Balweary, Fifeshire

Early in his career in Glasgow, William Leighton Leitch worked as a painter of theatrical stage scenery and then as a decorator of snuff boxes. In London he found ready work as a teacher before becoming drawing master to Queen Victoria in 1846. His finished watercolours were almost invariably Scottish or Italian landscapes, simply constructed and defined by a delicate but rather homogenised touch. The scene depicted in this painting is typically contrived, combining the ruin of Balwearie Castle tower with rustic figures building a hayrick.