Frederic Leighton: Drawings Colour Plates E-Book

Maria Peitcheva

• Herausgeber: Maria Peitcheva
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Lord Frederic Leighton was one of the most famous British artists of the nineteenth century. The recipient of many national and international awards and honors, he was well acquainted with members of the royal family and with most of the great artists, writers and politicians of the late Victorian era. Leighton preferred to paint subject matter that was connected to ancient Greek and Roman mythology. He intended for his paintings to be visually beautiful and his work then and now has a reputation for luminous colors and solidly drawn figures. After his death 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 former art collection including works by Old Masters and his contemporaries such as a painting dedicated to Leighton by Sir John Everett Millais.

Leseprobe

Frederic Leighton: Drawings

Colour Plates

By Maria Peitcheva

First Edition

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Frederic Leighton: DrawingsColour Plates

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Copyright © 2015 Maria Peitcheva

Foreword

Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), was one of the most famous British artists of the nineteenth century. The recipient of many national and international awards and honours, he was well acquainted with members of the royal family and with most of the great artists, writers and politicians of the late Victorian era.

Leighton preferred to paint subject matter that was connected to ancient Greek and Roman mythology. He intended for his paintings to be visually beautiful and his work then and now has a reputation for luminous colours and solidly drawn figures. Leighton's contemporaries included the French Impressionist painters and he would have seen the work of Monet, Renoir and others in both Paris and London.

Leighton said of the Impressionists that 'Impressionism is a reaction from the old conventionalism, but an impressionist must not forget that it is the deep-sinking and not the fugitive impressions which are the best'. Leighton's role at the RoyalAcademy included the education of younger artists. His great ability for this is summed up in the words of one of his pupils; the sculptor Hamo Thornycroft wrote, 'he was the most energetic and took the greatest pains to help the students. He was, moreover, an inspiring master'.

Leighton was born in Scarborough to a family in the import and export business. He was educated at UniversityCollegeSchool, London. He then received his artistic training on the European continent, first from Eduard von Steinle and then from Giovanni Costa. When he was 24 he was in Florence; he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti, and painted the procession of the Cimabue Madonna through the Borgo Allegri. From 1855 to 1859 he lived in Paris, where he met Ingres, Delacroix, Corot and Millet.

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 EnglishCemetery, Florence in 1861. In 1864 he became an associate of the RoyalAcademy 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 remained a bachelor and rumours of his having an illegitimate child with one of his models in addition to the supposition that Leighton may have been homosexual continue to be debated today. He certainly enjoyed an intense and romantically tinged relationship with the poet Henry William Greville whom he met in Florence in 1856. The older man showered Leighton in letters, but the romantic affection seems not to have been reciprocated. Enquiry is furthermore hindered by the fact that Leighton left no diaries and his letters are telling in their lack of reference to his personal circumstances. No definite primary evidence has yet come to light that effectively dispels the secrecy that Leighton built up around himself. Although it's clear that he did court a circle of younger men around his artistic studio.

Leighton was knighted at Windsor in 1878, and was created a baronet in the County of Middlesex eight years later.

Leighton died 25 January 1896 of angina pectoris.After his death his house in HollandPark, London has been turned into a museum, the LeightonHouseMuseum. It contains a number of his drawings and paintings, as well as some of his former art collection including works by Old Masters and his contemporaries such as a painting dedicated to Leighton by Sir John Everett Millais.

Drawings and Engravings

Drapery Study of The Seated Girls Watching The Festival Procession In The Daphnephoria

Black and white chalks on blue paper

Detail

Five Drapery Studies For 'captive Andromache', One Also Used For 'Electra'

Pencil with white chalk on buff paper

Detail

Detail

Portraits of Enrico Gamba

Pencil, one heightened with white watercolour on buff paper

Detail