The Self-Taught Master of Victorian Charm In the heart of the Victorian era, a period defined by both industrial upheaval and a deep nostalgia for the pastoral, the works of William Joseph Shayer, Senior offered a luminous window into a vanishing world. Born in Southampton in 1787, Shayer’s journey to artistic prominence was not paved with the prestige of formal academies, but rather through a humble and industrious apprenticeship with the physical world. Before he ever touched an oil canvas with the intent of capturing a landscape, his hands were occupied with the delicate task of decoratin…