HEMSLEY, William

c.1818 - 1906

William Hemsley was born at Little Chelea, now West Brompton, London around 1818, eldest son of William Whitfield Hemsley (12 September 1796-December 1867), an architect, and his wife Caroline Amelia née Jones (16 July 1797-January 1872) who died at 3 Caversham Street, Chelsea. Young William was educated at a preparatory school in Brighton and, as a teenager, developed an interest in art. He began to train in his father's architect profession and found employment as a drawing clerk in the office of architect John Crake (c.1811-1859) but decided to take up painting professionally. An artist specialising in genre paintings who lived most of his life in London, although he travelled to Germany and Holland. In 1841 he was living at Camera Square, Chelsea and by 1851, a 32-year-old 'artist in painting', living at Marlborough Street, Chelsea, London with a 30-year-old wife Arabella née Barnard (27 March 1821-1876), who was born at Berrow, Somerset and their two children, 3-year-old Cornelius Henry and 1 year old Alice Lucy, both born at Chelsea. In 1861 they were living at 13 Hereford Square, Kensington with a further son and daughter, and after his wife's death in 1876 William went to live at Ashburnham House, 499 Kings Road, Chelsea. Hemsley began to exhibit and was elected to the Society of British Artists, later named the Royal Society of British Artists, in 1859 and was later a Vice-President. He also exhibited at the Royal Academy; Walker Art Gallery; Manchester City Art Gallery and at the Suffolk Fine Arts Association held at Ipswich in 1850 an oil 'Sunday Morning'. Various dates have been given for William Hemsley's death but in 1891, he was a 73-year-old artist in oil & watercolour, living at Bexley House, Queens Road, Wimbledon, Kingston, Surrey with his 36-year-old son Walter and his family, and where he died on the 24 November 1906, aged 89, and buried in Old Brompton Cemetery, Chelsea.

Royal Academy Exhibits
from 5 Marlborough Street, Chelsea
1849 57 Young Shrimpers
from 30 Halsey Street, Chelsea
1853 110 The Truant Defeated
1854 540 A Village School
1855 628 Sunday Morning, a New Hat
1856 423 Winter
1857 198 Sketching from Nature
from 13 Hereford Square, Old Brompton, Kensington
1859 516 The Start: one, two, three, and away
1860 48 A Fisherman's Hut
1861 357 Sunday Morning
1862 15 A Dangerous Playmate
         230 The Burning Glas: Coastal Scene, Somerset
1863 89 Summer
1864 126 Shrimpers
1865 170 New Boats
1868 256 Reading the News
from 50 Redcliffe Road, West Brompton
1872 1096 Welsh Children
1873 1339 For the Broth
from 4 Ashburnham Gardens, West Chelsea
1874 103 The Warrener's Boy
1877 1398 Granny's Lesson

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Works by This Artist