Shipbuilder and art collector.
National Gallery Trustee (1835–1847).
William Wells
1768 - 1847
This person is the subject of ongoing research. We have started by researching their relationship to the enslavement of people.
Biographical notes
Slavery connections
William Wells was a ship’s captain for the East India Company. His brother John Wells (UCL Department of History, ‘John Wells’, in UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership [online], London 2020, <https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/44476> accessed 2 August 2021), a politician and banker, claimed for compensation as a partner in the London bankers Whitmore, Wells and Whitmore.
Abolition connections
John Wells spoke against slavery: ‘On 17 Mar. 1826], when he commented that slavery was inimical to the liberty of the subject and ought to be abolished’. (Stephen Farrell, ‘WELLS, John (1761-1848), of 24 Lombard Street, London and Bickley Hall, Bromley, Kent’, in History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History [online], London, 1964 -, 1820-1832, <https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1820-1832/member/wells-john-1761-1848> accessed 2 August 2021.) However, this stance does not fit with his claim for compensation as a partner in Whitmore, Wells, and Whitmore; the co-existence of anti-slavery sentiments and claims for compensation simply illustrate the complexity of Britain’s relationship to slavery in the early nineteenth century.
National Gallery painting connections
Donor: bequeathed in 1847: NG214.
Former owner: the following works formerly in Wells' collection are now in the National Gallery: NG775, NG796, NG946, NG1000, NG1689, NG2533 and NG2542.
Bibliography
History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/
Checked and not found
— Item on publisher's website
D. S. Macleod, 'Wells, William', in J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T091110
Checked and found
— Item on publisher's website
D. S. Macleod, 'Wells, William', in C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/62873
Checked and found
— Item on publisher's website
UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership, London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
Checked and not found
— Item on publisher's website
Paintings previously owned by William Wells
(Showing 6 of 8 works)
A bearded man gazes out intently from this painting. We don't know who the sitter is, but the cut of his beard and the fashion of his hat and clothes suggest a date towards 1530. The fact that both his doublet and gown are lined with fur probably indicates that the portrait was painted during the...
Not on display
In this tender little scene, Adriaen van Ostade shows an elderly peasant with his hand on that of a woman about his age. He leans towards her, his other hand holding a tall, full beer glass – perhaps denoting his desire for her. Her hand is on a long unbroken clay pipe – in Dutch art of the time...
Not on display
This undulating countryside of ancient sand dunes, found around Haarlem, forms the background to the vast majority of paintings by local artist Jan Wijnants. But while he captured the spirit and atmosphere of these sand hills, he also – like most painters of the time – exaggerated for effect. The...
Not on display
Ludolf Bakhuizen rarely made his seas calm or sunlit. His is a northern sea with boats scudding before the wind, evoking the sound of straining timbers and slapping rigging.The vessel speeding towards the distant man-of-war (battleship) is a snaauwschip – a dispatch boat. The man-of-war is at anc...
Not on display
An elderly couple stare past each other – and us – in this astonishing study of old age. Although prosperously dressed, the pair seem disappointed: their mouths are turned resolutely down, their eyes dull and their jowls sagging. Although they overlap, each figure makes a self-contained triangle;...
This is no shy, hide-in-a-corner painting. It’s meant to dazzle and it does. It would have taken a long time to identify each flower and this is part of the picture’s purpose. Van Huysum is after, and achieves, excess: a celebration of nature, an entertaining puzzle and a display of wealth, cultu...
Not on display
The optical illusion created by this painting is a powerful one. Rembrandt has used contrasts between light and dark – for example, the blacks and whites of the sitter’s clothes, the highlights on her nose and the heavy shadow under her chin – to create a highly convincing three-dimensional effec...
Paintings of the coronation of the Virgin Mary typically show her being crowned by Christ and God the Father, often accompanied by the Holy Ghost in the form of a dove. This work, however, mixes elements of the coronation with those of Mary’s assumption (when angels carried her body and soul to h...
You've viewed 6 of 8 paintings