Biography

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.