WYLD, William
English painter and lithographer. He was born into a family that produced rich merchants for several generations. He showed amazing talent for drawing from an early age. His family connections allowed him to be made secretary to the British Consulate in Calais. The diplomatic life however did not interest him and he joined forces with one of his friends Johan Lewis Brown, who was active in commerce and they worked as wine merchants exporting champagne from Epernay to England. Wyld spent his spare time drawing and painting with his friend and travelling from Dieppe to Rouen painting French genre scenes. In Rouen he met Horace Vernet, at the height of his fame, and who was to become an important influence on his work.
Wyld set out for Algiers where he stayed for a period of 6 months, drawing and painting local scenes. Delacroix and Eugène Isabey were also working in Algeria, which inspired William Wyld. He met Horace Vernet who persuaded him to come to Rome with him and promised to help him in his artistic ambitions.
Arriving in Rome, Wyld received several commissions for Orientalist paintings from Vernet’s entourage, including the sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. Wyld then moved to Paris to set up a studio. He started to receive many commissions for Orientalist paintings and Venetian scenes. He won a gold medal at the Paris Salon in 1839. He fell in love with Venice and continued to paint the city for the rest of his artistic career. Thanks to Vernet he mingled in the best artistic circles and made many friends including Ary Scheffer and Paul Delaroche. Another trip followed to Algeria and Egypt in 1844.
After the French revolution of 1848 he returned to London and became a member of the New Society of Painters in Watercolours and had major success with the Industrialists of Manchester. Queen Victoria was becoming an admirer of his work and commissioned him to paint a number of paintings for her, which remain in the royal collection to this day. He stayed at the royal residence of Balmoral Castle in Scotland to paint and draw the surrounding countryside. He was invited to join Victoria on a royal visit to France in 1855. He participated in the 1855 Exposition des Arts at the request of the Comte Emilien de Nieuwerkerke, who was effectively the French arts minister, on which occasion he was presented with the Légion d’honneur. He remained actively painting in his Paris home until his death in 1889.
