ART AND ARTISTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2823, 22 April 1908, Page 86

ART AND ARTISTS.

MR B. W. LEADER.

Mr Leader, R.A., m an article m P.T.O. on "My First Success," writes: — Whatever may be the case from the public point of view, or from his subsequent career, I doubt whether any success ever appears to an artist as great as the sale of his first picture. Certainly lam free to confess that I have never had any satisfaction equal to that which resulted from the sale of my first picture, " Cottage Children Blowing Bubbles." Perhaps one reason for the feeling is that it meant my father giving his consent to enable me to follow art as a career, and m tliat way it practically dcided the whole of my future life. — Beginnings. — My father was a civil engineer, and was the engineer to the Severn Navigation Company. Not unnaturally, he desired that I also should follow his own profession. To that end, whon I left school, as I did at 14, he took me into his office, where I remained until I was 21. X During thoee years the desire to be a painter had grown stronger and stronger, and on the day I came of age I told my father that I had made up my mind to give up engineering and follow art as a profession. My father, who had always had a great feeling for art, was an amateur painter, and a friend of Constable, and told me he would throw no obstacle m my way; that I should remain at home for twelve months to try what I could do at painting, and if I was not successful with, it I should return to the engineering work, so ac to he sure of a livelihood. — First Academy Picture.— I at one© set to work to paint a picture for the Academy of the next year. I selected an old Worcestershire cottage, with some children playing m the foreground, and m order to make studies for every detail, I used to walk to a village three miles from our house to sketch the cottage which I had selected to use. In the same way, I made careful studies for the trees m the background and the various objects m the foreground, and used my younger brothere and sisters as the models for the children. I then, painted my picture, which, m due course, was sent to the Academy. I put the price of fifty pounds on it, and it was bought before the exhibition closed, although, so far as -I am aware, such merits as. it possessed were unrecognised either by the critics or the public. The purchaser was Jin American, and I have cause to be grateful to that country, for many of my piotures have gone there, and some have been bought for their public galleries. —"February Fill Dyke."— From the point of view of the public, however, my first success was made with "February Fill Dyke," whioh was hung m the first room of the Academy, and attracted a good deal of notice. The title was an unusual one for those days, and that also lent some interest to it). The trustees of the Chantry Fund wanted to buy it, but it was already sold, and the purchaser refused to part with it. At the time I painted it I was living at Whittington, about three miles from Worcester. One evening, as I looked out of one cf my windows at the back of the house, I caw the evening sunlight reflected m some puddles left by a heavy fall of rain. I had never seen that painted before, and it occurred to me it would not only be new, but it would also make a good subject. I therefore decided to paint the picture, which, m part at least, represents the view from that window. It was followed the next year by my picture, "In the Evening Time it Shall be Light," whioh was a still greater success. It was a view m an old churchyard, close to my house m Whittington, and was painted as a commission given to me by Sir William Agnew. When I told him the subject I had selected, ho wa? decidedly fearful for the result, as he thought it would not be a success by reason of the fact that it dealt with a churchyard and graves. Still, I was so taken with the subject that I determined to carry it out. When it was finished, the then Dean of Wercester (the late Bishop of Ely), Lord Alwyn Compton, and his wife, who both had a keen appreciation of art, came to see me. Lady Alwyn Compton, immediately on looking at the picture, which stood on an easel m my studio, quoted the words, "In the Evening Time it Shall be Light," as being a particularly apt title for the picture. I was so impressed with her suggestion that I immediately adopted it. — Scriptural Titles.— Other painters have, apparently, been equally impressed with it since that time, for they, too, have used it. The result of my use of a scriptural title has been that I have frequently gone to the Bible for other titles, such as, "He Maketh me Lie Down m Oreen Pastures" "He Leadeth me Beside the Still Waters." I often read the old poets, too, for the special purpose of gnding titles fo rmy pictures. When Sir William Agnew saw the finished picture all his fears vanished, and he wrote me a most charming letter of congratulation on the subjeot. Eventually he sold it to the late Sir John Pender, and on the dispersal of the latter's collection, after hjs death, my picture was sold at Christie's for 1200 guineas. As I had received 400 guineas for it, I had every reason to be satisfied' with the appreciation bf the value which that sale suggested. 1 borrowed the picture from Sir John Pender to send it to the Frenoh Exhibition m 1889, and was awarded the Gold Medal and the Cross of the legion of Honour. Yet m the notice of the Royal Academy the year it was exhibited, the Art Journal said:. "No, 737.

'In the Evening Time i. Shall be Light.' A coarsely-painted picture by Mr Leader." — The Critics.— In contrast to that notice, I would mention one m the Magazine of Art, which, after describing the picture at great length m most flattering terms, said: "The picture is probably intended to bear an allegorical reference to a human life, m which there is no light until the hidden sun of joy has set. It has proved one of the most popular landscapes of the year, its rather violent effects have taken the general eye, and its slight allusiveness has endeared it to the general heart. It has probably had as much success as any work which doc 6 not contain a quite implicit human interest is likely to gain m England, and, moreover, by its skilful execution, it has deserved not a little the success it has achieved." In this connection I may tell you an amusing anecdote which was overheard by a friend of mine at the press view of the Royal Academy one year. Two critics were talking together. 'One of them, who was evidently a novice, was asking the other for some general advice on the subject of the way he should go about his work, and said : " What about the landscapes?" " Well," said the other, ""you are perfectly safe m blackguarding Leader and m praising C. M. and W." — A Record. — These two pictures, "February Fill Dyke" and "In the Evening Time is Shall be Light," led to my being elected an Associate of the Royal Academy. Mr Frith, the doyen of the Royal Academicians, told me I was the only instance of a man who was nearly elected 20 years before and beailen by only one vote coming up again after so long an interval and being successful.