William Dexter (1818–1860) was an English-Australian painter. Dexter was born at

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, and became an apprentice at the Derby China factory painting flowers and birds in the Chinese and Japanese styles. Dexter then studied at Paris, and returning to England, married Caroline née Harper at Nottingham in 1843. Dexter had a picture in the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

exhibition in 1851 and another in 1852. Dexter then sailed to Australia and arrived at Sydney on 8 October 1852. Dexter was at

Bendigo Bendigo ( ) is a city in Victoria, Australia, located in the Bendigo Valley near the geographical centre of the state and approximately north-west of Melbourne, the state capital. As of 2019, Bendigo had an urban population of 100,991, makin ...

in August 1853, where

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heard him advocating republican doctrines at a meeting of diggers. His wife came out from England at the end of 1854, and in March 1855 they together opened a gallery of arts and school of design in

Bathurst Street, Sydney Bathurst Street is a street in the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia. Bathurst Street runs for in a west–east direction with traffic flowing in this direction only. It is situated in the southern portion of the ce ...

. This apparently was not a success for they went to live at

Stratford, Victoria Stratford is a town on the Avon River in Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne on the Princes Highway in Shire of Wellington. At the , Stratford had a population of 2617. The town services the local regional community and travellers on the Pr ...

, in 1856, and there made the acquaintance of

Angus McMillan Angus McMillan (14 August 1810 – 18 May 1865) was a Scottish-born explorer, pioneer pastoralist, and perpetrator of several of the Gippsland massacres of Gunai people. Arriving first in New South Wales in 1838, McMillan rose swiftly in Au ...

. In 1857 Dexter exhibited six oils and three watercolours at the first Victorian Society of Fine Arts exhibition, held in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. Soon afterwards he returned to Sydney as the Dexters had separated. He became a partner in a sign-writing business, dying there in 1860. A book about William and Caroline, ''Folie A Deux: William and Caroline Dexter in Colonial Australia'', was written by Patrick Morgan in 1999.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dexter, William 1818 births 1860 deaths 19th-century Australian artists