WILLIAM ROBINSON LEIGH
(American, 1866-1955)
A Horse-Fair Pilgrimage
oil on paper mounted on canvas
signed W.R. Leigh lower right
15 7/8 x 15 1/8 in., frame: 23 1/2 x 22 1/2 in.
Provenance: Private Collection, Old Lyme, Connecticut; with Cooley Gallery, Old Lyme, Connecticut; Private Collection, New York, New York.

Literature: Scribner’s Magazine, October 1901, vol. 30, no. 4: Nadal, E.S., A Horse-Fair Pilgrimage, illus p. 389.

Exhibitions: National Sporting Library and Museum, Middleburg, VA. Afield in America: 400 Years of Animal and Sporting Art. October 8, 2011 - January 14, 2012.

Other Notes: Artist William Robinson Leigh developed his refined, realist painting style as a student at the Raupp-Royal Academy in Munich from 1883. He returned to the United States in 1896 and applied his precise draftsmanship towards illustrations for Scribner’s and Collier’s publications. The artist traveled out West in 1906 after brokering a deal for train fare with the Santa Fe Railroad in exchange for a painting of the Grand Canyon. Thereafter, subjects of the American West became a central focus of the artist, and he developed a keen skill for capturing the musculature of animals and livestock. Leigh’s signature compositions are illuminated by light, crisp representations of space and form, as can be seen in this original oil painting for an illustration that the artist did for Scribner’s Magazine in October 1901. The scene accompanied a story entitled “A Horse-Fair Pilgrimage” by E.S. Nadal.