George Augustus Wallis (Merton, Surrey, 1761 - Florence, 1847) was an English painter, active in Italy. Wallis began his career as a protégé of George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick, a serious patron of the arts who supported the artist financially from at least 1787. It has been suggested that a painting now in Salisbury House, Des Moines, Iowa, acquired from Warwick Castle in 1925, may be an early self-portrait of the artist. In 1788 Wallis began a tour of Italy, a trip likely to have been funded by the Earl, and visited Rome, Naples and Sicily. He trained in the environment of neoclassical German artists, first in Naples, where he met Philipp Hackert, then in Rome, where around 1794 he frequented Asmus Jacob Carstens, Gottlieb Schick and especially Joseph Anton Koch. In 1806, Wallis became a member of the Roman Academy. In late 1790s gained reputation as a 'democrat' and sympathiser of the French. Ostracised on his return to London in 1806, and spent rest of his life on the Continent: 1807-10 in Spain, 1810-18 in Germany (mostly Heidelberg), and from 1818 settled in Florence. He taught at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, where he focused on portraits and painted frescoes. He also operated as an art dealer during his time in Italy, and later in Spain, during the Peninsular War, where he frequently worked for British clients. In fact, he also worked for the Scottish dealer William Buchanan, acquiring, amongst other works, Velázquez’s celebrated Rokeby Venus. He died in Florence, in 1847.

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