George WILLISON (1741-1797, Scottish)
Portrait of Mrs Willison in India
c.1770
50 x 41 inches, inc. frame
Price: £16,000 GBP
George Willison (1741–1797) was a Scottish portrait-painter best known for his works in India such as this magnificent portrait of his wife, a very elegant woman, wearing a fashionable blue grey dress, richly draped in a transparent silk shawl and bearing a headdress made of ribbons.
George was a son of David Willison, an Edinburgh printer and publisher, and grandson of John Willison. In 1756 the young artist was awarded a prize for a drawing of flowers by the Edinburgh Society of the Encouragement of the Arts and Sciences. In 1760 his uncle George Dempster of Dunnichen sponsored a trip to Rome to study art under Raphael Mengs, where he refined his education and became a reputable portraitist, exhibiting many works in the Scottish Academy. When Willison returned to the England in 1767 he settled in London and exhibited his paintings at the Royal Academy in 1771 and 1772.
In 1774, Willison’s uncle, the influential George Dempster, who was Director of the East India Company, secured a post of Willison at the Court of Mohammed Ali Khan Walejah, Nawab of the Carnatic. During Willison’s time in India, he painted a number of opulent portraits such as the one above, a number of Indian princes and their families, and many officials of the East India Company, gaining himself an exemplary reputation and a large fortune in jewels.
After a successful career in India and a reported fortune of some £15,000 - £30,000, Willison returned to England in 1784 before retiring to Scotland and continued to work in oil and sometimes in pastel too right up until his death in 1797.
A number of Willison’s portraits were later engraved by Valentine Green and James Watson.
Today his works can be admired at the Tate Gallery, the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Courtauld Institute of Art among others.