William H. Weale

William Henry James Weale (8 March 1832[1] – 26 April 1917[2]) was a British art historian who lived and worked most of his life in Bruges and was one of the first to research the Early Netherlandish painting (then better known as "Flemish Primitives") extensively.

His father was the librarian to John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield and had a large book collection of his own.

Weale was a devout Roman Catholic convert and was inspired by Augustus Pugin and his 1841 work, The True Principles of Pointed or Christian architecture.

[4][3] He started writing artist biographies, with one on Gerard David appearing in 1895, another about Hans Memling in 1901, and a final and most ambitious one on the Van Eyck brothers in 1908, with a revised edition in 1912.

[4] Weale died on 26 April 1917 in Clapham Common, London and was buried at the church of St. Mary Magdalene, Mortlake, near Richmond in Surrey.