William Wilson: Print | Paint | Glass

William Wilson was a maestro across the mediums of printmaking, watercolour and stained glass design. To celebrate fifty years since his death, this exhibition is the first to survey Wilson’s diverse practice in nearly thirty years. Works drawn from our collections are complemented by loans from artists’ estates.

Born in Edinburgh, William Wilson OBE RSA  (1905-72), Willie to his friends, followed in the footsteps of the stars of the Scottish printmaking revival. The 'edge to edge' style of his etchings, and their expressive power, established him as a prime talent. His visionary prints are as awe-inspiring today as when they were first made.

In 2017 the RSA was gifted eighteen copper plates for some of Wilson’s most significant prints. To celebrate this gift, we commissioned Academicians Stuart Duffin and Leena Nammari to create contemporary prints from the plates. These late impressions are of course distinct from Wilson’s originals, but since many plates from the significant period of Scottish 20th-century printmaking have not survived, these examples will serve as a valuable and striking record of the irreplaceable plates in our collections. The exhibition presents plates and prints together, along with originals by Wilson and studies which inspired them.

In the 1930s, Wilson began to move from print to paint. Exhibiting his first watercolour at the RSA in 1936, he was elected an Associate in 1939, becoming a full Academician in 1949. Wilson was adept with the free and loose approach that transformed the Scottish watercolour scene of the time. He exhibited 133 works at the RSA Annual Exhibition, many of them watercolours, and the exhibition features examples from across this period.

Looking at Wilson’s prints, his acute sense of observation is obvious, making the tragedy of his ultimate blindness more poignant.

He was known for his speed; in walking round unfamiliar places to get his bearings and select his subjects, and in his art making. He is recorded as making 140 prints from 1925 to around 1946.
In 1935 Wilson enrolled at the Royal College of Art in London. He studied engraving under Robert Austin in his first year and wood engraving and lino cutting the following year. Engraving and etching were to remain his preferred printmaking techniques.

The plates executed by Wilson of British subject matter are a natural progression from his European prints, and inevitably the two overlap chronologically and stylistically. His Spanish plates included several larger than those of his contemporaries and he was to continue this in his series of Scottish Highland landscapes where etching and drypoint combine. Most of his plates feature figures; sometimes hard to spot, other times involved in everyday life, or other hints at human presence in the wider landscape.

William Wilson’s early prints show an awareness of the traditions of western art and a precocious technical mastery. His extensive travels saw him seek out subjects to sketch, but also visit art galleries. Wilson’s earliest efforts saw him turn to the centuries-old technique of line engraving on a copper printing plate.

Engraving is ruthless and unforgiving, mistakes are not easily disguised. The artist requires a good eye, a steady hand, and confidence. Skills which Wilson had mastered in handling and cutting glass at Ballantine’s transferred favourably to engraving. Some preparatory drawings from Wilson’s early travels survive. These are as crisp as the finished print. There is little evidence of squaring up or reversing his drawings.

Adam Bruce Thomson RSA encouraged and nurtured Wilson; firstly, when a 15-year old part-time evening class student at Edinburgh College of Art and subsequently as a fully-enrolled student there. As his confidence grew Wilson turned to etching. Here it is the control and manipulation of acid biting into the copper plate that becomes the skill.

Wilson moved easily between media and was not afraid to introduce etching into his engravings, or vice versa.

The exhibition features a selection of watercolours from those Wilson first displayed at the RSA in 1936 to the last in 1960, before his sight deteriorated to the extent he could no longer paint. The Parisian scenes were shown at the RSA in his last decade of exhibiting. Like much of his etching practice, it was to buildings and man-made landscapes that Wilson was attracted.

The inspiration for Wilson’s watercolours, like his etchings, came from extensive travel. He toured across Italy, France and Spain, following in the footsteps of artist friends and heroes, and forging new paths to inspire others after him.

Wilson’s watercolours brought expression in colour and a keenly observed painterliness into the places he travelled to and discovered through his life. They have an instinctive nature and flourish strikingly from his practice in print and glass.

William Wilson was instrumental to the stained glass revival and a star of its Scottish contingent. He began his training at James Ballantine and Son in 1920 and would hone his techniques under the training of Herbert Hendrie at Edinburgh College of Art. In 1937 he opened his own stained glass studio at 53 Frederick Street, Edinburgh. After interruption from the war, his business took off when he moved into a larger studio at 11a Belford Mews in 1949. The studio had previously belonged to the sculptor Phyllis Bone RSA.

On opening his new studio, Wilson hired a group of assistants, including Carrick Whalen and John Blyth, who helped create the windows. It was Blyth and Whalen who would continue to translate Wilson’s ideas after he lost his sight in the early 1960s. They were so attuned to his vision that the studio was able to continue for a decade after this sad event. In the thirty years that Wilson’s studio was in operation, it created an astounding 300 plus windows for clients around the world.
Wilson’s painterly training brought a fluid, balanced design and brilliance of colour to his windows, while his skill as a draughtsman delivered a unique linear strength. German Expressionism was a particular influence on his original drawing style. The drawings on display here give an insight into Wilson’s process, from the small initial sketches to the life-size cartoons, and the progression from line to the application of colour.

Wilson’s spatial and technical expertise, together with his knowledge of scripture, meant that nobody was better placed to realise the many commissions he received for windows in religious settings. He also derived pleasure from the smaller domestic windows he created. It was in these designs that his sense of humour and unique figuration shone through. He made a series in 1940, which included the war- themed window here, and possibly the small Irish Jig. His stained-glass designs later took pride of place in an exhibition in the RSA’s Diploma Galleries in 1963.

Whatever the location of Wilson’s windows, their suitability to place and atmosphere never wavers. We are fortunate that so many are accessible in buildings and collections around Scotland, so that we too can appreciate his visions in glass.

Click to view a full list of Wilson's stained glass windows