Michael Leonard
Male Bather on Gold
1983

About the Item

Acrylic on canvas, signed and dated (lower right), 44cm x 39cm (67cm x 63cm framed). (This work was kept by the artist for his personal collection. It remained in his collection until his death in July 2023.) This work is one of the first in which the style and composition of his later male nudes, has become nearly fully formed. The work recalls the female bathing pictures of Edgar Degas and the male bathing pictures of Gustave Caillebotte. During his career, Leonard created a series of paintings celebrating the male figure. The nude, particularly the male nude, has been a recurring theme in his work. “I am fascinated by the subtle interactions of muscle, bone and sinew that come into play as a body moves…” Michael's work is always beautifully composed and expertly delivered onto the board. Never very prolific as an artist, his work is highly prized and collected internationally. He retired from painting in 2009.

Creator:
Michael Leonard (1933, British)
Creation Year:
1983
Dimensions:
Height: 26.38 in (67 cm)Width: 24.81 in (63 cm)Depth: 0.79 in (2 cm)
Medium:
Cotton Canvas,Acrylic
Movement & Style:
Post-War
Period:
1980-1989
Condition:
Gallery Location:
London, GB
Reference Number:
Seller: Michael Leonard, Male Bather on Gold1stDibs: LU2263214133432
View Invoice

Shop All Michael Leonard

Michael Leonard

Born in India in 1933 to British parents, at the end of the war in Europe Leonard returned to England to complete his education. In 1954, after two years of National Service in the army, he went to St Martin’s School of Art in London and studied Commercial Design and Illustration. By the time he left Art School in 1957 he was already working as a freelance illustrator and for many years was busy producing artwork for books, magazines, advertising and the press. As an illustrator he worked in a small studio attached to the offices of his agents ‘Artist Partners’ in Soho. Meanwhile at home he experimented, trying to discover his voice as a painter. His work eventually came to the attention of Fischer Fine Art, a distinguished London gallery of the day and in 1972 several of his paintings were included in one of their group shows. In 1974 they gave him his first One Man Show and after that he gradually left illustration behind. He was nearly forty when his life as an exhibiting painter began. At first his pictures tended to be formal, sober and low key — an attempt perhaps to distance himself from the sensational values of the commercial world. People sat in rooms, posed with their dogs in London’s parks or went sailing on the river. By degrees his work became more animated and colourful. The people in his pictures were usually friends who were kind enough to model for him but he also painted portraits to commission and among his subjects were Lincoln Kirstein, Edward Lucie-Smith, Adrian Ward Jackson, Sir Peter Moores and the Marquess and Marchioness of Hartington (now the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire). In 1985 Reader’s Digest commissioned him to paint a portrait of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II in honour of her sixtieth birthday. (It is now in the National Portrait Gallery’s permanent collection). The nude, particularly the male nude, has been a recurring theme. His figures are usually on the move or in a state of transition but even when they are at rest dynamism is provided by the design of the picture. This can be seen in Vanitas, (a sleeping man cradling a skull) Watermelons, (a torso as part of a ‘tableau’ with fruit) and in Pomegranate Man and Nectarine Man. Almost all his paintings of the nude are based on drawings which, besides being preparatory studies, are ends in themselves. Michael died in London on 28 July 2023.