Brief Biography-William Leighton Leitch was born in Glasgow in 1804. He began drawing as a boy, and his first employment was as a sign painter and decorator and later a scene painter at the Glasgow Theatre Royal. Leitch moved to London and worked at the Queen's Theatre as a scene painter and took instruction from Copley Fielding. In Italy, he became acquainted with the Hungarian artist Miklós Barabás, whom he gave lessons to and students he took on in Italy. Back in London, after five years, Leitch became a watercolour teacher to the Queen and the royal family. The Institute of painters in Watercolours elected him in 1862, and he later became its vice-president. He died in 1883.