Benjamin Williams Leader British (1831–1923)
Oil on canvas – Worcester Cathedral signed and dated 1888
59 cm by 90 cm (23 inches by 35 inches)
Frame measures- 960 cm by 1265 cm (378 inches by 498 inches)
Leader was born in Worcester as Benjamin Leader Williams, the third child of eleven children, to Edward Leader Williams (1802–1879) and Sarah Whiting (1801–1888). Leader’s father was a keen amateur artist, and a friend of John Constable and Benjamin would often accompany him on sketching trips along the banks of the River Severn. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, and worked at his father’s office as a draughtsman while studying art in the evenings at the Worcester School of Design.
In 1854 when he was 23, he was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy Schools in London and in his first year he had a picture accepted for an exhibition there. The painting Cottage children blowing bubbles sold to an American buyer for £50. Subsequently, his work appeared in every summer exhibition at the academy until 1922, when Leader was 91 years old. He also had some early works exhibited at the National Institution of Fine Arts, Portland Place in 1857–58. In 1857 he changed his name to Benjamin Williams Leader to distinguish himself from the many other painters with the surname Williams. In 1863, his work The Churchyard at Bettwys-y-Coed was purchased by the Prime Minister William Gladstone. In August 1876, Leader married fellow artist Mary Eastlake (born c. 1852) and they had 6 children. By the 1880’s Leader had developed his distinctive style that portrayed the natural effects of light especially the setting sun which can be appreciated in this painting. In 1881, February Fill Dyke was exhibited at the Royal Academy to great acclaim and Leader was made an associate (ARA) in 1883, becoming a Royal Academician (RA) in 1898.
In 1889, he was made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, an honour secured on the recommendation of French artist Meissonier. In 1914 he was made an Honorary Freeman of the City of Worcester in recognition of his services as a director of Royal Worcester Porcelain and a native of the city. He died at home in Surrey on the 22nd of March 1923.
Today his paintings are found in the Victoria and Albert Museum and Tate Gallery in London, Huddersfield Art Gallery, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and in Worcester where the largest collection of his works can be seen. Internationally The Cambridge gallery in Santa Monica and Chazen Museum of Art in Madison, Wisconsin have examples of his work.
Leader who became one of the most celebrated landscape artists of the Victorian age commanded the highest prices of any British artist for his paintings at the height of his fame and in November 2003 at Sotheby’s A Summer’s Day (1888) measuring a large 52 x 84 inches sold for £168,000