William Evans (landscape painter)

William Evans (1809 – 7 December 1858) was an English landscape painter. He was an associate member of the Old Society of Painters in Water-colours, where he exhibited as William Evans of Bristol. Born in Bristol, in his early years he was a pupil of Francis Danby and associated with the artists of the Bristol School.[1]

This article is about the painter known as William Evans of Bristol. For the painter known as William Evans of Eton, see William Evans (watercolourist).

Cottage interior. A woman wearing a white bonnet and long skirt sits with a child on her lap. At her feet, a cooking pot sits on a lighted hearth
A Woman and Child by a Hearth, watercolour, 1842

Wishing to perfect his art by the study of nature alone, and to free himself from the influence of schools or individuals, Evans made himself a home for many years in the centre of a grand gorge of mountain scenery in North Wales,[2] at a farm called Tyn-y-Cai, in a large park at the junction of the River Lledr with the River Conwy, near Betws-y-Coed.[1] Here he was able to cultivate a natural impulse for originality and grandeur in the constant contemplation of nature in some of its wildest forms, and he produced some fine works, notably Traeth Mawr; his treatment of the mountain torrents and the cottage scenery of the neighbourhood was also remarkable.[2] William James Müller, a friend from his Bristol days, joined him in painting this area on a visit of 1842.[3]

After 1852 Evans visited Italy, spending the winter successively at Genoa, Rome, and Naples, and he collected numerous materials for working up into landscapes of a very different character from his earlier productions.[2]

His work was cut short by illness, and he died in Marylebone Road, London, on 7 December 1858, aged 49.[1] There is a fine water-colour drawing by him in the print room at the British Museum.[2]

References
  1. Greenacre, Francis (1987). William Evans of Bristol (1809–1858) (exhibition catalogue). London: Martyn Gregory Gallery. pp. 5–6.
  2. Cust, Lionel Henry (1889). "Evans, William (1811?-1858)" . In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 18. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. Greenacre, Francis; Stoddard, Sheena (1991). W. J. Müller. Bristol: The Friends of Bristol Art Gallery. pp. 83–84. ISBN 0-9507242-1-1.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Evans, William (1811?-1858)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

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