Percy French lecture and exhibition of his original artworks in Strokestown

Percy French lecture and exhibition of original artworks in Strokestown

A lecture on Percy French’s paintings along with an exhibition of some of his original artwork will take place on Wednesday, September 20th, at the Percy French Hotel, Strokestown at 7 p.m..

The lecture entitled ‘Percy French: understanding an Anglo-Irish realist’ will be delivered by Percy French enthusiast Philip Sheppard, who is a director of the family-run Sheppard’s fine art Auction House in Durrow, County Laois.

Mr Sheppard, who trained as an historian, has strong Roscommon connections. His grandmother Mary Kate Cunningham from Church Street, Strokestown left her home in 1918 to work as a parlour-maid for Viscount Ashbrooke at Castle Durrow in County Laois.

Mary Kate was pivotal in the early years of the Sheppard’s family business, which has now evolved into a very successful fifth generation auction house. It has sold some of the most expensive items ever bought at auction, including a vase a number of years ago which went under the hammer for a record €1.4m.

The ten Percy French paintings on exhibit at the Strokestown lecture on Wednesday will also shortly be coming up for sale, and these much sought after paintings can fetch tens of thousands of euro.

Philip’s lecture on Wednesday will explore Percy French’s paintings, many of which are of wetlands and bog scenes, inspired by his time as an OPW inspector of drains in the 1880s.

At the coalface of Irish land drainage in the 1880s, the Trinity College-trained civil engineer surveyed soon-to-be transformed wetlands in county Cavan. The works involved trenching, dredging and draining.

“They drained a lot of the lands and the bogs at the time. To my mind he was capturing the scenes before they were altered permanently through the intervention by man,” explained Mr Sheppard to the Roscommon Herald. “And to my mind, it’s almost as if he realises the importance of the significance of what the workers were doing and how they’re altering the landscape. He sees the beauty of this landscape and that’s why it is a recurring theme in his works.” In his lecture on Wednesday at the Percy French Hotel, Mr Sheppard will highlight the significance of French’s paintings “as a window to lost biological diversity and as a silent but impassioned plea for wetland conservancy”.

He will delve into the symbolism within French’s art, exploring how seemingly innocuous details in his wetlands paintings were “likely his way of communicating a cautionary message about the impact of unchecked industrialisation and modernisation on the Irish environment”.

Mr Sheppard’s lecture will also address what he sees as the failure of the National Gallery of Ireland to add to its solitary painting by the late Percy French.

“There is only one work of his in the National Gallery and I just feel that he’s been utterly and totally neglected,” he said.

French was responsible for many famous songs such as ‘The Mountains of Mourne’ and ‘Are you right there Michael’. A written line in French’s actual handwriting from the song ‘The Mountains of Mourne’ is inscribed on the back of one of the rare paintings that will be on exhibit on Wednesday.

Another item which is sure to attract plenty of interest on Wednesday is a piece of furniture that French used when he lived in Cavan and has painted scenes on it. The piece of furniture has been loaned for the exhibition by its private owner.

The lecture and exhibition is open to the public and everyone is warmly invited.

Percy French was born on the May 1st, 1854 at Clooneyquinn House, County Roscommon and is acknowledged as one of Ireland’s greatest songwriters and entertainers.