James Leakey (1775–1865) was an English landscape and portrait artist.

Life

Born on 20 September 1775 in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, he was the son of John Leakey, who was in the wool trade. At the time of

Sir Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

's death he was about to become his pupil. Leakey established himself at Exeter, painting portraits, miniatures and landscapes. He also produced small interiors with groups of rustic figures and

Sir Francis Baring Sir Francis Baring, 1st Baronet (18 April 1740 – 11 September 1810) was an English merchant banker, a member of the Baring family, later becoming the first of the Baring baronets. Early life He was born at Larkbeare House near Exeter, s ...

purchased one of those for £500. With the exception of time in London from 1821 to 1825, during which he was intimate with

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was an innkeeper at t ...

David Wilkie David Wilkie may refer to: * David Wilkie (artist) (1785–1841), Scottish painter * David Wilkie (surgeon) (1882–1938), British surgeon, scientist and philanthropist * David Wilkie (footballer) (1914–2011), Australian rules footballer * David ...

, and other leading painters, Leakey's life was mostly passed at Exeter. He died there on 16 February 1865.

Works

Leakey exhibited at the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

in 1821 ''The Marvellous Tale'', in 1822 ''The Fortune Teller'', in 1838 portraits and landscapes, and in 1846 ''The Distressed Wife''. Leakey was best known for his delicate miniatures, painted in oils on ivory. These brought him a local celebrity. In the Exeter Guildhall there is a portrait by him of Henry Blackhall, mayor of Exeter; also a copy by him of Reynolds's portrait of

John Rolle Walter John Rolle Walter (c. 1714 – 30 November 1779) (born John Rolle) was Tory MP for Exeter in 1754–1776 and for Devon in 1776–1779. He held the honorary position of Town Recorder of Great Torrington in 1739–1779, due to his family's ...

. His portrait of John Haddy James(1788-1869), surgeon, is in the

Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital (commonly referred to as RD&E), and with a main site sometimes known as Wonford Hospital, is a large teaching hospital situated in Exeter, Devon, England, and is run by the Royal Devon University Healthcare NH ...

. In 1846 Leakey published a plate by

Samuel Cousins Samuel Cousins (9 May 1801 in Exeter – 7 May 1887 in London) was a British mezzotinter. Life Cousins was born at Exeter. In 1855 he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy, to which he later gave in trust £15,000 to provide an ...

, from his portrait of John Rashdall, minister of Bedford Chapel, Exeter.

Family

By his marriage in 1815 with Eliza Hubbard Woolmer, Leakey had eleven children. They included

Caroline Leakey Caroline Woolmer Leakey (8 March 1827 – 12 July 1881) was an English writer, whose poetry and only novel (''The Broad Arrow'', published using the pen name Oliné Keese) were influenced and based on her experience living in Van Diemen's Land (n ...

the writer. He is the founding member of the

Leakey family The Leakey family is a British and Kenyan family consisting of a number of notable military figures, agricultural scientists and archaeologists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Originally a family from Somerset and Devon in south-west England in the ...

dynasty with branches specialising in

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

and the military.

External links

A poem by

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. The writings of Landon are transitional between Romanticism and the Victorian Age. Her first major breakthrough ...

from The Literary Souvenir, 1826 illustrative of a picture of that name, by Leaky (sic), then in the British Gallery.

Notes

;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Leakey, James 1775 births 1865 deaths 18th-century English painters 19th-century English painters English landscape painters English male painters English portrait painters

James James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

Artists from Exeter 18th-century English male artists