Percival Leonard Rosseau

Born of French descent in Pointe Coupée Parish, Louisiana, on September 21, 1859. His father and two older brothers were killed during the Civil War; his mother had also died, and the Union General W. T. Sherman destroyed the family plantation during the Mississippi campaign. Rosseau was educated in a private school and taught to shoot and fish by his guardian. He began working at seventeen, trying his hand at various trades to earn a living for himself and a dowry for his sister. He worked as a cowboy along the Chisholm Trail. He eventually owned an import business which provided him with enough income that he retired at age 35, leaving the business in the hands of a partner and sailed to Paris, France to study art at the Academie Julian.

While there he studied under Jules Lefebvre and Tony Robert-Fleury. Not having the patience to flatter a portrait sitter, he began his studies painting classical subjects, but after a picture of Diana with two wolfhounds met with acclaim he adopted sporting dogs as his sole subject.