Irish & International Art Auction 5th December 2016 : Click Lot Title for More info & Pictures & Picture for in frame.

signed lower left

watercolour

19 x 26cm (7 x 10in)

Provenance:

Private Collection

€3,000-5,000 (£2,608-4,347)

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 is best remembered

for his atmospheric watercolour paintings of Irish bogs and skies, typically painted using a

‘wet-on-wet’ technique. His work as both an artist and popular entertainer is commemorated

by the Percy French Society, which was formed in the 1980s, and which has a collection of

some eighty watercolours by French on permanent display in the North Down Heritage Centre.