\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \f1 British painter.\b \par
\b0 In the early part of his career Wallis produced genre paintings and pictures of historical subj
ects. Yet he is reputed for his adoption of the Pre-Raphaelite style, which he blended with the influence of French painting. The \i Death of Chatterton\i0 (1856, Tate Gallery, London) proved popular with his contemporaries because of the way that the
painter dealt, in an anecdotal and easily understandable manner, with the drama of the artist faced by societyÆs lack of understanding. In 1858 Wallis exhibited the \i Stonebreakers\i0 (City Museum, Birmingham) at the Royal Academy. The painting was
accompanied by a long quotation from CarlyleÆs \i Sartor Resartus\i0 that emphasized WallisÆs pictorial representation of contemporary societyÆs accusations, which was more placid than CourbetÆs representations of the same subject in 1849. The artist c
ontinued along these lines, which led him to gradually move away from the calm atmospheres of the Pre-Raphaelites.
