Basic Biographical Details Name: | Charles Heath Wilson | Designation: | | Born: | September 1809 | Died: | 3 July 1882 | Bio Notes: | Charles Heath Wilson was born in London in September 1809, the son of the Scottish-born landscape painter Andrew Wilson, master of the Trustees' Academy, 1818-1826. He studied painting with his father and spent the years 1826-1833 in Italy where he studied architecture and made copies of the decorative work of Raphael at the Vatican and the Farnesina. He then returned to Edinburgh to practise as both artist and architect and teach at the Trustees' Academy where he established a new department of design and became Director. He then moved to London following his appointment as Director of the Somerset House School after William Dyce resigned in 1843, having made his name with a technical report on fresco painting for the Select committee on the Fine Arts Commission for the new Houses of Parliament. The Director's post was abolished in 1847, as was his subsequent post of Director of Provincial Schools in the following year. In 1849 Wilson moved to Glasgow as headmaster of the Government School of Design. His tenure ended when the institution was transferred from the Board of Trade to the Department of Science and Art in 1863 and he set up in business as an architect although his practice had previously been limited to monuments and ship interiors rather than buildings. Nevertheless he remained Honorary Director of the School, which thereafter became the School of Art, and a trustee of the Haldane Academy.
Wilson was elected ARSA in 1835 but he did not exhibit after 1842 which resulted in his resignation in 1858. While in Glasgow he organised the Scottish Exhibition of Arts and Manufactures for the Architectural Institute of Scotland, 1854-56, and supervised the programme of installing Munich painted glass in the cathedral in 1858-64, designing several of the windows himself.
As Wilson had some influential patrons, David Thomson, who had been his instructor in architecture at Glasgow School of Art, took him into partnership in 1864. He was appointed Honorary Curator of the Corporation Galleries in January of the following year at £100 per annum but in 1868 Wilson withdrew to live and work in Florence, having become possessed of substantial private means, and took his family with him. There he completed his long-planned 'Life of Michelangelo', published in 1876.
Wilson died in Florence on 3 July 1882. Almost every member of his family inherited artistic capability, the most important being the landscape painter William Heath Wilson. | Private and Business AddressesThe following private or business addresses are associated with this : | | Address | Type | Date from | Date to | Notes | | Wildshire's Lodgings/9, South St David Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private | 1835 | | | | 7, North St David Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private/business | 1836 | | | | 42, York Place, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private/business | 1838 | | | | 8, Northumberland Street, Edinburgh, Scotland | Private/business | c. 1839 | c. 1843 | | | 29, St Vincent Place, Glasgow, Scotland | Private | Before 1865 | 1868 | |
Employment and TrainingEmployersThe following individuals or organisations employed or trained this (click on an item to view details): | | Name | Date from | Date to | Position | Notes | | C H Wilson & D Thomson | 1863 | 1868 | Partner | |
Buildings and Designs
ReferencesBibliographic ReferencesThe following books contain references to this : | | Author(s) | Date | Title | Part | Publisher | Notes | | Byrom, Connie | 2005 | The Edinburgh New Town Gardens: 'blessings as well as beauties' | | Birlinn | pp192-198 | | Ferguson, H C S | | Glasgow School of Art: the history | | | | | McEwan, P J M | 1994 | Dictionary of Scottish Art and Architecture | | | | | Port, M H | 1876 | The Houses of Parliament | | New Haven & London | p255 | | Post Office Directories | | | | | | | Rawson, George (ed.) | | Missionary of art: Charles Heath Wilson, 1809-1882 | | Foulis Press of Glasgow School of Art | | | Smith, George Fairfull | 2000 | 'Charles Heath Wilson and David Thomson: a forgotten architectural partnership' | | AHSS Magazine, no 11, Winter 2000 | | | Williamson, George C (ed.) | | Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers | | | |
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