Bowles lived at North Aston in Oxfordshire. He was a pupil of Thomas Jones, a celebrated painter, collector and friend of Sir George Beaumont. He owned a number of works by Wilson including:
P68 Classical Landscape with Venus, Adonis and Cupids, Victoria & Albert Museum, London;
a version of P91 The Hermitage, Villa Madama, which he sold to Samuel Rogers for 100 guineas and which was admired by Farington;
D280 Italian Sketchbook, 1754, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven.
He was also a practising artist himself, and exhibited landscapes at the Incorporated Society of Artists as an honorary exhibitor in 1772 (389-391), 1773 (418 & 419), 1774 (341 & 342), 1775 (329-332) and 1776 (293 & 294).
