Leigh's father William Leigh was a naval officer; his grandfather Benjamin Watkins Leigh was a U. S. Senator from Virginia. Brought up and educated on the family plantation, Leigh was early interested in animals and the wild west and showed a precocious talent for drawing.
At the age of l4 Leigh entered the Maryland Institute, Baltimore where he studied under Hugh Newell (1880-83). He then went to Munich where he studied at the Royal Academy, taking the antique class with Raupp (1883-84), the nature class with Gysis (1885-6); and advanced classes with Loeffitz (1887) and Lindenschmit (189l-2). In Munich he won school medals every year and in 1892 an honorable mention at the Paris Salon. Upon the completion of his schooling he assisted Philip Fleisch in the painting of six cycloramas including "Battle of Waterloo" and the three panel "Crucifixion of Christ" in Einsiedeln, Switzerland.
Returning to the United States in 1896, he did magazine illustration for such magazines as Scribner's and Collier's. In 1898 he married Anna Seng. After making one trip to the west on a magazine assignment, and having always been fascinated with the west, in 1906 he set out on an extended trip to Arizona and New Mexico where he was able to produce outstanding depictions of the west and establish himself as a western painter, while still basing himself in New York. Later he made trips to Wyoming and the Dakotas and many trips to the Grand Canyon. His work is characterized by accuracy, realism, and dramatic content; his depiction of the individuality of animals is particularly outstanding.
By 19l3 Leigh was exhibited annually at Snedecor Galleries, New York; in 1918 he began showing at Babcock Galeries. Later his work was handled by Grand Central Art Galleries. Leigh was one of the founding members of the Allied Artists in 19l4. Leigh taught at the Art Students League and at the New York Evening School of Industrial Art (1922-24). In 192l Leigh married Ethel Traphagen and in 1923 they founded the Traphagen School of Fashion.
In 1926 Leigh accompanied the Carl Akeley expedition to Africa and in 1928 the Carlisle-Clark Expedition to Africa as artist to gather material for the backgrounds he was to paint for the for the Akeley African Hall in the American Museum of Natural History (1932-35).
Leigh authored Clipt Wings (1930), a drama about Shakespeare and Francis Bacon; The Western Pony (1933), and Frontier of Enchantment (1938), the story of his adventures in Africa.
The Leigh studio and collection and presented to the Thomas Gilcrease Institute, Tulsa, in 1964 by his wife.
Leigh was nominated to the NAD by Robert Phillip.
