Sir William Boxall
(1800-1879), Painter and Director of the National GallerySitter in 7 portraits
Artist associated with 18 portraits
The son of an Oxford taxation official, William Boxall entered the Royal Academy schools in 1819. He worked in London between 1823 and 1833, chiefly as a portrait painter but occasionally exhibiting history and subject pictures in an attempt to gain recognition. Between the mid-1830s and the 1860s he enjoyed a reputation as a society painter and also for his likenesses of leading literary, artistic and intellectual figures of the day. To further his ambition to succeed as a history painter he travelled and studied in Italy (1833-6), but portraiture remained his principal employment, accounting for most of his exhibited works. Boxall was elected ARA in 1851 and RA in 1863.
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