William Simpson (Scottish artist)

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

William Simpson
Born	(1823-10-28)28 October 1823 Glasgow, Scotland
Died	17 August 1899(1899-08-17) (aged 75) Willesden, England
Nationality	Scottish
Known for	War artist
Notable work	The Seat of the War in the East

William Simpson (28 October 1823 – 17 August 1899) was a Scottish artist,

Life

Born into poverty in

. Simpson's only formal schooling took place during this period and within a few years, he was working as an apprentice in the Glasgow The artist stated later that "this was the turning point which changed all my boyish intentions." In Glasgow he attended the Andersonian University and the Mechanics Institute in the evenings.

After the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1854, he was given the task of creating an image of the Alma based on various accounts so that it could be lithographed by another London publisher, Lloyd's. He also put sketches sent from the Baltic onto stone for the firm of Colnaghi. In anticipation of the fall of Sebastopol, Lloyd's had him prepare an image of the fall of the town so that it could be published upon news of its actual capture. This presented a challenge to Simpson as he had little information about Sebastopol. He occasionally spoke with Mr. Day of Day and Son about the need to have sketches drawn at the front. Shortly thereafter, Colnaghi's contacted Simpson and invited him to go out to the Crimea and make sketches for the company.^[2]

Crimean War

Simpson arrived off the Crimean peninsula on 15 November 1854 and could hear distant firing. While he had missed the early battles, he was able to record the events before Sebastopol. He made numerous acquaintances who helped him with details for his pictures, but he was also struck by the plight of the common soldiers, "miserable looking beings...covered with mud, dirt, and rags," he wrote. He socialised with many officers, including Lord Raglan and Captain Peel; he also met Roger Fenton who took his photograph. In May 1855, Simpson accompanied Raglan on the expedition to

Throughout his time at the front, he would send back his watercolours to London where the lithographers of Day & Son would transfer them to stone. Simpson was paid 20 pounds for each picture. For the colour, a separate stone was used for each tone. Colnaghis exhibited some of the watercolours including a show at the Graphic Society in February 1855. The first advertisements for the lithographs appeared in May 1855 and in the following month, a second series was announced.

In all, the Colnaghis produced two large portfolios containing over eighty lithographs entitled The Seat of the War in the East. Two thousand copies of the complete set were produced. Simpson dedicated the series to Queen Victoria whose patronage he enjoyed for the rest of his life, and he was a frequent visitor to Windsor Castle and Balmoral. So popular were his pictures that he became affectionately known at 'Crimean Simpson'. There was a plan for the watercolours to be purchased for the nation but this came to nothing and they were sold off by the Colnaghi's.

India and Abyssinia

In the late 1850s he was sent to India to sketch scenes relating to the recent Sepoy Revolt. The idea was to produce an illustrated publication similar to the Crimean portfolio, and Simpson had discussed the possibility with Mr. Day. The artist arrived at

. In February, 1862, he left and arrived in London only to find that Day and Son could not afford to produce a portfolio. Nevertheless, a large volume of coloured lithographs was published under the title India Ancient and Modern. He was commissioned by Day & Son to visit these parts of India and record the places affected by the momentous events of the 'Mutiny' of 1857. Before leaving, he spent 'a considerable time in the library of India House, then in Leadenhall Street, looking over books about India, such as Daniels', to see what had been already done, and to get hints as to places I ought to visit'. The set of lithographs produced, based on his watercolours, was intended to rival David Roberts' The Holy Land in scope. However, the project never came to fruition, following the financial collapse of Day & Son, due to the rise of wood engraving. By 1866, Simpson had delivered 250 watercolours to Day & Son and these were subsequently sold off as bankrupt stock.^[2] Only 50 had been prepared as chromolithographs, and were published in 1867 as India Ancient and Modern. A series of illustrations of the country and people of India and adjacent territories. For Simpson this was little consolation: 'So the great work on India, on which I had bestowed so much time and labour, never came into existence...'

In 1866, Simpson was contacted by the Illustrated London News to do some sketches of the Prince of Wales, on a visit to the Duke of Sutherland at Dunrobin Castle. Afterwards, the paper asked him to go to

Two years later, Simpson was in Abyssinia covering the British expedition to Abyssinia. Initially, the paper used sketches supplied by one of the soldiers on campaign, Colonel Baigrie, but as his pictures were mostly landscapes, the paper felt that Simpson could add more life to the accounts of the war. The artist arrived at Suez on 18 June 1868, but by the time he neared the front, news came that Magdala had fallen to the Anglo-Indian force. Nonetheless, he was able to observe the retreat of the Abyssinian army, and the remains of the royal quarters of Emperor Tewodros II at Magdala, which had been looted by the British Army.^[3] He arrived back at Dover on 2 July 1868 and the

Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune

In 1870, he went to France to sketch the war with

. Later while sketching a coach, he was surrounded by soldiers and arrested on suspicion of being a spy but he convinced the French authorities that he was a 'special artist'. At the police station, his sketches were examined, and he was finally released.

