William Leech, R.H.A. 1881-1968

Madame Focastin;
Sale, Sotheby's London, 21 May 1998, lot 339;
Private Collection

Leech painted a series of beach scenes at Concarneau, Les Martiques and Hammamet in Tunisia and his was particularly fond of portraying the effects of the dappled sunlight on water together with the joyful nature of children playing in the sand.

The bold brushwork and vibrant colours of Children on the Beach with Breakers clearly demonstrate the influence of Impressionism on him. In 1909 he had met the so-called English Impressionist, Philip Wilson Steer, in the company of Dermod O'Brien and Steer's fluid handling and sun filled canvases such as Figures on the Beach, Walsberwick (c.1888-89, Tate Britain, London), must have made a strong impression. Steer was a founder member of the New English Art Club where Leech also exhibited from 1910. The thick impasto of the present work also anticipates his adoption of the type of swirling brush work employed by Van Gogh and seen in Leech's seminal A Convent Garden, Brittany painted a year later (National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin).