William Dyce (1806-1869)

William Dyce was born in Aberdeen in 1806 and, like his father, studied medicine as a profession, later turning to theology. He overcame parental opposition to becoming an artist and studied briefly at the Royal Academy Schools in London.

Dyce's most formative artistic study took place during several visits to Rome where he studied the Italian masters and their technique of fresco. He was considered the British expert on the plaster technique and it was fresco painting, which occupied a large segment of Dyce's career.