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Adolf Wölfli's Irren-Anstalt Band-Hain, 1910

The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut (French: [aʁ bʁyt], "raw art" or "rough art"), a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.^[1]

While Dubuffet's term is quite specific, the English term "outsider art" is often applied more broadly, to include certain self-taught or Naïve art makers who were never institutionalized. Typically, those labeled as outsider artists have little or no contact with the mainstream art world or art institutions. In many cases, their work is discovered only after their deaths. Often, outsider art illustrates extreme mental states, unconventional ideas, or elaborate fantasy worlds.

Outsider art has emerged as a successful art marketing category (an annual Outsider Art Fair has taken place in New York since 1993). The term is sometimes misapplied as a catch-all marketing label for art created by people outside the mainstream "art world," regardless of their circumstances or the content of their work.

Art of the insane[link]

Interest in the art of insane asylum inmates had begun to grow in the 1920s. In 1921 Dr. Walter Morgenthaler published his book Ein Geisteskranker als Künstler (A Psychiatric Patient as Artist) on Adolf Wölfli, a psychotic mental patient in his care. Wölfli had spontaneously taken up drawing, and this activity seemed to calm him. His most outstanding work is an illustrated epic of 45 volumes in which he narrates his own imaginary life story. With 25,000 pages, 1,600 illustrations, and 1,500 collages, it is a monumental work. He also produced a large number of smaller works, some of which were sold or given as gifts. His work is on display at the Adolf Wölfli Foundation in the Museum of Fine Art, Bern. A defining moment was the publication of Bildnerei der Geisteskranken (Artistry of the mentally ill) in 1922, by Dr Hans Prinzhorn.

People with some artistic training and well-established artists are not immune from mental illness and may also be institutionalised. For example, William Kurelek, later awarded the Order of Canada for his artistic life work, as a young man was admitted to the Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital where he was treated for schizophrenia.^[2] In hospital he painted, producing "The Maze", a dark depiction of his tortured youth.^[3] This 1953 work was used as the cover of the 1981 Van Halen rock album Fair Warning. His experience in the hospital was documented in the LIFE Science Library book The Mind, published in 1965.

[edit] Jean Dubuffet and art brut

French artist Jean Dubuffet was particularly struck by Bildnerei der Geisteskranken and began his own collection of such art, which he called art brut or raw art. In 1948 he formed the Compagnie de l'Art Brut along with other artists, including André Breton. The collection he established became known as the Collection de l'art brut. It contains thousands of works and is now permanently housed in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Dubuffet characterized art brut as:

"Those works created from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses – where the worries of competition, acclaim and social promotion do not interfere – are, because of these very facts, more precious than the productions of professionals. After a certain familiarity with these flourishings of an exalted feverishness, lived so fully and so intensely by their authors, we cannot avoid the feeling that in relation to these works, cultural art in its entirety appears to be the game of a futile society, a fallacious parade." - Jean Dubuffet. Place à l'incivisme (Make way for Incivism). Art and Text no.27 (December 1987 - February 1988). p.36 Dubuffet's writing on art brut was the subject of a noted program at the Art Club of Chicago in the early 1950s.

Dubuffet argued that 'culture', that is mainstream culture, managed to assimilate every new development in art, and by doing so took away whatever power it might have had. The result was to asphyxiate genuine expression. Art brut was his solution to this problem – only art brut was immune to the influences of culture, immune to being absorbed and assimilated, because the artists themselves were not willing or able to be assimilated.

The cultural context of the outsider art category[link]

The interest in "outsider" practices among twentieth century artists and critics can be seen as part of a larger emphasis on the rejection of established values within the modernist art milieu. The early part of the 20th Century gave rise to cubism and the Dada, Constructivist and Futurist movements in art, all of which involved a dramatic movement away from cultural forms of the past. Dadaist Marcel Duchamp, for example, abandoned "painterly" technique to allow chance operations a role in determining the form of his works, or simply to re-contextualize existing "readymade" objects as art. Mid-century artists, including Pablo Picasso, looked "outside" the traditions of high culture for inspiration, drawing from the artifacts of "primitive" societies, the unschooled artwork of children, and vulgar advertising graphics. Dubuffet's championing of the art brut – of the insane and others at the margins of society – is yet another example of avant-garde art challenging established cultural values.

