BENJAMIN WILLIAMS LEADER (BRITISH 1831-1923)ON THE RIVER LLUGWY BELOW CAPEL CURIGOil on canvas Signed (lower left)54.3 x 73.3cm (21¼ x 28¾ in.)Provenance:Private collection, Diana and Martin Barnes, OxfordshireLiterature:Ruth Wood, Benjamin Williams Leader RA, 1831-1923, His Life and Paintings, 1998, p. 31In 1859 both Thomas Agnew and Thomas Wallis, both respected London-based art dealers, began to buy paintings from Leader. Wallis was the first major art dealer who actively promoted Leader's paintings. Unlike Leaders' business relationship with Agnew's, the artist formed a close friendship with Wallis, often staying at the dealer's home in London and entertaining Wallis' daughters when they visited his sisters in Worcester. The first picture Wallis purchased was most likely this Welsh scene, 'On the Llugwy, near Capel Curig', when it was exhibited at the Worcester Society of Arts, no. 937 (Wood, p. 31).