Gibraltar Heritage Trust launches 2023 calendar
The Gibraltar Heritage Trust has launched their 2023 calendar featuring a set of newly discovered paintings from the late 19th Century by Colonel Francis Seymour Leslie created during his military service in Gibraltar between 1876 to 1880.
The sketches and watercolours featured in this edition have been safeguarded by the Leslie family for generations until one of his great-grandchildren, Maurice Leslie, approached well-known local collector and restorer, Gil Podesta, some years back and told him about his family story.
Maurice was keen for his great-grandfather’s story to be told and made accessible to the public and saw the Trust’s annual calendar as a way of doing just that as a tribute to Col. Leslie.
The scenes captured are of a tranquil and picturesque Gibraltar of the 1870s.
Col. Leslie reproduces views of the Rock and from the Rock, and several scenes in the South District which is where he was seemingly barracked.
“He has a talent for capturing low-light, golden-hour and moonlit scenes which hark of a romantic Gibraltar and hinterland 150 years ago when streets were cobbled, and rural views characterised the landscape,” the Trust said.
There are a limited number of calendars available from The Main Guard Heritage shop.