G. C. Williamson was born in
Guildford in 1858, and was educated at the
University of London. He married Louisa Mary Lethbridge in 1883. He wrote many books on European art and artists, focusing on the period from the Renaissance to the late 19th century. A number of these were issued as volumes in the publisher
George Bell & Sons'
Miniature Series of Painters, of which he was also the series editor. He also wrote guides for art collectors on various topics—including several on
portrait miniatures—and he assembled catalogues for collectors of art and antiques. For the American banker
J. Pierpont Morgan, he put together a four-volume catalogue of Morgan's collection of miniatures; a fifth volume was never completed due to Morgan's death. Williamson also served as an adviser to Morgan on some purchases for his collection. Williamson occasionally wrote on literary, historical, and cultural topics outside the field of art. Among these are
Curious Survivals, a book on English customs, and a book on the voyages of the Elizabethan naval commander
George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland. Among Williamson' coauthored books is a study of the painter
Angelica Kauffmann, one of the founding members of the
Royal Academy of Arts (RA).
Angelica Kauffmann, R.A.: Her Life and Her Works, written with
Lady Victoria Manners, was prompted by the discovery in the RA archives of a manuscript in Kauffmann's handwriting, written in Italian and previously untranslated, which gives an account of Kauffmann's paintings post-1781. Manners and Williamson wrote that this enabled them to "come to certain definite conclusions regarding many pictures hitherto ascribed to other artists." They included numerous reproductions in both colour and black-and-white on the grounds that prior books on Kauffman had presented inadequate reproductions of her paintings. He died at his home in Guildford in September 1942. A few of Williamson's papers from the period 1921–1937 are held by
Boston College. ==Publications==