William Benjamin Sarsfield Taylor (1781–1850) was an Irish artist, a painter of landscapes and military subjects, known also as a writer.
He began life in the army commissariat, and served in the Peninsular War, being present at the siege of San Sebastián.
Taylor's best-known book was his History of Dublin University (1845) illustrated with coloured plates and with engravings.
He published also The Origin, Progress, and present Conditions of the Fine Arts in Great Britain and Ireland (1841) and A Manual of Fresco and Encaustic Painting (1843).
He translated Prosper Mérimée's Art of Painting in Oil and Fresco (1839), and made an abridged translation of the Origin and Progress of the Penitentiary System in the United States (1833), from the report of Gustave de Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville.