Beschreibung:

Benjamin Williams Leader R.A.British1831 - 1923The Young Mother
signed and dated B.W. Leader. 1856. lower left and numbered, inscribed and signed No 1 The young mother. / B Leader. / Diglis House. Worcester. on an old label attached to the stretcheroil on canvasUnframed: 46.2 by 61.5cm., 18 by 24¼in.Framed: 67.5 by 82.5cm., 26½ by 32½in.Condition reportThe picture appears to be unlined with the original canvas providing a stable structural support. There are no obvious signs of craquelure and the paint surface is clean - the picture is ready to hang. Examination under ultra-violet reveals retouchings to the extremities where they had been rubbed by the rebate of the frame. There are very minor spots of localised retouching amongst the shadows in the hearth and to the staircase on the right - these are very minor and have been well executed.
The lot is sold in the condition it is in at the time of sale. The condition report is provided to assist you with assessing the condition of the lot and is for guidance only. Any reference to condition in the condition report for the lot does not amount to a full description of condition. The images of the lot form part of the condition report for the lot. Certain images of the lot provided online may not accurately reflect the actual condition of the lot. In particular, the online images may represent colors and shades which are different to the lot's actual color and shades. The condition report for the lot may make reference to particular imperfections of the lot but you should note that the lot may have other faults not expressly referred to in the condition report for the lot or shown in the online images of the lot. The condition report may not refer to all faults, restoration, alteration or adaptation. The condition report is a statement of opinion only. For that reason, the condition report is not an alternative to taking your own professional advice regarding the condition of the lot. NOTWITHSTANDING THIS ONLINE CONDITION REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE/BUSINESS APPLICABLE TO THE RESPECTIVE SALE.ProvenanceThe collection of the artist; thence by family descent
Richard Green, LondonLiteratureWorcestershire Chronicle, 11 June 1856, p. 2
Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 6 September 1856, ‘Exhibition of the Works of Modern Artists, Worcester Society of Arts’, p. 6
Illustrated London News, 22 November 1890, ‘Minor Art Exhibitions, The French Gallery’, p. 655
Lewis Lusk, ‘The Life and Work of B. W. Leader, R.A’, London, Art Journal, Christmas Art Annual, London, 1901, pp. 13, 16, 32, illustrated
Frank Lewis, Benjamin Williams Leader R.A. 1831-1923, Leigh-on-Sea, 1971, pp. 12, 28, 31, no. 6
Ruth Wood, Benjamin Williams Leader His Life and Paintings, Woodbridge, 1998, pp. 18-19, 20, illustrated colour pl. 4, 80, 128ExhibitedLondon, Royal Academy, 1856, no. 718
Worcester, Worcester Society of Arts, 1856, no. 205
London, French Gallery, Winter Exhibition, 1890, no. 83Catalogue noteA rare early work by Benjamin Williams Leader The Young Mother dates from 1856 and was exhibited at the Royal Academy that year. The scene is meticulously painted with a bold use of colour showing the interior of a cottage with a mother keeping a watchful eye over her baby, covered with a patchwork quilt and sleeping peacefully in a wicker cradle. At this early stage in his career Leader found inspiration from the compositions of seventeeth century Dutch painters such as Pieter de Hooch as well as from the style of the Pre-Raphaelites, most notably that of John Everett Millais and James Collinson and members of the Cranbrook Colony in Kent, in particular Frederick Daniel Hardy and Thomas Webster who painted scenes from everyday life. 
Leader’s attention to detail and accuracy stemmed from his training as a draughtsman under the supervision of his father, a notable civil engineer with the Severn Navigation Commission and an amateur artist. At this stage Leader was working from an unused coach-house converted into a studio. A small oil sketch gives us a glimpse of the modest arrangement. A photograph of Leader taken c. 1856-7 at about the age of 25, at the time when he was painting The Young Mother and his other early compositions shows a determined and engaging young man at the outset of his long and successful artistic career. Born Benjamin Leader Williams in 1831 in Worcester, by 1857 he decided to be known by his second name Leader, hence he became Benjamin Williams Leader disassociating himself from becoming mixed up with the extensive Williams family of artists, whose works all bore a remarkable similarity to each other. The decision enabled him to become a ‘leader’ in every sense and one of England’s most prolific and popular of painters of the era. 
In the Royal Academy exhibition catalogue, the title of The Young Mother includes lines from Thomas Campbell’s Pleasures of Hope;
"Lo! at the couch where infant beauty sleeps, Her silent watch the mournful mother keeps;She, while the lovely babe unconscious lies,Smiles on her slumbering child with pensive eyes,And weaves a song of melancholy joy.”
Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) was a Scottish poet noted for his sentimental poems and patriotic songs. Pleasures of Hope, written in heroic couplets was published in 1799. Covering such topical issues of the time as the revolutionary zeal in France, the subject of slavery and the partitioning of Poland, it proved so popular that four editions were printed that year. As Ruth Wood states in Benjamin Williams Leader His Life and Paintings (p. 19): ‘It was not unusual for Victorian artists to append quotes from poems which were seen to be relevant to the subject matter of their paintings. It taught the public to equate painting with literature - something to be read, like a poem or novel, in rectangular format. This interior cottage scene of a pretty young mother, neatly groomed and wearing a brilliant turquoise gown, sitting next to the cradle containing her child conveys a sentiment of rustic contentment. This is the way urban exhibition-goers preferred to see rural life depicted, rather than reality where the change from an agricultural-based society to an industrialised one had brought great poverty to rural areas. In spite of the artist’s inadequate grasp of perspective, in the depiction of the staircase for example, a great deal of attention has been paid to the detail of the crude brick and wooden interior with its floor patched with stone slabs, the blackened hearth with the kettle over the fire and bellows hanging nearby, and a cat warming itself. The style of the quilt over the baby in the cane rocking cradle is typical of old Warwickshire quilting. Precedents for such Victorian domestic genre scenes as this were the Dutch paintings of the seventeenth century. They would have been seen at loan exhibitions of old masters, especially those organized by the British Institute in London to give students the opportunity to copy such works.’ 
A Study of a Cottage Interior (Maas Gallery, London) formerly owned by Leader’s daughter Beatrice, is a study for the background interior of The Young Mother. The cottage is likely to have been near Leader’s home in Worcester. As with these early compositions such as The Artist’s Early Studio, Leader has paid great attention to detail, accurately depicting the timbered roof interior, stone floor and hearth, with the open door on the left as the light source. Colburn’s New Monthly Magazine for 1879 says that A Cottage Interior was the title of his 1856 RA exhibit, however, in the printed exhibition catalogue it is named The Young Mother with the verse from Campbell’s poem. 
An in-depth fully illustrated appreciation of Leader was written in 1901 by Lewis Lusk, an Oxford pupil of John Ruskin It was the Christmas Art Annual that year published by the Art Journal and a fitting tribute to the popular artist ‘whose works are a national product, worthy of the country which has produced Constable, Cox and Crome.’ Praising Leader (still going by the name of Williams until 1857), Lusk wrote enthusiastically about The Young Mother (p.16): ‘This remarkable work is influenced by the Pre-Raphaelite style of Millais. Every fold of the dress, every vein of the woodwork, almost every eyelash of the handsome woman and her pretty child, is drawn with exquisite care. Observe the choice of patchwork quilt, so typical of old Warwickshire, and the fine modelling of each face. The whole is as perfect a work of an old Dutch painter. Mr Williams had equipped himself completely at twenty-five, and was ready for anything now.’ 
Following the Royal Academy exhibition in the summer of 1856, the painting was exhibited in the early autumn at the Worcester Society of Arts. Berrow’s Worcester Journal of 6 September 1856 (p. 6) reported: ‘Our local men have largely aided in enhancing the attractions of the Exhibition. Mr B. Williams sends two productions, “The Old Chairmaker” and “The Young Mother”… The Exhibition is open daily from ten till four, and we recommend a visit, confidently assured, that parties will feel themselves amply repaid for the time spent in the inspection.’ However, it appears that The Young Mother remained unsold after the Worcester exhibition and was retained by the artist. Some years later in the winter of 1890 the painting was exhibited at the French Gallery in London’s Pall Mall. This was Leader’s second exhibition at the gallery, founded by Ernest Gambart, the illustrious picture dealer and print publisher. The gallery held annual spring exhibitions of French painting from 1854 until c. 1896, and annual winter exhibitions of British art. Gambart sold the lease of the gallery in 1867 to Henry Wallis who had been managing the gallery since 1861 and although the premises moved around Mayfair from the original location in Pall Mall, the French Gallery continued to operate into the early 20th century. The exhibition in 1890 included over forty works by Leader. ‘It was in effect a retrospective exhibition because the majority of the forty-three works displayed spanned his career from the 1850s to the present time. Exhibits include a number of Royal Academy paintings lent by their owners. The earliest of these, ‘The Young Mother’, exhibited in 1856, was still owned by Leader and the latest exhibit ‘The Sandy Margins of the Sea’ was in the possession of a Rev. S. Cheshire. Other paintings included finished studies and replicas of early Royal Academy works.’ (R. Wood, p. 80). In general, the press was inclined to be more critical than the public, however the report in The Saturday Review, 22 November 1890 (pp. 588-9) stated: ‘… The French Gallery has formed a delightful selection from the works of this most popular artist. The striking aspects of nature that Mr Leader selects are made more emphatic by his bold handling of his subjects, his executive skill is more real than his rapid critics are wont to acknowledge.’