William Tate (1747 – 2 June 1806) was an English portrait painter who was a student of Joseph Wright of Derby.

Life

Tate was born in 1747 at Gawber Hall, near Barnsley, where his father was a glass maker and was christened on 14 November in

Darton Darton is a large village in the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley (part of South Yorkshire), on the border with West Yorkshire, England. At the time of the 2001 UK census, it had a population of 14,927, increasing to 21,345 for both Darton War ...

near Barnsley He was educated at

Woolton Woolton (; ) is an affluent suburb of Liverpool, England. It is located southeast of the city and is bordered by Allerton, Gateacre, Halewood, and Hunt's Cross. At the 2011 Census, the population was 12,921. Overview Originally a standalone ...

near

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

where his brother Richard Tate lived and had Joseph Wright of Derby as his lodger in 1769. Richard was an amateur painter and was well connected. William Tate then became Wright's student. Girl and Boy with a Bladder by William Tate

Girl and Boy with a Bladder by William Tate

It was with Joseph Wright in 1772 that William Tate first exhibited at the Society of Artists in London where he became a fellow. Over the next twenty years Tate exhibited in Manchester (1773), Liverpool (1774–1787) and London (1778–1787) at the Royal Academy of Art. Both Tate and Joseph Wright quarrelled with the Academy of Art which cannot have assisted Tate's career. In LIverpool however he enjoyed good support and in 1784 his work was exhibited in Liverpool with the same prominence as Joshua Reynolds.Deborah Graham-Vernon, ‘Tate, William (1748–1806)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 200
accessed 11 Jan 2014
/ref> In 1787 William Tate moved to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

where he enjoyed a number of good commissions for portraits. Daniel Daulby had himself and both of his wives painted by Tate. He moved south to Bath in 1804 where he died in 1806. The

Walker Art Gallery The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England outside London. It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group. History of the Gallery The Walker Art Gallery's collection ...

has a number of William Tate's portraits of notable men and women of the day including Daniel Daulby, and the sister of

William Roscoe William Roscoe (8 March 175330 June 1831) was an English banker, lawyer, and briefly a Member of Parliament. He is best known as one of England's first abolitionists, and as the author of the poem for children ''The Butterfly's Ball, and the G ...

. There are also paintings of his nephew Thomas Moss Tate and his niece Elizabeth Williamson, wife of Joseph Williamson.Polehampton Hugh, Glass, Coal and a Square Piano: The Thorp family of Gawber Hall' in ''Moving Lives - Stories of Barnsley Families.'' There are twelve paintings in national collections in the UK including a portrait of Joseph Wright and ''Girl and Boy with a Bladder'' at Derby Museum and Art Gallery which also hosts the country's main collection of Joseph Wright paintings.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tate, William 18th-century English painters English male painters 19th-century English painters People from Barnsley English portrait painters 1747 births 1806 deaths 19th-century English male artists 18th-century English male artists