Folder 492

[single page typed document]

The speech of Miss Gaynell Brown, Chairman of Art Awards, at the Annual Meeting of the New York City Federation of Women’s Clubs, at the Hotel Astor, New York, May 4, 1951:

[line of dashes separate the above text from the remarks below]

Madam President, Honored Guests, and Members of the New York City Federation of Women’s Clubs:

To introduce William Robinson Leigh, the famous painter of Westerns, whom Collier’s, in its issue of Novem-ber 11th, called “America’s Sagebrush Rembrandt,” gives me great pleasure.

Born and bred in Virginia and himself a descendant of Pocahontas, W. R. Leigh began the study of art at the age of fourteen at the Maryland Institute. Later he spent twelve years studying at Munich.

In 1906, at the age of forty, he became deeply inter-ested in the American West, convinced that the American Indian, the cowboys, and the desert terrain constitute pic-torial opportunities unsurpassed by any other in the world.

The choice of Mr. Leigh to represent painting in the Federation’s 1951 election was practically unanimous. It is interesting to note, however, that because of the fast dis-appearing wild life of America — particularly in the desert lands of the West — one club in the Federation, the Natural History Club, was especially enthusiastic about the painter’s work from an historical and naturalistic viewpoint. The presi-dent of the club, Mrs. Charles Cyrus Marshall, is quoted as saying, “Mr. Leigh is the finest painter of outdoor life in America.”

Mr. Leigh was the painter chosen by The American Museum of Natural History to accompany Carl Akeley to Africa in 1926. Mr. Leigh’s work has been immortalized in the back-grounds for the habitat groups in the African Hall at the Museum.

Today, at the age of 84, W. R. Leigh is still faith-fully recording with palette and brush the spectacular beauties of the American West. A select group of his recent water colors will be on exhibit at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York beginning May 12th (Grand Central Terminal).

Those who have seen the bucking bronchos [sic], hard-working cowboys, and colorful Indians, will realize how he felt when he said on his arrival in the West, “This is the place where my spirit will be free, where I will be able to express my-self.”

May I present to you a man who represents Americanism in the best sense, an artist who combines historic America with a painting technique that grows richer with the years . . . William Robinson Leigh.