“Large Bouquet”
Oil on Canvas 30” x 25”
Dated and Signed, 1956

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Review of Providence Art Club Memorial Exhibition by Bradford Swan in the Providence Journal 1969:

… the obvious verdict on her work is that she was most effective as a colorist, but that, I think, is an oversimplification. True, the grand sense of color is there from the early sixties onward, and it is most apparent in the wonderful series of flower paintings she did in 1966 and in the Belgrade Lakes series of figures in a landscape, dating from 1963.

Florence Leif was born in New York City in 1913. She graduated from Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in painting in 1934 and went on to study under John Frazier. Her summers were spent painting in her home on the Cape overlooking Provincetown and the ocean. She traveled widely in Europe and lived in Rome for a year with her husband, Gordon Peers, the chair of the RISD European honors program. She became recognized for her bold, yet fluid brush work that she applied to subject matter ranging from seascapes to portraits. Leif's desire to learn, experiment and discover new things was constant. During her lifetime she exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Carnegie Institute and the Worcester Museum of Art. Recently, she was represented in the "Rightful Recognition" exhibit at the Newport Art Museum. Her work also received numerous awards and is included in the IBM collection and Providence Art Club collection.

“Large Bouquet” is an example of Leif as an uncommon painter of her generation, who tackled a variety of subject matter in a complex array of styles. Many painters envied Leif’s originality, bold approach and great work ethic. Each painting for her was an investigation where she might form clear objects in a still life and at the same time carves out objects in oil with vigor and spontaneity. Leif’s career as a painter suddenly came to an end when a brain tumor took her life at the age of 55. In 1969 the Providence Art Club held a memorial exhibit in her honor. Her husband, Gordon Peers, was selected to curate the show and later in that same year the Newport Art Museum had a Leif Memorial exhibition. The Rhode Island School of Design created The Florence Leif Scholarship Award in which $3,000 is given to a distinguished woman painter during her final year at RISD. Please contact the gallery with any questions you might have about Leif and other works by the artist.