Biografie von William Robinson LEIGH (1866-1955)

Birth place: Berkeley County, WV

Death place: NYC

Addresses: NYC

Profession: Painter, writer, illustrator, lecturer, sculptor, teacher

Studied: Maryland Inst. with Hugh Newell, 1880-83; Royal Acad., Munich, with Raupp, 1883-84, Gysis, 1885-86, Loefftz, 1887; Lindenscmid, 1891-92.

Exhibited: Paris Salon, 1892; NAD, 1894-1900; Royal Acad., Munich (med.); Corcoran Gal. biennials, 1910, 1914; Appalachian Expo, Knoxville, TN, 1911 (prize); AIC; Babcock Gal. (solo); Grand Central Art Gal., 1939, 1941, 1944 (solos); Gumps Gal., San Fran., 1944 (solo); Wash. County Mus. FA, 1950, 1952 (solos); Maryland Inst., Balt., 1950 (solo); Gerald Peters Gal., NYC, 1998 (solo, African paintings of 1926)

Member: Allied Artists Am.; SC; Author's Lg.; AWCS

Work: Phillips Mus., Bartlesville, OK; African Hall, AMNH; Munich; Washington & Lee Univ.; Nayasset Club, Springfield, MA; Huntington (NY) Mus. FA; 534 oils and 344 charcoals in Gilcrease Inst., Tulsa, OK; AMNH, NYC; Acad. of Natural Sciences, Phila.

Comments: In 1896 Leigh began his career as an illustrator in NYC ó although he aspired to be a painter of western scenes. In 1906, he finally made his first trip out West, painting the Grand Canyon for the Santa Fe Railroad Co. They subsequently commissioned five more western paintings from him and, although he eventually returned to NYC, Leigh continued to paint out West whenever possible. Painted several Virginia landscapes as well. Leigh's other achievements include his commission from the the American Mus. of Natural History to visit Africa with Carl Akeley and produce the painted backgrounds for the museum's African Hall. These dioramas still remain on view today. He and his wife, Ethel Traphagen, founded the Traphagen School of Fashion in New York City. Author/illustrator, Frontiers of Enchantment (1938), and other books. Contrib.: Scribners; Natural History; Colliers.

Sources: WW53; WW47; P&H Samuels, 284; exh. cat., William R. Leigh, African Landscapes (Gerald Peters Gallery, NYC, 1998); Sotheby's, "The American West: the John F. Eulich Collection," May 20, 1998; 300 Years of American Art, vol. 2: 601; Wright, Artists in Virgina Before 1900; Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons, 365.