sue williams
William Curtis was a British botanist and entomologist, editor of the oldest botanical publication in Great Britain.
Curtis became interested in natural history in his youth, and at the age of 25 had already published "Instructions for the Collection and Preservation of Insects", particularly butterflies. In 1779 he founded his own London botanical garden at Lambeth and published Flora Londinensis (1777-1798), a 6-volume work on urban nature.
In 1787 Curtis began publishing the later popular Botanical Magazine, which also featured hand-colored plates by artists. This magazine has changed its name several times over time, but is still continued by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, as a publication for those interested in horticulture, ecology or botanical illustration. Interestingly, the magazine was entirely hand-colored until 1948.
Alfred William (Willy) Finch was a ceramist and painter in the pointillist and Neo-Impressionist style. Born in Brussels to British parents, he spent most of his creative life in Finland. In 1883 he became a founding member of Les XX, a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, who rebelled against the prevailing artistic standards and outmoded academism. He was impressed by the works of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac and changed his own painting style from a more realistic approach into a pointillistic style. In the following years, Finch became one of the leading representatives of his style in Belgium, along with Théo van Rysselberghe. During the early 1890s Finch switched careers from painting to pottery, upon the realization that he couldn't make a living by painting. In 1897, invited by count Louis Sparre, Finch moved to Porvoo, Finland, to head the Iris ceramics factory, and influenced the development of the local Jugendstil. After the factory was closed, Finch resumed his painting career.
![William Hamilton | Campi phlegraei. Paris, [1799-1802], a deluxe copy with plates in two states](/assets/image/picture_3552953/71e1c/swqxwjtgq1ugvnwqi2apzgfoiilhqdrokd3a-bot1khfha9pyeckuouug-95a3ll1699088974jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
![William Hamilton | Campi phlegraei. Paris, [1799-1802], a deluxe copy with plates in two states](https://veryimportantlot.com/assets/image/picture_3552953/71e1c/swqxwjtgq1ugvnwqi2apzgfoiilhqdrokd3a-bot1khfha9pyeckuouug-95a3ll1699088974jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
William Hamilton was an English artist and illustrator.
William Ratcliffe was one of the Camden Town Group of artists in early twentieth-century England. Although he never achieved the fame of other members of the Group, such as his friend and mentor Harold Gilman, he remained a full-time artist throughout his life, relying on the support of friends and family.
William Shakespeare was a British poet and playwright and writer.
William's father, John Shakespeare, was a merchant and official in Stratford. There are reports that he was a sailor for a time before joining a theater company in London. Beginning in the 1590s, Shakespeare began writing plays, and in 1593 he published a poem, Venus and Adonis, which became popular. He dedicated it to the Duke of Southampton, who was a philanthropist and patron of talent, and soon his business was booming.
From 1592 to 1600 Shakespeare wrote his dramas and romantic comedies "Richard III", "The Taming of the Shrew", "Romeo and Juliet", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Merchant of Venice", as well as the comedies "Much Ado About Nothing", "Twelfth Night" and the tragedy "Julius Caesar". The playwright's business was so successful that he even bought a large house in Stratford. In 1599, Shakespeare became one of the owners, playwright and actor of the new theater "Globe". In 1603 King James took Shakespeare's troupe under his direct patronage. In the mature period, the great playwright turned to tragedies, there were "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear", "Macbeth" and others.
Although in the 19th century researchers had some doubts about the authorship of many of these works, William Shakespeare is considered the greatest English playwright, one of the best playwrights in the world. His plays have been translated into all major languages and to this day form the basis of the world theatrical repertoire, most of them have been screened many times. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, and his plays and poems have sold more than 4 billion copies in the nearly 400 years since his death.
William Nicholson was a British painter of still-life, landscape and portraits. He also worked as a printmaker in techniques including woodcut, wood-engraving and lithography, as an illustrator, as an author of children's books and as a designer for the theatre.
William Shakespeare was a British poet and playwright and writer.
William's father, John Shakespeare, was a merchant and official in Stratford. There are reports that he was a sailor for a time before joining a theater company in London. Beginning in the 1590s, Shakespeare began writing plays, and in 1593 he published a poem, Venus and Adonis, which became popular. He dedicated it to the Duke of Southampton, who was a philanthropist and patron of talent, and soon his business was booming.
