Leonard French was born in Melbourne on October 8 1928. He left school at 14 to become an apprentice sign writer with A.C. Mence, where he learnt screen-printing, gilding, marbling, the making of paints and the preparation of surfaces. He later studied part-time at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
He visited Europe between 1949-50, where he studied Byzantine art at its source. He returned to Australia in 1952, taught in Melbourne technical schools until the late 1950s, becoming Exhibitions Officer at the National Gallery of Victoria 1956-60. He has received many commissions for stained glass windows, including the ceiling for the Great Hall of the National Gallery of Victoria 1962-68, as well as murals and panel paintings such as Seven Days in Canberra.
French has developed an individual style with a personal language of symbols reminiscent of medieval icons, halfway between the real and the abstract. He currently lives and works in Melbourne.
Rainbow Dragonfly pictured above is a new edition to the Wyllie Group Art Collection and complements the other four pieces by Leonard French owned by the Wyllie Group.
Between 1965 and 1970, French executed very few paintings.
Rainbow Dragonfly is one of the few paintings executed within this period and was most likely inspired by French’s recent trip to Japan. French would have seen a lot of similarities between the wing of a dragonfly and that of a stained glass window.
Spring Fountain, seen above is painted with enamel on hessian-covered board incorporating the use of some gold leaf. This is a prime example of his way of reconciling immediate reality and the more general religious, poetic and mythological resources, which surround and inform the everyday. By using the rich glow of enamel paints in alternating opaque and translucent layers, French has created the effect of an ancient decoration.