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Frederic Leighton

(Redirected fromFrederick Leighton)

Not to be confused withEdmund Leighton.

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton,PRA(3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known asSir Frederic Leightonbetween 1878 and 1896, was a BritishVictorian painter,draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical,biblical,andclassicalsubject matter in anacademic style.His paintings were enormously popular and expensive, during his lifetime, but fell out of critical favour for many decades in the early 20th century.[citation needed]

The Right Honourable
The Lord Leighton
PRA
Frederic Leighton,Self-portrait,1880
Born
Frederic Leighton

(1830-12-03)3 December 1830
Scarborough,North Riding of Yorkshire, England
Died25 January 1896(1896-01-25)(aged 65)
Kensington,London, England
Education
Known forPainting and sculpture
Notable workFlaming June
MovementAcademicism,Pre-Raphaeliteand BritishAestheticism
Awards
Signature
Sir Frederic's signature

Leighton was the bearer of the shortest-livedpeeragein history; after only one day, his hereditary peerage became extinct upon his death.[1]

Biography

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Flaming June(1895;Museo de Arte de Ponce)
After Vespers(1871;Princeton University Art Museum)

Leighton was born inScarboroughto Augusta Susan and Dr. Frederic Septimus Leighton (1799–1892), a medical doctor. Leighton's grandfather, Sir James Boniface Leighton (1769–1843), had been the primary physician to two Russian tsars—Alexander IandNicholas I—and their families, and amassed a fortune while in their service.[2]Leighton's career was always cushioned by this family wealth, with his father paying him an allowance throughout his life.[3]He had two sisters; one of them,Alexandra,wasRobert Browning's biographer.[4]He was educated atUniversity College School,London. He then received his artistic training on the European continent, first fromEduard von Steinleand then fromGiovanni Costa.At age 17, in the summer of 1847, he met the philosopherArthur Schopenhauerin Frankfurt and drew his portrait, in graphite and gouache on paper—the only known full-length study of Schopenhauer done from life.[5]When he was 24 he was inFlorence;he studied at theAccademia di Belle Arti,and painted the procession of theCimabueMadonna through the Borgo Allegri. From 1855 to 1859 he lived in Paris, where he metIngres,Delacroix,Corot,andMillet.

Travel was an important part of Leighton's life from childhood. By his late teens, he was living with his family in Frankfurt, Germany and had already visited many of Europe's major cities, including Florence and Rome, places which he would return to on a great many occasions over the next decades. By his late twenties, extended periods had been spent living in Rome and then Paris and Leighton had made his first trip outside Europe, travelling to north Africa in 1857. Once settled in London, he continued to make extensive trips every year until shortly before his death. The countries that Leighton visited on at least one occasion include Austria, Algeria, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Lebanon, Morocco, The Netherlands, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland, Syria, and Turkey.

In 1860, he moved to London, where he associated with thePre-Raphaelites.He designedElizabeth Barrett Browning's tomb forRobert Browningin theEnglish Cemetery, Florencein 1861. In 1864 he became an associate of theRoyal Academyand 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 theNew Sculpture.American art criticEarl Shinnclaimed at the time that "Except Leighton, there is scarce any one capable of putting up a correct frescoed figure in the archway of the Kensington Museum."[6]His paintings represented Britain at the great1900 Paris Exhibition.

He was the first President of the Committee commissioning theSurvey of Londonwhich documented the capital's principal buildings and public art.[7]

Leighton remained a bachelor; rumours of him having an illegitimate child with one of his models, in addition to the supposition that Leighton may have been homosexual, continue to be debated.[8]He certainly enjoyed an intense and romantically tinged relationship with the poetHenry William Grevillewhom he met in Florence in 1856.[9]The older man showered Leighton in letters, but the romantic affection seems not to have been reciprocated. Enquiry is further hindered by Leighton leaving no diaries, and his letters lack 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 is clear that he did court a circle of younger men around his artistic studio.[8]

Leighton wasknightedatWindsor Castlein 1878,[10]and was created abaroneteight years later.[11]He was the first painter to be given apeerage,in the1896 New Year Honours.The patent creating him Baron Leighton ofStretton,in the County of Shropshire, was issued on 24 January 1896;[12]Leighton died the next day ofangina pectoris.On his death hishereditary peeragewas extinguished after existing for only a day; this is a record in thepeerage.

