John Leech 1817-64
Past Sales
Sales by Medium
Where to buy or sell art works by John Leech
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About John Leech
Of Irish descent, John Leech was born in London in 1817. He studied medicine and practiced as a surgeon, but all the while his primary interest had been art. He had published his first book of drawings aged 18 and within a few years he was contributing cartoons and drawings to London magazines. He began drawing cartoons for London Punch in 1841 and continued contributing for at least 20 years. He was also a painter, working in oils, gouache and watercolour.
Our database records art auction sales of works by John Leech from 1967 and in total 22 works by the artist have been offered for sale, of which 7 (32%) were sold. The highest price recorded for the artist is $1,736 for Topsy Turvey - Or Our Antipodes 1854; Alarming Prospect, the Single Ladies off to The Diggings 1854 (2) sold by Mossgreen Auctions in June 2016. No works have been offered for sale this year, and the last sale we have recorded for the artist was in 2021. Works by John Leech are held by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, National Gallery of Australia and a further three major public national galleries (see list below).
John Leech is not listed in any of the standard biographical references listed on our references page.
The Australian Art Sales Digest is a database of over 610,000 works by more than 12,000 artists who are listed as having either lived or worked in Australia or New Zealand, and an additional 36,000 foreign and other artists, offered for sale by auction in Australia and New Zealand from the early 1970s to the present day.
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