Leigh, William R.

William Robinson Leigh was an unsparing individualist and a famous contrarian. Talent earned him a ticket to Munich, and he spent twelve years at the academy there, perfecting his craft. Back in New York, the struggling young realist painter in a New York that had fallen for Cezanne met Thomas Moran. Moran prodded Leigh to light out and seek the “American” in American art. In 1906 he made a fateful journey to Arizona and New Mexico. Leigh’s eyes opened to the open spaces, ancient peoples, and brash cowboys, and the American West would become his principal subject. Leigh would come to be regarded in the same breath as Remington and Russell.