William Matthison
1853–1926

William Matthison was born in Staffordshire in 1853 and studied art in Birmingham before becoming a professional artist in 1875. Later he and his family lived in Banbury before moving to Oxford, where he received commissions to paint postcards of the city and its surroundings. Further postcards depicted London and Cambridge, and his illustrations, “bright and fresh in colour”, were well suited to the three-colour process used in A&C Black’s book Cambridge. Matthison’s final years were spent in Headington, Oxford, where he died in 1926.

Take a look at some of William Matthison’s paintings.