Leonard Richmond

Bathers At The Beach, Near St Ives, circa 1930

Leonard Richmond was born in Somerset and studied at Taunton and Chelsea Polytechnic. In World War I, he was the Canadian Government war artist and in 1925, was commissioned to promote rail and hotel facilities through poster art in western Canada, by the Canadian Pacific Railway. His large colorful posters advertising the region and the Canadian Rockies were much admired and he worked for the English railways as well. During the 1930s, he visited St. Ives regularly, taking a studio there in 1932 and setting up a summer painting school in 1935. He lived successively in Brentford in 1912), Southall in 1914, London in 1919 and was in Guildford by 1935. Leonard Richmond is one of the many artists who began work in West Cornwall at an earlier date, moved away and then returned to Cornwall at a later date, in his case, for three years from 1946–49. He was a prolific exhibitor at Fine Art Society, Royal Academy of Arts, Cooling and Walker's Galleries and also exhibited widely overseas winning several awards. These included the Tuthill Prize at Chicago International Watercolour Exhibition in 1928 and a silver medal at Paris Salon in 1947. He passed away in 1965.