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Percival Leonard Rosseau (American, 1859 to 1937)

Percival Leonard Rosseau was born in 1859 in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. After his father and brothers were killed in the Civil War and the family's Mississippi home was destroyed, Rosseau and his sister moved in with a family friend in Kentucky. Rosseau worked as a cowboy, cattle driver, lumberman and importer.

In 1894 he decided to pursue a career as an artist and studied at the Academie Julian in Paris under Jules Lefebvre, Tony Robert Fleury, and Herman Leon. In the Paris Salon exhibition of 1904, Rosseau's painting depicting a woman with two dogs received critical acclaim. This led to Rosseau painting additional works with animals as the central subject matter. This genre sold so well that for the next four years he was able to spend summers in France while wintering in the United States.

After returning home to join the art colony in Lyme, Connecticut, the artist made a living working on commissions for thoroughbred dog breeders. Percy Rockefeller regularly commissioned paintings by Rosseau, and held his works in such high regard that he built a studio for the artist at Overhills in Fayetteville, North Carolina.

Information courtesy of Neal Auction Company, May 2008.

Percival Leonard Rosseau was born in Louisiana and had worked as a commodities broker, and cattle driver, and cowboy before moving to Paris at the age of 35 to study at the Academie Julian. While in Paris he discovered a talent for portraying animals. Rosseau returned to the U.S. in 1915, and enjoyed a successful career painting hunting dogs. He set up his studio in Old Lyme, Connecticut, but frequently traveled to North Carolina, where Percy Rockefeller set up a studio for him on his private hunting ground at Overhills Club in Fayetteville.

Information courtesy of Skinner Inc., September 2009.