Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Evans, William (1811?-1858)
EVANS, WILLIAM (1811?–1858), landscape-painter, usually known as ‘Evans of Bristol,’ in order to distinguish him from William Evans of Eton [q. v.], was an associate member of the Old Society of Painters in Water-colours, and a native of North Wales. Wishing to perfect his art by the study of nature alone, and to free himself from the influence of schools or individuals, Evans made himself a home for many years in the centre of a grand gorge of mountain scenery in North Wales, at a farm called Tyn-y-Car, in a large park at the junction of the Deddr with the Conway. Here he was able to cultivate a natural impulse for originality and grandeur in the constant contemplation of nature in some of its wildest forms, and he produced some fine works, notably ‘Traeth Mawr;’ his treatment of the mountain torrents and the cottage scenery of the neighbourhood was also remarkable. After 1852 Evans visited Italy, spending the winter successively at Genoa, Rome, and Naples, and he collected numerous materials for working up into landscapes of a very different character from his earlier productions. Unfortunately his work was cut short by illness, and he died in Marylebone Road, London, 7 Dec. 1858, aged forty-nine, according to some accounts, though he is usually stated to have been born in 1811. There is a fine water-colour drawing by him in the print room at the British Museum.
[Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; Ottley's Dict. of Recent and Living Painters; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. R. E. Graves; Gent. Mag. (1859) 3rd ser. vi. 105.]