The Ride of the Valkyries

Acrylic on canvas
30" x 40"
c.1987
Restored, 2018

Back in 1987 Leonard painted what we felt then was one of his masterpieces. The Ride of the Valkyries, based on the Norse legend and the Wagnerian opera The Ring of the Nibelung. It was purchased by an antique dealer in San Francisco in the 1990s. Somehow, years later it ended up in a private collection in San Francisco’s Sunset District. In about 2008 a couple found it at an estate sale in the City and fell in love with it, despite the fact it was badly damaged. They stored it in a closet hoping to some day get it repaired. A few months ago they reached out to Leonard to see if he could restore it. Leonard agreed to look at it and hoped to be able to fix it. When they brought it to his studio from their home in the Bay Area, we saw it was in much worse shape than anticipated—two small tears in the canvas, missing paint in a number of areas, creases, scratches, mold, and the worst part, someone had made an attempt to restore it by painting over a lot of the subtle detail and Leonard’s beautiful foggy glazes. Leonard was devastated by the shape it was in but was determined to bring it back to its former glory. It was a big job and took him several weeks to complete. The picture below shows before the restoration, the image above, after.

Soon after we posted about this restoration on social media, we received a request for a print of the image. Having the restored image in our possession allowed us to have it professionally digitally photographed. Limited edition prints and open editions are available. For limited editions, please contact us. for open editions, go to Fine Art America.