Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Williamson, Samuel
WILLIAMSON, SAMUEL (1792–1840), landscape-painter, was the younger son of John Williamson of Liverpool, in which town he was born in 1792. His father, John Williamson (1751-1818), painter, was born at Ripon in 1761. He was apprenticed to an 'ornamental' painter in Birmingham, married in 1781, settled in Liverpool in 1783, and continued to reside there, practising as a portrait-painter, till his death, on 27 May 1818. Among his best known works are portraits of William Roscoe, Sir William Beechy, R.A., H. Fuseli, R.A., the Rev. John Clowes, and Nathan Litherland, the inventor of the patent lever watch. He was a member of the Liverpool Academy, and a constant exhibitor at the local exhibitions. In 1783 he exhibited a portrait at the Royal Academy. His portraits are correct likenesses and fairly executed. He also painted miniatures, but they were not in the best style of that art.
In 1811 Samuel had three landscapes hung in the first exhibition of the Liverpool Academy, of which body he was a member. In the subsequent exhibitions of that body, as well as at the first exhibition of the Royal Manchester Institution in 1827 and the annual exhibitions that followed each year, he was represented by a large number of landscapes and seascapes. His only exhibit on the walls of the Royal Academy was a landscape in 1811. He earned a considerable reputation as a painter of seapieces and landscapes, and was highly esteemed by his fellow-townsmen. On his death, which took place on 7 June 1840, an obelisk to his memory was erected in the St. James's cemetery, a lithograph of which, by W. Collingwood, was published. His pictures are well composed, and are painted with an attractive charm of light and colour. There are three works by him at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and many more in private collections in the district.
[Graves's Dict. of Artists; Exhibition Catalogues; information from Robert Williamson of Ripon; note in Manchester City News, 7 Sept. 1878, by the present writer.]