Vocabulary[link]

Two images of Joe Minter's African Village in America, a half-acre visionary art environment in Birmingham, Alabama. Scenes include African warriors watching their descendants’ struggles in Alabama, tributes to black scientists and military leaders, recreations of the epic civil rights confrontations in Alabama, and biblical scenes.

A number of terms are used to describe art that is loosely understood as "outside" of official culture. Definitions of these terms vary, and there are areas of overlap between them. The editors of Raw Vision, a leading journal in the field, suggest that "Whatever views we have about the value of controversy itself, it is important to sustain creative discussion by way of an agreed vocabulary". Consequently they lament the use of "outsider artist" to refer to almost any untrained artist. "It is not enough to be untrained, clumsy or naïve. Outsider Art is virtually synonymous with Art Brut in both spirit and meaning, to that rarity of art produced by those who do not know its name."

• Art Brut: literally translated from French means "raw art"; 'Raw' in that it has not been through the 'cooking' process: the art world of art schools, galleries, museums. Originally art by psychotic individuals who existed almost completely outside culture and society. Strictly speaking it refers only to the Collection de l'art brut.
• Folk art: Folk art originally suggested crafts and decorative skills associated with peasant communities in Europe – though presumably it could equally apply to any indigenous culture. It has broadened to include any product of practical craftsmanship and decorative skill – everything from chain-saw animals to hub-cap buildings. A key distinction between folk and outsider art is that folk art typically embodies traditional forms and social values, where outsider art stands in some marginal relationship to society's mainstream.
• Intuitive art / Visionary art: Raw Vision Magazine's preferred general terms for outsider art. It describes them as deliberate umbrella terms. However, Visionary Art unlike other definitions here can often refer to the subject matter of the works, which includes images of a spiritual or religious nature. Intuitive art is probably the most general term available. Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art based in Chicago operates a museum dedicated to the study and exhibition of intuitive and outsider art. The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland is dedicated to the collection and display of visionary art.
• Marginal art/Art singulier: Essentially the same as Neue Invention; refers to artists on the margins of the art world.
• Naïve art: Another term commonly applied to untrained artists who aspire to "normal" artistic status, i.e. they have a much more conscious interaction with the mainstream art world than do outsider artists.
• Neuve Invention: Used to describe artists who, although marginal, have some interaction with mainstream culture. They may be doing art part-time for instance. The expression was coined by Dubuffet too; strictly speaking it refers only to a special part of the Collection de l'art brut.
• Visionary environments: Buildings and sculpture parks built by visionary artists - range from decorated houses, to large areas incorporating a large number of individual sculptures with a tightly associated theme. Examples include Watts Towers by Simon Rodia, Buddha Park and Sala Keoku by Bunleua Sulilat, and The Palais Ideal by Ferdinand Cheval.

Notable outsider artists[link]

