biography of Frederick PIERCY (1830-1891)

Birth place: Portsmouth, England

Death place: London, England

Profession: Portrait & landscape painter

Exhibited: London, 1848-80

Comments: Began painting portraits in England about 1848. In 1853 he left Liverpool for the U.S., arriving in New Orleans in March and traveling to St. Louis (MO), Nauvoo (IL), and westward to Salt Lake City (UT), sketching scenes and portraits along the way at the behest of the Mormon Church. After his return to England in 1854 he wrote and illustrated an account of his journey, Route from Liverpool to Great Salt Lake Valley (1855). Continued to exhibit portraits in London as late as 1880, when he became paralized.

Sources: G&W; Arrington, Nauvoo Temple, Chapter 8; Piercy, Route from Liverpool to the Great Salt Lake Valley; Jackson, Gold Rush Album, repros.; Powell, Three Artists of the Frontier." More recently, see Encyclopaedia of New Orleans Artists; P&H Samuels, 373."