Richard Pettigrew Principal Leitch, Artist (Painter), Caricaturist, Robinson Crusoe

Richard Principal Leitch (about 1827–1882), was Williams eldest son, and was also a landscape painter and he worked in a similar style to his father.

Census: 1851

Where born: Ayrshire, Scotland Civil Parish: St Marylebone Ecclesiastical parish: St Andrew Phillimore Ecclesiastical Parish Maps: View related Ecclesiastical Parish County/Island: Middlesex Country: England

1863-64. The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, with upwards of one hundred illustrations. London: Cassell, Petter & Galpin.

88 of the approximately 100 illustrations, plus a portrait of Defoe, are present here. This edition was initially printed serially as part of "Cassell's Family Library." A group of artists and engravers worked together to create the illustrations, leading Blewett to call it the "least satisfying" of the heavily illustrated editions due to its lack of "harmony and unity of vision" (103) . Illustrators included Percy William Justyne, Richard Principal Leitch, Thomas R. Macquoid, Matt Somerville Morgan, J. Abbott Pasquier, George Housman Thomas, and possibly Harrison W. Weir,

Source: The Dictionary of British Book Illustrators and Caricaturists, 1800- 1914. By Simon Houfe. Woodbridge, England: Antique Collectors' Club, 1978. Biographies begin on page 215. (DcBrBI) The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists up to 1920. By H.L. Mallalieu. Woodbridge, England: Antique Collectors' Club, 1976. (DcBrWA) The Dictionary of Victorian Painters. Second edition. By Christopher Wood. Woodbridge, England: Antique Collectors' Club, 1978. (DcVicP 2)

Leitch, Richard Principal (1827-1882) The son of the painter and drawing-master, William Leighton Leitch (1804–1883). Richard P. Leitch was a landscape painter, an excellent water-colour painter and a good draughtsman on wood’ (MacGeorge, 112), he exhibited between 1844 and 1860 at the Royal Academy as R. Leitch Junior, at first from his father’s address.

His View on the River Limpopo with a Herd of Hippopotami (reproduced in the Illustrated London News of 5 January 1856) was among scenes painted for Gordon Cumming’s South African Entertainment at 232 Piccadilly, London, in 1856. He also signed an engraving based on one of Charles Wirgman’s watercolour sketches of China in the Illustrated London News (1857–8).

In September 1857 he was in Normandy painting watercolours for Queen Victoria. Thereafter, especially when his father was ill, he painted extensively for the queen and gave lessons to her children; the styles of father and son are often confused.

William Leitch stated that both Richard and a younger son, William, were ‘most graciously set a-going’ by the queen (letter of 28 Nov 1882; private information).

Richard Leitch published drawing manuals in the 1870s and early 1880s and worked as an illustrator for journals such as The Quiver and Good Words. His wife died a few months before him in 1882, leaving two children.

Peace after Storm by Artist: R. P. Leitch. Engraver: W. J. Linton. Wood engraving.