James Leakey

James Leakey (1775–1865)^[1] was an English landscape and portrait artist.

Life

Born on 20 September 1775 in Exeter, Devon, he was the son of John Leakey, who was in the wool trade. At the time of Sir Joshua Reynolds's death he was about to become his pupil.^[2]

Leakey established himself at Exeter, painting portraits, miniatures and landscapes. He also produced small interiors with groups of rustic figures and Sir Francis Baring purchased one of those for £500. With the exception of a time in London from 1821 to 1825, during which he was intimate with Thomas Lawrence, David Wilkie, and other leading painters, Leakey's life was mostly passed at Exeter. He died there on 16 February 1865.^[2]

Works

Devonshire Landscape by James Leakey

Leakey exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1821 The Marvellous Tale, in 1822 The Fortune Teller, in 1838 portraits and landscapes, and in 1846 The Distressed Wife.^[2]

Leakey was best known for his delicate miniatures, painted in oils on ivory. These brought him a local celebrity. In the Exeter Guildhall there is a portrait by him of Henry Blackhall, mayor of Exeter; also a copy by him of Reynolds's portrait of John Rolle Walter. His portrait of John Haddy James (1788-1869), surgeon, is in the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital. In 1846 Leakey published a plate by Samuel Cousins, from his portrait of John Rashdall, minister of Bedford Chapel, Exeter.^[2]

Family

By his marriage in 1815 with Eliza Hubbard Woolmer, Leakey had eleven children. They included Caroline Leakey the writer.^[2]

He is the founding member of the Leakey family dynasty with branches specialising in archaeology and the military.

v t e Leakey family tree
James Leakey (1775–1865)[i] Eliza Hubbard Woolmer (1793–1855)[ii] James Shirley Leakey (1824–1871) [citation needed] Caroline Woolmer Leakey (1827–1881)[ii] 9 others[ii] Rev. Arundell Leakey (1853–1924) Rev. Harry Leakey (1868–1940) Elizabeth Laing (1873–1925)[iii][iv] Arundell Gray Arundell Leakey (1885–1954)[iii][iv] 5 others Henrietta Wilfrida Avern (1902–1993) Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey[iv] (1903–1972) Mary Douglas Nicol (1913–1996) 3 others Nigel Gray Leakey (1913–1941)[iii][iv] Robert Dove Leakey (1914–2013) Maj. Gen. Arundell Rea Leakey (1915–1999) Agnes Florence Leakey (1917–2006)[iv] Colin Louis Avern Leakey (1933–2018) Meave Epps (b. 1942) Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (1944–2022) Margaret Cropper Jonathan Harry Erskine Leakey (1940–2021) Philip Leakey (b. 1949) Lt. Gen. Arundell David Leakey (b. 1952) Louise Leakey (b. 1972) Emmanuel, Prince de Mérode (b. 1970)
Notes: O'Donoghue, F. M.; Remington, V. (revised) (2004). "Leakey, James (1775–1865), miniature painter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16244. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) "Eliza Hubbard Woolmer, wife of James Leakey". Artsandculture.google.com. Archived from the original on 6 April 2022. Retrieved 6 April 2022. Elizabeth Hubbard Woolmer was born on 20 December 1793. ... On 28 August 1815 she married the artist James Leakey (1775-1865) at St. Sidwell's Church, Exeter (2). They had eleven children. ... Caroline Woolmer Leakey (1827-1881) "Serjeant Nigel Gray Leakey | War Casualty Details". cwgc.org. Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Archived from the original on 8 April 2022. Retrieved 8 April 2022. NIGEL GRAY LEAKEY ... Died 19 May 1941 Age 28 years old ... Son of Arundell Gray A. and Elizabeth Leakey, of Kiganjo, Kenya. Lean, Mary (26 January 2007). "Agnes Hofmeyr, Worker for reconciliation in Africa". The Independent. Archived from the original on 22 September 2012. Retrieved 8 April 2022. Agnes Leakey, worker for reconciliation: born Limuru, Kenya 8 May 1917; married 1946 Bremer Hofmeyr (died 1993; one son, and one son deceased); died Johannesburg 1 December 2006. ... Agnes Leakey was born in Limuru, Kenya, in 1917, the youngest child of Gray Leakey, cousin of the anthropologist Louis Leakey, and his first wife, Elizabeth. ... in 1926, when Elizabeth died ... She married a South African colleague, Bremer Hofmeyr, in 1946. ... in ... 1954 ... Mau Mau fighters ... attacked her father's farm, killed her stepmother and abducted her father. ... [he was] buried alive, in a shallow grave on Mount Kenya. ... she lost her eldest brother, Nigel Leakey, in 1941 at Colito, where he won the Victoria Cross. Three years after Bremer's death, in 1993, their elder son, Murray, was killed in a car accident in Johannesburg.

Notes

1. O'Donoghue, F. M. (23 September 2004). "Leakey, James (1775–1865), miniature painter". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/16244. Retrieved 31 July 2019. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1892). "Leakey, James" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1892). "Leakey, James". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

External links

• "Retirement". A poem by Letitia Elizabeth Landon from The Literary Souvenir, 1826 illustrative of a picture of that name, by Leaky (sic), then in the British Gallery.