William Fettes Douglas

Sir William Fettes Douglas (1822–1891) was a Scottish painter and art connoisseur, rising to be President of the Royal Scottish Academy.

He was the eldest son of James Douglas and Martha Brook, grand-niece of Sir William Fettes, bart., the founder of Fettes College; was born on 12 March 1822 in Edinburgh. On the completion of his education at the High School of Edinburgh, he entered the Commercial Bank of Scotland, in which his father was accountant ; but the elder Douglas was an amateur of some talent, and the son devoted the leisure of the ten years he was in the bank's service to painting and drawing.

In 1847, he resolved to become an artist. Beyond a few mouths in the Trustees' Academy, then under Sir William Allan, he did not receive any systematic training, but he disciplined his hand and eye by the care and accuracy of the drawing he did by himself, and he attended the botany and anatomy classes of the university, while at a somewhat later date he painted a good deal in the country with the Faeds and Alexander Fraser, the landscape painter.

In 1845, he exhibited for the first time at the Royal Scottish Academy, and soon his pictures attracted such notice that in 1851 he was elected an associate, and three years later a full member. Some of his finest pictures belong to about this time, and in such as 'The Ruby Ring' (1853) ; 'The Alchemist' (1855) ; 'Hudibras and Ralph visiting the Astrologer' (1856), an incident from Butler's famous work ; 'The Rosicrucians' (1856), one of his finest things in colour ; and 'The False Astrologer,' the painter's interest in out-of-the-way subjects and his definite leaning to archaeology are clearly visible. Many of them show much of the pre-Raphaelite spirit, and are remarkable for wonderfully perfect and detailed handling and rich and beautiful colour. 'The Summons to the Secret Tribunal'(1860); 'David Laing, LL.D.,' a portrait picture (1862) ; and 'The Spell' (1864), are among the more important works of a later date.

In 1859, he made the first of several visits to Italy, where he devoted much time to studying coins and ivories, enamels and bookbindings, of which and other rare and beautiful things he subsequently made a fine collection. Many of his smaller pictures are masterly studies of such objects, and in nearly all of his principal pictures they figure as accessories.

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