WILLIAM SIMPSON
British, 1823–1899
Barber’s Shop - Suez
Signed, dated and titled Wm Simpson 1882/ Barber’s Shop - Seville
Watercolor on paper
13½ x 9¾ inches (34 x 25 cm)
Framed: 22 x 18 inches (56 x 45.7 cm)
Known for his topographical and architectural subjects, chiefly in watercolor, William Simpson
was an illustrator and engraver of contemporary events. Born in Glasgow, he originally intended
on becoming an engineer, but was apprenticed early on to a Glasgow firm of lithographers and
became one of the first ‘war artists’ with his depictions of the Crimean War. From 1859 to 1862 he
traveled to India, Kashmir and Tibet making sketches. Other journeys included his visit to China
for the Emperor’s marriage, the Prince of Wales’s Indian Tour in 1875-76, the Afghan expedition
in 1878-79, and in 1884 when he was with the Afghan Boundary Commission at Penjdeh.
Beginning in 1874, Simpson exhibited frequently at the Society of British Artists and the New
Watercolour Society (later known as the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours).
Provenance
William Rodman & Co., Belfast
William K. Ehrenfeld, San Francisco
Mark Murray Fine Paintings, New York
Private Collection, California (acquired from the above, 1999 to the present)
$6,000