DERELICT MILL, STAPLECROSS, SUSSEX

watercolour, ink and bodycolour on paper laid on board

12.5 x 16 in. (31.8 x 40.6 cm)

Price Realized:

819.00 CAD.

INCLUDES BUYER’S PREMIUM

Notes:

signed recto; titled verso and on the gallery label
Provenance: Frame/Craft Fine Art Gallery, Edmonton, AB
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.