Simson was most talented as a landscapist; his Solway Moss Sunset, exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy of 1831 and now in the National Gallery in Edinburgh, ranks as one of the finest examples of the early Scottish school of landscape. His elder brother George (1791–1862), a portrait-painter, was also a member of the Royal Scottish Academy, and his younger brother David (died 1874) practised as a landscape-painter. [4]

He died in London on 29 August 1847. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Phillips</span> English portrait and subject painter (1770–1845)

Thomas Phillips was a leading English portrait and subject painter. He painted many of the great men of the day including scientists, artists, writers, poets and explorers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Wilkie (artist)</span> Scottish painter (1785–1841)

Sir David Wilkie was a Scottish painter, especially known for his genre scenes. He painted successfully in a wide variety of genres, including historical scenes, portraits, including formal royal ones, and scenes from his travels to Europe and the Middle East. His main base was in London, but he died and was buried at sea, off Gibraltar, returning from his first trip to the Middle East. He was sometimes known as the "people's painter".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Runciman</span> British artist (1736–1785)

Alexander Runciman was a Scottish painter of historical and mythological subjects. He was the elder brother of John Runciman, also a painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander Nasmyth</span> Scottish portrait and landscape painter

Alexander Nasmyth was a Scottish portrait and landscape painter, a pupil of Allan Ramsay. He also undertook several architectural commissions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Watson Gordon</span> Scottish painter (1788–1864)

Sir John Watson Gordon was a Scottish portrait painter and president of the Royal Scottish Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Allan (painter)</span> Scottish artist (1782–1850)

Sir William Allan was a distinguished Scottish historical painter known for his scenes of Russian life. He became president of the Royal Scottish Academy and was made a Royal Academician.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Archer (artist)</span> Scottish painter

James Archer RSA, was a Scottish painter of portraits, genre works, landscapes and historical scenes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Scott Lauder</span> Scottish painter (1803–1869)

Robert Scott Lauder was a Scottish artist who described himself as a "historical painter". He was one of the original members of the Royal Scottish Academy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Wilson Carmichael</span> English marine painter

James Wilson Carmichael, also known as John Wilson Carmichael, was a British maritime and landscape artist who painted in oil and watercolours. Based in Newcastle upon Tyne and later in London, he was a household name in his lifetime, and his work remains some of the most desirable in the marine art market. He was described by art historian Jeremy Maas as "a sea painter of great, though sometimes uneven, natural talent".

William Home Lizars was a Scottish painter, engraver and publisher.

Sir Herbert James Gunn RA RP was a Scottish landscape and portrait painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish art in the nineteenth century</span> Scottish visual art

Scottish art in the nineteenth century is the body of visual art made in Scotland, by Scots, or about Scottish subjects. This period saw the increasing professionalisation and organisation of art in Scotland. Major institutions founded in this period included the Institution for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Scotland, the Royal Scottish Academy of Art, the National Gallery of Scotland, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the Glasgow Institute. Art education in Edinburgh focused on the Trustees Drawing Academy of Edinburgh. Glasgow School of Art was founded in 1845 and Grays School of Art in Aberdeen in 1885.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish art in the eighteenth century</span> Scottish visual art

Scottish art in the eighteenth century is the body of visual art made in Scotland, by Scots, or about Scottish subjects, in the eighteenth century. This period saw development of professionalisation, with art academies were established in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Art was increasingly influenced by Neoclassicism, the Enlightenment and towards the end of the century by Romanticism, with Italy becoming a major centre of Scottish art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portrait painting in Scotland</span> Forms of painted portraiture in Scotland

Portrait painting in Scotland includes all forms of painted portraiture in Scotland, from its beginnings in the early sixteenth century until the present day. The origins of the tradition of portrait painting in Scotland are in the Renaissance, particularly through contacts with the Netherlands. The first portrait of a named person that survives is that of Archbishop William Elphinstone, probably painted by a Scottish artist using Flemish techniques around 1505. Around the same period Scottish monarchs turned to the recording of royal likenesses in panel portraits, painted in oils on wood. The tradition of royal portrait painting in Scotland was probably disrupted by the minorities and regencies it underwent for much of the sixteenth century. It began to flourish after the Reformation, with paintings of royal figures and nobles by Netherlands artists Hans Eworth, Arnold Bronckorst and Adrian Vanson. A specific type of Scottish picture from this era was the "vendetta portrait", designed to keep alive the memory of an atrocity. The Union of Crowns in 1603 removed a major source of artistic patronage in Scotland as James VI and his court moved to London. The result has been seen as a shift "from crown to castle", as the nobility and local lairds became the major sources of patronage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arthur Perigal</span> English painter

Arthur Perigal (c.1784–1847) was a British historical, portrait and landscape painter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Thornton Crawford</span> Scottish painter

Edmund Thornton Crawford RSA was a Scottish landscape and marine painter.

Andrew Somerville RSA (1808–1834) was a short-lived Scottish artist. He is particularly noted for his illustration of Border ballads and several portraits.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Nicholson (artist, born 1781)</span>

William Nicholson was a British painter of portraits and other subjects. He was among the founding members of the Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture in 1826, and was its first secretary.

William Riviere (1806–1876) sometimes Rivière, was an English painter and art educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Borthwick Johnstone</span> Scottish painter and curator (1804–1868)

William Borthwick Johnstone, was a Scottish landscape and historical painter, art collector, and gallery curator. He played an important role in the formation of the National Gallery of Scotland, and served as its first principal curator.

References

  1. The Dictionary of Scottish Painters. 1600 to the present. Paul Harris and Julian Halsby. Canongate Publishing. 1990.
  2. Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture. Peter J. M. McEwan. Antique Collectors Club. 1994.
  3. Millar, A. H. (2004). "Simson, William (1798/9–1847)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/25609.(Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  4. 1 2 3 4 Wikisource-logo.svg One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain :  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Simson, William". Encyclopædia Britannica . Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 137.
  5. Wikisource:Somerville, Andrew (DNB00)