Studio: international art (85.1923)

STUDIO-TALK

horse. Sir James, who was knighted last
year, was an American by birth, having
been born in Auburn, New York, in 1862.
He came to London in 1878, and having
studied at South Kensington under Poyn-
ter and Sparks, was towards the end of
his training there fortunate to receive a
commission from Queen Victoria to paint
the portrait of one of her Maids of Honour,
Miss Horatio Stopford. This painting,
which was his first exhibit at the Royal
Academy, was the beginning of a busy
career devoted in the main to portraying
ladies of Society. Even as long ago as 1896,
when the work he had already accom-
plished was reviewed in these pages by

ILLUSTRATION FOR A
BOOK ON COSTUME
BY MARCIA LANE FOSTER

(Royal Academy Exhibi-
tion of Decorative Art)

to which he made the first of a long
succession of contributions just on 70 years
ago—surely a record in the annals of this
institution. Mr. Leader, who was a native
of Worcester, was the son of Mr. Leader
Williams, a civil engineer, and took his
father's first name as his surname early in
his career for the sake of convenience. He
entered the Academy Schools in 1854, but
it was not till he was past 50 that he became
an Associate (1883), his promotion to the rank
of Academician following in 1898. When
the new category of Senior Academician
was instituted three or four years ago, Mr.
Leader was among those to whom this rank
was assigned, and his death does not involve
any vacancy in the general list of members.

Sir James J. Shannon, R.A., President
of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters,
died on March 7th in a London nursing
home after a long illness brought about by
an accident which happened to him nine
years ago, when he was thrown from his
220

ARMCHAIR OF ENGLISH

OAK. BY P. WAALS

(Royal Academy Exhibi-
tion of Decorative Art)