William Gush

William Gush (23 April 1813 - 28 February 1888) was an English portrait painter born near London.

The Dictionary of Victorian Painters describes Gush’s style of painting as being in the keepsake tradition and that his female types are very similar to those of Charles Baxter. Kingsmead’s A Dictionary of Artists 1760-1893 lists him as having exhibited 53 pictures at the Royal Academy, 4 at the British Institution and 2 at the Suffolk Street Galleries. He has numerous pieces in the National Portrait Gallery in London. There 354 known portraits painted by him.

In 1833 Gush’s first painting was accepted to be hung in the Royal Academy Exhibition staged at the National Gallery. The subject of this portrait was Sir John Harrison Yallop, late mayor of Norwich. The same year he was awarded the Gold Isis Medal by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce. In 1837, Gush had another portrait hung in the Royal Academy exhibition of the Duke of Beaufort, in the uniform of the Gloucester Yeomanry Cavalry.

Some of the eminent subjects commissioning William were Lieutenant Colonel Townsend of the 14th Royal Light Dragoons, whose portrait was exhibited in 1840 at the Royal Academy Exhibition, the Right Reverend James Henry Monk - Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol, painted for the Bishop’s College in Clifton exhibited in 1842, and the Earl of Bantry exhibited in 1844. In 1853, Gush’s exhibit at the Royal Academy exhibition was a portrait entitled "Mrs Mills". His last portrait to be exhibited at the Academy was in 1865 and depicted Mrs Philip Vanderbyl; his subsequent entries in 1867 and between 1872-4 had less specific titles such as "At Lessons and Blackberries". The Royal Academy moved from sharing the National Gallery’s premises in Trafalgar Square to the rebuilt Burlington House in 1869 and the artist’s final painting entitled "The New Song" (1874) brought to an end over forty years of exhibiting.

In 1844 and 1845 William Gush contributed all the portraits of Methodist ministers, published in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. By 1847 William bought a studio at the prestigious address No 17 Stratford Place, an exclusive cul-de-sac situated off Oxford Street, London.

His commitments back in England still kept him very busy, the main one of these being the provision of portraits for the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. He also painted other portraits including one depicting John Curwen, a composer, now held at the National Portrait Gallery in London.

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