Upon news of the surrender at Sedan, Simpson travelled to sketch the battlefield from the windows of a nearby chateau.

In November 1870, he returned to London but was back in France in April 1871 to observe the events around Paris, where he was once again suspected of spying but was allowed to go free. On 27 April, he visited Paris and spent four weeks there, sketching the fortifications and the events of the Paris Commune.^[2] He was back in London by 11 June 1871.

In 1872 in Beijing he sketched the Chinese Emperor's wedding festivities.^[4] In 1873, during a trip around the world, Simpson happened to be in San Francisco when, on 11 April, Kintpuash ('Captain Jack') and his Modoc followers murdered Brigadier-General Edward Canby and Methodist minister Eleazar Thomas at a peace parley. Simpson interrupted his world tour and journeyed up to Tule Lake and the lava beds at the California/Oregon border to make sketches of the Modoc War. His sketch of the Canby/Thomas assassination scene was the signature graphic representation of the 1873 Modoc War.

In 1874, he was elected an Associate of the (soon to be Royal) Institute of Painters in Water Colours. In 1875, he accompanied the Prince of Wales to India, and arrived in Mumbai on October 30. The tour was designed to strengthen ties between Britain and India, which was then ruled by the British Crown. The Prince collected a large number of items of Indian art during the tour, which were often presented to him by various local rulers during receptions and events.^[5] William Simpson wrote about the tour in his autobiography: "I have often described the Prince's tour in India as four months of the Lord Mayor's show".^[6]

In 1877, visited

Afghan War

On 15 October 1878, Simpson left London en route to Afghanistan to provide illustrations of the Second Anglo-Afghan War. Travelling via Lahore and Peshawar, he passed through the Khyber Pass and witnessed the 'first shot' fired at the Battle of Ali Masjid.^[6]

He became friendly with

On one occasion, he was shot at by an Afghan but the bullet just missed.

At

Daily News

with accounts of the campaign. In May 1879, he observed the signing of a peace treaty at Gandamak which ended the war for the time being.^[2] When it was decided to send a mission to Kabul, Simpson applied to go but was turned down. His primary interest in accompanying the mission was to visit the giant . It was this event which precipitated the second part of the war.

Simpson returned to London in the summer of 1879. Upon his arrival, he visited the offices of the

and collected all his sketches and watercolours which he proceeded to mount in two large albums. He also presented several papers to various learned societies on such aspects as Buddhist Valley. In the same year he was elected a full member of the Institute of Painters in Water Colours.

In 1884, Simpson returned to Afghanistan with

Throughout the following decade, Simpson continued his travels on behalf of his newspaper covering such events as royal weddings and coronations. In 1890, he observed the opening of the

and caught a chill which was to have detrimental effects on his health.

Family and death

Simpson married late in life to Maria Eliza Burt herself a portrait painter, and had one daughter, Ann Penelope born in 1884, who eventually emigrated to Australia. He died at home in Willesden, North London, on 17 August 1899 aged 75,^[2] and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Besides his war pictures, he covered state events, coronations, funerals, and other ceremonies. He was particularly interested in India and sketched scenes of the

. He was a noted ethnographer and antiquarian, and wrote extensively on ancient religions, customs, and ancient artifacts. It is said that the Queen intervened to prevent him from going out to Italy in 1859, to cover the , for fear that he would get killed.

Works by (books)

• Brackenbury, G. & Simpson, W (1855). The campaign in the Crimea: an historical sketch (London: P. and D. Colnaghi).
• Simpson, William (1867). India ancient and modern: a series of illustrations of the country and the people of India and adjacent territories; executed in chromo-lithography from drawings by William Simpson; with descriptive literature by John William Kaye. London: Day and Son.
• Simpson, William (1874). Meeting the Sun: a Journey all round the World through Egypt, China, Japan and California, including an account of the marriage ceremonies of the emperor of China. (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer).
• Simpson, William (1876). Picturesque people: being groups from all quarters of the globe. London: W. M. Thompson.
• Simpson, William (1896). The Buddhist Praying Wheel (London: Macmillan).
• Simpson, William (1899). The Jonah Legend. (London: Grant Richards).
• Simpson, William (1899). Glasgow in the Forties (ed. A.H. Miller). Morison Brothers.
• Simpson, William (1902). The seat of war in the East, from eighty-one drawings made during the war in the Crimea (London, Day & Son etc.).
• Simpson, William (edited by G. Eyre-Todd, 1903). The Autobiography of William Simpson (London, T. F. Unwin).

