Lot 107 WILLIAM PERCY FRENCH (1854 - 1920)
Title: Rosapenna (1909)
Medium: Watercolour
Signature: Signed and Dated Lower Right; Titled Lower Left; Inscribed Verso
Provenance: William Simpson, Aberdeen (Label Verso); Private Collection
Framed
William Percy French first visited Rosapenna in County Donegal in 1909, according to his entertainment diaries, and again three years later, in 1912. These two visits came during the summer months, while he was on tour, travelling across both Britain and Ireland to perform songs and entertain guests in popular towns at the time, like Rosapenna. At the same time he was doing these stand-up shows, he loved to explore the coastline, often watching the boats pass by on the Coast. In this watercolour, the fishing fleet is set against the Donegal Highlands, each boat floating on calm waters, while a patch of light breaks through the clouds above, illuminating the centre of the composition. The original inscription reads ‘The Donegal Highlands from Rosapenna’, suggesting that the scene is set in Sheephaven Bay, an area that holds much admiration for Irish artists, past and present, and was most notably painted by Frank McKelvey and James Humbert Craig, who were among the greatest landscape painters to come from Belfast. French painted two notable watercolours from his time in Rosapenna in 1909, the one presented here, and another one titled ‘The Fishing Fleet Returns, Rosapenna, County Donegal’. A year later, he toured to Canada, the USA, and the West Indies with Houston Collison, an Anglo-Irish priest and composer, and friend of French’s, who collaborated with him, and most notably, did so with one of his most famous watercolour’s ’Where the Mountains of Mourne Sweep Down to the Sea’ (Sold, These Rooms, 15/09/2026, €15,100) illustrating the verso of the composition with the famous line and musical bar, which was executed just one year before Percy French’s passing.
William Percy French is recognised as one of the most appreciated and loved watercolourists in Irish history, who rendered the Irish landscape, as well as abroad, particularly Connemara, the West of Ireland, and Northern Ireland. He was born on 1 May 1854 at Cloonyquin House, near Tulsk and Elphin in County Roscommon, which was demolished in 1964, after French’s family sold the house in the 1950s. From 1872 to 1880, he studied civil engineering at Trinity College in Dublin, while at the same time, training himself in watercolours and writing songs and developing his entertainment skills, as well as winning 5 out of 6 watercolour prizes at the college. His first job was an apprentice engineer for a year under James Price, who was the engineer-in-chief of the Midland Great Western Railway Company. Following this, his first official government post was as a surveyor of rains for the Board of Works in County Cavan. At the same time, he started cycling heavily and sketched as he travelled. He left the post in 1888 and moved to Dublin, turning to journalism, and edited a comic paper, the Jarvey, between 1889 and 1890. He lived at 35 Mespil Road along the Grand Canal, with his second wife, Helen Sheldon, and moved to London in January 1900, living at 13 Woburn Place in Russell Square, and focusing his future on a life of entertainment and art, touring numerous countries and gaining inspiration from many individuals like Houston Collison.
Percy French exhibited regularly with the RHA and the Watercolour Society of Ireland, but surprisingly, he never exhibited with the Royal Academy, even though he was more than capable of doing so. He also exhibited with the Dublin Sketching Club, which he became a member of in 1876. One of his most notable exhibitions was in 1907 at the New Dudley Gallery in Piccadilly, London, exhibiting alongside Mildred Anne Butler, William Bingham McGuinness, and Claude Hayes, and a year later, he received a royal commission, from the Queen of Spain, painting two watercolours for her. He fell ill with pneumonia while performing a series of concerts and plays in Glasgow, and died on 24 January 1920 at his cousin, Canon John Brooke Richardson’s house, at the age of 65, in Formby, Lancashire. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Luke’s Parish Church in Formby. There have been several retrospectives of his work, mainly at the Oriel Gallery in Dublin in 2002, and at the Percy French Hotel in Strokestown, Co. Roscommon in 2023, hosted by Sheppard’s. There is also an annual Percy French Festival at Castlecoote House, honouring his legacy.
€8000 - 12000
Image: 21 x 33cm (approx.) Framed: 49 x 63cm (approx.)
Thursday 19th November 2026
19:28:20
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