Biography
Michael Leonard (b. Bangladore, India 1933 - d. London 2023) returned to England in 1945 and after National Service, studied Commercial Design and Illustration at St Martin’s School of Art, London (1954-7). He worked as a freelance illustrator, in his studio next to his agents Artist Partners, in Soho and for many years was busy producing artwork for books, magazines, advertising and the press. He gradually began painting, having been inspired by visits to the National Gallery and participated in a group show at Fischer Fine Art, London (1972) and held a solo show there in 1974. As well as fugurative scenes he also painted portraits to commission and among his subjects were Lincoln Kirstein, Edward Lucie-Smith, Adrian Ward Jackson, Sir Peter Moores and the Marquess and Marchioness of Hartington (later the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire). In 1985 Reader’s Digest commissioned Leonard to paint a portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II in honour of her sixtieth birthday (now in the National Portrait Gallery, London).
