View near Lancaster Sands

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

Francis Wheatley was born in London. He studied at Shipley’s Academy before enrolling at the Royal Academy Schools in 1769. He made a number of trips aboard during the 1760s and became influenced by contemporary French painting, particularly the work of Jean-Baptiste Greuze and François Boucher. Wheatley was elected a Fellow of the Society of Artists in 1770 and became a director in 1774. In 1779, he fled to Dublin with the wife of another artist to escape creditors. Having established himself in Ireland, he returned to London in 1783 and produced work for the print publisher John Boydell. His images of itinerant merchants of the early 1790s were published for English and French markets. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1791.
The printmaker, William Ellis, was the son of an engraver of writing, Joseph Ellis (died 1793). William was born in London and apprenticed to his father’s stationary company from about the age of 13. He later worked in the studio of the printmaker William Woollett (1735–1785). In 1785 he married Elizabeth Smith, also a printmaker, who may have been related to fellow pupil of Woollett, Samuel Smith (c.1809-1879). The couple frequently worked on projects together, including Aiken’s ‘Description of the Country… Round Manchester’. Elizabeth Ellis had already died when William passed away in 1810. An engraving ‘by the late Mr William Ellis’, showing a view of Exeter, was published to raise money for the couple’s five orphaned children.

Places

England, Lancashire

Subjects

rowing boat, topography, seascape/coastal scene, dog, shore, cliff, boy, man, woman, house, sailboat

Materials & Techniques

engraving, coloured engraving

Artist

Francis Wheatley (1747 - 1801)
William Ellis (1747 - 1810)

Title

View near Lancaster Sands

Date

published 2 July 1787

Medium

Coloured engraving

Acquisition

Purchased from Baynton-Williams, February 1977

GAC number

12802