Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton
Encyclopedia
Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton PRA
(3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton, Bt, between 1886 and 1896, was an English painter
and sculptor
. His works depicted historical, biblical and classical
subject matter. Leighton was bearer of the shortest-lived peerage
in history; after only one day his hereditary peerage ended with his death.
, London
. He then received his artistic training on the European continent, first from Eduard 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
.
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In 1860, he moved to London, 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, of Holland Park Road in the Parish of St Mary Abbots
, Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, 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.
As he was unmarried, after his death his Barony was extinguished after existing for only a day; this is a 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 Iznik tiles. Its centrepiece is the magnificent Arab Hall. The Hall is featured in issue ten of Cornucopia
.
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
(3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton, Bt, between 1886 and 1896, was an English painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
and sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
. His works depicted historical, biblical and classical
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
subject matter. Leighton was bearer of the shortest-lived peerage
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
in history; after only one day his hereditary peerage ended with his death.
Biography
Leighton was born in Scarborough to a family in the import and export business. He was educated at University College SchoolUniversity College School
University College School, generally known as UCS, is an Independent school charity situated in Hampstead, north west London, England. The school was founded in 1830 by University College London and inherited many of that institution's progressive and secular views...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. He then received his artistic training on the European continent, first from Eduard Von Steinle
Eduard Von Steinle
Eduard Von Steinle was a historical painter and member of the Nazarene movement.Steinle came successively under the influence of the painters Leopold Kupelweiser, Johann Overbeck, and Peter von Cornelius, and was thus introduced into the methods of the German painters who had formed themselves...
and then from Giovanni Costa
Giovanni Costa
Giovanni Costa , known as Nino, was an Italian landscape painter and revolutionary.-Biography:Costa was born in Rome...
. When in Florence, aged 24, where he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti, he painted the procession of the Cimabue
Cimabue
Cimabue , also known as Bencivieni di Pepo or in modern Italian, Benvenuto di Giuseppe, was an Italian painter and creator of mosaics from Florence....
Madonna through the Borgo Allegri. He lived in Paris from 1855 to 1859, where he met Ingres
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. Although he considered himself to be a painter of history in the tradition of Nicolas Poussin and Jacques-Louis David, by the end of his life it was Ingres's portraits, both painted and drawn, that were recognized as his greatest...
, Delacroix
Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...
, Corot and Millet
Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet was a French painter and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France...
.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was one of the most prominent poets of the Victorian era. Her poetry was widely popular in both England and the United States during her lifetime. A collection of her last poems was published by her husband, Robert Browning, shortly after her death.-Early life:Members...
's tomb for Robert Browning
Robert Browning
Robert Browning was an English poet and playwright whose mastery of dramatic verse, especially dramatic monologues, made him one of the foremost Victorian poets.-Early years:...
in the English Cemetery, Florence
English Cemetery, Florence
The English Cemetery is in Piazzale Donatello, Florence, Italy.-History:In 1827 the Swiss Evangelical Reformed Church purchased land outside the medieval wall and gate of Porta a' Pinti from Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany for an international and ecumenical cemetery, Russian and Greek Orthodox...
in 1861. In 1864 he became an associate of the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
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
New Sculpture
The New Sculpture refers to a movement in late 19th-century British sculpture.The term "New Sculpture" was coined by the first historian of the movement, the critic Edmund Gosse, who wrote a four-part series for the Art Journal in 1894...
. His paintings represented Britain at the great 1900 Paris Exhibition.
Leighton was knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
at Windsor
Windsor, Berkshire
Windsor is an affluent suburban town and unparished area in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is widely known as the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British Royal Family....
in 1878, and was created a Baronet, of Holland Park Road in the Parish of St Mary Abbots
St Mary Abbots
St Mary Abbots is an historic church located on Kensington High Street , London at a prominent intersection with Kensington Church Street. The present church was built in 1872 by the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott in neo-Gothic Early English style. It was the latest in a succession of churches...
