: Research

Researchers in Amgueddfa Cymru in collaboration with Concordia University, Montreal have uncovered new information about the life and work of the elusive 17th-century portrait painter, Thomas Leigh. It is now thought that there were two painters named Thomas Leigh – a father and son – but hopefully more paintings can be discovered helping to shed light on the life of these elusive family painters!

T. Leigh: the enigma

Researching the work of a little-known 17th-century painter can be a difficult task. In some cases all we have left of a painter’s life is the work left behind. Such was the case with Thomas Leigh.

In 1941, the art historian Maurice Brockwell sent out a plea for information on the 'obscure' painter T. Leigh. 'It is strange that we still know nothing about his origin, place and date of birth.. marriage, and death,' he wrote.¹

At the time Leigh was known by signature alone, which appeared on six portraits including that of Robert Davies of Gwysaney. Even his first name was in doubt.

Since then research has uncovered several additional portraits by Leigh, bringing the total up to thirteen; and new evidence has emerged which gives us a tantalising glimpse into his life.

Fig.3: Unknown British artist, Lady Mutton, about 1640, NMW A 3742

Fig.4: Unknown British artist, Sir Peter Mutton, 17th century, NMW A 3741

Fig.5: Unknown British artist, Llanerch, Denbighshire, Wales, c. 1667, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection B1976.7.115

In search of a forgotten painter

The process of rediscovering a 'lost' identity involves much trawling through original documents and inventories in local archives. Such searches can yield surprising results.

The earliest found reference tells us Leigh was in London in 1613/14, where he was twice called to court: firstly for setting a prisoner loose and secondly for getting into a dispute with a boatman! ² Records indicate he then left London for Chester, where he began to work for established local painters, including John Souch.

A document found in the Cheshire archives produced an unexpected twist. There it is recorded that in 1642 the painter Edward Bellen took on two new journeymen: Thomas Leigh and his son.³ This new piece of evidence suggests that there were in fact two painters called 'T. Leigh', father and son, and that they worked together at one point.

A Cheshire man?

Evidence suggests that the Leighs not only worked in Cheshire, but most likely came from there too. We may never be able to firmly establish their identities however, as almost twenty Thomas Leighs are recorded as living there in the 17th century — and there may have been more!

A large circle of painters were active in 17th-century Chester. Most painted houses, coats of arms and heralds, but the more ambitious tried their hand at portraiture, to meet a growing demand among the gentry for portraits to hang in their country houses.

Many portrait painters active in Britain during this period were foreign-born. They brought with them new styles and advanced painting techniques which influenced British painters. Leigh appears to have been influenced by the quiet naturalism of Cornelius Johnson, who was born to Dutch parents. Some believe he may even have trained under him.⁴

The Davies family portraits

Amgueddfa Cymru owns two portraits by Thomas Leigh — those of Robert Davies of Gwysaney, and his wife Anne (figs.1-2). Both were painted in 1643 to hang at Llannerch Hall, the home of Anne's parents, Sir Peter Mutton and his wife (figs.3-5). Leigh also painted Anne's sister Eleanor, but the current location of her portrait is unknown.

It was common practice for painters to produce copies of portraits for different members of a family, and Thomas Leigh painted identical versions of these to hang at Gwysaney, the Davies family estate.

We do not know why the Davies family commissioned this group of portraits at this point in time, but it may indicate a sense of family pride and achievement. Just a decade earlier Robert had married Anne - who was just 12 years old at the time - uniting the estates of Gwysaney and Llannerch.

Can you help?

Few painters in the early 17th century signed their work, but two different signatures have been left behind by the Leighs. It is tempting to speculate that one is the signature of the elder Leigh, and the other of his son, but this is difficult to prove.

There are doubtless other portraits by Thomas Leigh waiting to be discovered. Have you seen his signature on a portrait other than those listed? It may provide the missing link which could shed more light on the life of these elusive family painters!

Signature 1

Signature 2 - Reproduced with kind permission of The National Trust, Trerice

NMW A(L) 606
Ceri Richards
The Pianist
1949
Pencil, indian ink and watercolour
38.2 x 56.2 cms
On loan from the Derek Williams Trust since 1984
© Estate of Ceri Richards. All rights reserved, DACS
2010

NMW A(L) 561
Josef Herman
Three Welsh Miners
About 1966
Oil on canvas
66 x 51 cms
On loan from the Derek Williams Trust since 1984
Copyright of Artist's Estate

NMW A(L) 577
Ben Nicholson
1944-45 (Painting)
1944-45
pencil and watercolour on board
17.2 x 16.8 cms
On loan from the Derek Williams Trust since 1984 © Angela Verren Taunt 2010. All rights reserved, DACS.

Derek Mathias Tudor Williams F.R.I.C.S. (1929-1984) has been the greatest benefactor to Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales since Gwendoline and Margaret Davies.

