Francis Wheatley

Background

Wheatley was born in 1747 at Wild Court, Covent Garden, London, the son of a master tailor.

Education

He studied at Shipley's drawing-school and the Royal Academy, and won several prizes from the Society of Arts.

Career

He assisted in the decoration of Vauxhall, and aided Mortimer in painting a ceiling for Lord Melbourne at Brocket Hall (Hertfordshire). In youth his life was irregular and dissipated. He eloped to Ireland with the wife of Gresse, a brother artist, and established himself in Dublin as a portrait-painter, executing, among other works, an interior of the Irish House of Commons.

His scene from the London Riots of 1780 was admirably engraved by Heath. He painted several subjects for Boydels Shakespeare Gallery, designed illustrations to Bell's edition of the poets, and practised to some small extent as an etcher and mezzotint-engraver.

It is, however, as a painter, in both oil and water-colour, of landscapes and rustic subjects that Wheatley is best remembered. He died on the 28th of June 1801.

Achievements

• He was elected an associate of the Royal Academy in 1790, and an academician in the following year.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Francis Wheatley, RA, His Life and Works
  • Cries of London,: From the paintings
  • Old London cries
  • Cries of London from Paintings By Francis Wheatley
  • Francis Wheatley RA 1747-1801: Paintings, drawings & engravings
  • Cries of London. : portfolio containing the thirteen cries in colour, portrait of Francis Wheatley, portrait of Mrs Wheatley (Winter) and variant plate: Hot spiced Gingerbread
  • Cries of London
  • Cries of London : pictures

Connections

He married in 1787 one of his most popular models, the young Clara Maria Leigh (1768–1838), who was also an artist. His wife, afterwards Mrs Pope, was known as a painter of flowers and portraits. They had a daughter, also Clara Maria, born in 1788.

Wife:

Clara Maria Leigh

Daughter:

Clara Maria Wheatley

References

• Francis Wheatley (Study in British Art)
• F. Wheatley, R. A., his Life and Works, With a Catalogue of his Engraved Pictures