Isaac Willis
(1785-1869)

[This sitting does not appear in the Silvy daybooks in the archives of the National Portrait Gallery. The sitter probably visited the studio during the period covered by the missing daybook, July 1863 to June 1864.]

An inked inscription verso in a period hand identifies the sitter as 'Isaac Willis.' This is perhaps the Isaac Willis who appears on the 1861 census living at 119 New Bond Street, London. Born at Kirk Oswald in Cumberland, he was 76 years old at the time of the census. He described himself as a ‘Music Seller and Publisher.’ Also present on the night of the census were two unmarried daughters, Dinah, aged 41, and Rosa, aged 37, and a general servant.

At one point in his career he was based in Dublin; he is also listed as a vendor of barrel-organs.

Isaac Willis, music publisher, died on 11 May 1869 at Snowdon House in Hampstead. He left effects valued at £100.