William Charles Ross

Sir William Charles Ross RA (3 June 1794 – 20 Jan 1860) was an English portrait and portrait miniature painter of Scottish descent; early in his career, he was known for historical paintings. He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1842.

Ross was born in London and descended from a Scottish family who had settled at Tain in Rosshire. He was the son of William Ross, a miniature-painter and teacher of drawing, who exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1809 to 1825. His mother, Maria Smith, a sister of Anker Smith, the line-engraver, was a portrait-painter, who exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1791 and 1814, and died in London on 20 March 1836, aged 70.

At an early age young Ross showed great ability in art, and in 1807 received the "lesser silver palette" from the Society of Arts for a copy in chalk of Anker Smith's engraving of James Northcote's "Death of Wat Tyler". In 1808 he was admitted into the schools of the Royal Academy, where he received from Benjamin West much kind advice, and in 1810 gained a silver medal for a drawing from life. The Society of Arts also, in 1808, awarded him a silver medal for an original drawing of the "Judgment of Solomon", and in 1809 the larger silver palette for an original miniature of "Venus and Cupid", which he exhibited with two other works, "Mordecai Rewarded" and "The Judgment of Solomon", at the Royal Academy in the same year.

For some years afterwards his exhibited works were mainly of a classical character, and in 1825 he sent to the Royal Academy a large picture representing "Christ casting out Devils". In 1810, he again received a silver medal, and 20 guineas, from the Society of Arts, for an original drawing of "Caractacus brought before Claudius Cæsar"; in 1811, the silver medal and twenty guineas for an original drawing of "Samuel presented to Eli"; in 1816, the gold Isis medal for an original portrait of the Duke of Norfolk, president of the society; and in 1817, the gold medal for an original historical painting, "The Judgment of Brutus".

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