William Lionel Wyllie

Westminster Flood Tide

1924

William Lionel Wyllie was an artist in oil, watercolor, etching, and aquatint of marine and tidal Thames subjects. Born in London, he studied art at the Heatherleys in 1865, and at the Royal Academy Schools between 1866-69, winning the Turner Medal in 1869. Wyllie took up etching in 1883 when Robert Dunthorn commissioned an etching of Wyllie's painting 'Toil, Glitter, Grime and Wealth on a flowing Tide', which celebrated the industrial Thames, and had had great success at the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy, being bought by the Chantrey Bequest. He lived in Portsmouth for many years from 1907 and died in London on 6th April 1931. Acknowledged as one of the leading marine artists at the turn of the century. Marine Painter to the Royal Victoria Yacht Club, Ryde. Work in the National Maritime Museum.