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William Anderson Biography
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Whilst little is known of the early life of William Anderson other than that he was born in Scotland in 1757, it is a fact that he trained as a shipwright. His knowledge of the construction of boats and ships was to stand him in good stead throughout his career as an artist - a change of direction which occurred quite naturally as a result of his undoubted ability with a pencil, drawing construction plans for the ships he built.
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In about 1780 he made his way south to London where his work, which was firmly based on the Dutch 17th century Masters, was soon noticed. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in the year of his arrival in London and soon began to make a name for himself for his highly detailed and supremely accurate drawings of ships and vessels of all types. Not only a painter of marine subjects; several of his exhibited pictures bore titles such as A View of Berwick-on-Tweed; A View of Tynemouth, and The Battle of Waterloo. Commissions which took him back to the North of England also introduced him to the Hull school of painters, notably the young John Ward, who was immediately influenced by William Anderson’s style. His son William Guido Anderson, also showed a keen interest in the sea. He served in the Royal Navy and was mortally wounded at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801, as a midshipman on the Bellona.
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Anderson died in London on May 27th 1837.
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