Works by (selected articles)

• Simpson, William, 'A contribution to the History of Lithography', The Lithographer, 1854
• Simpson, William, 'The architecture of India', RIBA Trans. (Royal Institute of British Architects), May 1862, pp. 165–178.
• Simpson, William, 'Arkite Ceremonies in the Himalayas', Good Words, 1866, pp. 601–608.
• Simpson, William, 'Praying Machines', Good Words, 1867, pp. 845–850.
• Simpson, William, 'An artist's jottings in Abyssinia', Good Words, 1 October 1868, pp. 605–613.
• Simpson, William, 'Church architecture of Abyssinia', RIBA Trans, 1869, pp. 234–246.
• Simpson, William, 'The Royal Quarries', Palestine Exploration Fund, 1870, pp. 373–379.
• Simpson, William, 'Jerusalem', Society for Biblical Archaeology, 1872, pp. 310–327.
• Simpson, William, 'The architecture of China', RIBA Trans, 1873, pp. 33–50.
• Simpson, William, 'China's future place in Philology', Macmillan's Magazine. Nov. 1873, pp. 45–48.
• Simpson, William, 'Gangootree', Alpine Journal, May 1874, pp. 385–397.
• Simpson, William, 'Symbolism of Oriental Ornament', Royal Society of the Arts Journal, Vol. 22, 1874, pp. 488–494.
• Simpson, William, 'The Modoc Region', RGS Procs. Vol. XIX, 1874–75, pp. 292–302.
• Simpson, William, 'Ark-Shrines of Japan', Society for Biblical Archaeology, 1877, pp. 550–554.
• Simpson, William, Pujahs in the Sutlej Valley, Himalayas.” The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. 16, no. 1, 1884, pp. 13–30.
• Simpson, William, 'Architecture in the Himalayas', RIBA Trans. (Royal Institute of British Architects), Jan. 1883, pp. 65–80.
• Simpson, William, 'In the trenches before Sebastopol',
  English Illustrated Magazine
  , December 1895.
• Simpson, William, 'Winter and Summer in the trenches of Sebastopol',
  English Illustrated Magazine
  , April 1896, pp. 33–42.

Exhibition catalogues

• Watercolour Drawings of India, Thibet & Cashmire, exhibition catalogue, German Gallery, 168, New Bond Street, 1867.
• Underground Jerusalem : descriptive catalogue of the above collection of water-colour drawings / by William Simpson, on view and for sale at the Pall Mall Gallery, from April 6th, 1872.
• Round the world : or, Pictures from the four quarters of the globe : descriptive catalogue of a collection of water-colour drawings and sketches from France, Italy ... Niagara &c. / by William Simpson; on view and for sale at Burlington Gallery, 191, Piccadilly, from March 16, 1874.
• India "special" / by William Simpson : an exhibition of sketches taken during the tour in India of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales; on view and for sale at Burlington Gallery, 191, Piccadilly, from May 29, 1876
• Mycenae, Troy, and Ephesus : a collection of water-colour drawings & sketches, illustrative of recent exploration and discoveries at these places, exhibition catalogue, 1878
• Catalogue of Exhibition of War Sketches by the late William Simpson, R.I., R.B.A., F.R.G.S. at Graves' Galleries, 6, Pall Mall, S.W. 1900.

Notes

References

• Simpson, William. The Autobiography of William Simpson. Reprint Infodial Ltd,
  ISBN 978-0-9556554-1-8
  .
• Archer, Mildred. Visions of India : the sketchbooks of William Simpson 1859-62.Topsfield, Mass., Salem House, 1986.
• Glasgow in the 1840s: watercolours by William Simpson, 1823-1899. Glasgow: Glasgow Museums with assistance from Glasgow Art Gallery and Museums Association, 1998.
• Harrington, Peter. "The First True War Artist," MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Vol. 9, No. 1, Autumn 1996, pp. 100–109.
• Harrington, Peter, 'Simpson's Crimean Sketchbooks', The War Correspondent, Vol. 19, No. 1, April 2001, pp. 10–12.
• Harrington, Peter, 'The Defence of Kars: Paintings by William Simpson and Thomas Jones Barker', Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research, Vol. LXIX, No. 277, Spring 1991, pp. 22–28.
• Millar, Alexander Hastie (1901). "Simpson, William (1823-1899)" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co. pp. 345–347.
• Harrington, Peter (ed). (2016) William Simpson's Afghanistan: Travels of a Special Artist and Antiquarian during the Second Afghan War, 1878-1879. Solihull, UK, Helion.
• Pankhurst, Richard (ed). (2002) Diary of a Journey to Abyssinia, 1868 with the expedition under Sir Robert Napier KCSI, The Diary and Observations of William Simpson of the Illustrated London News. Hollywood, CA, Tsehai.
• ISBN 978-1-5272-7047-3
• Mr. William Simpson of the Illustrated London News: Pioneer war artist 1823-1899. London: Fine Art Society, 1987

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Simpson.

• Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection, Brown University Library sketch-books, watercolours, prints, Afghan war diary and album, 1878–79
• First Readings 2008- The Places in Between Afghan diary (extracts) and watercolours (selection)
• Lipscomb, Adrian. William Simpson (1823-1899) -- "Prince of Pictorial Correspondents".
• William Simpson and Himalayan Architecture
• Simpson, William, 1823-1899, Hathi Trust Digital Library