# William Pitts II > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/William_Pitts_II > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/William_Pitts_II.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pitts_II > Source revision: 1341974977 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|English silversmith and modeller (1789–1840)}} {{Infobox person | name = William Pitts II | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1790 | birth_place = | death_date = 1840 | death_place = | other_names = | occupation = Silver-chaser and sculptor | years_active = | known_for = | notable_works = }} '''William Pitts II''' (1790–1840) was an English silver-chaser and sculptor. ==Life== He was son of William Pitts I (c.1755 – after 1806), a silver-chaser to whom he was apprenticed in 1806, and his wife Mary Armitage.{{cite ODNB|id=75302|title=Pitts family|first=Anita|last=McConnell}} In 1812 he obtained the gold [Isis medal](/source/Isis_medal) from the [Society of Arts](/source/Society_of_Arts) for modelling. He was a draughtsman, and also tried painting; ambidextrous, he drew and modelled with either hand.{{cite DNB|wstitle=Pitts, William|volume=455}} Pitts gained a reputation for models and reliefs in neo-classical taste. A versatile artist, he made designs for plates and other domestic items. He also worked for [Rundell & Bridge](/source/Rundell_%26_Bridge) as a chaser. He ran into business and financial troubles, and committed suicide on 16 April 1840 by taking [laudanum](/source/laudanum) at his residence, 5 Watkins Terrace, [Pimlico](/source/Pimlico).Register of Deaths entry for William Pitts, Saint George Hanover Square, Q2 1840, Volume 01, Page 1. [https://www.gro.gov.uk General Register Office, UK] ==Works== Pitts chased a portion of the "Wellington Shield" designed by [Thomas Stothard](/source/Thomas_Stothard) for Green & Ward, and the whole of the "Shield of Achilles" designed by [John Flaxman](/source/John_Flaxman) for Rundell & Bridge. In later life he modelled, in imitation of those, a "Shield of Æneas" and "Shield of Hercules" from [Hesiod](/source/Hesiod) only a portion of the former was carried out in silver. Pitts had a very prolific imagination, and In 1830 he executed the bas-reliefs in the bow-room and drawing-rooms at Buckingham Palace. He exhibited models at the [Royal Academy](/source/Royal_Academy), and made two designs for the [Nelson monument](/source/Nelson_monument). He executed for publication a series of outline illustrations to the works of [Virgil](/source/Virgil), of which two numbers were published, and also a series of illustrations to [Ossian](/source/Ossian), of which two were engraved in mezzotint, but never published. He made similar drawings to illustrate Horace and the ''[Bacchæ](/source/Bacch%C3%A6)'' and ''[Ion](/source/Ion_(play))'' of [Euripides](/source/Euripides). ==Family== Pitts married at the age of nineteen, and left at least five children, of whom the third son Joseph Pitts II (baptised 1821, died 1880) was known as a sculptor. In 1846 Joseph executed a bust of [George Stephenson](/source/George_Stephenson) that is in the [National Portrait Gallery](/source/National_Portrait_Gallery%2C_London), London. ==Notes== {{reflist}} '''Attribution''' {{DNB|wstitle=Pitts, William|volume=455}} {{Authority control}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitts, William, 02}} Category:1790 births Category:1840 deaths Category:English silversmiths Category:19th-century English sculptors Category:English male sculptors Category:English draughtsmen Category:Suicides by poison Category:1840s suicides Category:Suicides in Westminster Category:Artists who died by suicide Category:Drug-related suicides in England --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [William Pitts II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pitts_II) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pitts_II?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.