• Nek Chand (b. 1924) is an Indian artist, famous for building the Rock Garden of Chandigarh, a forty acre (160,000 m²) sculpture garden in the city of Chandigarh, India.
• Ferdinand Cheval (1836–1924) was a country postman in Hauterives, south of Lyon, France. Motivated by a dream, he spent 33 years constructing the Palais Ideal. Half organic building, half massive sculpture, it was constructed from stones collected on his postal round, held together with chicken wire, cement, and lime.
• Felipe Jesus Consalvos (1891–c.1960) was a Cuban-American cigar roller and artist, known for his posthumously-discovered body of art work based on the vernacular tradition of cigar band collage.
• Henry Darger (1892–1973) was a solitary man who was orphaned and institutionalized as a child. In the privacy of his small north side Chicago apartment, he produced over 35,000 pages of text and hundreds of large scale illustrations, including maps, collaged photos, and watercolors that depict the heroic struggles of his child characters, "the Vivian Girls," engaged in activities such as battle scenes combining imagery of the US Civil War with the presence of fanciful monsters.
• Francis E. Dec (1926–1996) was a disbarred U.S. lawyer in 1959 who spent thirty years of his life in isolation mailing increasingly paranoid handwritten rants (which sometimes include drawings) to the media.
• Charles A.A. Dellschau (1830–1923) born in Prussia, Dellschau emigrated to the US and in his 70's secluded himself in an attic and over the course of 20 years created 12 large scale books filled with mixed media watercolors depicting the inventions of the Sonora Aero Club, chronicling the birth of the age of aviation . It is unknown if his subject was factual, a fictionalization or a delusion.
• Madge Gill (1882–1961), was an English mediumistic artist who made thousands of drawings "guided" by a spirit she called "Myrninerest" (my inner rest).
• Paul Gösch (1885–1940), a schizophrenic German artist and architect murdered by the Nazis in their euthanasia campaign.
• James Hampton (1909–1964) was an African-American janitor who secretly built a large assemblage of religious art from scavenged materials.
• Vojislav Jakic (1932–2003), a Serbian artist who spent most of his life in a small town of Despotovac producing drawings up to five meters long evoking the memories of his own life, his obsessions with death, and reflections on art. His works mix abstraction and graphic signs and writings.
• Alexander Lobanov (1924–2003) was a deaf and autistically withdrawn Russian known for detailed and self-aggrandizing self-portraits: paintings, photographs and quilts, which usually include images of large guns.
• Helen Martins (1897–1976) transformed the house she inherited from her parents in Nieu-Bethesda, South Africa, into a fantastical environment decorated with crushed glass and cement sculptures. The house is known as The Owl House.
• Tarcisio Merati (1934–1995), an Italian artist, was confined to a psychiatric hospital for most of his adult life during which time he produced a vast amount of drawings (several dream toys, bird on nest etc.), text and musical composition.
• The Philadelphia Wireman, a creator of wire sculptures. Nothing is known of his (or her) identity and he (or she) is presumed deceased.
• Martín Ramírez (1895–1963), a Mexican outsider artist who spent most of his adult life institutionalized in a California mental hospital (he had been diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic). He developed an elaborate iconography featuring repeating shapes mixed with images of trains and Mexican folk figures.
• Achilles Rizzoli (1896–1981) was employed as an architectural draftsman. He lived with his mother near San Francisco, California. After his death, a huge collection of elaborate drawings were discovered, many in the form of maps and architectural renderings that described a highly personal fantasy exposition, including portraits of his mother as a neo-baroque building.
• Sam (Simon) Rodia (1875-1965) was an itinerant construction worker and untrained in the arts. Plagued by personal problems, he abandoned his family to ride the rails until he settled in Los Angeles and created the landmark Watts Towers. Abandoning his monumental life's work, he returned to die with his family, among whom he was regarded as a bum, artist, crazy or a genius.
• Judith Scott (1943–2005) was born deaf and with Down Syndrome. After being institutionalized for 35 years she attended Creative Growth Art Center (a center for artists with disabilities in Oakland, CA) and went on to become an internationally-renowned fiber art sculptor.
• Richard Sharpe Shaver (1907-1975) produced photographs, paintings, drawings and writing connected to his unorthodox theories about the history of life on earth. He believed that certain stones were actually image-filled "rock books" created by an ancient superior race, and that sadistic decedents of those ancients live inside the earth, using ancient "ray" machines to torment humankind. His paintings, based on rock slices, often incorporate unusual materials such as soap flakes.
• Miroslav Tichý (1926–2011) was a photographer who took thousands of surreptitious pictures of women in his hometown of Kyjov in the Czech Republic, using homemade cameras constructed of cardboard tubes, tin cans and other at-hand materials.
• Willem van Genk (1927–2005) is the best known Dutch representative of outsider art. He was considered schizophrenic and autistic, and made drawings in view from above of stations and wirings, European cities, busses and trolleys, zeppelins and bombers. He also created 300 intricately decorated rain coats.
• Wesley Willis (1963-2003), a schizophrenic musician and artist from Chicago, known for his prolific (and bizarre) musical recordings as well as his hundreds of colored ink-pen drawings of Chicago land and street-scapes. Many of his drawings appear as covers to his albums. Although Willis was poor and often dependent on the charity of friends for housing, his drawings now sell for thousands of dollars apiece.
• Scotti Wilson (1928–1972) (born Louis Freeman), emigrated from Scotland to Canada and opened a second-hand clothes store, found fame when his casual doodlings were noted for their dream-like character.
• Adolf Wölfli (1864–1930), a Swiss artist, was confined to a psychiatric hospital for most of his adult life during which time he produced a vast amount of drawings, text and musical composition. Wölfli was the first well-known "outsider artist," and he remains closely associated with the label.
• Kiyoshi Yamashita (1922–1971) was a Japanese graphic artist who spent much of his life wandering as a vagabond through Japan. He has been considered an autistic savant.
• Joseph Yoakum (1890–1972), an African-American artist who spent his last years producing a vast quantity of sinuous, surreal landscapes based on both real and imagined travels.

