William Nichol Cresswell

• Name — William Cresswell • Birth Name — William Nicoll Cresswell • Born — 12 March 1818 • Birthplace — Shoreditch, Middlesex, England • Place of death — Seaforth, Ontario • Spouse — Elizabeth R. Thompson • Training — Possibly studied with E. W. Cook, London, England • Known for — Painter • Illustration — The homecoming, oil painting from 1864

William Nichol Cresswell was born in Shoreditch, London. After studies with several British painters (possibly E. W. Cook and William Clarkson Stanfield), he emigrated in 1848 to Canada West, where he settled with his family in Tuckersmith Township (later Seaforth, Ontario) in Huron County on a remote farm. In 1865, part of the family lot came into the possession of the artist and he ordered the bricks to build his house. The following year he married Elizabeth R. Thompson. Cresswell probably did little farming because he was first and foremost a painter. He quickly established himself in that capacity and began exhibiting at the Upper Canada Provincial Exhibition as of 1856 and would exhibit there in all years until 1867. He travelled extensively in Canada: to Georgian Bay in 1865, through Québec and New Hampshire in 1866, to Lake Nipigon in northern Ontario in 1876, and in the 1880s he visited the Maritimes and spent some time on the Gaspé Peninsula, and travelled to Grand Manan in New Brunswick. Cresswell continued to show his work at various exhibitions in Upper Canada. In 1874, he was elected a member of the Ontario Society of Artists, and in 1880, he was a founding member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He also showed his work in London, England, in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886. In 1887, he fled the cold climate to southern California, where he spent the winter. He even planned to move there permanently, but died on 19 June 1888 of an inflammation of the lungs at the age of 70 at his home in Seaforth before consolidating these plans.

William Nichol Cresswell is recorded as having received Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. Recognition and collections. Cresswell received Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.