ETHEL PENNEWILL BROWN LEACH ARTIST

REHOBOTH ART LEAGUE  -   PAYNTER HOUSE DOOR SIGNATURES

Ethel Pennewill Brown Leach, born 1878, in Wilmington, died 1959, in Millsboro, during her lifetime of 82 years was a Delaware resident, well known for her portraits, seascapes and illustrations.

Spending much of her life time in Wilmington, where she was born , was the dean of

Delaware's women artist in the first half of the 20^th century. She was respected on the East

Coast for her illustrations, floral painting, landscapes and portraits. The last thirty years of

her life were spent with her husband, Will, with the artist colony of Rehoboth Art League.

She grew up in a rural family, her mother was Henrietta Parris, but raised by a step mother Blance Virden Brown, and father Thomas Armwell Brown who was  a doctor. She was found at an early age to have an art talent. In 1894 she was enrolled in the Clawson Hammitt School of Art in Wilmington.

October 1899 she was studying at the Arts Student League in New York. Between 1902 and

1903 She came down with typhoid fever that left her disfigured by scoliosis which caused

her pain but did not inhabit her thriving career she developed while in New York,

Leach had turned , in 1901, to illustration work to earn money to live on as she received little

support from her family, 1903 found he r back in Wilmington studying under Howard

Pyle, America's most noted illustrator who disliked women students thinking they were

not professional enough but her positive impression got her accepted in his 'inner circle'.

Having met prominent people through her aunt she began painting portraits in 1907.

In 1910 Leach and Olive Rush took over Pyle' s studio for the two years he toured Europe

which was a happy time until the year ended with Pyles death in Florence in 1911.

Leach, then went to Europe, in 1912 to live in the American Art Students Club in the village

of Senlis. Here she earned more recognition, was accepted into the International Union

of Beaux-Arts & Letters and the Paris Salon. She returned to Wilmington in 1913, circulated

with former Pyle's students, made trips to Jackson, Mississippi where her wealthy aunt lived,

and painted there. Eventually she inherited her aunts estate which left her money to become

financially independent.

At age 44 she married Will Leach , an artist, and settled in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, but

traveled between there to Florida and New England to find subjects to illustrate . Here she

did illustrations for children s books and took up portraiture to earn money to take them

.through the depression of the 1920's . In Rehoboth she held annual art exhibitions which

she oversaw for30 years.

Ethel Pennewill Brown Leach was an active artist into her 80's and died December 30, 1959,

and buried in Barretts Chapel Cemetery , Kent county, Delaware.

Source: Ask Art, and ancestry.com , Jann Haynes Gilmore, abstract by Harrison H.