{{short description|English artist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name = Eli Marsden Wilson | honorific_suffix = A.R.E., A.R.C.E. | image = File:E. Marsden Wilson Notable Londoners 1922.jpg | caption = Photographic portrait of Eli Marsden Wilson. | birth_date = {{Birth date|1877|06|24|df=y}} | birth_place = Ossett, Yorkshire, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1965|11|13|1877|06|24|df=y}} | death_place = Acton, London, England | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline}} --> | monuments = | education = Wakefield College of Art | alma_mater = Royal College of Art | occupation = {{Flatlist| * Artist * etcher * painter }} | spouse = Hilda Mary Pemberton | parents = {{Plainlist| * Alfred Wilson * Emma Marsden }} | agent = | known_for = | notable_works = | awards = }}
'''Eli Marsden Wilson''', A.R.E., A.R.C.E. (24 June 1877 – 13 November 1965) was an English artist whose best known works are in etching and mezzotint, covering a wide range of subjects. He had works exhibited at the Royal Academy.
==Biography==
Eli Marsden Wilson was born on 24 June 1877 at Ossett, Yorkshire, the only son of Alfred Wilson, a foreman beamer in the textile industry, and Emma (''née'' Marsden).<ref name=obit>'Obituary: Eli Marsden Wilson', ''Ossett Observer'', 20 November 1965.</ref> Eli and his five sisters were encouraged in the arts and each played a musical instrument. Wilson received his initial formal artistic education at the Wakefield College of Art before moving to the Royal College of Art in London where he became a pupil of the master etcher Sir Frank Short.<ref name=Ossett>Stephen Wilson (2017), [https://www.ossett.net/eli.html Eli Marsden Wilson A.R.A., A.R.C.A. 1877 - 1965], ''Ossett - the history of a Yorkshire town'' website; accessed 23 July 2024.</ref>
In mid-year 1905 Eli Wilson and Hilda Mary Pemberton were married in London. Hilda was an artist with an interest in etching, the daughter of civil engineer Frederick Blake Pemberton and his wife Lucy. She was six years older than her husband and the couple had no children.<ref name=Ossett/>
From 1905 Wilson began to produce etchings and mezzotints of towns and lowland landscapes which he exhibited at the Royal Academy, the first of which was an etching 'The Market, Ossett', depicting a scene from Victorian times.<ref name=Ossett/><ref name=PAUni>[http://museum.aber.ac.uk/person/519 Eli Marsden Wilson], ''Prifysgol Aberystwyth University'' website; accessed 23 July 2024.</ref> He was elected an Associate of the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers and Engravers (A.R.E.) in 1907.<ref>Martin Hopkinson (1999), ''No day without a line: The History of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, 1880–1999'', Oxford: Ashmolean Museum.</ref> Wilson exhibited at the Royal Society of Painter-Etchers, as well as the Paris Salon and exhibitions and galleries in other European countries and America.<ref name=Londoners>''[https://archive.org/details/notablelondoners00lond/page/19/mode/1up Notable Londoners, an Illustrated Who's Who of Professional and Business Men]'' (1922), London: London Publishing Agency, page 15; accessed 20 July 2024.</ref> In London he lived in Chelsea and later relocated to Acton.<ref name=Ossett/>
Wilson's religious family background was Wesleyan Methodist. He became a Quaker embracing pacifist beliefs and was also a vegetarian.<ref name=Ossett/> In 1916, with the stalemate and massive casualties on the Western Front during World War I, conscription was introduced in Britain specifying that men aged 18 to 40 years were liable to be called up for military service. In late 1916 Wilson, then aged 38, was conscripted into the army. He appealed to the local tribunal for exemption on the grounds that he was a Quaker and a pacifist, but was refused. The army had created the Non-Combatant Corps in order to find an acceptable place for conscientious objectors, but Wilson's commitment to pacifism was absolute and he refused to comply with the call-up notice. He was arrested and taken to the local barracks. When he refused to put on a uniform Wilson was court martialled and imprisoned from February 1917 to March 1919, first at Wormwood Scrubs and then at Dartmoor.<ref name=Ossett/><ref name=PAUni/><ref name=AR>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00zjhfb Scarborough Grand Spa Hall 1 (Series 35: Episode 5 of 25)] and [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01184z5 Etchings by Eli Marsden Wilson], ''BBC One'' website, episode first broadcast on 4 November 2012; accessed 24 July 2024.</ref>
After being released from prison Wilson began to rebuild his career. In September 1922 he was commissioned by Princess Marie Louise to produce miniature etchings for Queen Mary's Dolls' House, at Windsor Castle.<ref name=Ossett/><ref name=AR/>{{Ref|NoteA|[A]}}
In the late-1920s Wilson was commissioned to paint a four-panel frieze depicting prehistoric England, which was installed in the Geological section of the Natural History Museum in South Kensington.<ref name=Ossett/> The museum also holds several of his oil paintings, 'Scene in Wealden Times' (during the Cretaceous period) and a pair of paintings depicting the Nant Ffrancon Valley in North Wales during the Pleistocene geological epoch.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160304191120/http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/results.asp?image=004324&itemw=4&itemf=0002&itemstep=1&itemx=1 Title: Scene in Wealden Times], ''Natural History Museum'' website; archived on 4 March 2016 (original webpages no longer online); accessed 23 July 2024.</ref><ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120802134601/http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/results.asp?image=004321 Title: Nant Ffrancon Valley, North Wales (Image 004321)] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20120802134437/http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/results.asp?image=004322 Title: Nant Ffrancon Valley, North Wales (Image 004322)], ''Natural History Museum'' website; archived on 2 August 2012 (original webpages no longer online); accessed 23 July 2024.</ref> During the Great Depression the market for etchings declined and Wilson turned to easel painting.<ref name=PAUni/> In 1931 Wilson submitted four separate stamp designs to the New Zealand government, though none were accepted.<ref>[https://collections.tepapa.govt.nz/agent/2469 Eli Marsden Wilson], ''Museum of New Zealand'' website, New Zealand Government; accessed 24 July 2024.</ref>
Wilson served as Chairman of the Ealing Art Group from 1935 to 1947.
Wilson and his wife moved to a cottage in Blewbury, Berkshire (now in Oxfordshire).<ref name=Ossett/> Hilda died in 1957 and Wilson's pupil, Mary Cockburn, subsequently became his live-in companion.<ref name=Ossett/>
Eli Marsden Wilson died at his home, 9 Faraday Road, Acton, London, in November 1965, and was cremated at Mortlake, London, on 19 November.<ref name=Ossett/> Administration of his estate was granted to Edward Clay, a descendant of Wilson's sister Annie.<ref>Probate record: Wilson, Eli Marsden, England & Wales National Probate Calendar, 1966.</ref>
==Notes==
:A.{{Note|NoteA}}{{resize|In November 2012 three of Wilson's etchings were shown on the BBC programme 'Antiques Roadshow', by descendants of one of the artist's sisters. Two of the etchings shown on the program were images of the interior of Wilson's cell during his imprisonment as an absolutist conscientious objector during and after World War I. The third image was a print of the miniature etching used to decorate Queen Mary's dolls' house in 1922.<ref name=AR/>}}
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01184z5 BBC clip of Antiques Roadshow]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Eli Marsden}} Category:1877 births Category:1965 deaths Category:People from Ossett Category:People from Acton, London Category:People from Blewbury Category:English etchers Category:People associated with the Natural History Museum, London Category:English pacifists Category:English Quakers Category:English conscientious objectors Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Art