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William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) - THE LAKE, REGENT'S PARK, LONDON

Currency:EUR Category:Art / General - Paintings Start Price:NA
William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) - THE LAKE, REGENT'S PARK, LONDON

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Auction Date:2013 Mar 04 @ 18:00 (UTC+1)
Location:RDS Clyde Hall, Anglesea Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin, Dublin, ., Ireland
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
L
20 by 24in., 50 by 60cm.
Provenance: Purchased by the present owner's mother from Leo Smith, Dawson Gallery, Dublin;Thence by descent
Exhibited:
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)
Note: 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."