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William John Leech RHA (1881-1968)
From a Hotel Window
Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 42cm (20 x 16½”)
Signed. Inscribed with title verso
William John Leech was educated at St. Columba’s College, Rathfarnham where
he showed early artistic promise. He subsequently attended the Dublin Metro-
politan School of Art before passing to the Royal Hibernian Academy School as a
pupil of Walter Frederick Osborne (1859-1903), and from there to the Academie
Julian in Paris in 1901.
In the 1930’s Leech embarked on a series of pictures of various themes; still life’s,
self portraits, railways, and his life long friend and partner May Botterell, who he
married in 1953. From the 1930’s, Leech painted daily at his rented No. 4 Steele
studio, and his greatest influence during this time were the ‘’Bloomsbury ‘’ paint-
ers; Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Roger Fry.Their focus was more with private
than public concerns and influenced Leech to paint purely for ‘art’s sake’.
In this painting the artist is viewing a quiet English country lane in the height of
summer from a hotel window which has the top of an arrangement of summer
flowers and grasses visible, presumably on the sill. The dappled light permeating
through the verdant leaves is typically Leech as is the shadow-play through the
garden gate and on to the road which is lit by wonderful sunshine.
€8,000 - 12,000
