William Small (1843 - 1929)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Scottish painter and illustrator. Trained at the Royal Scottish Academy and moved to London in 1865, where he quickly established himself as a versatile painter and illustrator. In his paintings he was mainly concerned with rustic themes, and some of his later work embodies a journalistic representation of the sufferings of the poor, painted in the social realist style of Herkomer and Bastien-Lepage. He is principally known as a book illustrator.