George Augustus Williams

‘Summer Evening’ British landscape and figures, cattle in moonlit scene

19th century

George Augustus Williams was born on 4 May 1814 in Marylebone, London, into the Williams family of artists. His father was Edward Williams (1781–1855) a landscape painter and patriarch of the Barnes School of artists. He was one of six sons, who all became artists, Edward Charles Williams (1807–81), Henry John Boddington (1811–65), Arthur Gilbert (1819–95), Sidney Richard Percy (1821–86) and Alfred Walter Williams (1824–1905). Williams and all of his brothers were tutored by their father. He married Caroline Smith in 1835 and one of their sons Walter Williams (1834–1906) also became an artist. He initially lived with his family in Liverpool Street, Grays Inn Road, London before moving to Barnes, where he worked out of neighboring studios with his father, brothers and later his son and nephews. This working arrangement gave rise to Williams's family becoming known as the Barnes School. Like his father, he painted landscapes but specialized in river scenes of the Thames as well as seascapes and views of Kent and Wales. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1841 and also at Suffolk Street and the British Institution. Williams died in Barnes on 26 May 1901. His gravestone can be found at Barnes Old Cemetery.