Michael Leonard is regarded as one of Britain’s leading photorealist painters most notable for his precise brushwork, tight formed compositions, and distinctive colour palette. An exceptionally talented draughtsman, he started his career as an illustrator and featured notably in The Sunday Times Colour Magazine. By the mid-1970s, his attention was turned to fine art. His series ‘Portraits in Time’ showing figures dressed in the style of Old Masters together with elements of tromp l’oeil proved extremely popular and continue to do so. Leonard was honoured in the mid-1980s to accept the commission to paint the Queen to celebrate her 60th birthday, now held in the National Portrait Gallery.

This collection of figurative drawings highlights Leonard’s interest in the human form but even more simply the act of everyday chores and movements. He highlights the graceful movements and unusual shapes a human creates undergoing mundane daily activities, such as putting on a T-shirt or getting out the bath. This detailed study and fascination with the human figure has continued throughout Leonard’s body of work. The use of colour highlights the moment-to-moment of everyday actions and frames the peach flesh of the male figure.

Lot 206 and Lot 209 illustrate examples of Leonard’s work in monochrome. This series was inspired by the work of Egon Schiele and Georges Seurat. In the work of Schiele, Leonard looks towards the erotic power that emanated through Schiele’s detailed drawings and the attention to the design and perfection in execution. Leonard admired Seurat’s treatment of negative space and how the space around the figures could bring as much energy to a piece as the drawing itself.