Willson Group


The Willson Group of artists was an English Quaker family of about seven landscape, portrait and caricature painters. Members included John Joseph Willson, his sister Hannah Willson, his wife Emilie Dorothy Hilliard, and their four children, Michael Anthony Hilliard Willson, twins Margaret Willson and E. Dorothy Willson, and Mary Hilliard Willson.
John Joseph, known as J.J. Willson, was senior partner in the firm of Willson, Walker & Co. which owned the Sheepscar tannery, at one time the largest in the country. He was instrumental to the movement for the foundation of Leeds Art Gallery, working on a committee alongside John Atkinson Grimshaw and others, and he was a vice president of the Yorkshire Union of Artists when John William Waterhouse was president.
J.J., Margaret and Dorothy exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition; on five occasions in Margaret's case. Michael and Mary achieved commissions including caricatures of prominent Leeds public figures such as Sir James Kitson and John Barran MP, and portraits in oils of Isaac and Ann Rickett and George Corson. The children and sister of J.J. never married.

Group setup and background

Family origins

The Willson family owned High Wray House, at High Wray, Claife, Ambleside, now a listed building. It was built in 1728 by Anthony Wilson and his wife Dorothy. In the early 1840s the family funded a schoolhouse in the grounds of High Wray House; the original schoolhouse was demolished, and the replacement school building later became High Wray Village Hall.

Willson, Walker & Co.

The Willson Group consisted of a set of close relatives whose work was funded by their family firm Willson, Walker & Co. in Leeds, due to the financial success of John Willson Senior, JP, who lived at Old Hall, Barwick-in-Elmet and Roundhay, Leeds, in 1861, and 1 West Hill, Potternewton, Headingley in 1871. His wife was Margaret. John Wilson was mayor of Leeds between 9 November 1853 and 9 November 1854.
John Senior established the family tannery business of Willson, Walker & Co. Ltd. in 1823; it moved to Sheepscar Street, Sheepscar, in 1847. The firm manufactured Spanish leather and leather glue, and made leather artefacts too, for example a leather dressing case, possibly made for the Great Exhibition of 1851. By 1893 it had become the largest tannery in the country. It collapsed in 1901, however it is reasonable to suppose that it was the income from J.J. Willson's senior directorship of this firm which permitted his family's dedication to art until around 1900. The factory was purchased in 1904 by Charles F. Stead & Co., a company which as of 2019 still produced leather goods there.

Studio locations

All members of this group worked from home. The Willson Group consisted of J.J. Willson's household: himself, his wife, his son and three daughters, and J.J.'s unmarried sister Hannah. They lived together in various locations in the Leeds area. From to 1871 they were living in Newton Grove, Chapeltown Road, Headingley, Potternewton. From at least 1888 to 1891 they lived with a number of servants at 2 Moorland Terrace, off Reservoir Road in the Lawnswood area of Leeds. From at least 1897 to 1902 the family were at a house called Ballamona, Otley Road, Headingley, Leeds; it was rented from architect George Corson. By 1906 until at least 1911 the four children, still unmarried, were living at 5 Moorland Road, Leeds with their aunt Hannah Willson.

Hannah Willson

Hannah Willson was an artist, "living on her own means," from "income from dividends." She was the unmarried sister of J.J. and the aunt of Michael, Margaret, Emilie and Mary Willson. She lived in the hamlet of High Wray, Claife, Cumberland until some time before 1890, when she moved to Leeds to live with her brother's family. Hannah died aged 89 years on 7 July 1918 at the Victoria Home, Kirkstall Lane, Leeds, of chronic nephritis.

Exhibitions

John Joseph Willson, known as J.J., was the only son of John Willson Senior. Like his father he was a Quaker. He inherited his father's leather business, becoming its senior partner. He was also an amateur artist, "quite a brilliant painter in watercolours," specialising in sporting and landscape subjects. Artists Edwin Moore and Richard Waller gave him some lessons, but he was mainly self-taught. He exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts and the Walker Art Gallery, and in 1896 he became a vice-president of the Yorkshire Union of Artists, with John William Waterhouse R.A. as president. He was "one of the judges selected for adjudication of prizes at the Leeds School of Art, as well as that at York." He also donated prizes for art to the Yorkshire Union of Mechancs' Institutes in 1889. He was a longstanding member of Leeds Philosophical Society council, and one of the governors of Yorkshire College. Although he declined public work during his final six years, he "painted up to the last." Ultimately the family firm failed, J.J. fell ill with dropsy and "graver symptoms," and died at his sister's house at High Wray, Ambleside on 15 November 1903, aged 67 years. The cause of death was recorded as fibroid degeneration of the heart, and dropsy. The gross value of his estate was £6,240, and his Will was proved at Wakefield on 31 December 1903.

