William John Leech, Irish, 1881-1968
Title: Waving Things, Concarneau
Date: c.1908-1911
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
56 x 82 cm
Signed: lower right: Leech
Credit Line: Bequeathed, Mr R. Best, 1959
Object Number: NGI.1423
ProvenanceBequeathed, Dr R.I. Best, 1959
Exhibition HistoryBaillie Gallery, London, January 1911
William John Leech: An Irish Painter Abroad, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 23 October 1996 - 15 December 1996; Musée des Beaux Arts, Quimper, 10 January - 10 March 1997; The Ulster Museum, Belfast, 28 March- 22 June 1997
Von Poussin bis Monet. Die Farben Frankreichs, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 10 October 2015 - 17 January 2016
William John Leech: An Irish Painter Abroad, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 23 October 1996 - 15 December 1996; Musée des Beaux Arts, Quimper, 10 January - 10 March 1997; The Ulster Museum, Belfast, 28 March- 22 June 1997
Von Poussin bis Monet. Die Farben Frankreichs, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, 10 October 2015 - 17 January 2016
Label TextLeech lived in Concarneau in Brittany, from c.1906-08 and again from 1925-33. During his time there, he painted many views of the coastal landscape. This painting with its visible brushstrokes, reduced forms, and grey-blue tones indicates Leech’s interest in the work of James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Although the painting’s title identifies the location depicted as Concarneau, it also conveys the artist’s aesthetic preoccupation with abstraction, pattern, and movement.