Pesto

William Leighton Leitch · n.d.

Medium

Graphite, with stumping, and with touches of brush and white gouache, on grayish-tan wove paper, laid down on buff board

Original size

20 × 28.6 cm (7 7/8 × 11 5/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Neoclassicism

Leitch's study of Paestum — the ancient Greek settlement on the Italian coast known for its remarkably preserved temples — captures the quiet grandeur of the site with the economy of a skilled draughtsman working at the height of his powers. William Leighton Leitch was one of the most sought-after British watercolourists of the nineteenth century, spending formative years travelling through Italy in the 1830s and absorbing the light, ruin, and atmosphere that would define his mature style. Working in graphite with stumping — a technique that blends and softens tonal gradations — and punctuating the composition with delicate touches of white gouache, he achieves a luminosity unusual for works on paper. The grayish-tan ground itself becomes part of the image, standing in for mid-tones that a lesser artist would have laboured over. Leitch is perhaps best remembered as drawing master to Queen Victoria and several members of the Royal Family, a role that speaks to the exceptional clarity and teachable precision of his draftsmanship. The hand-painted oil reproduction translates Leitch's careful tonal range into a medium that brings warmth and depth to the ancient stones he documented, making a contemplative study feel alive on the wall.