Leonard Appelbee studied at Goldsmiths School and the Royal College of Art. He served in the army from 1940 to 1946 and had his first solo show at the Leicester Galleries in London in 1948. His work was exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy from 1947 to 1956. Appelbee painted a number of portraits of eminent people, receiving commissions from Eton College and Corpus Christi College in Cambridge. In 1970 he was awarded a silver medal at the Paris Salon and a book of his verse was published in 1980. His work is represented in the collections of the Arts Council, The Chantrey Bequest, Tate, Aberdeen Art Gallery and the National Gallery, Melbourne, Australia.
