45
WHYTES
SINCE 1783
,
61
William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968)
THE LAKE, REGENT’S PARK, LONDON
oil on canvas
signed lower left; with inscribed Dawson Gallery label on
reverse
20 by 24in. (50.80 by 60.96cm)
Provenance:
Purchased by the present owner’s mother from Leo Smith,
Dawson Gallery, Dublin;
Thence by descent
Literature:
Denson, Alan,
W. J. Leech RHA (1881-1968) Vol. 2 His Life
Work, A Catalogue (Part I),
Kendal, 1969, catalogue no. 48
(Sketch for
The Lake, Regent’s Park, London
)
“Leo Smith... the man to whom Mr. Leech bequeathed the majority
of his pictures in the confident and well-founded belief the Mr
Smith would ensure their wise distribution and preservation for
prosperity. “ p.114 (Denson)
Leo Smith met the artist first in 1944 and he became his advocate
and sole agent, showing his work from this period and hosting solo
exhibitions in 1945, 1947and 1951. After 1916 Leech settled first in
London and later the south of England.
Royal Academy records his address in 1934 as 4 Steele’s Studios,
Haverstock Hill, London, NW3 and it is from this address that the
present work was executed.The subject of Regent’s Park is recorded
variously by Leech biographers and other examples include,
In
Regent’s Park
in 1960 by Thomas Haverty Trust to the Hugh Lane
Gallery, Dublin.
York Bridge, Regent’s Park, London
and
The Bridge,
Regent’s Park, London
shown with the RHA, 1935, no. 4 [£5-0-0].The
park, a short walk from his studio, was a place of solace for Leech.
There he could retreat from the rapidly changing capital.The light
palette and buttery impasto recalls the foreground of the artist’s
masterpiece
Convent Garden, Brittany
(NGI, Dublin) but instead of
breaking the dizzying trance of brushstrokes with a figure or lake
boat, here the artist submerges the viewer into a thick web of
colour and paint to be consumed by the power of this urban
sanctuary.The impression left by Paris and later Brittany can still be
felt in this English subject.The handling of the paint, treatment of
light - the reflections on the water - and the sense of a fleeting
moment passing are all captured here in this
en plein air
oil. Leech
would later escape the urban jungle entirely to a cottage in West
Clandon, near Guildford, Surrey with second wife May Bottrell circa
1940.
The present work has been in the same family since it was wisely
purchased from their family friend, Leo Smith, Director of the
Dawson Gallery, after the artist’s death.
€
15,000-
€
20,000 (£12,800-£17,100 approx.)
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