Benjamin Williams Leader RA (12 March 1831 – 22 March 1923) was an English landscape painter. Leader was born in Worcester as Benjamin Leader Williams, the son, and first child of eleven children, of notable civil engineer Edward Leader Williams (1802-79) and Sarah Whiting (1801-88). Leader’s father was a keen amateur artist – a friend of John Constable – and Benjamin would often accompany him on sketching trips along the banks of the River Severn. Leader was educated at the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, and initially worked at his father’s office as a draughtsman while studying art in the evenings at the Worcester School of Design. In his free time he also did a lot of “open air” landscape painting. In 1854, at the age of 23, he was admitted as a student to the Royal Academy Schools in London, and, unusually, in his first year, had a picture accepted for exhibition there, Cottage children blowing bubbles, which was subsequently sold to an American buyer for £50 – a large sum in those days. Subsequently his work appeared in every summer exhibition at the academy until 1922, when Leader was 91 years old. He also had some early works exhibited at the “National Institution”, Portland Place in 1857-58.

The above bio excerpt is derived from Askart.com.