Lot 25: William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) CHILDREN ON THE BEACH WITH BREAKERS, 1912

signed lower left; signed, dedicated [A Madame Focastin et sa fille] and dated on stretcher (now concealed)

h:10 w:12.25in.

oil on canvas

Collection of Madame Focastin;
Sotheby's, 21 May 1998, lot 339;
Private collection;
Sotheby's, 9 May 2007, lot 61;
Private collection

In 1899 a major loan exhibition comprising eighty-eight paintings by contemporary avantgarde painters - including works by Monet, Degas, Manet, Whistler and Wilson Steer -was held in Dublin. Leech later recalled his experience of encountering these works to Leo Smith: "…what a sudden revelation! Doors and windows thrown open and the darkness invaded by light and air, it was the beginning for me."
Among the examples included in the 1899 exhibition was Monet's landscape Argenteuil basin with a Single Sail-Boat, 1874 (Bequeathed to the National Gallery of Ireland, 1924, NGI.852). In her text on the artist Denise Ferran describes how "…the compelling simplicity of Monet's landscape… bathed in light… may have strengthen Leech's desire to become a landscape painter." The effects of dappled sunlight on the water, the lightness of the palette and the heavy impasto of the present example demonstrate a clear appreciation of Monet. Leech painted a series of beach scenes in France at Concarneau, Les Martigues and in Hammamet in Tunisia.

For further reading see: Denise Ferran, William John Leech: An Irish Painter Abroad, NGI, Dublin, 1996, p.19-23