BLACK MILL ON THE DOWNS, SUSSEX

watercolour and ink on paper laid on board

13.75 x 16.25 in. (34.9 x 41.3 cm)

Price Realized:

760.50 CAD.

INCLUDES BUYER’S PREMIUM

Notes:

signed recto; titled verso; titled and dated on a label verso with the inscription “Mill near Black Boys, Sussex. A post mill destroyed by fire at the time of the war.”
Note: In 1924, Leighton, who had been working as a commercial artist, became employed by the Canadian Pacific Company and would soon make his first journeys to Canada (in 1925 and 1927). During this time, he continued to travel and paint the English countryside, particularly the historic windmills of Sussex, Kent, and Norfolk, which fascinated him, and which he documented from 1924-1928. The parallel between these works and his later drawings of grain elevators in the Prairies is notable, both for their artistic structure and for their relationship to the land and people around them. Leighton’s first exhibition in Canada consisted of 27 works of the Rockies and 40 additional works depicting the English countryside, in particular the windmills.