illiam Dyce was born on 19 September 1806 at 48 Marischal Street in Aberdeen, the third son of Dr. William Dyce, FRSE, a lecturer in medicine at King's College, Aberdeen, and his wife Margaret Chalmers. William's parents had hoped he would follow his father's profession. He was educated at Marischal College, Aberdeen, and he took his M.A. degree at the University of Aberdeen in 1851 at the early age of sixteen. He then studied medicine for a while, but after tiring of that turned his attention to theology, with the ultimate intention of entering the priesthood. An interest in drawing and painting superseded this, however, and he became determined to study art despite opposition from his parents. He may have studied for a time at the Trustees' Academy in Edinburgh and may also have attended one of the private drawing schools in Aberdeen. With the encouragement of the President of the Royal Academy, Sir Thomas Lawrence, William finally obtained parental consent to study art. In 1825 he was accepted as a probationer at the Royal Academy Schools in London. He stayed only a few months, however, because he became disillusioned with their course of study which did not suit him. Later in 1825 he therefore travelled to Rome to study and learn from the works of the Old Masters, particularly Titian and Poussin, and stayed nine months. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1827. He returned to Rome in 1827 and this time stayed for a year and a half. During this visit he became interested in quattrocento Renaissance art and formed a friendship with the German Nazarene painter Johann Friedrich Overbeck. Dyce was introduced to the contemporary use of fresco painting from the Nazarenes.
Pencil portrait of Dyce by John Partridge, in 1825 (Click on this for more information).
In 1829 Dyce exhibited four paintings at the Royal Institute in Edinburgh. In 1832 Dyce made a brief third visit to Italy, this time to Venice. In 1832 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in Edinburgh. Dyce spent several years in Edinburgh supporting himself painting portraits and religious paintings. He exhibited Lamentation Over the Dead Christ at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1835. In that same year he was made an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, but later resigned after settling in London. He was subsequently made an Honorary Member of that body. After 1837 he began to concentrate on religious and literary subjects. In 1838 he was appointed Superintendent of the newly established Government School of Design at Somerset House in London, a post he held until 1843. From 1840 he served as chair in the Theory of Fine Arts at King's College University of London. These teaching and administrative posts seriously interrupted his working output as a professional artist. He resigned as director of the School of Design in 1843 although he continued as Inspector for the Spitalfields and Provincial Schools until 1845.
Dyce was an accomplished musician and composer and in 1841 he founded the Motett Society for the study, practice, and reprinting of Church Music of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1844 he obtained a commission to paint a fresco illustrating John Milton's Comus in the Buckingham Palace Pavilion. In November 1844 he was elected as an Associate of the Royal Academy and a full academician in 1848. He declined to stand for the presidency of the Royal Academy on the death of Sir Martin Shee in 1850. Dyce was later elected a member of the Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. The expert knowledge of fresco painting he had earlier gained in Italy led to his patronage by Prince Albert and his early commissions for frescoes for the new Houses of Parliament. In 1845 he received the commission for and in 1846 he painted the fresco of The Baptism of King Ethelbert for the Lord's Chamber above the Royal throne. In 1847 he executed the fresco of Neptune Assigning to Britannia the Empire of the Sea for Osborne House. In 1847 Dyce was commissioned to decorate the Queen's Robing Room in the Palace of Westminster with scenes from the Arthurian legends. He chose an allegorical approach and the virtues he depicted include Mercy, Hospitality, Generosity, Religion, and Courtesy.
On 17 January 1850, Dyce married Jane Bickerton Brand. He was then aged forty-six and she was nineteen. In 1851 he served as a juror for the Great Exhibition in London. Dyce befriended the young members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and introduced their work to John Ruskin in 1851. In 1859 he was elected an honorary member of the Hogarth Club. From 1857-59 he was actively associated with John Ruskin, George Richmond, C. R. Cockerell, and T. D. Acland in advising the University of Oxford upon its Art Examination. In 1862 Dyce served as a juror for stained glass for the International Exhibition held at South Kensington. His health began to fail him in the 1860s, and in 1864 Dyce was working on the frescoes in the Palace of Westminster when he collapsed. He later died at his home in Streatham, London Borough of Lambeth, on 14 February 1864. He was buried in the churchyard of St Leonard's Church, Streatham.
Dyce's grave at St Leonard's (its railings removed for the war effort, and its cross destroyed by a bomb).
Allen Staley when summing up Dyce's career wrote: "In other respects also, Dyce was more conservative than any of the Pre-Raphaelite group. Even when at his most Pre-Raphaelite, he never provoked the hostile reactions that greeted many Pre-Raphaelite paintings … Dyce's painting is always clear and controlled, and it lacks the excitement of innovation of the best Pre-Raphaelite pictures. Nonetheless, the minute detail and increasing literalness of Dyce's painting at the end of the 1850s clearly depends upon the Pre-Raphaelite example. His work is not central to the movement, but with sobriety and discipline he built upon Pre-Raphaelitism to paint a handful of the most memorable pictures of the Victorian era" (169).
Bibliography
Dafforne, James. "British Artists: Their Style and Character. No. LI. - William Dyce." The Art Journal New Series VI (1860): 293-96.
Ferguson, Olga. "Introduction." William Dyce and the Pre-Raphaelite Vision. Ed. Jennifer Melville. Aberdeen: Aberdeen City Council, 2006. 9-14.
Pointon, Marcia. William Dyce 1806-1864. A Critical Biography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1979.
Staley, Allen. The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape. Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1973.
Created 12 November 2024