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The McClelland Collection
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William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968)
BOWL OF FRUIT c.1944
oil on canvas
signed lower left; titled on Dawson Gallery label on reverse; also with ROSC [1980] exhibition label on
reverse
20 x 22in. (50.80 x 55.88cm)
Provenance:
Dawson Gallery, Dublin;
Collection of George and Maura McClelland
Exhibited:
The Smith Gallery (aka the Dawson Gallery), Dublin, June, 1945;
‘Irish Art, 1943 - 1973’ in association with Rosc Teoranta, Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, Cork, 24 August
to 7 November, 1980, later to the Ulster Museum, Belfast, January to February, 1981, catalogue no. 69
Literature:
The Hunter Gatherer - the Collection of George and Maura McClelland, The Irish Museum of Modern Art,
Dublin, 2004, p. 38 (illustrated)
Leech’s Steele’s Street studio was bombed twice during the Blitz of London in WWII but 20, Abbey Road,
which May Botterell, Leech’s subsequent second wife, had rented since 1938, had escaped with little damage.
This fifth floor flat became Leech’s home and studio until his Steele’s Studio was repaired and until the couple
moved to West Clandon, Surrey in 1958.
Unable to paint in Regent’s Park or down at the fish markets in Billingsgate, which reminded Leech of
the earlier subject matter he enjoyed painting in the fishing village of Concarneau, Brittany. Indeed travel
to France was now impossible so Leech’s subject matter focused more on still-lifes, with views out of the
window, flowers on a windowsill or a ‘Bowl of Fruit’.
The sunlight streams in the open window, highlighting the yellow of the bananas and some of the sides of
the peaches, echoing the circular shape of the bowl. Leech’s dramatic, characteristic, diagonal composition is
evident in the framework of the Crittal windows and the edge of the windowsill. Areas of light contrast with
the dark greens of the shadows of the trees in the garden below.
This work was exhibited in Leech’s first solo exhibition at the Dawson Gallery, Dublin, in June 1945.
Surprisingly, Leo Smith reduced the price from Leech’s £38 to £25 for the exhibition, perhaps indicating that
Leech thought more highly of this work than Smith, as in most cases Smith invariably increased the prices
submitted by Leech. The six works exhibited by Leech in the RHA in 1945, were mostly borrowed and were
submitted fromThe Smith Gallery.
‘Bowl of Fruit’ was not exhibited at the RHA, possibly because Leech preferred to exhibit the work in his first
exhibition with Leo Smith, a relationship which lasted until Leech’s death in 1968, when all of Leech’s finished
works in his house and studio were bequeathed to Leo Smith of the Dawson Gallery for future exhibitions of
his work after his death.
This work, was purchased directly from the Dawson Gallery, by George and Maura McClelland, possibly
during the period after Leech’s death, when George McClelland had opened his art gallery in Belfast.
George had an unerringly good eye and his love and appreciation of Leech’s paintings remained unwavering
throughout his life, with this work hanging constantly in the McClelland home.
Dr Denise Ferran
August 2016
€12,000-€15,000 (£10,260-£12,820 approx.)