William Bell Scott

1811–1890 · Realism

William Bell Scott was a Scottish artist in oils and watercolour and occasionally printmaking. He was also a poet and art teacher, and his posthumously published reminiscences give a chatty and often vivid picture of life in the circle of the Pre-Raphaelites; he was especially close to Dante Gabriel Rossetti. After growing up in Edinburgh, he moved to London, and from 1843 to 1864 was principal of the government School of Art in Newcastle upon Tyne, where he added industrial subjects to his repertoire of landscapes and history painting. He was one of the first British artists to extensively depict the processes of the Industrial Revolution. He returned to London, working for the Science and Art Department until 1885.

22 paintings

• Bell-Ringers and Cavaliers Celebrating the Entrance of Charles II into London on Restoration
• Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909), Commoner (1856), Poet (1860)
• Seascape on the Northumbrian Coast (1863)
• The Building of the New Castle, 1080 (1864)
• The Trial of Sir William Wallace at Westminster
• Girl in a Blue Dress
• Ailsa Craig (1860)
• Pixies dancing in a Ring by the Firelight (1885)
• Mrs Halliwell as an Old Woman (1840)
• Thomas Evans (1840)
• Pauline Jermyn, Lady Trevelyan (1816-1866) (1864)
• The Romans cause a Wall to be built for the Protection of the South (One of a series of eight oil paintings illustrating the history of the English Border) (1857)
• King Egfrid and Bishop Trumwine persuade Cuthbert to be made Bishop (One of a series of eight oil paintings illustrating the history of the English Border) (1856)
• The Danes descend upon the Coast and at last possess Northumberland (One of a series of eight oil paintings illustrating the history of the English Border) (1858)
• Bede finishes his Works and Life (One of a series of eight oil paintings illustrating the history of the English Border) (1857)
• The Spur in the Dish warns the Border Chief that the Larder needs replenishing (One of a series of eight paintings illustrating the history of the English Border) (1858)
• Bernard Gilpin making Peace among the Borders, takes down the Glove in Rothbury Church, circa 1570 (One of a series of eight oil paintings illustrating the history of the English Border) (1859)
• Grace Darling (1815-1842) and her father William Darling (d.1865) save the Survivors from the Wreck of the Steamer 'Forfarshire' on the Farne Rocks, 7th September 1838 (One of a series of eight oil pa (1860)
• In the Nineteenth Century the Northumbrians show the World what can be done with Iron and Coal (1861)
• Cockcrow (1856)
• The Eve of the Deluge (1865)
• The Kingis Quair (1867)