Sidney Richard Percy Biography | Oil Paintings

Sidney Richard Percy father was a well-known landscape artist Edward Williams, who taught him how to paint at an early age. Although his early paintings were signed "Sidney Williams", he used the name "Percy" from the age of twenty onward to differentiate himself from the other artists in his family. Two of his five brothers also changed their names, Edward Charles Williams, Henry John Boddington, George Augustus Williams, Arthur Gilbert, and Alfred Walter Williams.

Sidney Richard Percy lived and worked with his father and five brothers in a communal setting in a large house with a studio that they all shared. Situated close to the Thames River, the surrounding marshes, windmills, farms, and dirt roads were the scenes that the Williams brothers painted on canvas during their early years as artists. He was extremely popular during these years and made a sufficient income to indulge his extravagant wife with a carriage and several servants.

Sidney Richard Percy was also an amateur photographer, in a day when photography was new and exciting, yet still a poorly understood medium. He used photography to take photos of models in poses that he would later paint in his studio, an example is Storm Gathering on Cader Idris, North Wales, which was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856, the same gypsy girls appear in his 1861 work A Rest on the Roadside, and again, but reversed, in his 1873 version of Llyn-y-Ddinas, North Wales, showing that he repeated themes when convenient. Percy traveled in 1865 to Venice with his friend and neighbor the watercolor artist William Callow, and returned to visit Switzerland and Paris.

Sidney Richard Percy spent his final years in Surrey when he was thrown from a horse in a riding accident, his knee was injured, his leg had to be amputated, and due to complications from the operation, he died at his home of a heart attack. Though once quite wealthy, his finances at the time of his death were no longer robust, and his extravagant widow had to be supported in her final years by her son-in-law.

Today Sidney Richard Percy's work is much sought after and brings much higher prices in an auction than any of those of his brothers.

Look at our THEN & NOW photo section. See, the present-day location that inspired the famous artist John Constable. We travel the world to find the exact location where the artist set up his easel to paint. We photograph it as it appears today. Now, you can compare side-by-side photos of the original oil painting and the present-day location.

Art Movement: Victorian Classicism Art.
Artists Influencing Sidney Richard Percy: Edward Williams.
He Traveled To Wales, Italy, Switzerland, France, Scotland.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.