August Natterer's Weltachse mit Haase (Axle of the World, with Rabbit), 1919

See also[link]

• Avant-garde
• Asemic writing
• Category: Outsider artists
• Surrealism
• Outsider music
• Lowbrow (art movement)
• Vernacular architecture
• Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Alphabetically:

• Bandyopadhyay, S. and I. Jackson, The Collection, the Ruin and the Theatre: architecture, sculpture and landscape in Nek Chand's Rock Garden, Chandigarh Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 2007.
• Greg Bottoms, I Colori dell'Apocalisse - Viaggi nell'outsider art, Odoya, Bologna 2009 ISBN 978-88-6288-026-8
• Roger Cardinal, Outsider Art, London, 1972.
• Roger Cardinal, Art Brut. In: Dictionary of Art, Vol. 2, London, 1996, p. 515-516.
• Marc Decimo, Les Jardins de l'art brut, Les presses du réel, Dijon (France), 2007.
• Turhan Demirel, "Outsider Bilderwelten", Bettina Peters Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-939691-44-5
• Jean Dubuffet: L’Art brut préféré aux arts culturels [1949](=engl in: Art brut. Madness and Marginalia, special issue of Art & Text, No. 27, 1987, p. 31-33).
• Hal Foster, Blinded Insight: On the Modernist Reception of the Art of The Mentally Ill. In: October, No. 97, Summer 2001, pp. 3–30.
• Deborah Klochko and John Turner, eds., Create and Be Recognized: Photography on the Edge, San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2004.
• John M. MacGregor, The Discovery of the Art of the Insane. Princeton, Oxford, 1989.
• John Maizels, Raw Creation art and beyond, Phaidon Press Limited, London, 1996.
• Lucienne Peiry, Art brut: The Origins of Outsider Art, Paris: Flammarion, 2001.
• Lyle Rexer, How to Look at Outsider Art, New York:Abrams, 2005.
• Colin Rhodes, Outsider Art: Spontaneous Alternatives, London: Thames and Hudson, 2000.
• Rubin, Susan Goldman. (March 9, 2004). Art Against the Odds: From Slave Quilts to Prison Paintings. Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers. ISBN 0-375-82406-5
• Michel Thévoz, Art brut, New York, 1975.
• Maurice Tuchman and Carol Eliel, eds. Parallel Visions. Modern Artists and Outsider Art. Exhb. cat. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 1992.
• Bianca Tosatti, Arte e psichiatria. Uno sguardo sottile, (in collaboration with Giorgio Bedoni), Mazzotta, Milano, 2000.
• Bianca Tosatti, Les Fascicules de l'Art brut', un saggio sull'artista Antonio dalla Valle,2007.
• Allen S. Weiss, Shattered Forms, Art Brut, Phantasms, Modernism, State University of New York, Albany, 1992.
• Self Taught Artists of the 20th Century: An American Anthology San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1998

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Outsider art

Barry Paul (born 10 May 1948) is a British fencer. He competed in the individual and team foil events at the 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics.^[1]

References[link]

