(1741 - 97), painter, b. Edinburgh; London 1767; exh. SA 1767 - 70, 1777 - 8: RA 1771 - 2; India 1774 - 80; Edinburgh c.1784 - d.
1760 - 7 Rome (Jul. 1760 - 1767) with visit to Florence (May 1763) [London by Apr. 1767]
Willison was sent to Rome as a promising young artist by his uncle George Dempster. He arrived in July 1760 with an introduction to Thomas Jenkins from the poet George Keate.1 On 9 August Andrew Lumisden wrote that he had 'prevailed upon M. Mengs to receive M. Willison into his school. I wish he may make proper use of the instruction and example of so able a master'.2 Willison did not long enjoy his studies since Mengs left for Naples in August 1761 and Madrid the following month. At Easter 1761 'Giorgio Uilison Pittore - 26' was living 'seguita Vittoria verso il Corso'.3
Little is known of Willison's work in Italy apart from his celebrated portrait of James Boswell (SNPG) for which sittings took place on 4, 7 and 10 May 1765.4 In May 1763 he was in Florence applying to copy Titian's Venus of Urbino in the Uffizi.5 A Mr Irvine (possibly the convalescent Irvine recorded in Italy in 1762 - 3) commissioned a copy of Raphael's Madonna della sedia. In July 1764 James Martin saw in Willison's studio in Rome good copies from van Dyck (Three Children of Charles I), Raphael (a Self portrait) and Correggio (the Holy Family from Parma) and an original composition of a Vestal Virgin in which two more figures had been chalked in; Martin thought they would be 'rather crowded', but he evidently admired Willison and said he studied 'very hard'.6 In September Martin went with Willison to the French Academy and to the Accademia di S.Luca.7 That same month Lumisden wrote to Boswell (then in Siena) that Willison was about to send the finished portrait of Boswell to his uncle, Dempster, 'along with the Sybil, which he intends as a present for him. He sends likewise the Vestal [presumably the picture seen by Martin] to L. Mountstuart'.8 In May 1765 Sir William Farington saw in Rome Willison's portrait of Godfrey Bagnall Clarke 'very like, & well Painted',9 and on 22 May Lumisden told John Strange that 'Wilson [sic] has been doing some portraits in which he has succeeded very well'.(10) In October 1765 Willison had recovered from a fever.(11) He is said to have stayed in Rome until 1767, but by April 1767 he was exhibiting at the SA in London, his address given as Greek Street, Soho, his exhibits including two portraits of a young lady in the character of a vestal and in the character of a sybil (presumably versions of the pictures mentioned by Lumisden above).
1. Notes by B. Skinner. 2. Lumisden letters MSS. 3. AVR sa, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 4. Boswell, Italy, 78, 80. 5. Borroni 1987, 146 (20 May). 6. Martin jnl.MSS (13, 20 Jul. 1764). 7. Ibid. (12, 13 Sep. 1765). 8. Lumisden letters MSS (7 Sep. 1765). 9. Farington jnl.MSS (15 May 1765). 10. Lumisden letters MSS. 11. Dennistoun, 1:207.