Sydney Burleigh

Sydney Richmond Burleigh (July 7, 1853 – February 25, 1931) was an American artist, known primarily for his watercolors but also for his oil paintings, drawings, illustrations, and building and furniture designs.

He was born in Little Compton, Rhode Island, a descendent of the Pilgrim William Bradford. In 1875, he married Sarah Drew Wilkinson (1851–1952) and, with her encouragement and wealth, became a full-time artist. He studied in Paris with Jean-Paul Laurens from 1876 to 1880 and then returned to Rhode Island, where he spent most of his life.

Burleigh rose to national prominence after receiving a bronze medal at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904 and an open prize from the Buffalo Society of Artists in 1913. He exhibited regularly at the Boston Art Club as well as the National Academy of Design, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Newport Art Museum.

He also worked as an illustrator and collaborated with writer William Henry Frost on several children’s books.

He was a painter in the realist style, consistent with the academic style of his teacher, Laurens. Mabel Ducasse, an art critic for the Providence Journal, wrote of Burleigh’s art that "there is a quality in his work which suggests that of the masters of the Renaissance when they chose to employ line and wash. It is character — born of perfect certainty of touch and flowing freedom of line. It is seldom achieved by modern watercolorists, who most often mistake the function of their medium, which is that of drawing rather than painting."

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