This biographical article related to fencing in the United Kingdom is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Jesse L. Reno
Jesse Lee Reno
Born	(1823-04-20)April 20, 1823 Wheeling, Virginia
Died	September 14, 1862(1862-09-14) (aged 39) near Boonsboro, Maryland
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1846 – 1862
Rank	Major General
Commands held	Mount Vernon Arsenal, IX Corps
Battles/wars	Mexican-American War American Civil War Burnside's North Carolina Expedition Battle of Roanoke Island Battle of New Bern Battle of South Mills Northern Virginia Campaign Maryland Campaign Battle of South Mountain †

Jesse Lee Reno (April 20, 1823 – September 14, 1862) was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican-American War, the western frontier, and as a Union General during the American Civil War. Known as a "soldier's soldier" who fought alongside his men, he was killed while commanding a corps at Fox's Gap during the Battle of South Mountain. Reno County, Kansas and Reno, Nevada, were named after him.

Early life[link]

Reno was born in Wheeling, Virginia (present day West Virginia), the third-oldest of eight children of Lewis Thomas and Rebecca (Quinby) Reno. His ancestors, who came from France in 1770, changed the spelling of their last name 'Renault' to the more modified 'Reno' when they arrived in America.^[1] His family moved to the Franklin, Pennsylvania, area in 1830, and Reno spent his childhood there.

Reno was admitted to the United States Military Academy in 1842 and graduated eighth in his class of 59 cadets in 1846, initially commissioned a brevet second lieutenant of Ordnance.^[2] Reno and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson became close friends while at West Point. Other classmates and friends included George B. McClellan, George Pickett, Darius N. Couch, A.P. Hill, and George Stoneman.

Mexican-American War[link]

During the Mexican-American War in 1847, Reno commanded an artillery battery under General Winfield Scott and fought in the Siege of Vera Cruz and other battles in Mexico. Reno was brevetted twice during the war—once for "gallant and meritorious conduct" at the Battle of Cerro Gordo, and later for bravery at the Battle for Mexico City and the Battle of Chapultepec, where he was seriously wounded while commanding a howitzer battery.^[3]

After the Mexican-American War ended, Reno served in several locations, including as a mathematics instructor at West Point, as the secretary of a group assigned to "create a system of instruction for heavy artillery,^[4] and at the Ordnance Board in Washington, D.C. He was promoted to first lieutenant, in 1853, and sent to conduct a road survey from the Big Sioux River to Mendota, Minnesota. When he returned to Washington, he married Mary Blanes Cross, and the couple had five children, two of whom had notable achievements of their own: Conrad Reno became an attorney and writer of note in Boston, Massachusetts, and Jesse W. Reno graduated from Lehigh University and invented the first working escalator.^[5]

Reno's next assignment was as ordnance officer at the Frankford Arsenal, northeast of Philadelphia, where he spent the next few years. In 1857, Reno was assigned to go with Brig. Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston as chief of ordnance on a two-year expedition to the Utah Territory.^[3]

Civil War[link]

When he returned from Utah in 1859, Reno was promoted to captain for fourteen years of continuous service. Captain Reno then took command of the Mount Vernon Arsenal near Mount Vernon, Alabama, in 1859. At dawn on January 4, 1861, Reno was forced to surrender the arsenal to troops from Alabama, a bloodless transfer ordered by the governor of Alabama, Andrew B. Moore.^[6] Alabama seceded from the Union a week later.

Upon leaving Alabama with his small force, Reno was temporarily assigned to command the Fort Leavenworth Arsenal until he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in the fall of 1861. He transferred to Virginia, took command of the 2nd Brigade, Burnside Expeditionary Force, and soon had organized five regiments. The 2nd Brigade fought in Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside's North Carolina Expedition from February through July 1862. Reno became a division commander in the IX Corps,^[2] which had become part of the Army of the Potomac. In the Northern Virginia Campaign, Reno actively opposed his friend and classmate Stonewall Jackson during the Second Battle of Bull Run and the Battle of Chantilly. Reno was appointed a major general on August 20, 1862. (This promotion was confirmed posthumously on March 9, 1863, with date of rank established as July 18, 1862.)^[7] Burnside became commander of the Army of the Potomac's Right Wing for the start of the Maryland Campaign in September, elevating Reno to command of the IX Corps from September 3.^[2]

