William Percy (portrait artist)

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

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.

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

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."

...
Wikipedia