Sir William Fettes Douglas was a Scottish painter. He was born in 1822 at Edinburgh and died in 1891. He was educated at Edinburgh High School and spent ten years in a bank before finally deciding in 1847 upon becoming an artist. In 1851 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy, and three years later a full member. In 1877 he became Curator of the National Gallery of Scotland, resigning the post in 1882 on his election as president of the Royal Scottish Academy. Among the finest of his early pictures are The Ruby Ring (1853); The Alchemist (1855); Hudibras and Ralph visiting the Astrologer (1856); and the Rosicrucians (1856), many of these showing much of the Pre-Raphaelite spirit, with abundance of detail. After 1870 he devoted himself rather to landscape, and his Stonehaven Harbour and A Fishing Village (1874-1875) are perhaps his masterpieces. He was knighted in 1882. Research William Douglas
Sir William Fettes was a Scottish man who left a large sum of money for the education of orphans and other unfortunate children. He was born in 1750 and died in 1836. Research William Fettes
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