Born in London, Sidney Richard Williams was the fifth son of Edward Williams – the British landscape artist. Sidney, like his older brothers, began his artistic training early in life and had the help and support of not only his father, but many members of the family. His work and style was greatly influenced by his brother Henry John Boddington, even though his work was to achieve greater fashionable vogue than Boddington, or for any other member of his family. Once established, Sidney, like many other members of his family, changed his last name to Percy – to easily distinguish his work from that of other family members. Percy’s deepest attachment was to the scenery of Wales. He liked to walk off into the countryside to remote areas in the mountains and paint. Nature was of foremost importance to Percy, and the grandeur and majesty of the English countryside was captured no better by any of his contemporaries. Jan Reynolds, in her book The Williams Family of Painters, writes … that a clean fluency of manipulation is the hallmark of the Percy technique, in which the brushwork indicates form, with a very smoothly controlled line. It was remarked that his rocks and stones were sufficiently accurate to have served as illustrations to the writings of Sir Frederick Murchison, the popular 19th century geologist. Percy's style evolved into the most individual of the Williams brothers, with a lyrical quality and an authority which fully conformed to his long established reputation as one of the most successful landscape artists of the Victorian Era. Today, examples of his work can be seen in the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath; National Museum of Wales, Cardiff; Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull; Temple Newsom House, Leeds; The Castle Museum and Art Gallery, Nottingham; and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canada. This essay is copyrighted by Rehs Galleries, Inc., and may not be reproduced or transmitted without written permission from Rehs Galleries, Inc.