Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Riviere, William
RIVIERE, WILLIAM (1806–1876), painter, born in the parish of St. Marylebone, London, on 22 Oct. 1806, was son of Daniel Valentine Riviere, a drawing-master, and brother of Henry Parsons Riviere [q. v.] and of Robert Riviere [q. v.] After receiving instruction from his father, William became a student of the Royal Academy, and distinguished himself by his powers as a draughtsman, and by his passionate devotion to the study of the old masters, especially of Michael Angelo and the artists of the Roman and Florentine schools. He exhibited first in 1826, when he sent to the Royal Academy a portrait and a scene from Shakespeare's ‘King John,’ and he continued to exhibit at intervals during the next few years portraits, domestic subjects, and landscapes, both at the academy and at the British Institution. In 1843 he sent to the Westminster Hall competition a cartoon, the subject of which was a ‘Council of Ancient Britons,’ and in 1844 a fresco of ‘An Act of Mercy,’ and a painting in oils of a ‘Council of Ancient Britons.’ In 1845 he sent to Westminster Hall a sketch representing ‘Prince Henry, afterwards Henry V, acknowledging the authority of Chief Justice Gascoigne,’ with a portion of the same subject in fresco, and in 1847 an oil-painting illustrative of ‘The Acts of Mercy.’ He was an excellent landscape-painter both in oil and in watercolours, and several fine examples of the latter now belong to Mr. Briton Riviere. But it was to the educational side of art that Riviere mainly devoted himself, and in 1849 he was appointed drawing-master at Cheltenham College, where he succeeded in creating a drawing-school which was unique of its kind, and was probably the best school of art out of London. After ten years' work he resigned his appointment and went to Oxford, where he laboured earnestly to develop his theory that the study of art should form an essential part of higher education. His last exhibited work was a portrait of Dr. Wynter, president of St. John's College, Oxford, which was at the Royal Academy in 1860. He likewise essayed sculpture, and left behind him an original model of ‘Samson slaying the Lion.’
Riviere died suddenly, at 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford, on 21 Aug. 1876. A miniature of him when a young man, by C. W. Pegler, is in the possession of his son, Mr. Briton Riviere, R.A.
[Jackson's Oxford Journal, 2 Sept. 1876; Redgrave's Dict. of Artists of the English School, 1878; Bryan's Dict. of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves and Armstrong, 1886–9, ii. 388; Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogues, 1826–1860; information kindly supplied by Mr. Briton Riviere, R.A.]