William Shakespeare Burton

William Shakespeare Burton (1 June 1824 – 26 January 1916) was an English genre and historical painter of the Victorian era.

Taylor helped the teen find work at the magazine Punch, a job designing capitals for illustrations (which provided much-needed income).

He was educated at King's College and the Royal Academy School, where he won a gold medal in 1852 for a painting on the subject of Samson and Delilah.

[1] The work shows a scene from the English Civil War: a Cavalier courier has been ambushed and wounded, and is comforted by a Puritan maiden.

The academician Charles West Cope found the picture, brought it to the hanging committee's attention, and even withdrew one of his own works from the show to make room for Burton's, which was hung next to William Holman Hunt's The Scapegoat.