, Kensington, in the County of Middlesex, eight years later. He was the first painter to be given a peerage
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
, in the New Year Honours List of 1896. The patent creating him Baron Leighton, of Stretton
Church Stretton
Church Stretton is a small town and civil parish in Shropshire, England. The population of the town was recorded as 2,789 in 2001, whilst the population of the wider parish was recorded as 4,186...
in the County of Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...
, was issued on 24 January 1896; Leighton died the next day of angina pectoris.
As he was unmarried, after his death his Barony was extinguished after existing for only a day; this is a record in the Peerage
Peerage
The Peerage is a legal system of largely hereditary titles in the United Kingdom, which constitute the ranks of British nobility and is part of the British honours system...
. His house in Holland Park
Holland Park
Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...
, London has been turned into a museum, the Leighton House Museum
Leighton House Museum
Leighton House Museum is a museum in Holland Park, London, England. It is housed in the former home of the painter Frederic, Lord Leighton. The first part of the house was designed in 1864 by the architect George Aitchison, although Leighton was not granted a lease on the land until April 1866...
. 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 Iznik tiles. Its centrepiece is the magnificent Arab Hall. The Hall is featured in issue ten of Cornucopia
Cornucopia (magazine)
Cornucopia is a magazine about Turkish culture, art and history, published jointly in the United Kingdom and Turkey.-Content:Cornucopia was founded by John Scott and Berrin Torolsan in 1992. It is an English Language magazine that concerns Turkish culture...
.
Timeline
- 1864 – Associate of the Royal AcademyRoyal AcademyThe Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
- 1868 – Royal Academy AcademicianAcademicianThe title Academician denotes a Full Member of an art, literary, or scientific academy.In many countries, it is an honorary title. There also exists a lower-rank title, variously translated Corresponding Member or Associate Member, .-Eastern Europe and China:"Academician" may also be a functional...
- 1878 – President of the Royal Academy
- 1878 – Légion d'honneurLégion d'honneurThe Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
Officer - 1878 – Knight BachelorKnight BachelorThe rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
- 1886 – Created Baronet in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
- 1889 – Associate member of the Institute of FranceInstitut de FranceThe Institut de France is a French learned society, grouping five académies, the most famous of which is the Académie française.The institute, located in Paris, manages approximately 1,000 foundations, as well as museums and chateaux open for visit. It also awards prizes and subsidies, which...
- 1896 – Created Baron in the Peerage of the United KingdomPeerage of the United KingdomThe Peerage of the United Kingdom comprises most peerages created in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the Act of Union in 1801, when it replaced the Peerage of Great Britain...
Selected works
- 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 VictoriaVictoria of the United KingdomVictoria was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India....
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 CanadaNational Gallery of CanadaThe National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
, 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)
- Teresina (circa 1874) Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o WaiwhetuChristchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o WaiwhetuThe Christchurch Art Gallery, with the formal name of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu, is the public art gallery of the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. It is funded by Christchurch City Council. It has its own substantial art collection and presents a programme of New Zealand and...
, ChristchurchChristchurchChristchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...
, New Zealand - 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 GalleryTate GalleryThe Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art...
- The Garden of the Hesperides, c. 1892, (169 x 169 cm)
- Flaming JuneFlaming JuneFlaming June is a painting by Lord Frederic Leighton, produced in 1895. Painted with oil paints on a 47" x 47" square canvas, it is widely considered to be Leighton's magnum opus, showing his classicist nature. It is thought that the woman portrayed alludes to the figures of sleeping nymphs and...
(1895), oil on canvas, Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto RicoPonce Museum of ArtMuseo de Arte de Ponce, or MAP, is an art museum located on Las Americas Avenue in Ponce, Puerto Rico. It is considered the finest art museum in Puerto Rico. It houses a collection of European art, as well as work by Puerto Rican artists. The largest art museum in the Caribbean, it has also been...
(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
- The Leighton FrescoesThe Leighton FrescoesThe Leighton Frescoes were commissioned in 1868 as the central feature of the elaborate decorations of the Victoria and Albert Museum's South Court. The artist of the two enormous works which each measure 10.7 metres across, was Frederic Leighton , one of the most important figures in the late...
, The Arts of Industry as Applied to War and The Arts of Industry as Applied to Peace