John Waterloo Wilson (May 16, 1815 – August 12, 1883) was a Belgian art collector who lived many years in

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...

. Wilson was born in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

as the son of the British industrialist Thomas Wilson, whose factory in Ukkel-Stalle had been damaged in 1830 by workers on strike. As a friend of

Willem I of the Netherlands William I (Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau; 24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was a Prince of Orange, the King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg. He was the son of the last Stadtholder of the Dutch Republic, who we ...

Thomas won a contract for a new cotton factory in Haarlem and the young John relocated there with his family in 1833. He studied chemistry in Manchester, England, presumably to learn more about the cotton-dyeing process that Haarlem was famous for at the time. In 1839 he married the daughter of the Haarlem mayor Wilhelmina Christina van Valkenburg, who died young in 1844 and left him with three young children. He travelled in Turkey and Egypt but his health prevented him from travel in 1872 when he started to concentrate on art collecting. He followed in his father's footsteps as director of the firm and also as art collector, but returned to Brussels in 1873 where he showed his art collection and published a catalogue. His collector's mark is known as Lugt number 2581. Like his father before him, Wilson was also owner of a manor house in

Overijssel Overijssel (, ; nds, Oaveriessel ; german: Oberyssel) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name translates to "across the IJssel", from the perspective of the ...

. He left 27 paintings and a large sum of money to the city of Brussels, which named a street after him in gratitude: Rue John Waterloo Wilson.Expo on an English patron of the nineteenth century in the Costume Museum
1995 article in Le Soir His gift was instrumental in founding the

Museum of the City of Brussels The Brussels City Museum (french: Musée de la ville de Bruxelles, nl, Museum van de Stad Brussel) is a municipal museum on the Grand-Place/Grote Markt of Brussels, Belgium. Conceived in 1860 and inaugurated in 1887, it is dedicated to the hi ...

. He and his father's cotton factory is remembered on its former location in Haarlem as the "Wilsonplein", today the location of the city theatre. Wilson died in

Neuilly-sur-Seine Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...

. He was the grandfather of the Dutch sport shooter John Wilson.

References

* W.T. Kroese, 'Haarlem, textielstad in de 19e eeuw. Enkele nieuwe stukjes ter completering van de legpuzzel ter drie Haarlemse textielfabrieken', Textielhistorische Bijdragen 20 (1979), p. 53-92 1815 births 1883 deaths Businesspeople from Brussels Belgian art collectors People from Haarlem Dutch art collectors Belgian people of British descent Dutch people of British descent {{Netherlands-bio-stub