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December 31st, 2021 
Awake Goy 
From National Galleries of Scotland:
Born near Cullen in Banffshire, Wilson went to London to study at the Royal Academy and then to the Slade School of Fine Art. There he formed a friendship with the portrait painter J. B. Yeats, with whom he formed an informal artistic group called ‘The Brotherhood’. Members included Edwin Ellis, John Nettleship and Sidney Hall, and they were influenced by the work of William Blake. Wilson was an accomplished draughtsman, and was interested in the patterns produced in nature by foliage. His landscapes were often very detailed, but rarely contained figures. Although this gave them a somewhat lonely feeling, they were personal artistic statements and not intended for public consumption. He died aged just forty-one years old.
From The Lost Pre-Raphaelite:
The Victorian Scottish artist, George Wilson, died in 1890 at the early age of 41, just at the time when he was, inevitably, approaching the height of his artistic career. He was a strict adherent to the original Pre-Raphaelite ethos and principles long after these had been abandoned by most ‘followers’ for more commercial interests. Frequently described as a ‘born painter’, George Wilson was a true ‘artist’s artist’ who painted purely because he loved to paint – almost entirely from nature, which he loved equally with the romantic poets and the classics. He interpreted the works of the latter in a small number of surviving allegorical oil paintings; but undoubtedly his greatest love was to paint, quite exquisitely in watercolour, the woodland landscapes of his beloved native Scotland and northern Italy. He thus led a somewhat nomadic life, coming and going as the mood took him. He shunned all publicity; he exhibited and sold his work only very infrequently, and he never, ever, considered signing his work.
I have to wonder whether “Snow Scene” is misattributed, because the style of this oil painting is so very different from Wilson’s other pieces. I wish I could find more for you to view, but it appears much of his work has been lost to time, or at least not on the internet.
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