William Leighton Leitch who usually went with ‘William Leighton’ was born in Glasgow, the largest city in Scotland. He was born on November 22, 1804. His father was a sailor and later became a soldier. He had an inclination for art from a very young age.
William Leitch would practice and learn in the nights along with his friend and colleague David Macnee.
A good education led young William to work at a lawyers office. After this, he worked as a weaver for a while until his breakthrough when he received an opportunity to work as an apprentice along with a painter and home decorator – Mr. Harbut.
While he was only 20 years old, he was working as the scene painter for the Theatre Royal at Glasgow. However, the theatre itself couldn’t survive long and failed in two years. He then moved to a city in East Ayrshire known as Mauchline. Here, he took small jobs such as decorating and painting little coffin shaped boxes which were common back in the day. They were called snuff boxes.
William decided to move to London and learn and experience more in order to make a fortune. He met another Scottish painter David Roberts and an English marine painter called Clarkson Stanfield. They were already at the peak of their careers when they helped William Leighton get employed at the Queen’s Theatre as a scene painter. He started lessons with another watercolor expert, Anthony Vandyke Copley Fielding. Under his guidance and some reference, a stockbroker hired William Leighton as a painter for some of his writing work.
In the year 1832, he exhibited two drawings at the Society of British Artists. After this, he traveled throughout the continent of Europe covering Holland, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. In Venice, he met and became close friends with Miklos Barabas, a Hungarian painter. William Leighton had great influence over his life. He lived and spent time in Italy and made a living by making a number of sketches in Italy and Sicily, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.
After four years, he returned to London in July 1837. He was absolutely passionate about painting as well as teaching watercolor paintings. He was blessed with success as a teacher. His paintings became a sort of buzz all around England and the painter Leighton was finally introduced to Queen Victoria by Lady Canning – the first Vicereine of India and a British Artist. Queen Victoria was impressed with his marvelous work and appointed him as the drawing master that belonged to the Palace. He served a royal painter for the next 22 years.
He was the vice president of the Royal Academy, Institute of Painters in Watercolours for a period of 20 years. He would exhibit his paintings but not on regular basis. William became dedicated after a period and then only exhibited at the Royal Academy. William Leighton died on April 25, 1883 at his home in St. John’s Wood, London. A huge collection of his work was exhibited at Piccadilly, Westminster, London.
William Leighton was known for his study of nature and their graceful and excellent presentation on paper with purity in color. He was also distinguished for his portrayal of bright atmosphere His works were not only applauded by the monarchs but also by the scholars and aristocrats of the Royal Academy.
Snow-capped peak
A crisp morning, Kilchurn Castle
The Bass Rock
Scottish Romantic Landscape
Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini's Scala Regia in the Apostolic Palace, Vatican, drawing by Leitch, engraving by E. Challis
Lake of Garda
A Sailing Boat on a River
A Ruined Castle on a Lake
Palermo cathedral, drawing by Leitch, engraving by J.H. Le Keux
Mediterranean Scene
A River Landscape, possibly Near the Lago Maggiore
Isola Bella from the Isola dei Pescatori, Lake Maggiore
Santa Maria della Salute, Venice
Balmoral castle, drawn by Leitch, engraved by J. Godfrey
The Square of the Fountain, Adrianople (after Leitch)
Northumberland: Norham Castle
Classical Composition
Church of Santa Maria Del Carmine, Naples
Lake Como, Italy
Crossing the Lake Killarney
Study of Hall Furniture at Blair Castle
Moorland landscape (Tree Study)
The City of Cologne, engraved by M.J. Starling after Leitch
Radcliffe Camera, Oxford
Interior of the Cathedral, Messina
View above the Capua, Southern Italy
Tulleveolan, engraving by William Miller after Leitch, from Eight Engravings in Illustration of Waverley
A Windmill by a Country Road
Landscape
Boat scene at Milan, drawing by Leitch, engraving by T. Higham
The Pantheon in Rome, drawing by Leitch, engraving by W.B. Cooke
View on a North Italian Lake
Mosque interior
St. Goar um 1835, engraving by J.W. Archer after Leitch
Bethlehem engraving by William Miller after Leitch
Castle Rushen, Castleton, Isle of Man, engraving by William Miller after Leitch
Peel Castle, Isle of Man, engraving by William Miller after Leitch
Haywards Heath
A Parkland View at Dusk
Leitch was elected a member of the Institute of Painters in Watercolours in 1862.
Quotes from others about the person
Mr. Leitch, when he died was not only an old man – his art was an old-fashioned art. His work… was a survival from the past. It was unlike such work of our day as is just now most fashionable. It was not that Mr. Leitch’s reference to Nature was itself infrequent, but that his reference to the stores and to the traditions of Art was continual. He was not impulsive, he was a learned painter. The problems of composition in landscape, with which few are now occupied, Mr. Leitch habitually solved. His work, therefore, never prided itself on being a transcript from the Nature that inspired it. It was an adaptation for the purposes of art.
William Leighton was married to Sussana Smellie, while he was working at the Theatre Royal in Glasgow, Scotland. He had five sons and two daughters. Only two of his children could see their father’s funeral. The eldest son Robert – a good watercolor painter died in 1882.
