William Henry Pyne (1769 - 1843)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

English illustrator, painter and writer, who also wrote under the pseudonym of Ephraim Hardcastle. He trained at the drawing academy of Henry Pars in London. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1790. Pyne was one of the founders of the Royal Watercolour Society in 1804.

His book The Costume of Great Britain (1805), including 60 paintings of professional and working-class men and women and scenes from everyday life attracted the attention of the publisher Rudolph Ackermann, and Pyne was to engrave and write for many of his projects, including writing the text for the first two volumes The Microcosm of London.

As Ephraim Hardcastle, he wrote gossipy columns on art for the Literary Gazette, which in 1824 were collected in 2 volumes as Wine and Walnuts, or After-dinner Chit-chat. He wrote for other journals, and in 1825 published a novel The Twenty-ninth of May, or Rare Doings at the Restoration.

His son, George Pyne (1800-1884), was also a painter in watercolour, writer on drawing and perspective.

Profile

Born: 1769 in London

Died: 29 May 1843

Nationality: British

Gender: Male

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