William Nicoll Cresswell RCA (12 March 1818 – 19 June 1888) (his middle name is also given as "Nichol") was an English painter who emigrated to Canada in 1848.

[1] After studies with several British painters (possibly E. W. Cook[2] and William Clarkson Stanfield), he emigrated in 1848 to Canada West, where he settled with his family in Tuckersmith Township (later Seaforth, Ontario) in Huron County on a remote farm.

In time, the hard luminosity of his early paintings developed into a broader, more generalized handling.

[11] Like Albert Bierstadt, he depicted a timeless wilderness in which light played a semi-religious role.

[9] Daniel Fowler is the first artist in Canada with whom a friendship is recorded and Cresswell probably knew others such as Robert Whale.