Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, PRA (3
December 1830–25 January 1896) was an English painter and sculptor. His
works depicted historical, biblical and classical subject matter.
Biography
Leighton was born in Scarborough to a family in the import & export
profession. He was educated at University College School London. He then
received his legal training on the European continent, first from Edward von Steinle and then
from Giovanni Costa. When in Florence, aged 24, where he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti, he painted the procession of the Cimabue Madonna through the Borgo Allegri. He lived in Paris from 1855 to 1859, where he met Ingres, Delacroix, Corot and Millet.
In 1860, he moved to London, England, where he associated with the
Pre-Raphaelites. He designed Elizabeth Barrett Browning's tomb for Robert
Browning in the 'English' Cemetery, Florence in 1861. In
1864 he became an associate of the Royal Academy and in 1878
he became its President (1878–96). His 1877 sculpture, Athlete Wrestling with a Python, was
considered at its time to inaugurate a renaissance in contemporary British sculpture, referred to as the New Sculpture. His paintings represented Britain at the great 1900 Paris Exhibition.
Leighton was knighted at Windsor in 1878,
and was created a baronet eight years later. He was the first painter to be given a
peerage, in the New Year Honours List of 1896. The patent creating him Baron Leighton of
Stretton in the County of Shropshire, was issued on 24
January 1896; Leighton died the next day of angina
pectoris.
Sir Frederick Leighton in his studio in 1888
As he was unmarried, after his death his Barony was extinguished after
existing for only a day; this is an all-time record in the Peerage. His house in Holland
Park, London has been turned into a museum, the Leighton House Museum. It
contains a number of his drawings and paintings, as well as some of his sculptures (including Athlete Wrestling with a
Python). The house also features many of Leighton's inspirations, including his collection of Isnik tiles. Its centrepiece is
the magnificent Arab Hall.
Timeline
Selected works
Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence,
1853-1855
- Death of Brunelleschi (1852), oil on canvas
- The Fisherman and the Siren, c. 1856 - 1858 (66.3 x 48.7 cm)
- Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence
(1853-5), oil on canvas. This was his first major work and was exhibited at the Royal Academy. Queen Victoria was so taken with it that she bought it for 600
guineas on the opening day of the exhibition.
- The Discovery of Juliet Apparently Lifeless (c.1858)
- The Villa Malta, Rome (1860s), oil on canvas
- The Painter's Honeymoon, c. 1864 (83.8 x 77.5 cm)
- Mother and Child, c. 1865, (48.2 x 82 cm)
- Actaea, the Nymph of the Shore (1868), oil on canvas, (57.2 x 102.2 cm) National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
- Daedalus and Icarus, c. 1869, (138.2 x 106.5 cm)
- Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis (1869-71) (132.4 x 265.4 cm)
- Greek Girls Picking up Pebbles by the Sea, 1871 (84 x 129.5 cm)
- Music Lesson, c. 1877, (92.8 x 118.1 cm)
- An Athlete Wrestling with a Python (1877), bronze sculpture
- Nausicaa, c. 1878 (145 x 67 cm)
- Winding the Skein, c. 1878, (100.3 x 161.3 cm)
- Light of the Harem, c. 1880, (152.4 x 83.8 cm)
- Wedded, (c. 1881 - 1882) (145.4 x 81 cm)
- Captive Andromache, c. 1888 (197 x 406.5 cm)
- The Bath of Psyche, (c. 1889−90) (189.2 x 62.2 cm) Tate Gallery
- The Garden of the Hesperides, c. 1892, (169 x 169 cm)
- Flaming June (1895), oil on canvas, Museo
de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico (120.6 x 120.6 cm)
- 'The Parable of
the Wise and Foolish Virgins (Fresco)'
- The armlet
- Phoebe (55.88 x 60.96 cm)
- A Bather
Gallery
See also
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
External links
This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia
Britannica Eleventh Edition article "Frederick_Leighton,_Baron_Leighton", a publication now in the public domain.
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Leighton, Frederic |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
|
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
|
| DATE OF BIRTH |
3 December 1830 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Scarborough, England |
| DATE OF DEATH |
25 January 1896 |
| PLACE OF DEATH |
London, England |
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