| |
The acknowledged
leader of the Victorian classical school of painting, Frederic Leighton
was born in Scarborough, the son of a doctor. His grandfather, Sir James
Leighton, was court physician to Czar Alexander I of Russia; and Sir James'
son was also a doctor. Soon after Nicholas I became Czar in 1825 the Leighton
family left Russia and spent the ensuing years travelling around Europe,
giving their only son, Frederic, first-hand acquaintance with its cultural
and artistic treasures.
Unlike most major artists of the nineteenth century Leighton did not study
at the Royal Academy Schools, but received his training in Brussels, Paris
and Frankfurt. In 1852 he went to live in Rome, where he moved in a large
artistic circle which included Thackeray,
Robert Browning and some of
the most important French painters of the time.
On his return to England in 1855, his historical painting Cimabue's Madonna
Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence was shown at the
Royal Academy, where it received a rapturous reception from the critics
and was later bought by Queen Victoria. It was the start of what was to
be a glittering career that took him to the very heights of his profession.
Leighton settled in London in 1860 and was made an RA in 1868, when he
turned to painting subjects from mythology. His decision to abandon historical
paintings coincided with a sudden upsurge of interest in Hellenism; even
women's evening wear was influenced, Greek gowns that gave women a new-found
freedom of movement becoming fashionable.
Leighton suddenly found himself the centre of attention, with his paintings
the talk of London. He was elected President of the Royal Academy in 1878,
and became a baron in 1896 (full title = Baron Leighton of Stretton),
the only English artist to receive this honour. But by then he was a sick
man who was suffering from angina. He died in 1896 and after lying in
state at the RA, he was buried in St Paul's Cathedral. His will included
a bequest of £10,000 to the Royal Academy. The poet Algernon Swinburne
composed a memorial elegy:
'A light has passed that never shall pass away
A sun has set whose rays are unequalled in might'.
Although at the time of his death Leighton was something of a national
institution, his reputation quickly declined and his work and all that
he stood for became objects of derision. It was to be another 60-70 years
before his work would come into fashion again.
Leighton's beautiful home at 2 Holland Park Road, South Kensington, London
is now a museum - Leighton House. Here you can see the opulence in which
Leighton lived, and view paintings by Leighton, Burne-Jones and other
Pre-Raphaelite artists, including Mariana in the South (John William Waterhouse)
and The End of the Quest (Sir Frank Dicksee).
|