William S Taylor (1920 - 2010)

Painter, teacher, writer, exhibition organiser and film-maker, born in Sheffield. He studied at Sheffield College of Art, 1936-39, and at the Royal College of Art, 1939-43. He taught at Sheffield College of Art where in 1963 he established the History of Art Department. He was Dean of the Faculty of Art and Design at Sheffield Polytechnic, 1972-75. He holds a Master of Philosophy degree in art history from Nottingham University. He has organised major shows of Aubrey Beardsley and Edward Burne-Jones at Mappin Art Gallery and made the film Portrait of Beardsley. He has exhibited at the RA, NEAC, at Leicester and Redfern Galleries and in New Zealand and Canada. Taylor's pictures combine figure and landscape with strong Neo-Romantic overtones, and are saturated with lyricism and a sense of longing. His wife Audrey (Wallis) a talented sculptor and painter who won a scholarship to the RCA 1940-43 was both his model and muse. With thanks to