Leighton History
Alfred Crocker Leighton was born in Hastings, Sussex, on October 27, 1901. At a young age AC Leighton showed an aptitude for drawing but he went on to study architecture rather than art as his father wished at the Bradssey Institute, Hasting’s Municipal School of Art.
In 1917 AC Leighton enlisted illegally in the Royal Flying Corps, where he was underage. In 1918 during a training flight, his airplane crashed after hitting some power lines and he sustained injuries that would plague him for the rest of his life.
In 1924, AC Leighton and a partner constructed a working scale model of the port of Liverpool. This model impressed the executives of the Canadian Pacific Company and they employed Leighton full-time for its public relations ventures abroad not only in Canada - but to the Canadian Rockies.
AC’s first visit to Canada as an employee of Canadian Pacific was made in 1924. Leighton boarded the train in Banff and sketched the scenery by often jumping off trains to sketch and then waiting at the exit of the spiral tunnel in Kicking Horse Pass near Cathedral Mountain for the next train to pick him up. The Canadian Pacific had first choice of any paintings and then AC could have the remainder for himself. All of Leighton's paintings that the Canadian Pacific purchased during this period were destroyed during the Second World War in the London bombing raids.
Now a full member of the Royal Society of British Artists, AC Leighton’s next trip to Canada was made in 1927 where an exhibition of his work was shown at the Banff Springs Hotel and the Calgary Public Library. In 1929 Leighton returned to Canada to continue sketching in the Rockies. This time he was invited to hold an exhibition in the Eaton's stores in Montreal, Toronto and Hamilton, Winnipeg and Saskatoon.
In September 1929 AC Leighton was offered the position as the Art Director at the Art Institute of Calgary to replace Lars Haukness who had suddenly passed away.
In 1930 AC Leighton met Barbara Mary Harvey who was a student in one of his classes. They were married in the early morning on Sunday, May 31, 1931 at St. Stephen's Church in Calgary and their honeymoon was spent packing into the Kananaskis area to paint.
In 1931 AC Leighton formed the Alberta Society of Artists and was the first president. This was also the year a joint exhibition of the works of A. C. Leighton and W.J. Phillips was held at Edmonton Museum of Art.
Moraine Lake, 1931
oil on canvas
51.6 x 66.5 cm
Collection: The Leighton Foundation, Calgary
Throughout the 1930’s AC Leighton spent his time between teaching and exhibitions. In 1932 he taught the Summer Art School at the University of Alberta (Edmonton) and in 1933 he initiated a summer art school near Banff. By 1935 this led to the establishment of the now famous Banff School of Fine Arts. In 1935 AC’s work was exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery and by the end of his term in 1936 AC Leighton was exhausted. AC and Barbara decided to take a trip to England for a rest and in 1938 AC resigned from his position at the Art Institute.
In 1941 the Leighton’s moved to a farm in Chilliwack, British Columbia and then built a house in Crescent Beach, near Vancouver.
Mount Skoki, 1935
oil on canvas
76.2 x 101.6 cm
Collection: The Leighton Foundation, Calgary.