106
99
William John Leech RHA (1881-1938)
Grey Bridge, Regent’s Park
Oil on canvas, 77 x 97cm (30¼ x 38¼”)
Signed
Exhibited : The Royal Hibernian Academy Annual Exhibition 1959 Cat. No. 16
Provenance :The Dawson Gallery where purchased by Mr James J. Stafford . Later with the Godolphin
Gallery, Dublin July 1979 where purchased by Mr &Mrs Roth and thence from the estate of
William Roth.
Leech’s “Regents Park” series was one of his longest comprising over twenty known works and stretching in
time from 1935 over the following 25 years.The location was one the artist returned to many times when
he could not travel to France. Just a short walk downhill from his studio at Steele’s Studios Leech found
subject matter he could sketch plein air and then work up into exhibition pieces back at the studio.
In fact a nearly identical but much smaller work to this from the McClelland Collection had been exhibited
a year earlier at the RHA and was included in the Leech retrospective “An Irish Painter Abroad” in The
National Gallery of Ireland in 1997.
Writing about that work in the catalogue Denise Ferran writes :-
‘The Bridge, Regents Park’ is painted in a silverly light with York Bridge, a high horizon- band of subdued
umber tones, merging into the soft blue-grey tones of the background. In the foreground, the river reflects
the cool grey of a winter sky which mingles with the muddy browns and greens of the still water. All
the edges of objects, solid or reflected, are blurred and softened; the top of the bridge is masked by the
overhanging grey- green leaves of a weeping willow.
We acknowledge Denise Ferran whose writings on Leech formed the basis of this catalogue entry.
€20,000 - 30,000
