William James Müller

1812 - 1845

Born in Bristol, William James Müller was the son of a Prussian who was curator of a museum in the city. He first studied under James Baker Pyne, and his early pictures were mostly of Gloucestershire and Welsh landscapes. He witnessed and recorded the 1831 Bristol riots and fires in a series of powerful sketches rivalling J M W Turner's of the Burning of the Houses of Parliament. In 1834, he undertook a European tour, also visiting the Middle East in 1838-9 and again in 1843-4, when he was working in Lycia at the invitation of the archaeologist Charles Fellows, accompanied by his pupil, Harry Johnson. He spent most of the rest of his short life, after his return to England, working on watercolours and a few oils of Lycian subjects. The work he carried out at Lycia is considered to be among his finest.

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