Famous for his songs, William Percy French was born in 1854, near Tulsk in Co Roscommon. He qualified as an engineer from Trinity College and took up an appointment with the Board of Works in Cavan. He began exhibiting in 1872, and exhibited widely throughout his lifetime, including the Royal Hibernian Academy, the Watercolour Society of Ireland and the Dublin Sketching Club. In 1907, he held a joint exhibition at the New Dudley Gallery in Piccadilly with Midred Butler, Claude Hayes and Bingham McGuinness. This watercolour of a Connemara cottage and stream is typical of the work that he is famous for.