SIDNEY RICHARD PERCY (BRITISH 1821 - 1886)
KILCHURN CASTLE, LOCH AWE

oil on canvas, signed and dated 1855
framed

image size 120cm x 180cm, overall size 138cm x 198cm

Provenance: The Art Union (1855); Private Collection
Exhibition history: London, National Institution, 1855, no. 351; London, Society of British Artists, Exhibition of Prize Winners of the Art Union, 1855, no. 32
Literature: Art Journal, 1855, pp. 106, 216, 257; Jan Reynolds, The Williams Family Painters, Woodridge, 1975, p. 136
Label verso: Duncan R Miller Fine Arts, London
Note: Sidney Richard Percy (5th son of Edward Williams) was born in London. Percy began his career when his elder brothers were already established; his style owes more to H J Boddington than Edward Williams. Percy's very early work was signed 'Sidney Williams' but he was only 20 when he adopted the use of 'Percy' as the name under which his paintings were to achieve a greater popularity than those of any other member of the Williams family. When Percy married in 1863, he and his new family settled in Buckinghamshire. Their Regency home, Hill House was ideally placed for the study of the English wooded landscape, as it looked across the Misbourne Valley to the beech woods and beyond. Percy reached the peak of his popularity as an artist during the years he spent at Hill House and was able to support the extravagant tastes of his wife - maintaining a carriage and employing an army of servants. In the Autumn of 1865 Percy visited Venice, returning home through Switzerland and Paris. No further foreign travel was possible, owing to the outbreak of war between Prussia and Austria the following year. In spite of this trip abroad it was the Welsh landscape that inspired and moved S R Percy. He was particularly fond of the villages of Llanbedr and Arthog, which are situated on either side of the Mawddach estuary in Merioneth. Percy died in 1886. Exhibited : Royal Academy (1842-1886), 73 works; British Institute, 48 works; Suffolk Street, 73works. Museums : The Victoria Art Gallery, Bath; the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; The Museum of Fine Arts, Canada; and museums and city art galleries in Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Sunderland, Salford and York.