(Evening: Amiens Cathedral) and the Welsh national collection. He was also an author, publishing a number of books of art critique, accounts of changing depictions of Jesus through the ages, and a volume of poems. In a critical 1889 review of his book The Enchanted Island, Oscar Wilde wrote "Mr. Wyke Bayliss is as much Mr. Whistler's superior as a writer as he is his inferior as a painter and an artist." Bayliss succeeded James McNeill Whistler as president of the Royal Society of British Artists (RBA) in June 1888 when Whistler and his followers split from the society; however, there was acrimony throughout the remainder of 1888 because the society's constitution allowed the defeated incumbent to formally stay in office until year's end. Bayliss had initially supported Whistler's nomination to the committee, but soon led the majority who disagreed with the latter's radical plans, and as president restored its running to traditional lines. He was nevertheless notably supportive of some innovations, such as defending the status of women as professional artists and advocating the inclusion of the "new and strange" in RBA exhibitions. He held the post until his death in 1906. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1870, to the Royal West of England Academy in 1904, and received a knighthood in 1897. In 1899 he was president of the Ruskin Society of Birmingham ("the Society of the Rose"), which was founded by John Howard Whitehouse in 1896. Bayliss married Elise Letitia Broad in 1858, but never had children. They lived at 7 North Road, Clapham Park in London, where he died in 1906 aged 70. He was buried at Streatham Cemetery and his funeral was attended by many artists including his successor as President of the RBA Alfred East and wreaths sent by, among others, Lawrence Alma-Tadema. His autobiography, Olives: the Reminiscences of a President, was posthumously published in the same year. Notes References Martin Hardie, "Bayliss, Sir Wyke (1835–1906)", rev. Kate Flint, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/30651 Retrieved 26 June 2007 1835 births 1906 deaths 19th-century English painters English male painters 20th-century English painters Knights Bachelor Members of the Royal West of England Academy People from Madeley, Shropshire Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Members of the Royal Society of British Artists Pre-Raphaelite painters 20th-century English male artists 19th-century English male artists