Varley, John (1778–1842)

English painter. One of the leading early watercolour artists, he is best known for his picturesque views of North Wales. He was a friend of the poet and artist William Blake. His brother Cornelius Varley (1781–1873) was also a watercolour painter of landscape, marine, and architectural subjects.

In his youth he was a protégé of the art collector Dr Thomas Monro (1759–1833), and he later became known as an art teacher in London, David Cox, John Linnell, and Samuel Palmer being among his many students. Views of North Wales, painted in the ‘sublime manner’, are among his most important works, but his large output tended towards a mechanical facility. It was for him that Blake drew his famous ‘visionary heads’.

His younger brother William Fleetwood (1785–1856), his son Albert Fleetwood, and two grandsons were also watercolourists.