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| William Percy French 1854 - 1920 The Brook Watercolour 6.25" x 9.25" Sold |
| William Percy French was born in County Roscommon in 1854. He grew up in Derby before being sent to school in Derry as preparation for
entering Trinity College Dublin. There he studied engineering and for seven years he worked as an engineer spending his spare time sketching and composing songs. He then abandoned his chosen
career to pursue his artistic interests and in addition to painting he wrote stories, verse and libretti for a musical comedy, a comic opera and a
full opera, all of which were produced in Dublin.
He travelled throughout Ireland performing sketches and giving comic lectures and painting atmospheric watercolours of bogland scenes. He also travelled and painted in England, visiting Devon and Hampshire, during the 1890's. At this time his paintings were exhibited mostly at the Royal Hibernian Academy where he had a total of twenty-four works displayed between 1891 and 1901. In 1900 he moved to London where his performances at the Steinway Hall coincided with his exhibition at the New Dudley Gallery. He had his first West End production in 1905 with a children's play. In 1907 he participated in a group exhibition at the New Dudley Gallery along with Mildred Anne Butler, Claude Hayes and Bingham McGuinness. In London he also exhibited at the Modern Gallery. He visited Switzerland in 1913 where he painted and sketched and during World War I he travelled throughout England and France entertaining troops and raising money for the war effort. His work is now in many important Irish collections, including the National Gallery of Ireland and the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery. In England his drawing of Queen Victoria's procession entering the Phoenix Park in Dublin is housed in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Major exhibitions of his work were held in the Oriel Gallery, Dublin in 1974, 1979 and 1982. The Ulster Museum also held an exhibition of his work in 1978. |
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