Percy (Henry Percy) Gray (1869 - 1952) American Oil on Board Measure 6 1/2"in H x 11 1/2"in W and 9 1/2"in H x 14 1/2"in W with frame. Known for: Landscape, coastal view, and portrait painting Name variants: Henry Percy Gray Percy Gray is considered one of California most important historical artists and more specifically, one of the states signature watercolorists. Born in San Francisco in 1869 to a family with an artistic heritage, Grays grandparents (on his fathers side) were painters in England. Other relatives were involved in the arts as well. After realizing he, too, had inherited a passion for art, Gray eventually enrolled at the California School of Design in San Francisco at the age of sixteen. During this period, he also spent time conscientiously observing and visually cataloging the Northern California landscape with fellow artists such as John Gamble. After working as an illustrator for newspapers in San Francisco and New York City, by 1906 he was back in the Bay Area and began his full-time career as a landscape painter. Creating visual poetry, large eucalyptus and oak trees are abundant in his watercolors, as well as cypress trees when his studio was located in Monterey; all very characteristic of the California landscape where he lived and traveled. Gray spent his last years back in Marin County continuing to paint until his death in 1952. Today, Percy Gray is unquestionably considered one of the most successful and well-known landscape painters to have worked in California during the early 20th Century. His work has been exhibited at many public institutions including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Crocker Art Museum, Oakland Museum, Santa Barbara Museum, Brooklyn Museum, and the Monterey Museum of Art.