Leslie, CHARLES ROBERT, genre-painter, was born in London on 19th October 1794, his parents being Americans. He was educated at Philadelphia, to which city his parents took him in 1800. In 1811 he returned to England, and entered as a student in the Royal Academy, West, Fuseli, and Allston exercising the earliest influence over him. The first picture that brought him into notice was 'Sir Roger de Coverley going to Church' (1819). In 1821 'May-day in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth' secured his election as an Associate of the Academy; and 'Sancho Panza and the Duchess,' exhibited in 1824, obtained for him the rank of Academician. Leslie's principal pictures are scenes from the works of Shakespeare,
Cervantes, Le Sage, Molière, Addison, Swift, Sterne, Fielding, and Smollett. Great power of expression, and a delicate perception of character and of female beauty, are his strongest points. In 1833 he accepted the appointment of professor of Drawing at the military academy of West Point, New York; but gave up the post early in the following year, and returned to England. From 1848 to 1852 he was professor of Painting at the Royal Academy. He died in London on 5th May 1859. His lectures were published in 1855 in the useful Handbook for Young Painters; he also wrote an able Life of Constable (1843), and began the Life and Times of Sir Joshua Reynolds, completed by Tom Taylor. The Autobiographical Recollections of Leslie were edited by Tom Taylor (1860).—His son, GEORGE DUNLOP LESLIE, born in London in 1835, whose aim has been 'to paint pictures from the sunny side of English domestic life,' was elected A.R.A. in 1868 and R.A. in 1876. See his Letters to Marco (1893) and River-side Letters (1896).