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Lot Essay
An Autumn Gleam was No. 3 of four paintings that Leader, as an Associate Royal Academician, exhibited at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 1897. After exhibiting at the Royal Academy for 43 years (from 1854), having been an A.R.A. since 1882, his Diary entry for 21 March voiced the frustration he felt. Leader wrote that he was '... out of heart at my treatment by the Academy having come up for election for R.A. time and time again and rejected each time but my works are more popular than ever with the public...'
It is conceivable that it was because of this painting and the other exhibited, that the artist finally achieved his ambition the following year, in 1898. He was elected a full Royal Academician and continued to exhibit at the institution until his death in 1923.
According to Henry Blackburn in his Royal Academy Notes of 1897, this landscape was of a 'tranquil Welsh stream'. Leader has painted his favourite time of the day; the amber luminosity of the late afternoon when the sun is beginning to slip below the horizon. Its last gleams of golden light still remain on the distant hills and on the top of the foliage on the riverbank; their reflections shimmer in the quiet waves of the water.
We are grateful to Ruth Wood for her help in preparing this catalogue entry. Mrs Wood is working on a catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Benjamin Williams Leader.
It is conceivable that it was because of this painting and the other exhibited, that the artist finally achieved his ambition the following year, in 1898. He was elected a full Royal Academician and continued to exhibit at the institution until his death in 1923.
According to Henry Blackburn in his Royal Academy Notes of 1897, this landscape was of a 'tranquil Welsh stream'. Leader has painted his favourite time of the day; the amber luminosity of the late afternoon when the sun is beginning to slip below the horizon. Its last gleams of golden light still remain on the distant hills and on the top of the foliage on the riverbank; their reflections shimmer in the quiet waves of the water.
We are grateful to Ruth Wood for her help in preparing this catalogue entry. Mrs Wood is working on a catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Benjamin Williams Leader.