William Frederick Witherington R.A

1785 - 1865

Born in London and trained at the Royal Academy Schools from 1805, Witherington was also an academic as well as a painter. With the exception of one year he showed pictures at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition from 1811 until his death in 1865 and was elected to Associate Membership in 1830 and as an R.A. in 1840. Witherington was predominantly a painter of the English landscape and rural life, never travelling abroad. Although he has been described as idealising rural conditions, some of his informal work, such as his studies of gravel diggers, does give us a more realistic portrayal of conditions in the countryside.