Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Wissing, Willem

1056926Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 62 — Wissing, Willem1900Lionel Henry Cust

WISSING, WILLEM (1656–1687), portrait-painter, born at Amsterdam in 1656, studied painting under W. Doudyns at The Hague. After a short stay at Paris he came to England about 1680, and worked for Sir Peter Lely [q. v.] After Lely's death he became a formidable rival to Sir Godfrey Kneller for the patronage of the court and nobility. He painted the Duke of Monmouth more than once. On the accession of James II he became the favourite painter of that king and Mary of Modena. He was sent to Holland to paint the Prince and Princess of Orange, and also painted the Princess Anne and her husband, Prince George of Denmark. Wissing was young and good-looking, and obtained a reputation for flattering ladies in their portraits. He is said to have taken by the hand those who had too pale a complexion, and to have danced them about the room until the colour came into their cheeks. His portraits of children were also much admired. He was specially employed by the Earl of Exeter, and while on a visit to him at Burghley House he died unexpectedly, on 10 Sept. 1687, in his thirty-second year. Wissing was buried in St. Martin's Church at Stamford, where a monument was erected to his memory. A large number of Wissing's portraits were engraved in mezzotint, and show greater charm than most of the works of his contemporaries. Matthew Prior [q. v.] wrote a poem ‘To the Countess Dowager of Devonshire on a Piece of Wiessen's [sic], whereon were all her Grandsons painted.’ His own portrait, by himself, was finely engraved in mezzotint by John Smith. In the National Portrait Gallery there are portraits by Wissing of Mary of Modena, Mary II, the Duke of Monmouth, Prince George of Denmark, John, lord Cutts, and the poet Earl of Rochester.

[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum, with manuscript notes by G. Scharf; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists; De Piles's Lives of the Painters; Catalogue of the National Portrait Gallery.]

L. C.