Design and Art Australia Online

sketcher, was born at Little Aston, Staffordshire, the son of William Leigh, a wealthy convert to Roman Catholicism who had acquired a large parcel of land in Adelaide as a speculative venture in 1837, part of which he gave first to the Anglican then, after his conversion, to the Catholic Church (c.1845). Leigh senior also invested in mining ventures in South Australia (copper) and South Africa. Young William – 'Willy’ his father called him – had been ordered to take a restorative sea voyage in 1852, so Leigh senior sent him to Australasia accompanied by the steward from his Woodchester (Gloucestershire) estate, Edward Peake . William Leigh junior’s first known Australian sketch was made while passing Kangaroo Island, South Australia, on 9 October 1852 – the site of dreary incarceration for W.H. Leigh , an earlier visiting sketcher who appears to have been no relation. It was subsequently to prove almost fatal for his namesake. Returning to South Australia from Melbourne with Peake at the end of November 1853 on board the coastal steamer Osmanli , the ship was wrecked on the rocks off the island but all passengers and crew were landed safely and soon rescued. Leigh and Peake recuperated with Bishop Francis Murphy, with whom they had stayed on their former brief visit. Murphy wrote to Leigh senior of William’s 'providential escape’, noting that he was indeed 'wonderfully improved in his looks since he came from New Zealand’.

Leigh’s colonial itinerary can be traced through his watercolour drawings. Altogether he spent about eighteen months in Australasia, mainly South Australia where he drew dozens of views, including Residence of the Rt. Revd. Dr Murphy Adelaide Nov.20 1852 (the proposed cathedral on his father’s land having not yet proceeded beyond the foundations) and Lunatic Asylum Adelaide Dec 16/53 . River Onkaparinga Nr Clarendon Jany 27/54 , Adelaide from the Lead Mine Glen Osmond Dec 26/53 , Kapunda Mine Jany 22/54 and Burra Burra Mine (8 December 1852 and 21 January 1854) obviously related to his father’s mining interests. In New South Wales, another major stop where his father had advised various members of the Catholic hierarchy of his son’s coming, the places William depicted include Lyndhurst [Catholic] College from Balmain, Oct 19/53 , The High Altar St Marie’s [St Mary’s Cathedral] Sydney, Oct 17/53 , Near Denham Court Campbell Town Road, Oct 1/53 and View from My Bedroom Window. Horbury Terrace Sydney. March 14/53 . He also visited Queensland and drew views of properties and places near Brisbane: Woogaroo nr Brisbane M.B. the Residence of S. Simpson Esq. Aug 12/53 and Sheep Station on the Bremer, Novr 10.1852 . He went to the Victorian goldfields ( Melbourne from the Road to Sandridge, Nov 22/53 ) and to Wellington and Akaroa, New Zealand. Returning to England at the end of 1854 via Cape Town, he sketched the South African mines.

Three of Leigh’s sketchbooks are in the Mitchell Library, while sketchbooks in the National Museum at Wellington and in the Canterbury (NZ) Museum record his New Zealand travels. Another album of watercolours of the voyage (private collection, Cape Town) contains a view of the interior of his cabin in the Australia together with mainly South African sketches. Althoughhe was extremely prolific his drawings are rather pedestrian, conventionally picturesque in both style and subject. There are no large figures or incidents of the kind his namesake had earlier depicted with such gross exuberance. This Leigh’s major interests were landscape and architecture. For instance, his Interior of Legislative Council Chamber Sydney, Nov 9/53 contains no politicians. Neither views nor buildings are rendered with any expertise and the few botanical drawings are merely rough souvenirs. Nevertheless, Leigh’s geographical range, catholic (and Roman Catholic) tastes and prodigious output have left a competent and generally reliable visual record of numerous Australian places, many not otherwise recorded. His father must surely have been pleased with his diligence, as with his improved health. Young Willy lived on for over fifty years.

Writers:

Staff Writer

Date written:

1992

Last updated:

2011