William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) Still Life with Gard...

Hammer

€11,000

William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) Still Life with Garden View Oil on canvas, 63 x 53cm (24¾ x 20¾) Signed With Portrait of Frank O'Connor verso, Signed Provenance: Collection of the Hon. Francis D. Murnaghan Jr., thence by descent. The tight cropping, oblique diagonals and multiple interlocking planes, tied together with effortlessly fluid organic forms of this composition are typical of William Leech’s mature manner. The same goes for the relatively subdued yet bold colour palette. In all, it makes for a pictorial dynamism that belies the sedate, domestic subject matter. But then, look what Bonnard or Matisse achieved with similar material. On the verso is a very fresh, vivid portrait of the writer Frank O’Connor. This double act stems from the artist’s practice, begun at some point in the 1930s, of painting on the reverse of canvases that, for one reason or another, he could not sell. An extremely capable and thoughtful painter, Leech - usually known as Bill to his friends - was temperamentally reserved and indifferent to self-promotion. His sober, conservative appearance was at odds with the bohemian world of French painting that inspired him, and indeed with his painterly verve. The son of a Trinity law professor and a dance teacher, he was born in Dublin, attended St Columba’s College in Rathfarnham and went to the Metropolitan School of Art, where his talent was soon recognised. Orpen had recently left the Metropolitan but his stylistic imprint was evident in Leech’s earlier work for some time. More significant, though, was his experience with Walter Osborne at the RHA schools. Leech was already a good French speaker, having spent a year in Switzerland, and Osborne pointed him towards the dazzling world of French painting, the light and colour of the Impressionists. He spent much time in France, and his best work reflected the freedom and spontaneity exemplified by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists. He followed his parents to London when they moved there in 1910, and he was more or less based in the UK from then on, but he retained his Irish identity and consistently exhibited in Ireland. The gallerist Leo Smith was an important supporter. Leech is well represented in major public and private collections in Ireland, and his sun-drenched 1911 painting A Convent Garden, Brittany remains one of the most popular works in the National Gallery of Ireland. Aidan Dunne, October 2024