Richard Waller - painter

[Piltdown_man]

I have been doing some research on my great granduncle; Richard Waller (1811-1882) who was a painter and inventor, I have done a fair bit of research but there are some things that I am not having much luck with or have hit a brick wall with.

He was born in Skipton in 1811, after his apprenticeship in the 1830s as a coach painter went to train as an artist in Manchester then spent some years in London where he had a studio.  In 1864 he was one of seven painters who painted a portrait of General Giuseppe Garibaldi when he visited the country; from his obituary it states "Mr Waller had the honour to be in the generals company during the whole of his stay"...Garibaldi even forwarded his robes to him and said when it was completed "it was more to his taste than the others painted during his stay."  This appears to have been bought by a Mr McAlmont of the York Exhibition at the time

There are many paintings completed by him and although I can never hope to produce a definitive list of his work I have managed to make a list from "Googling" his name, some help from the National Portrait Gallery and his obituary

He died in Holbeck in 1882.

If anyone can give me any help in finding out any information on him, his work or know where any of his paintings may be then this would be of enormous help 

[david64]

There seems to be quite a few mentions of him in here:

http://newspapers.bl.uk/blcs/

Including a large obit. Not sure if that is the same as the one you have.

[Piltdown_man]

Thanks very much for that but I found the articles there.  The regular census information from 1841-1881 I have got as well as much as I can from typing his information into the search engines.  I am sure my hunt online has come to an end but I have no idea what the National Archives would hold.  I have been to Yorkshire to hunt information down but as I have found out...Yorkshire records seem to be at different record offices; not very helpful.

I would like to know if a memorial exists anywhere; he died in Holbeck so I am assuming he was buried there; no wife or children survived him; his brother (my gt grandfather) and his family seem to be the only relations that exist.  I am the first to "rediscover" him since then.  But he is not even known in Skipton where he was born, looking at the obituary that is hard to believe considering the work he did and the paintings he left behind.

Its quite sad that no-one knows of him today; all his patents and paintings were sold off on his death.

Maybe someone out there knows something but its finding the people that may know it that is the problem

[david64]

I would like to know if a memorial exists anywhere

Have you tried contacting the local family history society? They often have surveys of graveyards that may help.

There is also at least one hit for him in here:

http://www.galeuk.com/jisc19century/

Not sure if those are included in the DB. Nothing too interesting though.

On another note there are quite a lot of Wallers in the: http://www.oxforddnb.com/

[Piltdown_man]

Thanks for those links, tried the Biography site, no luck there.  The other one just told me about subscriptions for institutions so not a lot of help.  Will see if there is a family history site for Holbeck.  I did travel to Skipton last year to try and find out more but got very little.

Seems the best source has been the obituary, which I found after I returned from Skipton...typical!  That has helped as it has the most information on it, but I think Ihave to be cautious about what I decide to use from it, he seems to have that his family owned a lot of land around Skipton castle and it was lost in the civil war; I am a bit dubious about this.

[david64]

If they owned land, you may find some info possibly in Burke's Landed Gentry, which I believe is seracable on their site & accessible for a fee. However, it there may be a few generations gap. There are a few Wallers in there.

You could also try manorial records:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/mdr/searches/advancedsearch.asp

They have an index for Yorks.

Another place to try is the relevant local town/city council archives. I was lucky enough to find documents naming ancestors five generations back for my 4x at the local town council archives

[dobfarm]

Richard Waller Burial 21 st June 1882 Holbeck Cemetery age 70
Grave number 9837 in the Consecrated Ground
(No Details if he had a Grave headstone or Epitaph Mi)

Address of Abode 1882 was Port st in Holbeck Leeds.
Occupation detail - Artist

[ketts1]

Hello
Have you seen the obituary " A Yorkshire Artist's Career" which filled two full columns of the Leeds Mercury in 1882. It lists many of his paintings and describes his life in detail. I have been researching a portrait done by Richard Waller in 1877 of my gg-grandfather, William Kettlewell who was a friend of Waller, which was displayed in Leeds Town Hall, and was on the inventory there in 1905. It has since disappeared, but I believe it is in the storeroom under the Art Gallery, described as "Portrait of a Bearded Man" - the curator showed it to me last year, but  the frame is now missing. It has a huge family resemblence, but unfortunately there are no markings on it which identify the sitter or artist. There are two other portraits in the Leeds collection by Waller, those of mayors Kelsall (brother-in-law of William Kettlewell ) and Marsden. In the 1976 catalogue of the Leeds Art Galleries, it states that there is a 50.8"x38.6" self-portrait of Richard Waller, donated by Capt F Somers in 1930 - I do not know if it is still there.
Best regards
Paul Kettlewell

[Piltdown_man]

I have the obituary and have worked through it trying to gather information on what he may have painted and where I could start searching for them this is in addition to the paintings that I have details on.

Although your information is the biggest lead I have had in some time and would be very interested in any information that you come up with I have been in touch with The Leeds Gallery myself after a search online; a portrait was described as "Self Portrait"..which the obituary states there is only 3 he painted.  The Gallery were kind enough to send me a copy of this, it is a "bearded man" so am unsure now if it is Richard or William after what you tell me; I think one of us may be disappointed if we find out it is each others portrait!