Douglas Wilson Collection Goes Under the Hammer in May

A collection of 90 paintings from the studio of Cheshire-born artist Douglas Wilson (1936-2021) will be offered in a timed, online auction hosted by Mallams’ Oxford saleroom in May.  These paintings include his recognisable, mystical landscapes (particularly those depicting Shropshire and North Wales where he lived and worked for much of his life), his experimentation with abstraction in the 1960s and 1970s, and the different mediums he used including print, watercolour and oils.

Douglas Wilson studied Fine Art at Oxford under Percy Horton, Geoffrey Rhoades and Lawrence Toynbee and went on to teach at Wirral College of Art and Lord Wandsworth College. After resigning from his teaching job in 1980, he focused on exhibiting his paintings and had significant success in exhibitions at the Ashmolean Museum, Royal Cambrian Academy, Royal Society of British Artists, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, RA Summer Exhibitions and New Grafton Gallery. His work was also widely collected in Europe and the USA.

Wilson’s works were meticulous and time-consuming, building layer upon layer of oil paint to create his distinctive, smooth and atmospheric paintings. Although Wilson was never part of the Brotherhood of Ruralists (the British art group founded in Somerset in 1975) his work has remarkable similarities to the art produced by the group, and in particular, to that of David Inshaw (well-known for his work ‘The Badminton Game’). Wilson’s ideals also aligned with those of the group, with a romantic, nostalgic and mystical representation of nature and rural life. Wilson continued to paint until his death in 2021.

Mallams’ Douglas Wilson Studio Sale will open for bidding in early May and close on 26 May. 

To find out more, including viewing times, click here.