From 1592 to 1600 Shakespeare wrote his dramas and romantic comedies "Richard III", "The Taming of the Shrew", "Romeo and Juliet", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "The Merchant of Venice", as well as the comedies "Much Ado About Nothing", "Twelfth Night" and the tragedy "Julius Caesar". The playwright's business was so successful that he even bought a large house in Stratford. In 1599, Shakespeare became one of the owners, playwright and actor of the new theater "Globe". In 1603 King James took Shakespeare's troupe under his direct patronage. In the mature period, the great playwright turned to tragedies, there were "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear", "Macbeth" and others.
Although in the 19th century researchers had some doubts about the authorship of many of these works, William Shakespeare is considered the greatest English playwright, one of the best playwrights in the world. His plays have been translated into all major languages and to this day form the basis of the world theatrical repertoire, most of them have been screened many times. According to the Guinness Book of Records, Shakespeare remains the world's best-selling playwright, and his plays and poems have sold more than 4 billion copies in the nearly 400 years since his death.
Sir William Douglas Hamilton was a British diplomat, archaeologist and volcanologist, a famous collector, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
He served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800, but most importantly, he was a passionate researcher of history, art and natural sciences and was a member of the Society of Dilettantes, established for the purpose of studying ancient art.
In Naples, Hamilton amassed a unique collection of antique vases and published an illustrated book about them. In parallel, Sir Hamilton studied the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna, local volcanic and seismic activity, and the causes of earthquakes in the Neapolitan territory. As a corresponding member of the Royal Society, he sent the results of his research to London. His publications were very valuable for the time.
Pierre-François Hugues d'Hancarville, better known as Baron d'Hancarville, was an art historian, writer, and adventurer who lived most of his life in Italy.
To advance from the merchant class to high society, he studied mathematics, physics, history, literature, ancient languages, and English, Italian, and German. Traveling in Europe, he presented himself as an aristocrat under various names. Under the name Baron d'Hancarville, he was known as a connoisseur and art dealer, which is apparently why he was approached by Sir William Hamilton (1731-1803), who was ambassador to the British embassy in Naples and had amassed a large collection of ancient vases. Before selling this collection to the British Museum in 1772, Hamilton asked d'Hancarville for help in creating a complete catalog of it in descriptions and illustrations. The baron also wrote a detailed essay.
This catalog, entitled The Complete Collection of Antiquities from the Cabinet of Sir William Hamilton, is itself a neoclassical masterpiece in French and English. Antique vases have never before been depicted with such precision and aestheticism.
William Chapman Hewitson was a British naturalist, entomologist and artist, a member of the Linnean Society.
After gaining financial independence, Hewitson devoted himself entirely to natural history, particularly the study of scales and birds. His rich collection of exotic butterflies contained over 4,000 species and was considered one of the finest. Hewitson published numerous works on entomology and ornithology and was an accomplished scientific illustrator. His principal work was Illustrations of new species of exotic butterflies, a richly illustrated encyclopedia to which Hewitson devoted the last thirty years of his life, expending enormous personal resources, personally drawing and coloring the figures. At his death he left his entire butterfly collection to the British Museum.
Sir William Douglas Hamilton was a British diplomat, archaeologist and volcanologist, a famous collector, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
He served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800, but most importantly, he was a passionate researcher of history, art and natural sciences and was a member of the Society of Dilettantes, established for the purpose of studying ancient art.
In Naples, Hamilton amassed a unique collection of antique vases and published an illustrated book about them. In parallel, Sir Hamilton studied the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna, local volcanic and seismic activity, and the causes of earthquakes in the Neapolitan territory. As a corresponding member of the Royal Society, he sent the results of his research to London. His publications were very valuable for the time.
![William Simpson | The seat of the war in the East [first and second series]. London, 1855-1856, 2 volumes, deluxe hand-coloured edition](/assets/image/picture_3553114/1f25a/lpwgbzlbdjeizge5qgkdwkegipzhw9zqdtyv4jqwbm2xkfgtdbwgohjts8wvy5y21699098650jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
![William Simpson | The seat of the war in the East [first and second series]. London, 1855-1856, 2 volumes, deluxe hand-coloured edition](https://veryimportantlot.com/assets/image/picture_3553114/1f25a/lpwgbzlbdjeizge5qgkdwkegipzhw9zqdtyv4jqwbm2xkfgtdbwgohjts8wvy5y21699098650jpg__fix_374_244.jpeg)
William Daniell was a British landscape painter, marinist and aquatint printmaker, and a Royal Academician.
