DYCE, WILLIAM (1806-1864), Scottish painter, was born Sept. 19, 1806, in Aberdeen, where his father, a fellow of the Royal Society, was a physician of some repute. He attended Marischal college, Aberdeen, took the degree of M.A. at 16 years of age, and studied in the school of the Royal Scottish academy in Edinburgh, then as a probationer in the Royal Academy of London. In 1825, and again in 1827, he went to Italy, where he studied especially the earlier masters of the Florentine and allied schools. In 1829 Dyce settled in Edinburgh and in Feb., 1837, he was appointed master of the school of design of the Board of Manufactures, Edinburgh, whence he was transferred to London as superintendent of the then recently established school of design at Somerset house. In 1844 he was appointed professor of fine art in King's college, London, and became an associate, and in 1848 a full member, of the Royal Academy. He died at Streatham on Feb. 14, 1864.
Dyce's finest productions are the frescoes in the robing-room in the Houses of Parliament, begun in 1848. They depict scenes from the legend of King Arthur, but he died before the series was completed.
See Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists (1878), and Dictionary of National Biography.