Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wells, William Frederick
WELLS, WILLIAM FREDERICK (1762–1836), watercolour-painter, was born in London in 1762, and is supposed to have been instructed in drawing by John James Barralet [q. v.] He was an exhibitor at the Royal Academy, chiefly of views of Welsh scenery, from 1795 to 1804, when, in conjunction with Samuel Shelley [q. v.], he founded the Society of Painters in Watercolours, of which he was president in 1806-7. During the next few years he exhibited exclusively with the society, sending topographical views and rustic figures; but in 1813, in consequence of a resolution being passed to admit oil paintings, he severed his connection with it. When Addiscombe College was established in 1809 Wells was appointed professor of drawing, and he held that position for twenty years; he also practised successfully as a drawing-master in London. He was an intimate friend of Joseph Mallord William Turner [q. v.], to whom he suggested the idea of the 'Liber Studiorum,' and the first drawings for that work were made at his house at Knockholt. Between 1802 and 1805 Wells and John Laporte [q. v.] executed between them a series of seventy-two soft-ground etchings from drawings by Gainsborough, which were issued as a volume in 1819. A set of plates of female heads, engraved by George Townley Stubbs from studies by Wells, was published in 1800. Towards the end of his life he retired to Mitcham, Surrey, where he died on 10 Nov. 1836. His daughter Clara, who became Mrs. Wheeler, wrote and privately printed in 1872 a brief account of the circumstances attending the foundation of the Watercolour Society.
[Roget's Hist, of the 'Old Watercolour' Society; Redgrave's Dict, of Artists.]