William Lionel Wyllie
Encyclopedia
Birth
Wyllie was born on 5 July 1851 at 67 Albany Street, Camden, London, the elder son of William Morrison Wyllie (1820-1895), a prosperous minor-genre painter living in London and WimereuxWimereux
Wimereux is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:Wimereux is a coastal town situated some north of Boulogne, at the junction of the D233 and the D940 roads, on the banks of the river Wimereux. The river Slack forms the northern boundary of...
, France. by his wife Katherine Benham (1813-1872), a singer. Before marrying W M Wyllie she had had three children by Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford. One of these, Wyllie's half-brother Lionel Percy Smythe
Lionel Percy Smythe
Lionel Percy Smythe, RA RWS RI ROI was an English artist, and etcher.-Life and work:Lionel Percy Smythe was the son of Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford and Katherine Benham. He was born in London on 4 September 1839 and spent his early years in France, where his younger sister...
, also made a name for himself as an artist.
Early Life and Education
Most of his early summers were spent in France with his parents. He began to draw from an early age, and his natural talent was encouraged by his father and by Lionel SmytheLionel Percy Smythe
Lionel Percy Smythe, RA RWS RI ROI was an English artist, and etcher.-Life and work:Lionel Percy Smythe was the son of Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford and Katherine Benham. He was born in London on 4 September 1839 and spent his early years in France, where his younger sister...
, his step brother. He was given a thorough artistic education; first at the Heatherley School of Fine Art
Heatherley School of Fine Art
The Heatherley School of Fine Art was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as principal from James Mathews Leigh . Founded in 1845, the school is affectionately known as Heatherley's...
, and then in 1866, aged 15, at the Royal Academy Schools. At the Royal Academy he studied under Edwin Henry Landseer
Edwin Henry Landseer
Sir Edwin Henry Landseer, RA was an English painter, well known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags...
, John Everett Millais
John Everett Millais
Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...
and Frederic Leighton
Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton
Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton PRA , known as Sir Frederic Leighton, Bt, between 1886 and 1896, was an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical and classical subject matter...
, among others. He further demonstrated his precocious talent when he won the Turner Gold Medal in 1869 at the age of eighteen with Dawn after a Storm. His other early love affair, which he shared with his younger brother and fellow artist Charles William Wyllie, was sailing.
Artistic career
From the early 1870s Wyllie worked as an illustrator of maritime subjects for The GraphicThe Graphic
The Graphic was a British weekly illustrated newspaper, first published on 4 December 1869 by William Luson Thomas's company Illustrated Newspapers Limited....
. In 1875 the Academy rejected two of his works, and in anger he declared his intention to give up art for a career at sea. Over the course of several sailing cruises as far afield as Europe he laid the foundations for a lifelong love of the sea and of maritime subjects.
Wyllie was a prolific exhibitor, with paintings and etchings shown at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours, the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers, the Grosvenor Gallery, the New English Art Club, the Society of British Artists, the Dowdeswell Galleries and the Fine Art Society.
He became a member of the Society of British Artists in 1875, and of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours in 1882. In 1887 he became a member of the New English Art Club. In 1889 he was made an associate of the Royal Academy, and in 1907 he was elected as a full member. In 1903 he became a member of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers.
He campaigned vigorously for the restoration of HMS Victory
HMS Victory
HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, laid down in 1759 and launched in 1765. She is most famous as Lord Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805....
as a founder member of the Society for Nautical Research, and in 1930 his 42 feet (12.8 m) panorama of the Battle of Trafalgar
Battle of Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar was a sea battle fought between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French Navy and Spanish Navy, during the War of the Third Coalition of the Napoleonic Wars ....
was unveiled by King George V. The painting is seen by about 100,000 people every year where it still hangs in the Royal Naval Museum within the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth
HMNB Portsmouth
Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the British Royal Navy...
.
Marriage
In 1876, at the age of 25, he became engaged to the 16-year old Marion Amy Carew (1860–1937). They were married in 1879, and between 1880 and 1904 she bore him 9 children; Harold (1880-1973), Bill (1882-1916), Dick (b 1883), Eva (1884-1912), Robert (1888-1914), Douglas (1894-1894), an unnamed son (1898-1898), Eric (b 1900) and Aileen (1903-1987). Douglas and the unnamed son died in infancy. Bill and Robert were killed in the First World War and Eva also died before her father.Books
Written and/or illustrated by Wyllie:- W L Wyllie. Marine Painting in Water-Colour (Cassell and Co., 1901).
- W L Wyllie. Nature's Laws and Making of Pictures (London, 1903)
- W L Wyllie. J. M. W. Turner, (London, George Bell & sons, 1905).
- M A & W L Wyllie. London to the Nore (London, 1905).
- M A Wyllie. Norway and its fjords (London: Methuen & Co, 1907).
- W L Wyllie. Sketchbook (London, 1908).
- Jane, Fred TFred T. JaneJohn Fredrick Thomas Jane was the founding editor of reference books on warships and aircraft . He also once kidnapped Victor Grayson MP in a political stunt....
. The British battle fleet; its inception and growth throughout the centuries to the present day: Volume 1, Volume 2 (London, The Library Press Ltd., 1915). - W L Wylie & W F Wren. Sea fights of the great war, naval incidents during the first nine months (Cassell & Co., 1918)
- W L Wyllie, Charles Owen, W D Kirkpatrick. More sea fights of the Great War, including the Battle of Jutland (London, Cassell, 1919).
- W L Wyllie. The Old Portsmouth and New Southsea (The British Art Company, London, 1923).
- R M Whitlaw & W L Wyllie. Lionel P SmytheLionel Percy SmytheLionel Percy Smythe, RA RWS RI ROI was an English artist, and etcher.-Life and work:Lionel Percy Smythe was the son of Percy Clinton Sydney Smythe, 6th Viscount Strangford and Katherine Benham. He was born in London on 4 September 1839 and spent his early years in France, where his younger sister...
RA RWS London, 1923.
Further reading
- Marion Amy Wyllie. We Were One, A Life of W L Wyllie (London: G. Bell, 1935).