Oscar Wilson Biography

Oscar Wilson (1863-1930) was a hugely successful and popular English genre and portrait artist, who also worked extensively as an illustrator and joke cartoonist.

He was born in Hackney, London in 1867 and trained at the South Kensington School of art and later at the Antwerp Academy. He married a young Belgian woman and they had one son. Wilson seems to have divided his time between living in Belgium and London, but also travelled to Africa to work.

Wilson was a prolific illustrator of books and drew for all the principal magazines and newspapers of his day. He also illustrated postcards and promotional publications for the Great Eastern Railway Company. His work was regularly exhibited at all the major British galleries, including the Royal Academy. He was well respected by his peers and well received by the critics and public. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1926.

Wilson’s works were often clever, acutely observed, and often displayed an admiration for the frivolous femininity of the modern women of his time.