William John Leech, Irish, 1881-1968
Title: Interior of a Café
Date: c.1908
Medium: Oil on canvas
Credit Line: Heritage Gift, Mr Patrick J. Kilmartin, 2003
Object Number: NGI.4723
ProvenanceBy descent from the Artist to J.W.C. Leech; Pyms Gallery, London; Heritage Gift, Mr Patrick J. Kilmartin, 2003
Exhibition HistoryPossibly Goupil Gallery, London, 1912; subsequently Reading, 1912
William John Leech: An Irish Painter Abroad, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; Musee des Beaux Arts, Quimper; Ulster Museum, Belfast, 1996-1997
Taking Stock: Acquisitions 2000-2010, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 13 March 2010 -25 July 2010
William John Leech: An Irish Painter Abroad, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin; Musee des Beaux Arts, Quimper; Ulster Museum, Belfast, 1996-1997
Taking Stock: Acquisitions 2000-2010, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 13 March 2010 -25 July 2010
Label TextThis is one of several sophisticated interior views that Leech painted in Brittany. Each is characterised by a sombre palette that Leech would later lighten and broaden considerably. The picture is unusual in that it is not immediately recognisable as a Breton scene. Rather than introducing figures in local costume, Leech includes a waiter in the generic uniform of his profession, who might as easily be an urban character as a provincial one. Similarly, the interior itself resembles those that had featured for decades in paintings of Paris.