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George Augustus Wallis

Also known as: George Augustus Wallis; primary name: Wallis, George Augustus
Details: individual; painter/draughtsman; British; Male
Life dates: 1761-1847
Biography: Neo-classical landscape painter. To Italy 1788, and got to know many of the German artists there. In late 1790s gained reputation as a 'democrat' and sympathiser of the French. Ostracised on his return to London in 1806, and spent rest of his life on the Continent: 1807-10 in Spain (as a dealer), 1810-18 in Germany (mostly Heidelberg), and from 1818 settled in Florence where he died. One of his daughters married Gottlieb Schick. In 2020 Samuel Gedge (cat. XXIX) had two volumes of counterproofs of landscape studies drawn in the Abruzzo region of Italy on a tour of 1795 (over 100, large folio, 41.5 x 55.5 cm), with the bookplate of Sir John STuart Hepburn Forbes, 8th baronet, of Pitsligo, indicating they were probably originally owned by Sir William Forbes, 6th Baronet (1739-1806) who toured Italy with his wife from 1792 and was an amateur artist himself.
Bibliography: Ingamells Colin J Bailey, 'The English Poussin... G A Wallis', in Annual Report and Bulletin of the Walker AG, Liverpool, 1975-6, pp. 35-54 Monika von Wild, 'GAW Englischer Landschaftsmaler', Frankfurt 1996 (catalogue)