William Frederick Wells

William Frederick Wells (1762 – 10 November 1836) was a British watercolour landscape painter and etcher.

On 20 November 1804, Wells initiated the founding of the Society of Painters in Watercolours (now the Royal Watercolour Society), at a meeting held at the Stratford Coffee House, Oxford St, London.

He held the post of Professor of Drawing at Addiscombe Military Seminary for officers of the East India Company Army over twenty years from 1813 until his retirement, immediately before his death, in November 1836.

[2] They initially issued these etchings as individual plates, upon completion of each (thus bearing publication dates ranging from 1802 to 1805), and then as hand-coloured and bound sets under the title A Collection of Prints, illustrative of English Scenery, from the Drawings and Sketches of Gainsborough (circa 1805; reissued in 1819 by the publisher H.R.

[3] Amongst Wells's other works as an etcher is his soft-ground set, Select Views in Cumberland (1810).