William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) Still Water Oil on b...
Hammer
€22,000
William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) Still Water Oil on board, 35 x 25cm (13¾ x 9¾'')
Signed
Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso
When Dermod O'Brien wrote to his wife Mabel, in February 1910, from Cahirmoyle, Co. Limerick, that Leech was 'in his studio since luncheon trying to evolve sunlight and reflections.' Not only does this identify Leech's aims as an artist but also Dermod O'Brien's interest in the younger artist, the year Leech was elected to full Academician status in the RHA, while O'Brien was its President. Leech is striving towards a style, influenced by post-impressionism, emerging from his darker oils, such as Interior of a Café or Interior of a Barber's Shop to embrace light and colour, evident in this painting Still Water painted after the Second World War when he was unable to travel to France for his annual visit due to increasing old age and coping with the blitz damage to his Steele's Studio in London.
So, the South of England substituted for his past French subject matter in the towns of Cassis, Grasse, Nice and St. Jeannet, up above Nice, where he rented a house with May Botterell. Still Water was painted along the River Stour at Christchurch, Dorset, where it flowed down to the sea at Harwich, from the Gog Magog Hills. It was a short journey from Percy Botterell's home in the village of Burnley, in the New Forest and when May visited their family during Percy's absence, Leech stayed close by, often in the gate lodge or in Christchurch, where he painted its Priory and its Colonnade and the Lady's Chapel. He wrote to his New Zealand friend, the artist Sydney Lough Thompson, informing him 'There is quite a lot of sunshine here, it must be one of the sunniest places in England, and there are boats & water, though the boats are really yachts.'
Yet, in this painting Still Water Leech has captured small, flat-bottomed boats and rowing boats, tucked into a corner of this quiet, peaceful creek. The boat in the foreground leads the viewer's eye to the moored boats beyond, in a typical Leech diagonal composition. At nearly 70 years, he has lost none of his skill in rendering 'sunlight and reflections' which Dermod O'Brien had observed in 2010, forty years previously.
Dr Denise Ferran, August 2026.
Hammer
€22,000
William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) Still Water Oil on board, 35 x 25cm (13¾ x 9¾'')
Signed
Provenance: With The Dawson Gallery, Dublin, label verso
When Dermod O'Brien wrote to his wife Mabel, in February 1910, from Cahirmoyle, Co. Limerick, that Leech was 'in his studio since luncheon trying to evolve sunlight and reflections.' Not only does this identify Leech's aims as an artist but also Dermod O'Brien's interest in the younger artist, the year Leech was elected to full Academician status in the RHA, while O'Brien was its President. Leech is striving towards a style, influenced by post-impressionism, emerging from his darker oils, such as Interior of a Café or Interior of a Barber's Shop to embrace light and colour, evident in this painting Still Water painted after the Second World War when he was unable to travel to France for his annual visit due to increasing old age and coping with the blitz damage to his Steele's Studio in London.
So, the South of England substituted for his past French subject matter in the towns of Cassis, Grasse, Nice and St. Jeannet, up above Nice, where he rented a house with May Botterell. Still Water was painted along the River Stour at Christchurch, Dorset, where it flowed down to the sea at Harwich, from the Gog Magog Hills. It was a short journey from Percy Botterell's home in the village of Burnley, in the New Forest and when May visited their family during Percy's absence, Leech stayed close by, often in the gate lodge or in Christchurch, where he painted its Priory and its Colonnade and the Lady's Chapel. He wrote to his New Zealand friend, the artist Sydney Lough Thompson, informing him 'There is quite a lot of sunshine here, it must be one of the sunniest places in England, and there are boats & water, though the boats are really yachts.'
Yet, in this painting Still Water Leech has captured small, flat-bottomed boats and rowing boats, tucked into a corner of this quiet, peaceful creek. The boat in the foreground leads the viewer's eye to the moored boats beyond, in a typical Leech diagonal composition. At nearly 70 years, he has lost none of his skill in rendering 'sunlight and reflections' which Dermod O'Brien had observed in 2010, forty years previously.
Dr Denise Ferran, August 2026.
