William Robinson Leigh's Swans represents a dramatic departure from the artist's usual subject matter and style. Although best known for Western landscapes and cowboy and Indian scenes, Leigh did experiment with Impressionism in the early teens, between 1925-7 and again in 1933. Painted in 1913, Swans reveals an obvious influence of Impressionism, with its emphasis on beauty and atmosphere, and Neo-Impressionism, with its scientific approach to color and its orderly application of paint.

Here Leigh has depicted two beautiful swans intertwined at the neck which are shown reflected by the moonlight on the silent waters of a lily pond. Finely executed in a pointillist manner, Swans epitomizes the sweet and tender statements of Impressionism and accordingly assumes a unique and important position in the oeuvre of an artist most recognized for images of a predominantly masculine world.