William Benjamin Sarsfield Taylor (1781–1850) was an Irish artist, a painter of landscapes and military subjects, known also as a writer.

Life

He was the son of John Taylor, a map-engraver in Dublin; through his mother he was descended from

Patrick Sarsfield Patrick Sarsfield, 1st Earl of Lucan, ga, Pádraig Sáirseál, circa 1655 to 21 August 1693, was an Irish soldier, and leading figure in the Jacobite army during the 1689 to 1691 Williamite War in Ireland. Born into a wealthy Catholic famil ...

. John Sydney Taylor was his younger brother. He began life in the army commissariat, and served in the

Peninsular War The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...

, being present at the

siege of San Sebastián In the siege of San Sebastián (7 July – 8 September 1813), part of the Peninsular War, Allied forces under the command of Arthur Wellesley, Marquess of Wellington failed to capture the city in a siege. However in a second siege the Alli ...

. Leaving military service, he devoted himself to art, though with little success. He exhibited landscapes, sea-pieces, and military subjects at the Royal Academy and the British Institution between 1820 and 1847. In 1831 he was a founding member and the first Hon Secretary of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours. He later became better known as an art critic and writer. Towards the close of his life he was curator of the St. Martin's Lane academy. He died on 23 December 1850.

Works

Taylor's best-known book was his ''History of Dublin University'' (1845) illustrated with coloured plates and with engravings. It contains biographical notices of many of the alumni of Trinity College, Dublin. He published also ''The Origin, Progress, and present Conditions of the Fine Arts in Great Britain and Ireland'' (1841) and ''A Manual of Fresco and

Encaustic Painting Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, is a form of painting that involves a heated wax medium to which colored pigments have been added. The molten mix is applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other mate ...

'' (1843). He translated

Prosper Mérimée Prosper Mérimée (; 28 September 1803 – 23 September 1870) was a French writer in the movement of Romanticism, and one of the pioneers of the novella, a short novel or long short story. He was also a noted archaeologist and historian, and a ...

's ''Art of Painting in Oil and Fresco'' (1839), and made an abridged translation of the ''Origin and Progress of the Penitentiary System in the United States'' (1833), from the report of Gustave de Beaumont and

Alexis de Tocqueville Alexis Charles Henri Clérel, comte de Tocqueville (; 29 July 180516 April 1859), colloquially known as Tocqueville (), was a French aristocrat, diplomat, political scientist, political philosopher and historian. He is best known for his wor ...

References

* ;Attribution

External links

Biography from ''A Dictionary of Irish Artists'' (1913).
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, William Benjamin Sarsfield 1781 births 1850 deaths Irish artists Irish writers