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© The Artist's Estate
, Irish, 1881-1968
Title
Waving Things, Concarneau
Datec.1908-1911
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions
56 x 82 cm
Signedlower right: Leech
Credit LineBequeathed, Mr R. Best, 1959
Object numberNGI.1423
ProvenanceBequeathed, Dr R.I. Best, 1959Exhibition 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

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.