Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Oliver, William (1804?-1853)
OLIVER, WILLIAM (1804?–1853), landscape-painter, was born about 1804. He painted in oil as well as in water-colours, but chiefly in the latter, and took most of his subjects from foreign scenery, especially in France and the Pyrenees. He began to exhibit in 1829, when he sent to the Society of British Artists ‘A Beach Scene in Kent' and a ‘Fish Boat.' In 1831 he was elected a member of the New Society (now the Royal Institute) of Painters in Water-Colours, and his drawings appeared annually at its exhibitions until 1854. He also sent oil-paintings to the Royal Academy from 1835 so 1853, and to the British Institution from 1836. He published in 1842 a folio of 'Scenery of the Pyrenees,' lithographed by George Barnard, Thomas Shotter Boys, Carl Hughe, and others.
Oliver died at Langley Mill House, Halstead, Essex, on 2 Nov. 1553, aged 49. There is an oil-painting by him of ‘Foligno' in the South Kensington Museum.
His wife, Emma Sophia Oliver (1819-1885), daughter of W. Eburne, coachbuilder, of Rathbone Place, London, was born on 15 Aug. 1819, and married in 1840. She was elected a member of the New Society of Painters in Water-Colours in 1849, and exhibited also landscapes both in water-colours and in oil at the Royal Academy, British Institution, Society of British Artists, and various provincial galleries. After Oliver's death she married, about 1856, John Sedgwick, a solicitor, of Watford, Hertfordshire, but continued to follow her profession in her first husband's name until her death, which took place at the Brewery House, Great Berkhamstead, on 15 March 1885.
[Art Journal, 1853, p. 311; Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves and Armstrong, 1886-9, ii. 225; Miss Clayton's English Female Artists, 1876, ii. 227-30; Exhibition Catalogues of the Royal Academy, British Institution (Living Artists), Society of British Artists, and New Society of Painters in Water-Colours.]