William Fuller Maitland (1813–1876) was an English picture collector.
Life
Born 10 March 1813 in
Mayfair, he was the second, but eldest surviving, son and heir of
Ebenezer Fuller Maitland
Ebenezer Fuller Maitland FRS (23 April 1780 – 1 November 1858) was an English landowner and politician.
Origins
Maitland was the only son of Ebenezer Maitland (1752-1834), a London businessman and Bank of England director, and his wife Mary, d ...
of
Stansted
London Stansted Airport is a tertiary international airport serving London, England, United Kingdom. It is located near Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex, England, northeast of Central London.
London Stansted serves over 160 destinations acro ...
, Essex and
Shinfield Park in
Berkshire, later of
Park Place, also in Berkshire. He grew up at all three, as well as in
Marylebone
Marylebone (usually , also , ) is a district in the West End of London, in the City of Westminster. Oxford Street, Europe's busiest shopping street, forms its southern boundary.
An ancient parish and latterly a metropolitan borough, it me ...
. He was educated by private tutors until he went to
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...
, graduating B.A. in 1835, and M.A. in 1839.
During journeys to Italy Maitland encountered the works of early Italian masters. Their paintings formed the basis of a major part of his collection, anticipating later interest in
Sandro Botticelli
Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...
and others. English landscape painting was also largely represented. From the time of his first marriage in 1842 until his death, he lived at
Stansted Hall.
Maitland died suddenly at
Stansted Hall,
Essex
Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...
on 15 February 1876, and was buried in the parish on 19 February.
Legacy
Maitland contributed to the Old Masters' Exhibitions of the
Royal Academy, lending pictures over many years. After his death the bulk of his collection was exhibited at the
South Kensington Museum; and subsequently nine of the major pictures were sold to the
National Gallery, London.
Family
Fuller in 1842 married Lydia, only daughter of Lieutenant-colonel Serjentson Prescott, in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...
. They had four children. By his second wife, Charlotte Elizabeth Dick, daughter of James Munro Macnabb, whom he married in 1852, he had an only daughter.
Notes
Attribution
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maitland, William Fuller
1813 births
1876 deaths
English art collectors
People from Stansted Mountfitchet
People from Shinfield
People from Remenham
People from Marylebone
William
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...