William Lock (or Locke) is an extremely interesting draughtsman of the early romantic school working in the circle of Henry Fuseli in Rome at the end of the 18th Century.

He was the son of the noted collector William Lock of Norbury, a patron of George Barret, Thomas Lawrence, Richard Wilson and Henry Fuseli. The young Lock became a close friend and companion of Henry Fuseli and took lessons from him. Indeed, the latter was a frequent visitor to the Lock Country House at Norbury in Surrey. It is easy to discern the influence of Fuseli in Lock's work, first apparent in a group of drawings dating from 1781 and 1782 when William was only eleven or twelve years old.

It is recorded that Sir Horace Walpole was a great admirer of Lock's drawings, most of which are uniform in style and in the general approach to their historical, mythological, biblical and Shakespearean subjects.