Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Davis, William (1812-1873)
DAVIS, WILLIAM (1812–1873), landscape and portrait painter, was born in Dublin in 1812, where he studied in the Academy of Arts, and coming to England practised here as a portrait-painter. He was first taken notice of by Mr. John Miller of Liverpool, who encouraged him to devote himself exclusively to landscape-painting. The picture called ‘Harrowing’ in the International Exhibition of 1862 gave him a name in London. When elected a member of the Liverpool Academy, he was appointed professor of painting there. He exhibited at the Royal Academy sixteen landscapes between 1851 and 1872. In 1851 he resided at 21 Chapel Place, Liverpool, and settled in London three or four years before his death, which took place 22 April 1873. Most of his pictures were bought by Mr. Rae of Birkenhead, Mr. Miller, Mr. Leathart of Newcastle-on-Tyne, Mr. Squary, and other gentlemen of the neighbourhood of Liverpool. Davis was a Roman catholic.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Athenæum, 3 May 1873.]