William Charles Ross

Sir William Charles Ross (3 June 1794 – 20 January 1860) was an English portrait and portrait miniature painter of Scottish descent; early in his career, he was known for historical paintings. He became a member of the Royal Academy in 1842.

Life and work Maria II, Queen of Portugal, c. 1852. Ross was born on 3 June 1794, in London, and descended from a Scottish family who had settled at Tain in Ross-shire. He was the son of William Ross, a miniature-painter and teacher of drawing, who exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1809 to 1825. His mother, Maria Smith, a sister of Anker Smith, the line-engraver, was a portrait-painter, who exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1791 and 1814, and died in London on 20 March 1836, aged 70. (plot no.10093). The memorial, which is in an elevated position on the western side of the cutting path, no longer has a decipherable inscription and is leaning.

Family Portrait miniature of Ross's sister Magdalena Dalton (c. 1835–40, Watercolour on ivory)

Hugh Ross (1800–1873), younger brother of Sir William Charles Ross, was also a miniature-painter, and exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1814 to 1845. Magdalene Ross (1801–1874), a sister, who likewise practised the same branch of art, exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1820 and 1856; she married Edwin Dalton, a portrait-painter.

Legacy Ross's portrait was painted by Thomas Henry Illidge, and engraved on wood for The Art Journal of 1849; a miniature was also painted by his brother, Hugh Ross. An exhibition of miniatures by him was held at the Society of Arts early in 1860, and in June his remaining works were sold by the auctioneers Christie, Manson & Woods.

Ross held the same position with respect to miniature-painters that Thomas Lawrence did among portrait-painters. Writing for the Dictionary of National Biography, Robert Edmund Graves noted that "others have surpassed him in power of expression, but in refinement, in purity of colour, and in truth, he had no rival. His portraits of men are marked by a strong individuality, while his women charm by their grace and delicacy".

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