S/3548 In Berkhampstead Woods by Hugh Percy Heard
1866-1940
watercolour
signed: J. P. Heard, No. 2, Langworthy, Bideford
on original backboard
watercolour size: 11x14.50 in./28x37 cm.
frame size: 19.25x22.75 in. /49x58 cm.
Percy Heard was born in Bideford on 2nd January 1866, and lived with his parents in a large private house at the end of Bideford Bridge (now the Royal Hotel). He took up art from an early age and painted in both oil and watercolour, later moving to Swansea and London. He visited Paris with George Belcher, the artist and engraver, who did work for Punch, Tatler and Vanity Fair, returning to Bideford in 1911, and living at Longworthy in North Down Road. He ran the Westward Ho! Art Club and became head of the Bideford School of Art. His studio was in 'Queen Anne's', High Street, Bideford. He enjoyed acting and producing plays and musicals and according to his daughter, in later years he chose to act rather than paint. He always considered that his sea pictures were his best, which is interesting as it is known that he hated the sea! It is also recorded that he painted a few portraits, but it is for his marine and coastal scenes that he best known. We are told by his daughter that he could not 'be bothered' to exhibit, and the only two pictures he sent to the Royal Academy were both immediately accepted.
Exhibited: 1886-1940
12 Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
2 Royal Academy
2 Royal Society of British Artists
1 Dudley Gallery
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