Studio RT Ltd

Description

This is a very well executed watercolour of the Brecon Beacons by the artist John Henry Leonard, who has signed the painting in the lower right hand corner and entitled it in the left. The painting depicts the distant mountains of the Brecon Beacons. The Brecon Beacons is a mountain range in South Wales. In a narrow sense, the name refers to the range of Old Red Sandstone peaks which lie to the south of Brecon. In the rolling grassland to the foreground, there is a shepherd with his flock of sheep. There appears to be a shower approaching from the dark cloud to the left.

John Henry Leonard was born in 1834 in Patrington, a village near Hull in Yorkshire, and baptised on 24th August of that year. 1849-1860 he was living in York, where he was a pupil of William Moore, father of John, William and Albert Moore, and he was a close friend of Henry Moore throughout his life. During this time, he was engaged in architectural and lithographic drawing. (His architectural abilities are shown to great effect in some of his paintings of historic buildings). He moved to Newcastle, where his entry in the 1861 Census stated that he was an Artist & Lithographer.

In 1962 he settled in London, but on 7th May 1863 married Priscilla Jane Lawrence, a native of Breconshire, which may date this watercolour. They returned to London and by 1871, were living at 11 Turret Grove, Clapham with three young children. When he first came to London, he did some architectural drawing for Messrs. R. H. and Digby Wyatt, but later concentrated solely on painting landscapes and architectural subject mostly in watercolours, but occasionally in oils. By the Census of 1881, another son James had been born and the family were living at a very prestigious address in Kensington at 24 Campden Hill Gardens.

From 1886 to his death in 1904, he was Professor of Landscape Painting at Queen's College, Harley Street. During his painting career, he had travelled in France, Belgium and Holland.

He is listed in The Dictionary of British Artists (Collectors' Club), The Dictionary of Victorian Painters by Christopher Wood, Painters in the Northern Counties of England and Wales by Dennis Child and The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists by H. Mallalieu who stated about J. H. Leonard 'He remains always a precise and often rather old-fashioned draughtsman, but at this best his landscapes are Mole-like and his sheep in the manner of T. S. Cooper.' There are examples of his work in the British Museum.

He exhibited 99 paintings at London Exhibitions including 5 at the Royal Academy and 33 at Suffolk Street and, considering this quite considerable number, very few seem to come to the market, with only 18 being auctioned over the last 20 years, according to artprice. The record for one of his watercolours was £600 at Gorringes, Worthing in 2010.

The paintign is double mounted in two tone acid free mountboard to complement and is framed in a 1.5cm mottled gilt frame. It will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size: 10 5/8" x 7 1/4" - 27cm x 18.4cm

Frame size: 17 3/8" x 14 1/4" - 44.15cm x 36.15cm

Medium: Watercolours on paper

Condition: Excellent. No foxing or fading. The mounts are new and the frame is in good condition.