- Term
William Robinson Leigh
- Alternate Term
Leigh, W.R.
Leigh, William Robinson
- Occupation/Role
artist
- Nationality/Ethnicity
American
- Date
1866-1955
- Remarks
William Robinson Leigh was born in 1866, at Maidstone Manor Farm, West Virginia. In 1880 Leigh entered the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland, spending three years there before moving to Munich, where he studied at the Royal Academy for over a decade. He returned to the New York City and worked painting cycloramas and as a magazine illustrator. In 1906, Leigh traveled to the American West for the first time, journey he will repeat many times. In 1926 he also traveled to Africa at the invitation of Carl Akeley for the American Museum of Natural History. Leigh is best known for painting the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Forest, but his primary interest were the Hopi and Navajo Indians. Leigh died in 1955.