The Life and Career of William Oliver Born in Worcester, United Kingdom, William Oliver was a figurative and genre artist who spent much of his career based in London. He was a student at the Royal Academy Schools, where he was a probationer in 1848 and later won first prize for his drawing from the antique in 1851. His early professional life included serving as an assistant master at the Government School of Design in Birmingham. During his career, he was sometimes referred to by his full name, William Oliver Williams, and was occasionally mistaken for being related to another artist of the…