William Hemsley (Dutch / Belgian 1829-1908)

The White Rabbit
oil on panel, inscribed and signed on verso "The White Rabbit/Wm. Hemsley", with panel stamp "G. Rowney & Co. Prepared Mahogany Panel London St. 62 Rathbone Place", signed indistinctly lower left
Size: 8 ¼ h x 6 ½ w in (with frame 14 ¼ x 12 ½ in)
J21485            

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604 736 8825 or 1 800 730 8825

William Hemsley was a self-taught genre painter working in London during the second half of the 19th century. His genre scenes of everyday life, which are usually painted on small scale, follow the gentle tradition of Thomas Webster (1800-1886) and Frederick Daniel Hardy (1827-1911). He was, like them, fond of painting children at play.

At first, Hemsley followed his father’s profession, architecture, teaching himself painting in his spare time. He travelled in Germany and Holland and exhibited at the Royal Society of Artists, Walker Art Gallery, Manchester City Art Gallery, Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolour, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Arthur Tooth & Sons Gallery and the Royal British Academy, where he exhibited seventy-six times.