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Lot Essay
William Robinson Leigh, born on a Southern plantation in 1866, knew struggle and adversity from his birth. After the war, the once comfortable Leigh family found their plantation in ruins, their help gone, and very little money left to their name. Young William showed immense talent as an artist, and through the financial help of his aunt and uncle, he was able to attend the Maryland Institute in Baltimore. He excelled at the Institute and in 1883, he enrolled at the Royal Academy in Munich, where he spent the next 12 years. From his Munich years, he emerged as an artist who was a superb draftsman with a strong sense of line, a vigorous brush technique with a high-keyed palette and canvases that were highly finished. Also in keeping with the Munich tradition, he chose genre as the primary subject of his painting.
Leigh settled in New York in 1896 and began his struggle to be an independent fine artist. After searching without success for a patron, he accepted a position as an illustrator for Scribner's and Sons confessing, "At all costs I had hoped to avoid illustrating, yet it seems as if I were doomed to do it." (D.D. Cummings, William Robinson Leigh: Western Artist, Norman and Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1980, p. 82) He maintained this position for more than a decade, often traveling for the magazine to create illustrations for various stories for publication. Leigh found the job to be personally and artistically unsatisfying. However through his work for the magazine, he was able to survive.
In 1906, Albert Goring, a former fellow Munich student, invited Leigh to visit Laguna, New Mexico. Leigh desperately needed a new environment and fresh artistic stimulation, but could not afford the fare for the trip. At this time, the Santa Fe Railroad advertising division was sponsoring art expeditions to the west for their calendar series. Leigh appealed to the advertising manager and so accepted a painting commission in trade for a railroad ticket to Laguna. In September of that year, Leigh arrived in Laguna, and ". . . thoroughly enchanted declared, 'I stood alone in a strange and thrilling scene. At last I was on the land where I was to prove whether I was fit -- worthy of the opportunity -- able to do it justice -- or just a dunderhead.' There in New Mexico, all of the pieces fell into place: the Munich training that so strongly emphasized genre subjects, his own long-standing attraction to nature, and the new idea that he had adopted from [Thomas] Moran: that of producing truly native art." (William Robinson Leigh: Western Artist, pp. 86-87)
Over the next several years, Leigh made many trips west and endeavored to make the west his home. In his work, he remained true to his Munich training, striving for accurate realism in his highly finished canvases depicting Native Americans, whom he grew to respect and admire. The Scout is a superb example of Leigh's skillful handling of draftsmanship, vivid palette and idealistic realism. The dramatic composition depicts a Native Scout on his mount as he negotiates a precarious trail above a steep embankment. Leigh places his subject high above a vast, endless landscape, with a full view of approaching foe.
Leigh settled in New York in 1896 and began his struggle to be an independent fine artist. After searching without success for a patron, he accepted a position as an illustrator for Scribner's and Sons confessing, "At all costs I had hoped to avoid illustrating, yet it seems as if I were doomed to do it." (D.D. Cummings, William Robinson Leigh: Western Artist, Norman and Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1980, p. 82) He maintained this position for more than a decade, often traveling for the magazine to create illustrations for various stories for publication. Leigh found the job to be personally and artistically unsatisfying. However through his work for the magazine, he was able to survive.
In 1906, Albert Goring, a former fellow Munich student, invited Leigh to visit Laguna, New Mexico. Leigh desperately needed a new environment and fresh artistic stimulation, but could not afford the fare for the trip. At this time, the Santa Fe Railroad advertising division was sponsoring art expeditions to the west for their calendar series. Leigh appealed to the advertising manager and so accepted a painting commission in trade for a railroad ticket to Laguna. In September of that year, Leigh arrived in Laguna, and ". . . thoroughly enchanted declared, 'I stood alone in a strange and thrilling scene. At last I was on the land where I was to prove whether I was fit -- worthy of the opportunity -- able to do it justice -- or just a dunderhead.' There in New Mexico, all of the pieces fell into place: the Munich training that so strongly emphasized genre subjects, his own long-standing attraction to nature, and the new idea that he had adopted from [Thomas] Moran: that of producing truly native art." (William Robinson Leigh: Western Artist, pp. 86-87)
Over the next several years, Leigh made many trips west and endeavored to make the west his home. In his work, he remained true to his Munich training, striving for accurate realism in his highly finished canvases depicting Native Americans, whom he grew to respect and admire. The Scout is a superb example of Leigh's skillful handling of draftsmanship, vivid palette and idealistic realism. The dramatic composition depicts a Native Scout on his mount as he negotiates a precarious trail above a steep embankment. Leigh places his subject high above a vast, endless landscape, with a full view of approaching foe.