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 as a scene painter at the Glasgow Theatre Royal. Leitch moved to London, 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, with whom he gave lessons. Back in London, after five years, Leitch wse 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.