Early Works

Leda’s early works show her moving between pencil, pastel, watercolour, and oil. They begin with careful drawing and close observation, and already reveal an interest in portraiture, mood, and setting.

Her 1945 pencil portrait of a friend, drawn on textured paper, is among the earliest of these works. It is restrained and closely observed. The move into pastel brought a greater use of colour and a different handling of surface.

A pencil sketch of her husband, Hans, belongs to this early period, as does her earliest known work of a young girl. Both reflect her interest in people as subjects, and in the quiet detail of everyday presence.

In her early landscape painting, Leda turned to light, space, and the meeting of built and natural forms. A watercolour of a mosque shows another side of this period, with its attention to structure, atmosphere, and the possibilities of the medium. The oil portrait of Hans stands as one of the strongest works from this early period.