Eugene Leake (1911-2005)
A hawk hovers in air,
two white gulls float on the stream
soaring with the wind, it is easy
to drop and seize.
Birds who foolishly drift with the current
where the dew sparkles in the grass,
the spider’s web waits for its prey,
the processes of nature resemble the business of men.
I stand alone with ten thousand sorrows.
— Lines from “Loneliness” by Tu Fu / Du Fu
Eugene Leake, Landscape with Figure , oil on canvas, 64 x 76 inches
Eugene Leake was an American painter whose landscapes offer a contemplative view of rural Maryland. Trained at Yale University under Josef Albers, Leake brought a quiet formal intelligence to his observations of nature, rendering the countryside through atmosphere, movement, and changing light. Rather than approaching landscape as spectacle, Leake turned to its gentler qualities: open fields, shifting skies, and the restrained beauty of place. His paintings reflect what he described as the “quietness and gentleness” of Maryland, while also revealing a broader sensitivity to nature’s variety and transience.
Leake became president of the Maryland Institute College of Art in 1961 and remained closely connected to the Maryland arts community. His work has been exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Babcock Gallery, Tatischeff and Company, and C. Grimaldis Gallery, and is held in collections including the Baltimore Museum of Art, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Johns Hopkins University, and J.B. Speed Art Museum.