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237 Lisburn Road, Belfast
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BT9 7EN, Northern Ireland
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Percy French (1854-1920)
Percy French
was a self-taught landscape painter and illustrator. Born near Tulsk in Co. Roscommon, he was educated
in England and later completed an engineering degree at TCD. Ever the entrepreneur, he started various
journals including the Irish Punch, wrote plays and comical sketches, and acted and sang in many of his
own theatrical productions. By the 1890s he was listed as a 'working member' of the Dublin Sketching
Club, and between 1891 and 1901 French showed twenty-four works at the RHA. He was a popular member of
the United Arts Club, Dublin, and a member of the Belfast Art Society. His painting entitled `The Queens
Entry into Dublin' is in the NGI, whilst in the Royal Library of Windsor is a drawing of Queen Victoria's
procession entering Phoenix Park. However, 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 collection of some eighty watercolours by French on permanent display in the North Down Heritage
Centre.
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