A Highland Loch

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‘A Highland Loch’
Signed & dated 1869
Oil on canvas 9″ x 14″

Sidney Richard Percy

British 1821-1886

Sidney Richard Percy was the fifth son of the artist Edward Williams, and he began his career when his elder brothers were already established. At first he painted under his family name ‘Sidney Williams’ but at the age of 20, he changed it Sidney Richard Percy, presumably to avoid confusion with the rest of the renowned Williams family of painters.

Percy married in 1857 and settled his new family in Buckinghamshire at the Regency house, Hill House, where he and his somewhat extravagant wife, Emily, lived in relative splendour, maintaining a carriage and pair and employing an army of servants. Sidney Richard Percy, who was described by fellow artist, William Callow as ‘… of a gentle disposition and a retiring nature’ enjoyed considerable success during this period, exhibiting extensively at the Royal Academy, the British Institution and Suffolk Street.

The Percy family moved in 1863 to Buckinghamshire, where their house overlooked the Misbourne Valley and beech woods beyond.  However on the death of the two elder children, they moved to Bickley Lodge, Redhill and then later to Sutton in Surrey.

In the Autumn of 1865, Percy visited Venice, returning home through Switzerland and Paris, but it was the Welsh landscape and scenery that inspired and moved him the most. In particular the villages of Llandbedr and Arthog, which are situated on either side of Mawddach estuary and he would often ride alone to these mountainous regions, away from the usual paths of the visitor. His skilled treatment of the mountains and lakes far surpasses many of his imitators, painted under dramatic skies, with an approaching storm, swirling mountain mists or the rosy glow of a Welsh sunset.

In A Highland LochSidney Richard Percy has conveyed a scene of total peace and isolation, a herd of cattle watering on the edge of a loch, are watched over by a lone farmer and his dog and a small flock of sheep are grazing in the distance. Sidney Richard Percy has painted a wonderful sky, which along with the rugged mountains are reflects in the still waters, and the light from the sun behind the stormy clouds shimmers across the loch.

In 1886 Sidney Richard Percy fell from his horse and following complications and after a long period of illness, he died. On his death it was discovered that he and his wife had only just been living within their means and his estate left £782. Percy’s widow Emily was supported in her later years by their son-in-law.

Sidney Richard Percy’s work is represented in the museums of Bath, Cardiff, Canada, Leicester, Nottingham, Sheffield, Sunderland, Salford and York.

© Sutcliffe Galleries 2019


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