WIlliam Stott of Oldham

William Stott of Oldham (1857–1900) was a British painter celebrated for his lyrical landscapes and later for his allegorical and classical themes. He began his training in Oldham and at the Manchester School of Art before studying in Paris under the academic master Jean-Léon Gérôme. In France, Stott quickly found recognition, exhibiting regularly at the Paris Salon and winning a medal in 1882 for The Bathing Place (Neue Pinakothek, Munich).

Stott became a central figure in the Anglo-American artist community at Grez-sur-Loing, where his atmospheric landscapes influenced many contemporaries. By the late 1880s, he returned to England and broadened his subject matter to embrace mythological and symbolic works, including The Nymph (1886), The Birth of Venus (1887), and Diana, Twilight and Dawn (1889).

His art was admired for its refined use of color and poetic mood, qualities noted by critics such as R.A.M. Stevenson. Stott exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy in his later years, but his promising career was cut short when he died unexpectedly in 1900 at the age of 42. His legacy endures as one of the leading British artists to bridge naturalism with imaginative allegory at the turn of the century.