Reno had a reputation as a "soldier's soldier" and often was right beside his troops without a sword or any sign of rank.^[8] On September 12, 1862, Reno's IX Corps spent the day in Frederick, Maryland. Two days later, while he was stopped directly in front of his troops as he reconnoitered the enemy's forces at Fox's Gap at the Battle of South Mountain, Reno was hit in the chest by a Confederate sharpshooter's bullet. He was brought by stretcher to Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis's command post and said in a clear voice, "Hallo, Sam, I'm dead!" Sturgis thought that he sounded so natural that he must be joking and told Reno that he hoped it was not as bad as all that. Reno repeated, "Yes, yes, I'm dead—good-by!", dying a few minutes later.^[9] In his official report, D. H. Hill sarcastically remarked, "The Yankees on their side lost General Reno, a renegade Virginian, who was killed by a happy shot from the Twenty-third North Carolina.^[10]

In memoriam[link]

Reno Monument at Fox's Gap, South Mountain Battlefield

Reno's body was first taken to Boston, the home of his wife, and placed in a vault in Trinity Church. On April 9, 1867, his remains were reinterred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown, Washington, D.C..^[11]

A memorial marking the location of his death was erected in 1889 by IX Corps veterans on present-day Reno Monument Road in the South Mountain State Battlefield.

The city of Reno, Nevada, is named for the general and a monument to him stands downtown along Virginia Street.

The United States Army named three outposts after Reno: Fort Pennsylvania in present-day Washington, D.C., was renamed Fort Reno in 1862, Fort Reno was constructed near present-day El Reno, Oklahoma in 1874, the third Fort Reno was built in present-day Wyoming on the Bozeman Trail in 1865. Reno, Nevada, Reno, Pennsylvania, and Reno County, Kansas, are also named in his honor.

See also[link]

	American Civil War portal
	United States Army portal

• List of American Civil War generals

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Sears, Stephen W. Landscape Turned Red: The Battle of Antietam. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983. ISBN 0-89919-172-X.
• U.S. War Department. The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1880–1901.
• Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1964. ISBN 0-8071-0822-7.

Further reading[link]

• McConnell, William. Remember Reno: A Biography of Major General Jesse Lee Reno. Shippensburg, PA: White Mane Publishing, 1996. ISBN 978-1-57249-020-8.

External links[link]

• "Major General Jesse Lee Reno". Antietam on the Web. http://aotw.org/officers.php?officer_id=108. Retrieved 2006-07-04. 
• "Remembering Reno". Paul Martin. http://www.paulmartinart.com/GenJesseReno.html. Retrieved 2006-07-04. 
• "Jesse L. Reno". West Virginia Division of Culture & History. http://www.wvculture.org/history/civilwar/renojesse01.html. Retrieved 2007-06-08. 
• Fort Reno, Oklahoma
• Fort Reno in Washington, D.C.
• Fort Reno/Fort Phil Kearny, Wyoming
• "Jesse L. Reno". Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid={{{grid}}}. Retrieved 2008-02-12. 

Leon Scott Kennedy (レオン・S・ケネディ, Reon Sukotto Kenedi^?) is a player character appearing in the Resident Evil series of survival horror video games.^[2] Leon is a protagonist character in Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4^[3] and Resident Evil 6.^[4] During the events of RE2, Leon is a new police officer who arrives in Raccoon City late for his first day on the job, only to confront the T-virus outbreak first-hand. Six years later in RE4, Leon returns as a secret agent for the U.S. government, assigned to rescue the President's daughter.

Leon also appears as a player character in Resident Evil Gaiden and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, and plays a leading role in the CG animated film Resident Evil: Degeneration. The live-action film version of Leon will appear in Resident Evil: Retribution, where he will be portrayed by Johann Urb.

