Undoubtedly the most distinguished series of his portraits is the 10 of the

Undoubtedly the most distinguished series of his portraits is the 10 of the Queen, remembered by his daughter, Daphne, as "a wonderful person, a favourite subject". His method was to sketch the sitter first in sanguine chalk, next painting in oil on canvas Often sitters asked to buy these lifelike original sketches. The series was to include 10 of the present Queen and five of the Duke of Edinburgh, as well as portraits of the Queen Mother, the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Kent. The final portrait has great presence, stemming from a series of relaxed sittings during which Boden and the pontiff chatted in English.

Boden believed that conversation animated the sitter, helping to reveal the personality.It was a technique that he employed with marked success in his 19 royal portraits. It was the only portrait for which Pius XII granted sittings. There were 14, at Castelgandolfo, the Pope's summer palace, and in Rome, where the Pope asked for it to be hung in the Vatican. A string of portraits of distinguished men and women in the worlds of industry, commerce, medicine, the armed forces, politics and the arts followed over the next 40 years. They included three Lord Mayors of London - Sir Peter Gadsden, Sir Murray Fox and Sir Ralph Ferring - as well as Field Marshal Lord Slim, Lord Wakefield of Kendal, the Marquess of Linlithgow, Sir George Pinker, Sir James Cameron, Baroness Thatcher and his close friend Donald Sinden.In 1957, Boden had the rare chance to paint a reigning Pope. Leonard was brought up on opera, and, as well as Christoff, numbered among his friends Eva Turner, Sir Geraint Evans and Tito Gobbi.In 1954, Boden's career as a portrait painter advanced with his first large-scale commission, Field Marshal Lord Milne.

Boden's father had been a passionately keen promoter of music in Scotland, including appearances by Sir Thomas Beecham and Dame Eva Turner. A larger portrait is in the National Theatre Museum.It was a happy association of twin interests, painting and opera. He also painted his first portrait of the singer Boris Christoff as Boris Godunov in Mussorgsky's opera. The breakthrough into full-time portraiture came soon after demobilisation, when he established a word-of-mouth reputation for his depictions of notable thespians such as Alastair Sim and Sir Donald Wolfit.

He edged towards portrait painting when called on to sketch the subject of interviews, such as the conductor Sir John Barbirolli.During the Second World WarBoden was an ack-ack gunner, served at a prisoner- of-war camp in Comrie, Perthshire, not far from his home, and in intelligence. To make a living in the 1930s, Boden and his wife did book illustration, book- jackets and advertising. There he met his future wife, Margaret Tulloch, and like her went on to Heatherley's School of Fine Art in London. After school at Sedbergh, Leonard might have been expected to follow his much older brothers Ernest, who became chairman, and Sydney into the family firm. But, as he had shown a strong aptitude for drawing and painting, his father and mother accepted his wish to be an artist.He joined Glasgow School of Art, his teachers including that notable portraitist William Oliphant Hutchison, Francis Hodge, John D Revel and Frederic Whiting.

Wodehouse and Robert Benchley.Boden was born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, in 1911. His father John had co-founded Rowan & Boden, a company which furnished ships such as the Clyde-built Cunard liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. He was a freeman of the City of London, a liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers, a vice-president of the Artists' General Benevolent Institution and a gold medallist of the Paris Salon. As chairman of Chelsea Arts Club in the 1960s he was known for his gentle humour, probably honed by a love of reading P.G. In his final years it grieved Boden that, while he was a respected member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, his wife had never been elected. By his death, Boden was a noted art-world figure. His name was on the pictures, but theirs was a joint operation.