Framed print

The painter Leonard Campbell Taylor studied at Cheltenham College, and on deciding to be an artist went first to St John's Wood, and then from 1895, for 3 years to the RA Schools, during which time he illustrated in many of the popular magazines of the day, including The Windsor Magazine. His first painting exhibited at the Academy was The Sentinel (1899) - with himself as the model. He achieved early success with portraiture, and gained a patron in the noted art collector Humphrey Roberts. In 1907 his picture The Rehearsal was purchased under the terms of the Chantry Bequest. He worked in a variety of genres, producing landscapes, scenes featuring Japanese people, historical pictures and, perhaps most appealing today, interiors with figures such as The Patient, Chess and The Rehearsal. He was one of a significant number of artists who were influenced by the later work of J. E. Millais.

Taylor's illustrative work, like many of his paintings, concentrated on figure subjects taken from middle class Victorian life.