画家：威廉·西埃尔 William Shayer (1787-1879

作品：北威尔士的小渔村

种类：油画

尺寸：36cm×55cm 有签名

编号：OP230319PRMR13

威廉·西埃尔（1787-1879）是英国维多利亚时期的风景画家，人物画家。

威廉·西埃尔是一位自学成才的艺术家。他起初以绘制装饰画开始他的艺术生涯，但不久后便开始在画布上进行油画创作。西埃尔逐渐能够娴熟的描绘乡野场景，海景以及自然风景。 西埃尔大部分时间居住在位于南英格兰的南安普顿雪莉区，但他创作的地点主要位于汉普郡，尤其是汉普郡西南部一个名为新森林的林区。迈克尔·霍伊是一位南安普顿的富商，也是西埃尔最为热忱的赞助者之一，购买了大量西埃尔在此地区创作的作品。

西埃尔有时会和其他艺术家合作。他和爱德华·查尔斯·威廉的合作尤为成功。在二人的合作中，威廉负责描绘风景，而西埃尔则以人物和动物加以点缀。《街边的老旅馆》就是西埃尔和威廉合作的例子，而《伯克郡，旺蒂奇周边》是二人合作的又一幅作品。西埃尔还和威廉家族中的其他艺术家进行合作。

西埃尔漫长的一生中，婚配两任妻子，养育了十个儿女。他的长子小威廉·约瑟夫·西埃尔（1811-1892）也是一位画家。父子二人的绘画风格有异曲同工之妙，使人很容易把他们的作品弄混。在老西埃尔的晚年时期，他们俩还一起合作过几幅作品，这让辨认作品的工作变得更加困难。老西埃尔的三个小儿子：爱德华·达舍伍德·西埃尔（1821-1864），亨利·思林·西埃尔（1825-1894）和查尔斯·沃克·西埃尔（1826-1914）也都成为了画家，三人时常在父亲的工作室帮忙。1879年十二月二十一日，老西埃尔以92岁的高龄在南安普顿辞世。

威廉·西埃尔是一位杰出的风景画家，但最著名的还是他的人物画。他的作品在某些程度上容易让人想起乔治·莫兰（也是一个十分杰出的人物画家）。但西埃尔的作品饱含深度又兼具明亮的色彩，这在同时代的绘画作品中是很少见的。这是由于西埃尔在创作时使用了上光技法，即在干而不透明的颜料上均匀涂抹上一层薄而油亮透明的光亮媒介的创作技法，这种技法增加了画面的明亮度。

《北威尔士的小渔村》描述了渔民的日常生活，显示出西埃尔高明的人物画技巧，他对人和动物的描绘是本画的一大亮点。画中人物众多，却各个都有独特的肢体语言和神态，着笔不多但生动形象。渔民日常劳作的艰辛跃然纸上。前景中牵驴的妇人正与渔夫讨价还价；渔夫只画出半张脸，但从他身旁儿童满脸的不耐烦，可以想象得到这一场买卖的不容易。在他们身后，渔村中的房舍炊烟袅袅，正是午饭的时分。另一旁，靠岸的渔船还在卸货，渔民们正抬着捕获的鱼虾走过来。海洋、天空和山丘组成宏大的背景，在它们的环绕之下，渔村日常的劳作即辛劳又不乏田园乐趣。

西埃尔的作品数量很多，广泛收藏于英国众多美术馆中，诸如英国维多利亚和阿尔伯特博物馆，泰特美术馆，格拉斯哥艺术画廊和美国纽约的大都会博物馆陈列展出。并有六幅作品在英国皇家艺术学院展出，八十二幅作品在英国学会展出，三百三十八幅作品在英国艺术家协会所属的萨福克街画廊展出。同时，他的作品也在许多相对小众的维多利亚艺术场馆展出。

William Joseph Shayer, senior was a self-taught artist, who began by painting decorations on rush-bottom chairs. He moved on to painting carriages in the town of Guildford, after which he started doing heraldic painting. Ultimately, he began painting oil on canvas and became skilled at portraying woodland scenes with gypsies, people and animals in front of country inns and farm houses, and beach scenes crowded with boats and fishermen. He lived mainly in the south of England, in Shirley, Southampton, but painted throughout Hampshire and in a wooded district in the southwest part of Hampshire called the New Forest. Michael Hoy, a wealthy Southampton merchant, was one of his most enthusiastic patrons and bought many of Shayer's paintings of the area. He sometimes collaborated with other artists. Particularly successful were his collaborations with Edward Charles Williams, where Williams would paint the landscape and Shayer would add in people and animals. He also collaborated with other members of Williams' family, Shayer's second wife Elizabeth Waller said to somehow be related to Williams.[3] The Old Roadside Inn that is shown here is one example of a collaboration between Shayer and Williams, and Near Wantage, Berkshire is another.

Shayer was a competent landscape artist, but he is best known as a figure painter. His work is reminiscent in some respects to the paintings of George Morland, another very popular figure painter. Shayer's work though has a depth and brightness to it missing from the paintings of many of his contemporaries, due to his skillful application of glaze (i.e., spreading a thin, oily, transparent layer of paint over a dry opaque paint). He exhibited at the Royal Academy (6 works), the British Institution (82 works), and at the Suffolk Street Gallery of the Society of British Artists (338 works). He also exhibited in many of the lesser-known Victorian art venues as well. His works are on display at many museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Tate Gallery, the Glasgow Art Gallery, and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Shayer lived a long life, during which he had two wives and ten children. His eldest son, William Joseph Shayer, junior (1811-1892), was also a painter, and painted in a style very similar to his father. Their paintings are easily confused, which is made all the more difficult by the fact that they probably collaborated on several paintings in the elder Shayer's later years. Three of Shayer senior's younger sons – Edward Dasherwood Shayer (1821-1864), Henry Thring Shayer (1825-1894) and Charles Walker Shayer (1826-1914) – became painters at well, and all assisted him at times in his studio. William Shayer, senior died at the age of 92 on 21 December 1879 at his home at Bladon Lodge near Southampton