Percy Bigland (1856–1926) was an English portrait painter.

Life

Bigland was the son of Edwin Bigland, of Birkenhead in 1856. He was educated like his brother at the

Sidcot School Sidcot School is a British co-educational independent school for boarding and day pupils, associated with the Religious Society of Friends. It is one of seven Quaker schools in England. The school is based in the Mendip Hills near the village of ...

as his family were Quakers. Bigland studied art in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

in Germany for seven years before returning to England where he lived in London, Liverpool, Beaconsfield and Buckinghamshire. He was a regular exhibitor until 1925 at institutions in London and the provinces. Bigland painted his elder brother, Alfred Bigland who was an M.P. This portrait is in the Williamson Art Gallery in Birkenhead. His most notable subject was the Prime Minister Gladstone, but he also went to America three times to include the department store owner Isaac H Clothier, Swarthmore College dean Elizabeth Powell Bond and landowner and philanthropist

William Poole Bancroft William Poole Bancroft (July 12, 1835 – April 20, 1928) was an American industrialist who later became an important figure in the land conservation movement. His belief that the beauty of the Brandywine region should be protected against urban ...

in his list of sitters. In 1891 he was elected to the

Royal Society of Portrait Painters The Royal Society of Portrait Painters is a charity based at Carlton House Terrace, SW1, London that promotes the practice and appreciation of portraiture. Its Annual Exhibition of portraiture is held at Mall Galleries, and it runs a commissi ...

in 1891 and in 1893 he painted Elizabeth Hanbury who was then 100 years old. Bigland died aged 68Percy Bigland
Government Art Collection, retrieved 10 January 2015 in 1926.

Legacy

Bigland has twenty paintings in British national collections.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bigland, Percy English Quakers People from Birkenhead 1856 births 1926 deaths