Walter William Ouless was born 21 September 1848 at St Helier on Jersey in the Channel Islands. He was the son the son of the artist Philip John Ouless (1817-85), who specialised in painting maritime subjects. Walter entered the Royal Academy Schools as a student on 21 April 1865 at the age of 17. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1869. He initially focussed on history painting, but on the advice of John Millais, switched to portraiture. He took up residence at 12 Bryanston Square, London and embarked upon a long and distinguished career in portraiture, rarely changing his poses. His sitters included: Thomas Hardy, King Edward VII, Edward Baines, Sir Edward Holden, Bt, John Loughborough Pearson, Andrew Carnegie, John Morley, Cardinal Newman (1881; Oriel College, Oxford), Viscount Morley of Blackburn, the Very Reverend Charles Vaughan, Dean of Llandaff and Charles Darwin (1875; Christ’s College, Cambridge University). Ouless was elected ARA in January 1877 and RA in May 1881. His Diploma Work was his Portrait of Henry Stacy Marks (1877). Henry Stacy Marks, RA (1829-1898) – known to his friends as ‘Marco’ was a member of the St John’s Wood Clique, a group of London artists who shared an interest in historical genre painting. Initially, Marks specialised in everyday scenes set in medieval England but from about 1870 began painting birds, frequently sketching at London Zoo. Although there was often a humorous element in his work, Marks bitterly resented being referred to as a comic artist. Writing after his death, George D Leslie commented that in fact ‘gravity was the prevailing tone of Marco’s character’ and that Mr Ouless, in his wonderfully successful portrait’ has given Marks ‘the usual grave and thoughtful expression that was habitual to him.’ In 1859 the art student Edward Sterling convened a meeting in his studio of fellow students in the life class of Carey’s School of Art at Charlotte Street in Bloomsbury, at which the 38th Middlesex (Artists’) Rifle Volunteers was founded in 1860. The St John’s Wood Clique was entirely supportive of that development and Ouless served in No 1 Company, alongside his friend Stacy Marks. Ouless appears to have cultivated strong connections with the medical community, painting portraits of their most eminent figures. These included: Sir William Ogilvie Dalgleish (Dundee University), Lord Lister (King’s College, London) and his seated portrait of the surgeon Sir William Scovell Savory may be found in the Great Hall of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in central London. The reason for this connection (and others) may be found in the fact that when he first came to London, Ouless studied at the drawing school in Princes Road (now Black Prince Road) that would eventually become the Lambeth School of Art. John Sparkes was the first Art Master. Sparkes later became the first head of South Kensington Art School (today the RCA) and wrote the first catalogue of works for the Dulwich Picture Gallery. Another early student was William Anderson who would in due course become a surgeon, anatomist and collector of Japanese art. Ouless played an active role in the affairs of the RA and was a Governor of Dulwich Picture Gallery. Study of the minutes of the General Assembly of the RA reveal that his motion that ‘no fundamental change in the RA’s laws be enacted, except by a majority of the whole body of Academicians’ was rejected on 30 January 1907. He sat on the RA’s Hampton Court Committee, was appointed by the Council of 8 July 1919, to investigate the restorations of paintings by Mantegna at Hampton Court Palace, following receipt of a letter of complaint from Henry Woods. The committee’s report presented to the RA on 29 July 1919 described the restoration of the paintings as ‘lamentable’ and as betraying ‘deplorable incompetence’. It also made recommendations about their future housing. In later years, Ouless was an active member of the Artists’ General Benevolent Institution, as its honorary secretary and vice-president. His daughter Catherine was a successful painter of landscapes. Ouless died on 25 December 1933. To mark the 50th anniversary of his death, the Channel Islands reproduced his Portrait of Cardinal Newman as a postage stamp. A considerable body of Ouless’s portraiture may be found in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London. The Tate Gallery has his Portrait of Philip Westlake (1873).