Derek Williams was a modest and private man, based in Cardiff and Pontypridd as a chartered surveyor, who enjoyed many pursuits, including golf, opera, photography, but most of all collecting contemporary art. He gained immense satisfaction from building his collection and displaying it within his numerous residences.

The collection contains a large number of works by the British neo-romantics, including Ceri Richards, John Piper, David Jones and Keith Vaughan. This element is supported by the work of other artists of this period such as Lucian Freud, Josef Herman, Ivon Hitchens, Graham Sutherland, Ben Nicholson and Henry Moore.

In 1984 Derek Williams died, requesting in his Will that his collection and the residue of his estate be held in trust, allowing his trustees to undertake the care and public display of the works of art, in addition to contributing to the enhancement of the collection. The Derek Williams Trust was formed by his executors in 1992, which in the following year made a formal agreement with the Museum to work together in order to fulfil the wishes of Derek Williams.

The Trust’s collection has since been on long-term loan to the Museum and there have been over fifty works added and more continue to be acquired every year. A number of pictures by leading painters of the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, including Michael Craig-Martin, Craigie Aitchison, Sean Scully and Howard Hodgkin form a strong component of the new additions.

The original Derek Williams collection continues to be strengthened and consolidated by the purchase of major works by artists of the mid-twentieth century, among them Ceri Richards, Henry Moore, John Minton and Edward Burra. Interest in contemporary international art has been expressed through the regular purchase of works by artists featured in Artes Mundi.

Applied arts are not overlooked by the Derek Williams Trust as they possess an active interest in this area and have acquired eleven works of applied art over the last sixteen years, in addition to assisting the Museum with a number of acquisitions, particularly in the field of ceramics.

The Trust also has an interest in work by contemporary Welsh and Wales-based artists, which includes the purchase of work by Eisteddfod Gold Medal-winners.

The great generosity and support of The Derek Williams Trust made possible many acquisitions of post-1900 art for the Museum’s own modern art collection, such as David Hockney, Stanley Spencer and Pablo Picasso.

The fossil fish Pholidophorus; the circle shows the dark area where the fossil bacteria are preserved

A close up of the fossilised bacterial colony, at a magnification of x20,000

Fossils are the remains of ancient life. Most animal fossils are made of the hard parts of the body, such as bones, teeth, scales and shells. On rare occasions however, soft tissues, or even bacteria, can became fossilised.

A well preserved fossil fish from Somerset

The fossil fish illustrated here was found on Kilve Beach in north Somerset and although it is missing its head, the rest of it is well preserved. The fossil is about 11cm long and its scales outline the shape of the body. Faint traces of the front fins are also visible.

The fish is named Pholidophorus; it is an extinct animal that looked similar to a modern-day herring. Almost 200 million years ago, this fish died while swimming in the Jurassic sea that covered Somerset. As scavengers did not disturb the carcass after death, it became buried in fine sediment. This sediment eventually hardened to form the rock in which the fish became fossilised.

Microscopic detail reveals further fossilised remains

Although it is a fine example, this fossil fish preserves something even more remarkable. Scientists at Amgueddfa Cymru removed tiny fragments from the central area of the fossil to study them using an electron microscope. Zooming in on these fragments 20,000 times, some fine details started to emerge - a layer of tiny, rounded, elongate structures. These are the fossilised remains of bacteria.

Fossilised bacteria have been found in many localities around the world, most famously from fossils in South America and Germany. The bacteria are often preserved in calcium phosphate, because calcium is a common element in sediment, and phosphorus is found in the decaying tissues of animals.

How do we know these are fossil bacteria?

First, they are clustered together in colonies, and are a similar size and shape to modern-day bacteria.

Secondly, other very fragile cellular tissues, such as the cells of embryos, as found in the Cambrian rocks of China, have been documented .Fossilised muscle tissues can even preserve the internal details of cells, for example in Jurassic rocks in Brazil and Miocene rocks from Spain. The fossilisation of cells, including bacteria, is being observed more frequently as scientists look ever closer at the fossils in their collections.

Finally, on rare occasions, a thin dark layer of fossil bacteria occasionally traces the body outline of a fossil, revealing the shape of the fleshy tissues surrounding the skeleton, as in Eocene rocks from Germany. This tells us that fossilisation of the bacteria took occurred rapidly after the time of death.

It is becoming increasingly clear that bacteria play an important part in the processes of fossilisation, with the bacteria themselves sometimes being preserved.

Looking at a fossil, it is natural to wonder what kind of animal or plant it is, but some interesting discoveries can be made by asking what the fossil is actually made of. The answer, on close inspection, is often surprising and is the key to finding out how an organism became fossilised in the first place.

