William John Leech RHA ROI (1881-1968) Girl in a Garden (Sunshine and Shadows) c.1924 Oil on canvas, 60 x 40cm (23½ x 15¾'') Exhibited: Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland, 'William John Leech: An Irish Painter Abroad', October/December 1996, Catalogue No.48, full page illustration page 193. Provenance: Previously in the collection of Blather Burke, then the collection of Pat & Antoinette Murphy, acquired from The Dawson Gallery. Literature: 'William John Leech, An Irish Painter Abroad', Denise Ferran & NGI, 1996, pgs, 190 - 193, illus in colour, p.193 William John Leech's older brother Cecil, had served in the First World War and had met Percy Botterell, a very successful London lawyer, who with his wife May, worked in the Hague to repatriate soldiers returning from the front, introduced the Botterells to the Leech family when both parties returned to London. Percy Botterell, commissioned Leech to paint a portrait of his wife in 1919. This meeting resulted in May Botterell becoming Leech's partner until they eventually married in 1953, after Percy's death, in 1952. The Botterells had three children, Jim, Guy and Suzanne, all of whom Percy commissioned Leech to paint. All were greatly affected by their mother's relationship with Leech, an Irish painter, without means. After the outbreak of the Second World War, Leech and his partner, May Botterell escaped from the London bombings, which damaged Leech's Steele's Studio, to his brother Cecil's small stud farm in Ham Green, Kent. Cecil Leech's, wife Babs was a painter and she welcomed 'Bill' as the family called him and also May Botterell and her daughter Suzanne. Leech had painted Suzanne c. 1920 after his first meeting with the Botterell family, capturing her vulnerability and childlike, wide-eyed innocence. This painting of Suzanne, with the rich pastures of Kent behind her, was probably painted four or five years later when Leech and May were staying at Ham Green. The work captures a more relaxed Suzanne, with white pinny and long blond hair. Due to Suzanne's young age she accompanied her mother everywhere she went with Leech. This fact was verified by, Babs Leech, in my many conversations with her, throughout the 1980's and early 90's. Both Leech's relatives and May Botterell's relatives generously gave the couple safe lodgings during and after the war years, with Leech repaying this kindness with his paintings. Suzanne Botterell became a singer and performed in nightclubs in London until she married the owner of a chocolate factory. She then became a recluse, dropping all contact with her family but she did respond to my letter, from the address of decades earlier, which I had previously garnered from the back of a Leech painting. Dr Denise Ferran, May 2021