Leeds Fine Art Society Executive Committee

John Joseph was the "originator of the modern picture exhibitions in ." He was one of the founding members, and for 27 years the president, of the Leeds Fine Art Society, and honorary secretary of the Yorkshire Fine Art Exhibition. Following his death his activity in the LAFS, and Executive Committee in particular, was highlighted by the Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer:
As president of the Leeds Fine Arts Club, John Joseph Willson's artistic and social qualities were seen to the fullest advantage. It is a small society which makes no pretense to an artistic mission, but does something for the mutual encouragement of its members not only to practise, but still more to appreciate, art. How much it owes to its first and only president it will realise... he was, by the example of his work and by his cheery enthusiasm, the life and soul of the little body.

The LFAS was an organisation which in 1876 formed an Executive Committee, including Hon. Sec. J.J. Willson, dedicated to raising funds for, and founding, the building of a permanent public fine art gallery. Although the committee members changed over time, and the building and funding process was ultimately taken over by Leeds Town Hall, it can be said that the original committee initiated the movement to found the gallery, and arranged much of the early funding by subscription. Several of the original committee members, including J.J. Willson, took part in the process to the last. The committee first met at the Mechanics' Institute. The original committee membership included the Marquis of Ripon as president, Rev. John Gott John Atkinson Grimshaw, several Leeds aldermen from Leeds Town Hall, and architect William Henry Thorp who would ultimately design its planned Municipal Art Gallery in 1886–1888.
By 1879 J.W. Davis was Hon. Sec. and the committee was meeting at the Mayor's rooms in Leeds Town Hall. The committee, which had always included Town Hall representatives, had grown to include more town councillors, J.J. Willson, and various artists. At this point the committee had estimated the final cost at £10,000, had raised £2,000 by subscription; of the remainder one third was "guaranteed in Leeds," and the rest "guaranteed at Huddersfield and Halifax." By 1880, one of the secretaries of the committee, J.W. Davis, was saying, "We may hope that our success... may ultimately ultimately encourage the authorities of the town to take the matter in hand, and add another institution of beneficence and culture to those already existing in Leeds, in the shape of a permanent and public fine art gallery." By 1888, Leeds Town Hall had indeed taken the matter in hand, taken much of the credit for the idea, and arranged funds to complete the cost of building, and for maintenance of the gallery. The Marquis of Ripon and Thorp, who were on the original committee, were present at the opening of the gallery in 1888.
Meanwhile, from 1880 the YFAE held a five-year lease for exhibitions in the Athenaeum Building, Park Lane, Leeds. J.J. contributed works to the YFAE's first Spring Exhibition in 1880, alongside work by Thomas Sidney Cooper, John Atkinson Grimshaw, Edwin Landseer, Lawrence Alma-Tadema, William Calder Marshall, and others. J.J. used his position to promote the idea of a new "good gallery" for Leeds. He said that, "ever since he had been able to distinguish between a tea tray and an all-right picture, he had been desirous of seeing his native town in possession of a good gallery" for the display of the Committee's existing collection, and for the promotion and sale of the work of local artists, because "artists must live."

Amateur dramatics

At one time, John Joseph was involved with amateur dramatics. For example, on 27 and 28 February 1889, in support of a charity, he took part in The Parvenu by G.W. Godfrey, and Chalk and Cheese by Eille Norwood at the Assembly Rooms in Briggate, Leeds. Of his part in The Parvenu, the York Herald said, "Mr J.J. Willson gave a capital rendering of the part of the impecunious baronet Sir Fulke Pettigrew, acting with care and discretion." J.J. "was capital as Marmaduke Vavasour" in New Men and Old Acres in a charity performance with a Leeds amateur troupe at the Albert Hall, Cookridge Street, Leeds, on Friday 12 December 1890.