Josiah Wood Whymper RI (24 April 1813 Ipswich - 7 April 1903 Haslemere) was an English wood engraver, illustrator and painter. Born the son of a brewer, he was apprenticed to a stonemason. He soon turned to drawing and painting, settled in London in 1829 and studied under William Collingwood Smith (1815–1887). After having an etching of London Bridge published, he became well-known as an illustrator and engraved for Black, Murray Cassell and other publishers. His wood engraving enterprise became one of London's most successful. He also painted watercolours, specialising in riverscapes, and gave drawing classes to pupils such as Charles Samuel Keene (1823–1891), John William North (1842–1924), George John Pinwell (1842–1875) and Frederick Walker (1840–1875). He also produced fine engravings of animals, fish, landscapes and wonders of the world for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, sold for 3/4d penny plain, 2d pence coloured. Toward the end of his life he lived in Haslemere in Surrey, where he died in 1903.[1]
Whymper exhibited in the London and Provincial Galleries and was elected an associate of the New Society of Painters in Water Colours in 1854, becoming a full member in 1857. He was the father of eleven children including Edward Whymper (1840–1911), the alpinist, illustrator and wood engraver, who made the first ascent of the Matterhorn in 1865, and engraved the illustrations for Howard Willoughby's Australian Pictures (1886), Frederick Whymper (1838–1901), Annette S. Whymper as well as Charles H. Whymper (1853–1941), who provided illustrations for books on travel, sport and natural history, including Yarrells History of British Birds (1871–89) and the Birds of Egypt (1909).[2]
Josiah Wood Whymper's engravings for British Birds in their Haunts (1862) after drawings by Joseph Wolf is widely regarded as his finest work. He also produced the wood engravings for the Life and Habits of Wild Animals (1873–74) with the help of his sons Charles, Frederick and Edward, and provided illustrations for Joseph Dalton Hooker's Himalayan Journals (1854) and David Livingstone's Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi (1865). He was in charge of the illustrations for Picturesque Europe (1875).
Whymper's work may be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.