Pembroke Castle

Boat at Tenby

Amgueddfa Cymru has in its collection fifteen views of Wales drawn by Francis Place (1647-1728). Of these, ten are from a single sketchbook. These ten sketches, dated 1678, are the earliest images that the Museum holds of Wales that were drawn on-the-spot. In addition to revealing sketches hidden for 200 years, recent conservation work by the Museum has enabled sketches to be digitally stitched together - creating complete panoramic views that have never been viewed before.

The Museum purchased the sketches from a dealer in 1931. The dealer had bought them at Sotheby's in a sale of the collection of Patrick Allan-Fraser Art College in Arbroath, Scotland. The collection included drawings, prints, pottery and the only known oil painting, a self portrait, descended directly through the family from Place.

The drawings are all made from at least two separate sheets joined together and then stuck to a secondary support, which appears to be early wove paper, suggesting the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.

Some drawings that obviously extended over the page had been left 'loose', allowing the viewer to lift the page and view the other side, but others had been stuck down to the secondary support — with the 'inconsequential' sketch on the verso hidden from view.

Hidden sketches

During conservation work, Museum staff decided to remove all the sketches from their secondary supports, and with all the sketches detached from the album pages it was revealed that a drawing on the back of one page joined up with the drawing on the back of another page, creating a new double-page spread.

The images could then be matched up, revealing sketches unseen since the original sketchbook had been taken apart at least 200 years ago. The original order of the sketches could also be determined.

Never seen before panoramic views

As there was limited potential in showing these historical views of Wales in a traditional gallery setting, the images were scanned and digitally 'stitched together', and the panoramas could be viewed as complete images for the very first time.

During this process some insights into Place's working methods were discovered. When putting the separate pages together, no manipulation was required to match up the horizons as they already did perfectly — testimony to Place's ability as a draughtsman.

Although technology has not changed the way these objects are treated, it has greatly enhanced our knowledge of the works by giving deeper insight into the artist's working methods.

Research

The bulk of Place's original work comes from the Sotheby's sale in 1931. Various lots from this sale are now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, including a number of mounted drawings and two sketchbooks. These items suggest that the drawings in Amgueddfa Cymru and the Victoria and Albert Museum originally came from one sketchbook.

The first Victoria and Albert Museum sketchbook consists of eighteen sheets, exactly the same size as the one at Amgueddfa Cymru and also bearing the same watermarks; there is a list at the front of the sketchbook corresponding to the views in the sketchbook, and the list continues with places in Wales that correspond with the order established from the Amgueddfa Cymru sketches.

The list is not in Places's handwriting, but is still of some age. Maybe it was a descendant of Place's, who made the list before they removed the best sketches to mount in a separate album?

More evidence is found in the second sketchbook from the Victoria and Albert Museum, where there is a sheet pasted inside the back cover. This sheet matches up with the last sketch in the first sketchbook. Unfortunately, this last page is pasted down but on the one small part that can be lifted there is a definite pencil line, which could match up with that on one of sketches at Amgueddfa Cymru...

Amgueddfa Cymru has in its collection fifteen views of Wales drawn by Francis Place (1647-1728). Of these, ten are from a single sketchbook. These ten sketches, dated 1678, are the earliest images that the Museum holds of Wales that were drawn on-the-spot. But who was Francis Place?

Francis Place was a Yorkshire man, born into a wealthy family in 1647 and the youngest of ten children. His lawyer father decided that he should follow in his footsteps and at the age of seventeen or eighteen Francis entered Gray's Inn in London to study Law.

However he disliked law and the Great Plague in 1665 gave him his excuse to finish with his studies and return home. A short time later he returned to London and worked with Wenceslaus Hollar, who introduced him to printmaking and print selling in London.

There is some suggestion that Place received some or all of his inheritance before his father died in 1681, and it would have been this that enabled him to follow his passion for art and angling.

Royalty and the age of the Virtuosi

The seventeenth century was the age of the Virtuosi — likeminded men with money and leisure interested in art, science and philosophy, many of whom went on to form the Royal Society in 1660. In the first half of the century only royalty and those closely associated with royalty learned and practised the art of drawing and painting.

Towards the end of the century it began to be taken up by the landed gentry and their sons and daughters. They studied to acquire knowledge, which was very different from those who had to make a living from it. There is evidence that, although ostensibly an amateur, Place was paid for work, particularly early on.

So Place fits in very well with the gentlemen of the time; he had the time and the money and, from what survives of his work, he dabbled in many media including early experiments in porcelain.

He was a member of the York Virtuosi who included Martin Lister, Henry Gyles, Thomas Kirke FRS and William Lodge. It may have been through this group that he earned commissions.

With his fathers money Place travelled far and wide in the UK to sketch and practise the art of angling. We know from correspondence of the period that the sketches at Amgueddfa Cymru were carried out on a tour of Wales and the West Country in 1678. He was travelling with his friend and fellow York Virtuosi William Lodge.

Travelling at this time was not without its dangers as this was the time of the Popish plots, and it is known that while in Wales they both spent one night in jail under suspicion of being Jesuit spies.