LEGER GALLERIES
Leger Galleries at 13 Old Bond Street, London, W.1 was opened in 1892 by Joseph Leger (1867-1925) who was an artist and a picture restorer. Joseph Leger was a modest dealer but was to become well established and his son Harold Leger took the embryonic gallery into the upper echelons of dealing. The gallery was then in Duke Street, St James’ but by 1930 Harold Leger had leased a building at the back of the then location in Duke Street as well as moving to the more prestigious Old Bond Street. He had also established galleries in New York, Brussels and in 1931 opened in Paris and Chicago and a second gallery in the Belgian capital made the Leger empire now six galleries. But with a shortage of learned staff plus a depression in the USA by the middle of the 1930s he had closed all but his flag ship in Bond Street and a single gallery in Brussels. His London staff had been strengthened with the arrival of Lilian Browse (1906-2005) and with her knowledge of the Camden Town Group introduced contemporary painting to the Leger. She was involved in organising exhibitions by Edward Ardizzone, Charles Isaac Ginner (1878-1952), Stanley Spencer, Jack Butler Yeats (1871-1957), and many more up and coming artists. In 1966 David Posnett, who had previously worked in an investment department of stockbrokers, joined the Leger and within a decade become an acknowledged expert in the field of Old Masters. In 1996, Posnett sold the company to coin and medal dealer Spink and Son. The gallery is now renamed Spink Leger Pictures and continues to operate from its Old Bond Street premises. Other Suffolk artists who exhibited with the Leger Galleries include David Cox and Rowland Suddaby.