William Daniell RA

William Daniell, (1769-1837), was the elder son of the landlord of the Swan Inn in Chertsey. In 1779, on the death of his father, he was taken to London to be brought up by his uncle Thomas Daniell, an artist and member of the newly founded Royal Academy of Arts. He and his uncle spent the period 1785 to 1794 travelling around India, from which, on their return to England, they produced a series of aquatint prints which were published under the title Oriental Scenery. William Daniell was a gifted artist in oils and watercolours. He excelled in transferring his pictures to prints using the aquatint technique. He was elected Associate of the Royal Academy in 1807, and a Royal Academician in 1822. The artistic work for which he is best known is, A Voyage Round Great Britain, which was published over the period 1814 to 1825, and includes 308 aquatint prints of coastal views.

Seventeen of these prints are of the Hebridean Islands of Eigg, Rum, Skye and Raasay, which he visited in July and August 1815. These are reproduced in William Daniell's Isle of Skye and Raasay.

Daniell covered the coast from Thurso to Banff during the period August to September 1815. He published 35 aquatints, of which 30 are reproduced in William Daniell's Inverness and the Moray Firth.