William John Leech (10 April 1881 – 16 July 1968) was an
Irish painter
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
.
Biography
Leech was born in
Dublin
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...
the son of Anne Louisa née Garbois (1847–1921) and Professor Henry Brougham Leech LLD (1843–1921). He went to school at
St Columba's College, Dublin in Rathfarnham, later studying at the Metropolitan School. He later transferred to the
Royal Hibernian Academy and studied under
Walter Osborne. In 1903, Leech left Dublin for Paris, where he would fall in love with the French landscape.
After he returned to Dublin from Brittany in 1906 he was soon embraced into the artistic circle of
George Russell (A.E.),
Constance Gore-Booth and her husband Casimir Dunin Markievicz. He exhibited nearly seventy paintings with them in a group exhibition at the Leinster Lecture Hall in August 1907. In December 1909 Leech exhibited with
Jack Yeats
Jack Butler Yeats RHA (29 August 1871 – 28 March 1957) was an Irish artist and Olympic medalist. W. B. Yeats was his brother.
Butler's early style was that of an illustrator; he only began to work regularly in oils in 1906. His early pic ...
, Albert Power, Eva Hamilton,
William Orpen,
Lily Williams, A.E.,
Constance Gore-Booth and
Dermod O’Brien in the first Aonach art exhibition, organised by
Sinn Féin
Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur Gr ...
as part of the Irish Festival at the Rotunda.
On his return to France he met and in 1912 married Saurin Elizabeth née Smith (1879–c1951), a young painter of a similar style. They separated after just two years of marriage. Leech would travel throughout Europe and eventually settled in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...
in 1919, with frequent visits to the South of France, to
Marseilles
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...
,
Grasse and
Cagnes-sur-Mer
Cagnes-sur-Mer (, literally ''Cagnes on Sea''; oc, Canha de Mar) is a French Riviera town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France.
Geography
Cagnes-sur-Mer is a town in south-eastern ...
.
In about 1919 William was commissioned by a London solicitor Percy Dumville Botterell CBE (1880–1950) to paint a portrait of his wife May née Pearson (1881–1965). Percy had served as a commercial attaché to the Hague in the later years of the war and May had organised a relief center for released prisoners of war; one of these was William's brother, Lt-Col Cecil John Farran Leech (1882–1952) who made the introduction. William also painted in 1920 “Portrait of Suzanne Botterell”, Percy and May's daughter. William and May maintained a friendship and, after the deaths of Saurin Elizabeth and Percy, they married in 1953. In the last years of their lives they lived in Candy Cottage, West Clandon, Surrey.
Art Work
Leech was well known for his illustrations of Concarneau harbour. The works of Leech feature coastal and harbour scenes, landscapes, interiors, still life and portraits.
Leech at Irish Art
Notes
:1.Daughter of Katherine Howard Lane and Francis Stribling Smith, born Jan 1879 in St Louis, Missouri, USA. She married first Fentress Gordon Kerlin (1864-1916), their daughter was Fentress Saurin Kerlin, (1897–1979). Katherine was the daughter of Rev. Saurin Eliot Lane (1818–1904).
References
*"The Irish Impressionists, Irish Artists in France and Belgium 1850-1914". Julian Campbell. National Gallery of Ireland. 1984
*http://www.mpfa.ie/Leech.htm Retrieved September 24, 2006.
An Irish Artist W. J. Leech R H A. An Introductory Guide to his artistic career. Published by Alan Denson 4 August 1968
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leech, John
1881 births
1968 deaths
Painters from Dublin (city)
Irish Impressionist painters