Unique painting by famous artist to be auctioned at Sheppard's in Durrow - Kilkenny Live

A one-of-its-kind painting on four panels by Percy French, drawn on a cupboard while the painter, songwriter, author, poet and entertainer was working and living in Cavan, is up for auction next week.

It comes from No. 16 Farnham Street in Cavan town, where he lived during his time as a drains inspector with the Board of Works.

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The cupboard (180 x 127 x 48 cm) is decorated in oils. Each of its four front panels shows a different landscape.

The top left panel is a seascape with a cliff edge in the foreground; top right is a view of a harbour pier with the sea coming in; bottom right is a beech tree; and bottom left is rock with lichen and ferns.

Years of smoke and grime have dimmed the panels, which would shine more brightly if professionally restored.

The sides of the cupboard are painted with bulrushes, locally called black paddies, edible plants also known as 'the asparagus of the Cossacks'.

It is Lot 220 at Sheppard's Irish Vernacular auction in Durrow on Tuesday. It has an estimate of €2,000 to €3,000.

French graduated as a civil engineer from Trinity College, Dublin, in 1881, describing himself as ‘admirably unfitted for any profession whatsoever’, but found employment with the Board of Works in County Cavan as surveyor or inspector of drains.

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This was part of a large publicly-funded civil engineering project. In 1861, the Shannon had flooded with catastrophic effect on the farmland around it. The drainage works prevented this happening again but, in doing so, they changed the landscape forever.

French would have been involved in deciding where the drains would go, supervising their construction, and managing gangs of labourers.

It gave him an intimate connection with the people and the land that ultimately informed his painting and his song writing.

French’s finest watercolours come from the five years he spent in County Cavan. They are simple unassuming landscapes, atmospheric and with a strong sense of place.

Now, they are a window back in time, a snapshot of that part of Ireland before drainage permanently altered the nature of the landscape and its biodiversity.

Their popularity at auction is well documented, but French remains under-represented in State collections.

Possibly his reputation as a writer of humorous songs and subsequent career as an entertainer has stood in the way of his appreciation as artist and chronicler of the changing Irish landscape.

Now, something special has come on the market.