Stephen Wiltshire
Tokyo
Victora Harbour
Stephen Wiltshire (born 1974) is an autistic savant who was diagnosed with autism when he was three year old. Over a period of time, his autistic savant abilities developed and he became an accomplished architectural artist.
He was born on 24th April, 1974 in London, and his parents were of West Indian origins. At the age of three, it was diagnosed that Wiltshire has autism. The same year his father died in a motor cycle accident. He could not learn speaking even when he was three, but ultimately learnt to speak from the age of none. When he was four, he was sent to a London school named Queensmill School. Within a few years, he expressed his interest in drawingsd, and by the time he was eight, he had started to draw seriously especially cars, and post-earthquake cityscapes. His teachers encouraged him to draw.
In February, 1987, BBC aired a program about autistic savant. One section of the program covered 13 years old Stephen Wiltshire. He drew before the camera an accurate image of St. Pancras station, which he had visited first time just few hours before. The drawing was remarkable and complete with all the details as Stephen Wiltshire had seen the same exactly at 11:20. The program attracted a lot of public attention, and BBC received many telephone calls and inquiries about the talented boy. Ultimately, an entire volume of his works entitles Drawings was published in 1987 by J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd (London).
Recognition
Stephen Wiltshire's abilities have been widely recognized. Sir Hugh Casson, former president of the Royal Academy, had praised the special abilities of Stephen Wiltshire in these words: "Happily, every now and then, a rocket of young talent explodes and continues to shower us with its sparks. Stephen Wiltshire — who was born with severe speech difficulties — is one of those rockets ... His sense of perspective seems to be faultless… I've never seen in all my competition drawing such a talent, such a natural and extraordinary talent, that this child seems to have, is possibly the best child artist in Britain."[1]
References
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