(1856 - 1926)
Portrait, genre and landscape painter Percy Bigland was born in Birkenhead, the son of a merchant. He was initially educated in Sidcot, Somerset, before studying art in Munich for seven years. Between 1882 and 1925 he exhibited with numerous institutions, both in London and throughout the UK. He moved between addresses in Liverpool, London, Beaconsfield and Buckinghamshire. He visited the US on three occasions and made portraits of several American notables, including Isaac H. Clothier, Elizabeth Powell Bond and William P. Bancroft. However, his most distinguished sitter was Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. Bigland was elected a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters in 1891. He died in Jordans, Buckinghamshire, aged 68.
