Antony Williams has an international reputation as a portrait artist in egg tempera. His delicate, intimate, careful paintings have been compared to Andrew Wyeth and various Arts and Crafts painters. Antony avoids working from photographs, as Martin Gayford observed, because he is “strongly attracted to the surface of things, and the details they contain”. The skin of his subjects is like a landscape, it speaks of age, and personal history as well the life within. This observation of the often overlooked detail that describes the whole, is as important in a still life as a portrait.
His list of achievements (see below) is extensive and stellar.
Education:
Farnham College and Portsmouth University.
Solo Exhibitions:
Albemarle Gallery, London 1997 Sala Pares, Barcelona 1999 Messum’s, London 2000 Galeria Leandro Navarro, Madrid 2001 Petley Fine Art, London 2004 Messum’s, London 2009
Artur Ramon Gallery 2009 Messum’s, London 2013 Brian Sinfield Gallery, Burford 2014 Messum’s, London 2016 Messum’s, London 2019
Awards:
Carroll Foundation Award 1991, 1995 Discerning Eye Award for Still Life 1998 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2007, Runner-Up Prize Arts Club Prize 2004, 2008 Changing Faces Prize 2010 Ondaatje Award 1995, 2012 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize 2012, Winner BP Portrait Award, 2017, Third Prize
Memberships:
New English Art Club (elected 2007 Royal Society of Portrait Painters (elected 1996) Pastel Society (elected 2007)
Commisions:
HRH The Queen; RT Hon Margaret Beckett MP; Sir Donald Sinden; Ömer Koç; Amartya Kumar Sen; Sir Alan Budd; Kumar Sangakkara; Mahela Jayawardene
Collections:
Viscount Portland; Elaine and Melvin Merians; House of Commons; Garrick Club; National Portrait Gallery; Royal Society of Portrait Painters; Queen’s College Oxford; Private Collections in England, Rep. of Ireland and USA; The Royal Collection; Ömer Koç; The MCC
Group Exhibitions:
Royal Society of British Artists 1991 Mercury Gallery, London 1994 Laing Art Competition Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London 1995 Waterman Fine Art, London 1995, 1996 Hunting Art Prize Exhibition, Royal College of Art 1998 The School of London and Their Friends (The Collection of Elaine and Melvin Merians) Yale Centre for British Art: New Haven, Connecticut 2000 Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London 1996, 1998, 2002 Great Britons, Treasures from the National Portrait Gallery, London at the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Inst., Washington, DC, 2007 Artonomy, Drawing Exhibition, Truro 2007 Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Self – Portraits Exhibition, 2 Temple Place, London 2007 Pastels Today, Southampton City Art Gallery 2008 Threadneedle Figurative Prize, Mall Galleries, London 2008, 2012 Royal Academy of Arts, London: Summer Exhibition 1992, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2014 New English Art Club, Mall Galleries, London 1992, 2007–2010, 2013, 2015 Lynn Painter – Stainers Prize, London 2007, 2012, 2015 D-Day Portraits, Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, 2015 Ruth Borchard Self Portrait Prize, 2015 D-Day Portraits, Palace of Holyroodhouse, 2015–2016 Royal Society of Portrait Painters Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London 1991, 1992, 1995–2016 BP Portrait Award Exhibition, National Portrait Gallery, London 1995, 1998, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2017 Pastel Society, Mall Galleries, London 1996, 2000, 2008–2018
Selected Bibliography:
Sarah Boseley, ‘Queen- Warts and All’, The Guardian, May 1996 W F Deedes, ‘Portrait Captures Queen’s Troubles’, Daily Telegraph, May 1996 Nigel Reynolds, ‘Are these Really the Queen’s hands?’, Daily Telegraph, May 1996 Martin Gayford, The Spectator, November 1997 Martin Gayford, ‘Are our Portrait Painters all Fingers and Thumbs?‘ Daily Telegraph, October 1997 David Lee, Art Review, November 1997 Martin Gayford, Catalogue Introduction, Albemarle Gallery, October 1997 Antony J Lester, Antique Collecting, September 1998 Julian Halsby, The Artist, May 1999 Nicholas Usherwood, Galleries, December 2000 Martin Gayford, Catalogue Introduction, Messums, November 2000 Laura Gascoigne, ‘Portrait of an Inner Self’, Artist & Illustrators, December 2000 Brian Sewell, Catalogue Introduction, Petley Fine Art, November 2004 Brian Sewell, ‘How Ugly Can the Faces Get?’, Evening Standard, June 2007 Oliver Lange, The Artist, March 2008 Artist and Illustrator, interview with Steve Pill, 2012 A Brush with Royalty: Portraits of the Queen by Members of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. The Telegraph, Annabel Freyburg, April 2012 Artist and Illustrator, Fresh Paint Section, Katie McCabe, 2016 BP Portraitt Award Shortlist Offers Up an All-Female Line Up, Guardian, April 2017 Tatler Magazine, Keep History Alive: Portraiture in the Selfie Age, Annabel Sampson, February 2019