Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wale, Samuel
WALE, SAMUEL (d. 1786), historical painter, is said to have been born at Yarmouth, Norfolk. He was first instructed in the art of engraving on silver plate. He studied drawing under Francis Hayman [q. v.] at the St. Martin's Lane academy, and his book illustrations show how much he owed to Hayman's example. He painted some decorative designs for ceilings at a time when the taste for that style of ornamentation was on the wane, and he was occasionally employed in painting tradesmen's signs, till these were prohibited by act of parliament in 1762. A whole-length portrait of Shakespeare by Wale, which hung across the street outside a tavern near Drury Lane, obtained some notoriety owing to the splendour of the frame and the ironwork by which it was suspended. The whole was said to have cost 500l., but it had scarcely been erected when it had to be removed, and the painting was sold for a trifle to a broker. Wale acquired a thorough knowledge of perspective by assisting John Gwynn [q. v.] in his architectural drawings, especially in a transverse section of St. Paul's Cathedral, which was engraved and published in their joint names in 1752. But his principal employment was in designing vignettes and illustrations on a small scale for the booksellers, a large number of which were engraved by Charles Grignion (1717–1810) [q. v.] Among the chief of these were the illustrations to the ‘History of England,’ 1746–7; ‘The Compleat Angler,’ 1759; ‘London and its Environs described,’ 1761; ‘Ethic Tales and Fables,’ Wilkie's ‘Fables,’ 1768 (eighteen plates); Chamberlain's ‘History of London,’ 1770; Goldsmith's ‘Traveller,’ 1774. He also published numerous plates in the ‘Oxford Magazine’ and other periodicals. He exhibited ‘stained drawings,’ i.e. designs outlined with the pen and washed with indian ink, and occasionally larger drawings in watercolours, at the exhibitions of the Society of Artists in Spring Gardens, 1760–1767, and designed the frontispiece to the catalogue in 1762.
He became one of the original members of the Society of Artists of Great Britain in 1765 and of the Royal Academy in 1768, and was the first professor of perspective to the academy. He exhibited drawings of scenes from English history, and occasionally scriptural subjects, described as designs for altar-pieces, from 1769 to 1778, when his health failed, and he was placed upon the Royal Academy pension fund, being the first member who benefited by it. He continued to hold the professorship of perspective, though he gave private instruction at his own house instead of lecturing; and in 1782, on the death of Richard Wilson, he became librarian. He held both offices till his death, which occurred on 6 Feb. 1786 in Castle Street, Leicester Square. His portrait appears in Zoffany's picture of the Royal Academy in 1772, engraved by Earlom.
[Sandby's Hist. of the Royal Academy, i. 86; Edwards's Anecd. of Painters, p. 116; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists.]