Woodcock, Percy Franklin

  • From Bahaipedia, the free encyclopedia: See full biography at: https://bahaipedia.org/Percy_Woodcock
  • Biography Notes:
    • Percy Franklin Woodcock (August 17, 1855 – February 20, 1936) was an early Canadian Bahá’í who served on the Bahá’í Temple Unity. In his career he was an artist, and he was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and Ontario Society of Arts. Some of his paintings are in museums, including the National Gallery of Canada
    • Percy was born in Ontario to Reverend Eli Woodcock, an Episcopalian minister, and Phoebe Ann Wiltse in 1855. He was raised as a Methodist.
    • He studied art at Albert College in Belleville in the 1860’s. In 1878 he married Aloysis Pratt, a Canadian from Montreal. In 1881 he moved to Paris where he continued his study of art at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts. He held an exhibition at the Paris Salon in 1883. He then studied under Benjamin Constant, and studied in England and Holland before moving to Brockville, Canada, in 1887. In 1888 he became Principal of Brockville Art School, and served in the position until 1890 when he began travelling across North America and Europe to exhibit his paintings.
    • A prominent late 19th Century and early 20th Century Canadian painter and educator, Percy Woodcock was born in Athens, Ontario and died in Montreal, Quebec where he had lived for at least 20 years. During Woodcock’s life his works were featured in important exhibitions in Canada, England, France and the U.S.A. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts* and the Ontario Society of Artists*. He is listed and discussed in many of the comprehensive Canadian art history reference books and his works are in the collections of several museums including the National Gallery of Canada. (1)
    • His primary medium was oil paint. His subjects were landscapes, figures, portraits.
    • In the early 1900’s Percy discovered the Bahá’í Faith, likely when he exhibited art in Chicago in 1903, and he associated with Bahá’ís in Chicago and Montreal and attended the Green Acre summer school in Maine. He, his wife Aloysia, and one of their children, May, became Bahá’ís. He taught the Faith after becoming a Bahá’í but incorporated his personal ideas which were not related to the Faith, such as symbolism of the Egyptian pyramids. 
    • In December 1911 Percy visited Egypt where he met ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Ramleh. In 1912 he traveled to Europe with his wife and daughter and met with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Naples, and they traveled with Him and His party on their voyage to the United States on the Cedric.
    • Percy lived in Montreal for the rest of his life, and passed away there in 1936. He had outlived his three children.
  • Second Great Grandson of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=9275
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/228247705/percy-f-woodcock