William Percy (portrait artist)

William Percy (1820–1903)[1] was a portrait artist of Manchester, England.

Edwin Waugh (William Percy, 1882)

He was born in Chorlton-on-Medlock in 1820. His love of art began early in his life: his first picture was exhibited at the Manchester Autumn Festival in 1833. In 1836 he went to London to become a pupil and assistant of William Bradley. He returned to Manchester early in 1839 where he established a first class reputation as a portrait painter.[2]

Percy was a founder of the Manchester Academy of Art in 1845. As he wrote later:

First - to institute a class for the study of the antique and the living model - the want of which has been long felt by the students and artists of this town as an insuperable bar to professional advancement. Secondly - to collect a library for reference, comprising history, poetry, archeology, optics, anatomy, chemistry, as applied to colour, architecture, sculpture, painting and engraving.[3]

In 1882, Percy's painting of poet Edwin Waugh was hung at the Manchester Art Gallery.[4]

At an exhibit of 51 of his portraits in 1885, The Manchester Literary Club remarked that, in his water colours of children, Percy was "almost without a rival among living painters."[5]

He died at his home in Ashton-on-Mersey on 18 December 1903.[2]

References
  1. Artfact.com
  2. "A Manchester Worthy - The Career of the Late Mr. William Percy". Manchester Courier. No. 14701. 21 December 1903. p. 8. Retrieved 8 August 2019 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  3. Hitchon, Gil and Pat, Sam Bough, RSA, the Rivers in Bohemia, page 53, May 1998
  4. Waugh, Edwin, Lancashire Sketches - Edited, with a Preface and Introduction, by George Milner, 1881, gerald-massey.org.uk
  5. Papers of the Manchester Literary Club, Volume 11, by Manchester Literary Club, 1885, page 432
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