BB 174
BENJAMIN WILLIAMS LEADER, RA
Worcester 1831 - 1923 Shere, Surrey
Severn side, Sabrina's stream at Kempsey on the river Severn
Signed and dated 1889; signed and inscribed with the title on the reverse
Canvas: 44 ¼ x 72 ½ in / 112.4 x 184.2 cm
Framed: 53.2 x 81.1 x 3.5 in / 135.1 x 206 x 9 cm
Provenance:
Sold by the artist to Arthur Tooth and Sons, March 1889 for £550
J. Leger & Son, London, September 1960
Sale, Christie’s, London 8th July 1960, lot 142;
C.R. Fenton
Exhibited:
London, Royal Academy, 1889, no. 654, titled Sabrina’s Stream
J. Leger & Son, London, September 1960
London, Richard Green, Nineteenth Century Paintings, 2005, no. 22, pp. 64-5, illustrated in colour
London, Richard Green, Nineteenth Century Paintings, 2008, no. 21, pp. 58-61, illustrated in colour
Literature:
B.W. Leader’s ‘Diary’ January and February 1889
B.W. Leader’s ‘Records of Paintings Sold’ March 1889
Times, 1st June 1889, p. 17
Athenaeum, 1889, No.3217, p. 798
Henry Blackburn’s ‘Academy Notes’, 1889, p. 17
Frank Lewis, Benjamin Williams Leader, R.A., 1831 – 1923, F Lewis Publishers Ltd., Leigh-On-Sea, 1971, p. 42, no. 285
Ruth Wood, Benjamin Williams Leader, R.A., 1831 – 1923, His Life and Paintings, Antique Collectors’ Club, Suffolk, 1998, p. 77, 129, 133
Arthur Tooth commissioned Leader to paint a smaller version of this painting (30½ x 48 in) for engraving in December of the same year (1889). The engraving was etched by Thomas Chauvel and published in 1891 (See The Year’s Art’, 1891, p. 259 and R. Wood, p. 133).
Leader exhibited four paintings at the 1889 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, of which this is one. His Diary for that year records that while working on them he had allowed himself a break, to view the Old Masters exhibitions being held at both the Royal Academy and the Grosvenor Gallery in London (Diary 21st January). Delighted with the paintings by Constable and Turner he saw there, he wrote on his return home to Whittington, Worcestershire, that he hoped to make his own pictures ‘the better for having seen them’ (Diary 25th January). He seemed to have achieved this end, in his view at least, with this Worcestershire Severn scene, which he called Severn Side while working on it. When Leader felt the painting was sufficiently advanced the canvas was placed into the frame so that it could be completed. Adjustments to colour tones, the refinement of details and highlights, would have been made to achieve the effects he felt necessary for the unity of the composition.
When the scene had been improved to Leader’s satisfaction it pleased him to write that he would ‘not object … [to it]… hanging alongside a Constable’ (Diary 18th February). Born in Worcester and residing in the county until 1889, Leader’s Worcestershire landscapes are considered to be among his best. This scene depicts the village of Kempsey, on the banks of the River Severn between Worcester and Tewkesbury, with its timber framed cottages and farm next to St. Mary’s church dating from the 13th century. Leader has included barges moored to the east bank of the Severn, at the point of the Pixham Ferry crossing.
The title of this River Severn scene refers to the legend of ‘Sabrina’. After winning a battle against the invading Huns, King Lorinus (one of the sons of the Trojan Brutus, who founded England), fell in love with one of his prisoners, a German girl named Estrildis. During the course of their seven year relationship, she bore him a daughter – named Habren or Hafren. When Lorinus finally left his wife Gwendolen to marry Estrildis, she became mad with jealously and raised an army against him. He was killed in battle and Gwendolen had Estrildis and Habren drowned in the river Severn. Hence its name ‘Hafren’ in Welsh, ‘Severn’ in English and ‘Sabrina’ in Latin – after a Roman water nymph. The poet Milton wrote of Sabrina, ‘Made Goddess of the river…’ in his ‘Masque Comus’ of 1634.
Other known painted versions (detail changes)
Leader originally selected this location as a subject for painting earlier.
‘Kempsey on the Severn’. Signed and dated 1883. 42 ½ x 72 in
‘Kempsey Church on the River Severn’. Signed and dated 1884. 21 x 33 in
‘Sabrina’s Stream’. Signed and dated 1889. 30 ½ x 48 in (Owned by Richard Green in 2000)
There is also a small oil sketch, 8 x 12 in, signed only. Titled ‘A Riverside Village Church’
Other known engravings.
1. By C. Carter, after the Royal Academy painting or the replica. Illustrated, with the title ‘Sabrina’s Stream’, in ‘The Magazine of Art’ 1888-1889, Vol.XII, p. 273.
2. By A. Willmore after the 1883 or 1884 painting. Illustrated, with the title ‘The Evening Hour’, in ‘The Life and Works of B.W. Leader R.A.’ by Lewis Lusk. Published in the 1901 ‘Art Annual’, p. 9.
We are grateful to Ruth Wood MA for her assistance with the cataloguing of this work.
BENJAMIN WILLIAMS LEADER RA
Worcester 1831 - 1923 Shere, Surrey
Born as Benjamin Williams, he added the surname Leader, his father's middle name, to distinguish himself from the Williams family. Upon abandoning a profession in engineering for art, he became a pupil at the Royal Academy in 1853. The following year he showed his first picture there, and continued to exhibit prolifically up until his death in 1923.
He achieved notable success with his painting, February Fill Dyke exhibited in 1881. It
remains one of the most famous Victorian paintings, and is a tribute to Leader's artistic talents. The Royal Academy elected him an associate in 1883, and academician in 1898. He also exhibited abroad, winning the gold medal and the legion of honour in Paris in 1889.
Leader was extremely popular in Victorian times and his work sold for high prices. Today he is recognized as one of the most accomplished Victorian landscape artists of his day. He usually chose scenes from the Midlands and the Thames valley, although he was also partial to Welsh landscapes, especially around Bettws-y-Coed.
His earlier work reflects his admiration of the Pre-Raphaelites, however, he later developed a broader, more naturalistic style. A realistic feeling of space and a lightness of atmosphere are characteristic of his work. James Dafforne, the contemporary art critic of the Art Journal, praised his work in glowing terms in 1871: ‘his style is a happy medium between excess of detail and over elaboration on the one hand, and a dash of execution on the other...we regard Mr. Leader as one of our best landscape painters.’
The work of Benjamin Williams Leader is represented in the Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museum, the Birmingham City Art Gallery, the Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery, the Towneley Hall Art Gallery, Burnley, the Bristol City Art Gallery, the Ferens Art Gallery, Kingston-upon-Hull, the Guildhall Art Gallery, the Royal Academy of Arts, Tate Britain and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Manchester City Art Gallery, the Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, the Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport, the Royal Holloway and Bedford New College collection, Surrey and the Worcester City Art Gallery.