Wilson loved, when a child, to trace figures of men and animals, with a
burnt stick, upon the walls of the house, a predilection which his
father encouraged. His relation, Sir George Wynn, next took him to
London, and placed him under the care of one Wright, an obscure
portrait-painter. His progress was so successful, that in 1748, when he
was thirty-five years old, he had so distinguished himself as to be
employed to paint a picture of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York,
for their tutor, the Bishop of Norwich. In 1749, Wilson was enabled by
his own savings, and the aid of his friends, to go to Italy, where he
continued portrait-painting, till an accident opened another avenue to
fame, and shut up the way to fortune. Having waited one morning for the
coming of Zuccarelli the artist, to beguile the time, he painted a scene
upon which the window of his friend looked, with so much grace and
effect, that Zuccarelli was astonished, and inquired if he had studied
landscape. Wilson replied that he had not. “Then I advise you,” said the
other, “to try--for you are sure of success;” and this counsel was
confirmed by Vernet, the French painter. His studies in landscape must
have been rapidly successful, for he had some pupils in that line while
at Rome; and his works were so highly esteemed, that Mengs painted his
portrait, for which Wilson, in return, painted a landscape.
It is not known at what time he returned to England; but he was in
London in 1758, and resided over the north arcade of the Piazza,
Covent-garden, where he obtained great celebrity as a landscape painter.
To the first Exhibition of 1760, he sent his picture of Niobe, which
confirmed his reputation. Yet Wilson, from inattention to his own
interests, lost his connexions and employment, and was left, late in
life, in comfortless infirmity--having been reduced to solicit the
office of librarian of the Royal Academy, of which he had been one of
the brightest ornaments.