William Graham (Glasgow MP)

William Graham (1817 – 16 July 1885),[1] Liberal MP for Glasgow, was a Scottish politician, wine merchant, cotton manufacturer and port shipper.

He is remembered as a patron of Pre-Raphaelite artists like Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti and a collector of their works.

At Rossetti's persuasion, he commissioned Found for 800 pounds in 1869; the painting remained unfinished, and took possession of the work after the painter's death in April 1882.

When they came on the market in 1874 and 1885, Graham bought his two Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood oils, Ecce Ancilla Domini (1850) and The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849) both now in the Tate Gallery.

[4] His importance is not only as a purchaser and a patron, but also as a person whose fine collection of early Italian paintings helped to inspire the artists whom Graham supported such as Rossetti and Edward Burne-Jones.