Irish painter William Leech attended the Metropolitan School of Art and the Royal Hibernian Academy where he was apprenticed to Walter Osborne. Leech moved to Paris in 1901 and attended the Académie Julian. In 1903, he first travelled to Brittany to paint people in traditional costume and the rugged landscapes around the region of Concarneau. Leech moved to England in 1910 but continued to visit France until the outbreak of World War II. He is regarded as one of the finest Irish Impressionists.