Benjamin Williams Leader
Overview
Benjamin Williams Leader RA
(12 March 1831 – 22 March 1923) was an English landscape painter.
Leader was born in Worcester as Benjamin Leader Williams, the son, and first child of eleven children, of notable civil engineer
Edward Leader Williams (1802–79) and Sarah Whiting (1801–88). His father was described as a "non conformist dissenter" and his mother was a Quaker – their marriage in an Anglican church resulted in them being disowned by the Society of Friends.
Leader's father was a keen amateur artist – a friend of John Constable
– and Benjamin would often accompany him on sketching trips along the banks of the River Severn
.
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
(12 March 1831 – 22 March 1923) was an English landscape painter.
Leader was born in Worcester as Benjamin Leader Williams, the son, and first child of eleven children, of notable civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
Edward Leader Williams (1802–79) and Sarah Whiting (1801–88). His father was described as a "non conformist dissenter" and his mother was a Quaker – their marriage in an Anglican church resulted in them being disowned by the Society of Friends.
Leader's father was a keen amateur artist – a friend of John Constable
John Constable
John Constable was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale, the area surrounding his home—now known as "Constable Country"—which he invested with an intensity of affection...
– and Benjamin would often accompany him on sketching trips along the banks of the River Severn
River Severn
The River Severn is the longest river in Great Britain, at about , but the second longest on the British Isles, behind the River Shannon. It rises at an altitude of on Plynlimon, Ceredigion near Llanidloes, Powys, in the Cambrian Mountains of mid Wales...
.
