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his art for a considerable time in that island. He then speculated as a planter but was unsuccessful. His losses led him to drinking and shortened his life. He died some time before 1790.
WICKSTEED, James, engraver. Prac- tised in London in the second half of the 18th century, working in the dot manner. He exhibited at the Academy some impres- sions aud some small portrait casts, 1779- 82. He died July 11, 1791, aged 73.
• WIGHTWICK, George, architect. He was born at Albrighton, August 26, 1802, was brought up as an architect, and in pur- suit of his art went to Italy in 1828. In that year he exhibited at the Academy his only contribution, a drawing of Giotto's Tower, Florence. On his return, he com- menced practice at Plymouth, from which he retired in 1850, without leaving any exe- cuted work with which his name may be associated. He will be best remembered by his professional writings ; among them,
• Sketches by a Travelling Architect/ in the Library of the Fine Arts, 1832 ; * The Life of an Architect/ in * Fraser's Magazine ; ' 'The Palace of Architecture/ * Hints to Young Architects/ 1847; 'The Principles and Practice of Architectural Design/ 1853 ; ' On Gothic Architecture/ and * Ro- man Antiquities. , He also wrote two trage- dies, some novels, and poems. He died at Portishead, July 9, 1872. He bequeathed 'to the Institute of British Architects a large collection of drawings of his principal architectural works.
W I G S T E A D , H., subject painter. Practised in London towards the end of the 18th century, painting popular subjects and drawing satirical designs. He exhi- bited at the Royal Academy from 1784 to 1788. His * Country Vicar's Fire-side 1 was engraved in 1785. He etched a plate of two Jews, old clothes men, called 'Traffic/ and Rowlandson etched, in 1786, a clever drawing by him of the costume and manners of the day, hardly a carica- ture. His works were popular in his day. He died in Greek Street, Soho, November 13, 1793.
WILD, Charles, water-colov/r painter. Was born in London in 1781. He early devoted himself to architecture, and made a number of architectural views, his prac- tice being chiefly as an architectural drafts- man. He exhibited some works of this class in 1804, and the following years, at the Royal Academy. He became, in 1809, an associate exhibitor of the Water-Colour Society, and was, in 1821, elected a mem- ber of the Society, and afterwards filled, successively, the office of treasurer and of secretary. He was from the first a con- stant contributor to the Society's exhi- bitions. His early works were almost exclusively of our English cathedrals, with 470
some designs for Pyne's ' Royal Residences.' Soon after 1821 he commenced exhibiting his elaborate drawings of the great re- ligious edifices of France and the Low Countries. He published, in 1813, his Chester Cathedral and Lichfield Cathe- dral: 1819, his Lincoln Cathedral; and in the same year Canterbury and York Cathedrals; Worcester Cathedral followed in 1823. He travelled in Germany, France, and Belgium, and made numerous drawings in their chief towns of the churches and
Eublic buildings, and afterwards published is 'Foreign Cathedrals;' and in 1833 etched outlines from sketches made in Belgium, Germany, and France. In 1837 his last work was published, 'Select Examples of Architectural Grandeur in Belgium, Germany, and France.' His architecture was beautifully drawn, his subject pictorially treated; his effect al- ways sweet and tender, with suppressed tone and colour. He was afflicted from 1827 by the loss of sight. He died in Al- bemarle Street, Piccadilly, August 4, 1835. WILDER, James, landscape painter. He was born in New Street, Covent Gar- den, in 1724. and, educated as an artist, painted landscapes, introducing figures. Afterwards, under Mr. Walton, the keeper of the King's pictures, he gained much repute as a picture-restorer. But he quitted art for the stage 2 and appeared at Covent Garden Theatre in 1749 ; and then performed at Drury Lane and in Dublin. He wrote 'The Gentleman Gardener/ an opera, produced in 1751. In 1788 he ob- tained an official appointment at Somerset House, and then left the stage. •WILKIE, Sir David, Knt., R.A., sub- ject painter. Was born at Cults, in Fife- shire, of which place his father was the minister, on November 18, 1785. Early accounts of him speak of his very precocious scribblings and his artist power of observ- ing. With his years his love of drawing increased so much that though the whole family had wished he should be a minister, his father was convinced he must be a painter, and placed him in the Trustees' Academy at Edinburgh, in 1799. Here he studied during four years under John Graham, was a diligent student, readily felt the character of the figure he was at work upon, and became a tolerable drafts- man. In 1804 he returned for a while to his home, and, struck by the incidents of a fair in the adjoining village, where he had found his early schooling, he painted his first picture, 'Pitlessie Fair.' This work of small size, full of subject and of figures, speaks well for the amount of technical skill he had attained, and for the air of local truth, gained by the direct study of nature, but is red and rank, and gives no proof of his future excellence in colour.
