wonder. His religious beliefs were a strong influence on his work, and although his faith emerged in his work through an attached moral significance to the landscape, he also painted explicitly Christian themes as in The Awakening of Christian (c. 1885) and Arthur in the Gruesome Glen. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1851. In 1859 his paintings were reviewed by John Ruskin in his Academy Notes. Although generally positive, Ruskin warned of the dangers of Whaite's excessively minute technique. Discussing his Barley Harvest, the critic wrote:Very exquisite in nearly every respect; perhaps, take it all in all the most covetable bit of landscape this year, and showing good promise, it seems to me, if the painter does not overwork himself needlessly. The execution of the whole by minute and similar touches is a mistake. When all of Whaite's submissions to the Academy's exhibition of 1865 were rejected, he took them to Ruskin, who provided detailed criticism, illustrating his remarks on their shortcomings with reference to sketches and drawings by Turner. His oil paintings often used spots of pure colour, a consequence of his interest in colour theory, which may have pre-empted the pointillism strand of Impressionism that developed elsewhere in Europe. Notes Sources 1828 births 1912 deaths English watercolourists Welsh watercolourists People educated at Manchester Grammar School Artists from Manchester 19th-century Welsh painters 20th-century Welsh painters 20th-century British male artists Welsh male painters 19th-century Welsh male artists 20th-century Welsh male artists