Lot 60: William Lindsay Windus (1822-1907)

Study of a trooper from the Dragoon Guards in foul weather order with inscription 'Painted by/W.L. Windus/about 1858 at the Life School/Colquit Street/Liverpool/L.P.' (on the reverse) oil on board 18 3/8 x 12 1/8 in. (46.7 x 30.8 cm.) PROVENANCE Anon. sale, Phillips, London, 13 December 1982, lot 109, when acquired by the present owner. NOTES William Windus was born in Liverpool where he studied under William Daniels (1813-1880) and at the Liverpool Academy, of which he was elected an associate in 1847, and a full-member in 1848. While his early works were predominantly of historical genre, a visit to London in 1850 when he saw Millais' Christ in the House of his Parents converted him to the Pre-Raphaelite cause and it was through him that the Pre-Raphelites were persuaded to exhibit at the Liverpool Academy. After 1859 he virtually gave up painting having been discouraged by Ruskin's severe criticism of his picture Too Late which he had exhibited in the Royal Academy in that year.