William Leighton Leitch [SEP] occupation
William Leighton Leitch
William Leighton Leitch (2 Nov 1804 – 25 April 1883) was a master Scottish landscape watercolour painter and illustrator. He was Drawing Master to Queen Victoria for 22 years. He was Vice President of the Royal Institute of Painters in Watercolours, on Pall Mall in London, for twenty years.
Life.
Leitch was born in Glasgow, the son of a soldier who had previously been a sailor. Leitch soon developed a strong inclination for art, and used to practise drawing at night with David
of Nagyenyed. He painted from an early age, and in 1829 he was a pupil of J. Ender in Vienna for a while. Back in Kolozsvár in 1830 he learned lithography from Gábor Barra. In 1834-1835 he traveled to Italy, where he learned watercolor painting from the Scottsman William Leighton Leitch who was six years his senior; they became friends and toured and painted in the Lago Maggiore region in 1834, and Leitch was a great influence on Barabás's future work. He finally settled in Pest in 1855.