THOUGH an accomplished portraitist, William Peters (1741-1814) is probably best known for achieving the distinction as the only clergyman of the Church of England to become a Royal Academician.
Born on the Isle of Wight in the first half of the 19th century, the painter and engraver trained in the Dublin Society Schools under Irish artist Robert West, before travelling to Italy to copy the works of Old Masters such as Rubens and Titian.
Despite his prodigious talent, he was overshadowed by his three great contemporaries, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough and George Romney, and was regarded as an amateur painter after he assumed the cloth.