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W.R. LEIGH
1866–1955
William Robinson Leigh was born in Berkeley County, West Virginia and began drawing at an early age. When he was twelve, W.W. Corcoran (founder of the Corcoran Gallery of Art) paid Leigh $100 for a drawing. After three years of training at the Maryland Institute of Art in Baltimore, he left for Europe to study. Most of his twelve years in Europe were spent studying at the Royal Academy in Munich. In 1897, after Leigh returned to New York, he made his reputation as an illustrator for leading national magazines.
Leigh fulfilled a childhood dream of going west when Schribner’s sent him to North Dakota on assignment. During the next twenty-nine years, Leigh returned to the west often, sometimes on assignments and sometimes on his own. Some of his favorite subjects were the lands of the Hopi and the Navajo. He painted with the southwestern palette of soft pinks, purples, reds, blues, and yellows. The critics who had never been west, complained that his colors were too brilliant and ostentatious. Critics’ initial hesitancy aside, Leigh has become one of the most celebrated painters to capture the American west, noted for both his contributions to both illustration and fine art.
“Moki Girl Looking Over the Canyon” depicts a young Indian woman as she gazes out over the canyon lands of her people as the sun sets. Her traditional dress and hairstyle identify her as a member of the Moki pueblo as she watches the sun descend.
