William Mulready was born on 1 April in 1786 in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland. Early in his life, in 1792, the family moved to London, where he was able to get an education and was taught painting well enough so that he was accepted at the Royal Academy School at the age of fourteen.
William studied at the Royal Academy in London in 1800, and specialized in genre paintings, becoming best known for his rural scenes such as Interior of an English Cottage.
Many of his early pictures show landscapes before he started to build a reputation as a genre painter from 1808 on, painting mostly everyday scenes from rural life. Besides this, he also illustrated books, including the first edition of Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare in 1807. His paintings were very popular in Victorian times. His first painting of importance, "Returning from the Ale House", now in the Tate Gallery, London, under the title "Fair Time", appeared in 1809.
In 1815 he became an Associate of the Royal Academy (A.R.A.) and R.A. in 1816. In the same year, he also was awarded the French "L.
William Mulready married to Elizabeth Varley. They have three sons: Paul Augustus, William Mulready Junior and Michael.
Their three children, Paul Augustus (1805–1864), William (1805–1878), and Michael (1807–1889) also became artists. His relationship with his wife however deteriorated gradually over the years, which is detailed in papers stored at the library of the Victoria and Albert Museum. His strong Catholic beliefs prevented any chance of a divorce but they separated. He accused her of "bad conduct" but shied from providing details. In a letter to him in 1827 she blamed him entirely for the collapse of their marriage, suggesting cruelty, pederastic activities and adultery were the reasons.
His son lived in London and maintained a career of a portrait painter and picture restorer. He had five children (Ellen, Mary, Augustus Edwin, Henry William, and John).
