AN oil landscape by Worcestershire's greatest painter is tipped to fetch up to 200 times the amount it was sold for in 1890.

The Sandy Margin of the Sea, Aberdovey, due to go up for auction at Christies today, has a reserve price of £80,000 to £120,000, a far cry from the £600 Benjamin Williams Leader was given more than a century ago.

The 6ft by 4ft masterpiece is one of 361 British Victorian paintings being sold by the Forbes publishing family for an expected £25m.

It was once owned by managing director and son of the founder of the Illustrated London News, Sir William Ingram.

Leader, who started life as plain Benjamin Williams, but added the final name to distinguish himself from the Williams family of artists, was the third of 11 children born to city ironmonger Edward Leader Williams.

He painted Welsh landscapes from the late 1850s until he died in 1923, although his coastal scenes did not appear at the Royal Academy until 1888.

This particular "dramatic" oil was painted on Aberdovey beach on the west coast of mid-Wales looking across the inlet into which the River Dovey runs.

It was a particularly poignant work in Leader's life, as the beach was only a few miles south of the coastal town where he and his family spent summers until 1888.

His diary showed the torment he was feeling at the time it was painted, shortly after the death of his mother.

He said he was continuously interrupted while painting the picture and it took more than a month to complete the piece of work.

Leader was born in Worcester High Street on March 12, 1831.

His importance as an artist was confirmed on February 2, 1898, when he was elected to the prestigious Royal Academy, entitling him to the letters RA after his name.