Cimabue's Celebrated MadonnaIs Carried in Procession Through the Streets of Florence,1853–1855
Daphnephoria,oil on canvas painting, 1874–1876,Lady Lever Art Gallery

His house inHolland Park,London has been turned into a museum, theLeighton House Museum.[13]It contains many of his drawings and paintings, as well as some of his former art collection, including works byOld Mastersand his contemporaries, such as a painting dedicated to Leighton bySir John Everett Millais.The house also houses many of Leighton's inspirations, including his collection ofIznik tiles.Its centrepiece is the magnificent Arab Hall, which is featured in issue ten ofCornucopia.[14] Ablue plaquecommemorates Leighton at Leighton House Museum.[15]

Artists Rifles

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Sir Frederic LeightonbyGeorge Frederic Watts(1881)
Sir Frederic Leighton, later in his career.
"A sacrifice to the Graces ". Caricature byTissotpublished inVanity Fairin 1872

Leighton was an enthusiastic volunteer soldier, enrolling with the first group to join the 38th Middlesex (Artists') Rifle Volunteer Corps (later to be known as theArtists Rifles) on 5 October 1860.

His qualities of leadership were immediately identified, and he was promoted to command a Company within a few months. On 6 January 1869CaptainLeighton was elected to command the Artists Rifles by a general meeting of the corps. In the same year he was promoted to major and in 1875 tolieutenant colonel.Leighton resigned ascommanding officerin 1883. The painterJames Whistlerfamously described the then Sir Frederic Leighton, the commanding officer of the Artists Rifles, as the: "Colonel of the Royal Academy and the President of the Artists Rifles – aye, and he paints a little!" At his funeral, on 3 February 1896, his coffin was carried intoSt Paul's Cathedral,[16]past aguard of honourformed by the Artists Rifles.[17]

Honours

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Selected works

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See also

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Citations

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  1. ^Leigh Rayment (1 September 2015)."Peerage Records".Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page.Archived from the original on 23 March 2016.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  2. ^"Biography of Lord Frederick Leighton".ARC.Retrieved4 October2022.
  3. ^"Frederic Leighton".RBKC.Retrieved4 October2022.
  4. ^"Orr [née Leighton], Alexandra [known as Mrs Sutherland Orr]".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press. 23 September 2004.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35332.ISBN978-0-19-861412-8.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  5. ^Crowther, Paul, and Miruna Cuzman. "A Rediscovered Contemporary Full-Length Sketch-Portrait of Schopenhauer by Frederic, Lord Leighton." Schopenhauer Jahrbuch, 92 Band, Konigshausen und Neumann, 2011: 301–306.
  6. ^Shinn, Earl (1880).The World's Art: From the International Exhibition.Lovering.
  7. ^"Members of the Survey Committee Pages 4-7 Survey of London Monograph 12".British History Online.Guild & School of Handicraft, London, 1926.Retrieved30 December2022.
  8. ^abEmanuel Cooper,The Sexual Perspective: Homosexuality and Art in the Last 100 Years in the West,2005
  9. ^Oxford Dictionary of National Biographyvol 33
  10. ^"No. 24651".The London Gazette.29 November 1878. p. 6695.
  11. ^"No. 25551".The London Gazette.22 January 1886. p. 328.
  12. ^"No. 26705".The London Gazette.31 January 1896. p. 587.
  13. ^Brooks, Richard (7 September 2024)."Frederic Leighton's only known painting of moon over water to go on show after being lost for a century".The Observer.
  14. ^Cornucopia10, Ingres and Lady Mary Montagu, Leighton House, yurts, the Lycians plus elegant eggplant.Cornucopia.net. Retrieved on 20 February 2011.
  15. ^"LEIGHTON, FREDERICK, LORD LEIGHTON (1830–1896)".English Heritage.Retrieved1 July2012.
  16. ^"Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral"Sinclair, W.p. 469: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.
  17. ^Barry Gregory.A History of The Artists Rifles 1859–1947.Pen & Sword. 2006.
  18. ^Frederic, Lord Leighton | Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna | L275 | The National Gallery, London.Nationalgallery.org.uk. Retrieved on 20 February 2011.
  19. ^Tate Collection | Study for 'The Discovery of Juliet Apparently Lifeless'.Tate.org.uk. Retrieved on 20 February 2011.
  20. ^Frederic, Lord Leighton | The Villa Malta, Rome | L851 | The National Gallery, London.Nationalgallery.org.uk. Retrieved on 20 February 2011.
  21. ^Artwork Page: Actaea, the Nymph of the ShoreArchived28 August 2004 at theWayback Machine.Cybermuse.gallery.ca. Retrieved on 20 February 2011.
  22. ^Tate Collection |An Athlete Wrestling with a Pythonby Frederic, Lord Leighton.Tate.org.uk. Retrieved on 20 February 2011.
  23. ^Newforestparishes.comArchived3 July 2007 at theWayback Machine
  24. ^"Leeds Art Gallery, listings".Archived fromthe originalon 30 November 2016.Retrieved28 September2016.

General references

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toFrederic Leighton.
External videos
Leighton'sAn Athlete Wrestling with a Python,Smarthistory
Cultural offices
Preceded by President of the Royal Academy
1878–1896 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Leighton
24–25 January 1896 		Extinct
Baronetage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baronet
(of St Mary Abbots)
1886–1896 		Extinct
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