In his youth he traveled extensively in India with his uncle, the landscape painter Thomas Daniell (1749-1840), with whom he later worked on one of the best illustrated works of the time, Oriental Landscapes. In addition to sketches, William Daniell's diaries contain detailed and insightful descriptions of his travels in North and South India, which formed the basis of their subsequent publications and helped to shape a coherent British view of India.
Daniell was also a prolific engraver and produced countless illustrations for historical and travel works and volumes on the natural world. One of his most famous works was Journey Round Britain (4 volumes, 1814-1825).
William Daniell's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy and the British Institution, and he became a Royal Academician in 1822.
William Lewin was a British naturalist, ornithologist and illustrator.
Lewin for 20 years observed various birds and made sketches. And in 1789, with the help of his three sons, he began publishing a multi-volume work entitled "The Birds of Great Britain and their Eggs". It is truly a monumental work: 7 volumes, 323 hand-colored watercolor and gouache drawings of birds and their eggs. They were all painted by Levin himself for the first 60 subscribers to the publication. He did not complete the second edition, a more detailed one, and after his death his sons completed the publication.
This work is considered one of the rarest of all English bird books. Lewin's birds are depicted much more vividly and realistically than those of earlier artists, as he painted mainly from life rather than relying on specimens. Lewin also produced a volume on butterflies, where they are systematized and careful illustrations are drawn from life.
Thomas Jefferys was an 18th-century British cartographer and geographer, engraver and publisher.
As the best in the business of map-making, Jefferys held the honorary title of "King George III's geographer". He is known for his detailed and large-scale maps of the districts and counties of Great Britain as well as North America, particularly Virginia (1776). He was the leading map supplier of his day, engraving and printing maps for government and other official bodies.
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. What he called his "prophetic works" were said by 20th-century critic Northrop Frye to form "what is in proportion to its merits the least read body of poetry in the English language". His visual artistry led 21st-century critic Jonathan Jones to proclaim him "far and away the greatest artist Britain has ever produced". In 2002, Blake was placed at number 38 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons. While he lived in London his entire life, except for three years spent in Felpham, he produced a diverse and symbolically rich collection of works, which embraced the imagination as "the body of God" or "human existence itself".
William Kentridge is a South African artist best known for his prints, drawings, and animated films, especially noted for a sequence of hand-drawn animated films he produced during the 1990s. The latter are constructed by filming a drawing, making erasures and changes, and filming it again. He continues this process meticulously, giving each change to the drawing a quarter of a second to two seconds' screen time. A single drawing will be altered and filmed this way until the end of a scene. These palimpsest-like drawings are later displayed along with the films as finished pieces of art.
Kentridge has created art work as part of design of theatrical productions, both plays and operas. He has served as art director and overall director of numerous productions, collaborating with other artists, puppeteers and others in creating productions that combine drawings and multi-media combinations.
William Congdon is an American artist known for his strong and deeply personal paintings exploring themes of spirituality, existentialism and the human condition.
William Congdon's early work was influenced by Expressionism and the post-war abstract art movement. Over time, however, his artistic style evolved, and he developed a unique approach combining abstraction with representational elements. His paintings often depicted isolated figures, cityscapes and landscapes, conveying a sense of introspection and emotional depth.
Congdon's works are characterised by a rich colour palette, dramatic brushwork and a sense of raw emotion. He explored the contrast between light and darkness, creating compositions that were both contemplative and expressive.
William Congdon is an American artist known for his strong and deeply personal paintings exploring themes of spirituality, existentialism and the human condition.
William Congdon's early work was influenced by Expressionism and the post-war abstract art movement. Over time, however, his artistic style evolved, and he developed a unique approach combining abstraction with representational elements. His paintings often depicted isolated figures, cityscapes and landscapes, conveying a sense of introspection and emotional depth.
Congdon's works are characterised by a rich colour palette, dramatic brushwork and a sense of raw emotion. He explored the contrast between light and darkness, creating compositions that were both contemplative and expressive.
William Wyld was a British watercolor painter.
Wyld lived most of his life in France and Belgium, where he became a successful watercolorist. He also traveled extensively throughout Europe and North Africa, and his work was greatly admired by Queen Victoria, who commissioned paintings depicting Liverpool and Manchester.
