William Somerville Shanks ARSA, RSA, RSW (28 September 1864 – 28 July 1951) was a Scottish artist who was a tutor in painting and drawing at the Glasgow School of Art for 29 years.

[3] The 1881 census reveals that by then the family were living in Glasgow where William Somerville Shanks was working as a pattern designer for a curtain manufacturer.

[4] However, William Shanks had ambitions to be an artist, and after attended evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art under Francis Henry Newbery he made painting his career, in 1889 travelling to Paris to improve his skills, studying for three years at the Académie Julian under Jean-Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant.

His painting Tiddley Winks was exhibited at the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts in 1897 and at one time was owned by Eliot Hodgkin who sold it to art dealer Charlotte Frank, the aunt of Anne Frank;[5] Sir David Montagu Douglas Scott obtained it from her in 1962 for £60.

[2] Later Shanks was to return to the Glasgow School of Art (GSA) as a tutor of painting and drawing, remaining there for the next 29 years.