WHYTE'S IRISH ART 28 MAY 2018

IMPORTANT IRISH ART · 28 MAY 2018 AT 6PM William Percy French (1854-1920) ”Down by the Lough I shall wander once more, Where the wavelets lap lap round the stones on the shore; And the mountainy goats will be wagging their chins As they pull at the bracken among the twelve pins.” The Islands of Aran, Sweet Lavender... In the Studio - ”Once more I paint from memory The hills of Donegal, And as they raise - ma Gramachree! In fancy I recall....” ....And when I paint the sparkling tide That flows by Slievenaree, I would the boat again might glide Across the summer sea” Although he died at the premature age of sixty-six, his work as both an artist and popular entertainer are com- memorated variously. The Percy French Society, formed in the 1980s, houses a collection of some eighty waterco- lours by French on permanent display in the North Down Heritage Centre. His Roscommon home, which he called, “a haunt of ancient peace” (3) , commemorates the artist with a monument where the house once was. Footnotes: 1 Paul Larmour, ‘The Irish Decorative Art Association’, The Arts and Crafts Movement in Ireland (Belfast 1992). 2 Extract from a note by the late Nicola Gordon Bowe for Whyte’s 28 September 2009 lot 71. 3 Nulty, Oliver, Lead Kindly Light, 35 Years of Percy French at the Oriel Gallery - A Millennium Retrospective, The Oriel Gallery, Dublin, 2002, p. 45. €6,000-€8,000 (£5,260-£7,020 approx.) Click Here for Large Images & To Bid Lot 14