Francis Wheatley Art

Francis Wheatley (Born in 1747) was born in London. He was the son of a tailor (master) in Covent Garden. His father noticed that he was talented in the arts and placed him under Fournier Daniel for his initial art training. Daniel was a neighbor who was a drawing master. Wheatley also trained at a drawing school that was run by Shipley William, the founder of the Royal Society of Arts. Wheatley also studied under a Mr. Wilson (unidentified artist), perhaps Benjamin Wilson. During the first half of his career, the artist painted portraits (small-scale) in which he informally posed figures that were silhouetted against landscape backgrounds that are darker. The figures comprises of ladies with gaily colored apparel. Wheatley also produced landscapes and conversation pieces, both in watercolor and oil, in which everyday rural incidents were featured. Wheatley has produced art in a variety of finishing options including framed Francis Wheatley art, preferred by many buyers and collectors. He returned to London in 1783 where he concentrated on his work for which he was best known, schmaltzy scenes inspired by the cult of sensibilité and Greuze, mostly intended for distribution on the English as well as the French market and for engraving. Wheatley painted the renowned canvas of Howard John relieving and visiting the miseries of a prison, scenes from modern literature, bourgeois moralities, and fancy pictures; pictures in which domestic or rustic realism was combined with sentiment. In 1790 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy and in 1791 he became a full Academician.