Concept and design[link]

Leon was created by Hideki Kamiya as a contrast to the male protagonist of the original Resident Evil game, Chris Redfield, who Kamiya felt was the "blunt, tough-guy type". Though Kamiya admitted that while he was a fan of a character like Chris, as it had already been done, he opted to take Leon's development in a different direction. He was surprised at how popular Leon had become, praising his evolution into a "cool looking guy" for Resident Evil 4, adding that he "fell in love all over again."^[5] He was created for Resident Evil 2 as the staff wanted to use a character who had no experience with terrifying situations in contrast to use returning characters.^[6] While he was originally designed as a veteran police officer, he was changed to a rookie after the original version of Resident Evil 2 (known as Resident Evil 1.5) was scrapped.^[7] Leon was announced as Resident Evil 4's protagonist in November 2002.^[8]

As the game went through development, it was meant that Leon became infected with the Progenitor Virus and possessed a hidden power in his left hand.^[9][10] This concept was expanded in 2004, where Leon was meant to contract a bizarre disease across his fights against the game's enemies.^[11] In a documentary explaining the conception of the game's characters, a game designer stated he intended to make Leon Kennedy "look tougher, but also cool".^[12] During development from the first CGI film, Kamiya stated he would like to make another game starring Leon as the main character.^[13] Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi explained that the series' fans "would really love" a video game featuring both Leon and Chris as the protagonists due to their popularity, and at the same time, it would be "pretty dramatic" if the two characters never met if the series ended.^[14]

Leon is voiced by Paul Haddad in Resident Evil 2, and Paul Mercier in Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil: Degeneration and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles. In the RE2 commercial made by George A. Romero, Leon was portrayed by Brad Renfro.

In video games[link]

Leon debuted in Resident Evil 2 as one of the game's two main protagonists, along with Claire Redfield. In the story, he is a rookie cop who arrives to the town just after the zombie outbreak started up, and he meets Claire by chance when she too is being ambushed by zombies. They escape to the Raccoon City Police Department after a brief separation following an explosion, and manage to find a way to get into the sewage system via finding a series of key items, and they use a tram to reach the lab, which as misfortune would have it is owned by Umbrella Inc, those responsible for the viral outbreak.

When Leon first enters the car park in the police department, he meets Ada Wong, a mysterious woman claiming to be looking for her boyfriend, a researcher called John. It is eventually revealed that Ada is really a spy seeking a sample of the G-Virus for her unknown employer. She seemingly dies from a gruesome injury, inflicted upon her by the Mr. X Tyrant that pursues the characters. Later on, Ada is seen on a platform as she tosses down the Rocket Launcher, therefore indirectly allowing Leon (or Claire depending on the scenario) to kill the Mr. X Tyrant. In the end, Leon also faces and kills a grotesque looking Birkin in his final form, and escapes via a train set to explode, with Claire and a little girl called Sherry, who is William's daughter.

An epilogue obtained after completing Resident Evil 3: Nemesis reveals that Leon later joined the U.S. government. He is also mentioned in Resident Evil Survivor by Ark Thompson, the player character, and by Claire in Resident Evil Code: Veronica when she contacts Leon to relay info to her brother Chris, while she is stuck on Rockfort Island. Leon also starred alongside Barry Burton in the Game Boy Color only title Resident Evil Gaiden, but this was a non canon entry that was a stand alone adventure.

Leon was the main protagonist of Resident Evil 4, a third person shooter which saw a radical change to the overall gameplay. Six years after Leon survived Raccoon City, Leon is now a special agent for the United States Secret Service, and is assigned to rescue the newly-elected President's daughter, Ashley Graham, who is being held somewhere in Europe.^[15] Her kidnappers turn out to be part of a cult known as Los Illuminados,^[16] which has taken control of the local villagers with parasites known as Las Plagas. They immediately attack Leon when he enters the village, forcing Leon to fight back using whatever means necessary. As he searches for Ashley, Leon is also captured and injected with parasites. With help from Luis Sera, an Illuminados researcher, and the returning Ada, Leon is able to remove Las Plagas from his body and rescue Ashley while confronting the cult. At the climax of the game, Leon kills the cult leader Saddler but is forced to give a Plagas sample to Ada, who escapes in a helicopter, leaving Leon and Ashley to escape using a jet-ski.

Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles features re-imaginings of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica, as well as a new scenario serving as a midquel, involving Leon and Jack Krauser, on a mission set in 2002 to search for Javier Hidalgo, an ex-drug lord who had been reported to be approaching Umbrella Inc.

Leon also appears in the uncanonical third-person shooter Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City. Revisiting the Raccoon City incident, the player controls Umbrella operatives sent to kill any survivors, and certain actions can lead to Leon's death.^[17] He is a playable character in the Heroes Mode of Operation Raccon City.^[18] Leon is also one of two playable characters in the browser and mobile game Resident Evil: Zombie Busters.^[19]

It has recently been revealed in the trailer for Resident Evil 6 that Leon will be one of what looks to be three main protagonists, alongside Chris Redfield and Jake Muller.^[20]

In other media[link]

Leon once again teams up with Claire Redfield in the film Resident Evil: Degeneration in order to stop another outbreak of the T-virus, as a special agent of the United States government. Leon will return in the sequel to Degeneration called Resident Evil: Damnation.^[21] Unlike the Paul Anderson produced main movies, these two films are set in the same universe as the games, making them canon.

In Resident Evil: Apocalypse, a newspaper clipping during the credits stated Leon to have been killed due to the actions of his partner, Jill Valentine. However, in an interview, director Paul W. S. Anderson said if Resident Evil: Afterlife succeeds, he will do a fifth film and would like Leon to make an appearance in Resident Evil: Retribution.^[22] Johann Urb is cast as Leon for the film, Leon is described as "the leader of the Resistance, who teams with Alice as she battles the Umbrella Corporation and the swarm of undead."

Leon is a character in the Image Comics comic book Resident Evil and the novels Resident Evil: City of the Dead and Resident Evil: Underworld by S. D. Perry.

In promotion and merchandise[link]

This section requires expansion.

In 2004, Capcom announced a series of outfits based on Leon's clothing under the name of "Leon's Collection."^[23]

Reception[link]

Since his appearance in Resident Evil 2, Leon has received highly positive reception. In 2010, Nintendo Power listed Leon as their fourteenth favourite Nintendo gaming hero, stating that he went from a "glorified meter maid with a bad haircut" to a tough guy.^[24] GameSpot featured him in their poll for the title of "All Time Greatest Game Hero" in 2009, in which he has won over JC Denton but lost to Duke Nukem.^[25] In a 2010 Famitsu poll, Leon was voted by readers as the thirty-first most popular video game character.^[26] In the Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition from 2011, he was voted as the 36th best video game character.^[27]

IGN has featured him in numerous articles, numerously calling him one of the two main characters of the series along with Chris Redfield,^[28][29] also describing him in one article as the "straight-laced hero" of Resident Evil.^[30] Another IGN article makes yet another comparison between the two characters, calling him the "determined guy clawing his way up the ladder".^[31] IGN twice named him as a character they wished to see in crossover titles, describing him as an "intimidating hero" and a "unique breed of ass kicker".^[32][33] IGN editors Phil Pirrello and Richard George listed him as eighth in their Super Smash Bros. character wish list, calling him one of the best things to happen to the Resident Evil series.^[34] IGN editor Lucas M. Thomas included him in a list of Capcom characters who should be in, stating that there were more Resident Evil fans on Nintendo consoles than there were fans of Mega Man and Street Fighter.^[35] GameDaily predicted that Leon along with Claire Redfield would be the protagonists of the next main Resident Evil title, citing the pattern of alternating protagonists and because Leon had not been seen since Resident Evil 4.^[36] On the other hand, Gameplanet's Aylon Herbet stated that if both Leon and Chris would share protagonism on an upcoming Resident Evil it would be "awesome", also sharing comments that both are the main protagonists from the series.^[37] Together with Ada, Leon was in the The Inquirer's list of the most memorable video game love teams.^[38] GamesRadar labelled Leon's Resident Evil 4 design as "David Bowie piloting the Memphis Belle" stating that while it was appealing, it still required modifications for encounters in the games.^[39]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Leon S. Kennedy - The Resident Evil Wiki
• Leon S. Kennedy - Capcom Database Wiki