Adam's Important Irish Art Auction Tuesday 27th March 2018

64 63 WILLIAM JOHN LEECH RHA ROI (1881 - 1968) London Bridge and Soutwark Cathedral Oil on canvas, 44 x 36cm (17¼ x 14¼”) Signed Exhibited: ‘William J. Leech Exhibition’ The Dawson Gallery, March 1947; ‘William John Leech: An Irish Painter Abroad’, National Gallery of Ireland, October-December 1996, Catalogue No.100. Born in Dublin, William John Leech studied at the Metropolitan School of Art and later at the RHA School under Wal- ter Osborne and at the Academie Julian in Paris. From 1903 until 1917 Leech lived mainly in Concarneau in Brittany, but visited Dublin regularly and continued to exhibit annually at the RHA, who elected him a full member in 1910. His reputation was gaining similar status in Paris, where he won a bronze medal at the 1914 Salon. In 1918 Leech served for a time in France, but this experience of World War I left him suffering from depression. He continued painting however, and exhibited throughout the 1920s and 1930s at the RHA, RA and New English Club in London, and repre- sented Ireland at a number of significant international locations including Venice in 1926 and Brussels in 1930. From 1944 on Leech was represented by the Dawson Gallery in Dublin, where solo shows were held in 1945. A major retrospective of his work was held at the National Gallery of Ireland in 1997 and toured to the Ulster Museum and the Musee des Beaux Arts, Quimper, accompanied by an extensive catalogue by Denise Ferran. Although he received a huge amount of recognition for his art throughout his life, Leech struggled financially, often making his own frames to save money. His paintings can be found in major Irish collections such as the National Gallery of Ireland, The Hugh Lane, The Office of Public Works, Ulster Museum and Crawford Gallery. In her 1997 catalogue Denise Ferran wrote of this piece that it was one of a series of works painted by Leech in oils and watercolour of the Thames around the Billingsgate area painted from 1939 onwards. She notes of this work “the curve of the dock forms a lead-in to the expanse of cold water beyond which small wooden boats are moored at the harbour. The piers wooden uprights offset the dominant horizontal of the bridge beyond. The swell of the icy water is captured in strong brushstrokes in tones of blue. These works are evocative of Monet’s views of Westminster, seen in muted tones and captured in atmospheric light”. Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The ‘London Bridge’ depicted in this painting was built between 1824 and 1831, was known as the ‘New’ London Bridge and was the last project of engineer John Rennie and his son John Rennie, the Younger. It was a conventional design of five stone arches and was 283 m long and 15 m wide. By the mid 1920’s it was apparent that the bridge had begun to sink, so a century and a quarter after being built it was decided to replace it. In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London placed the bridge on the market. The following year Rennie’s bridge was purchased by the Missourian entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch of McCulloch Oil for US$2,460,000. As the bridge was taken apart, each piece was meticulously numbered. The blocks were then shipped via the Panama Canal to California and trucked from Long Beach to Arizona. The bridge was reconstructed by Sundt Construction at Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and re-dedicated on 10 October 1971. The reconstruction of Rennie’s London Bridge spans the Bridgewater Channel canal that leads from the Uptown area of Lake Havasu City and to this day is a major tourist attraction in the region. Our thanks to Dr Denise Ferran whose scholarly writing on William J. Leech formed the basis of this catalogue entry. € 8,000 - 12,000