Lord Frederic Leighton

Artist

Lord Frederic Leighton

Birth

December 31, 1830

Birthplace

Scarborough,  Yorkshire,  England

Death

January 25, 1896

Place of Death

London,  England

Gender

Male

Nationality

Britain

Movement

Classicism

Media

Painter/Sculptor

REDERIC LEIGHTON WAS BORN on the 31st December 1830 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, a town this writer has known and liked all his life. He was the son of a medical man Frederic Septimus Leighton (1799-1892), and his wife Augusta Susan Nash, daughter George Augustus Nash of Edinburgh. His paternal grandfather was Sir James Boniface Leighton (1769-1843), who had been physician to two Tsars of Russia, Alexander I, and Nicholas I. Alexandra Leighton, the elder sister of Frederic, was the goddaughter of the Tsarina of the same name. The Russian Imperial connections of James Leighton had made him financially independent, and on his death his son inherited this fortunate position.

Frederic Septimus then promptly retired, due some reports say to his increasing deafness, and others due to the delicate health of his wife. The Leighton family then embarked on a peripatetic life around Europe lasting almost twenty years. Initially they stayed in Paris, then moved to Germany, followed by Italy. Leighton, throughout his life, like that other cosmopolitan artist J. W. Waterhouse, loved, and was influenced by Italian art and culture. Young Leighton was a natural linguist, and was soon fluent in French, German, and Italian. In 1842, he enrolled in the Berlin Academy of Art, having been economical with the truth about his age. He followed this with a period of artistic instruction in Frankfurt.

The family then moved to Florence, where young Leighton – it seems odd to call him Fred – had further artistic tuition, and doubtless was fascinated by the artistic greatness around him. He received instruction from, amongst others, Servolini, and the American sculptor Hiram Powers. Powers it was who famously on being asked by Leighton senior if his son should become an artist, replied “that Nature had made him one already”, adding he may “go as far as he wishes.” It is interesting to speculate if Leighton’s own interest in sculpture as a tool in the preparation of his paintings, and as an artistic end in itself, was a result of his relationship with Powers. The move to Italy had been prompted by the political instability in the German states in the mid 1840s, the situation which also caused the emigration of the parents of Hubert Herkomer. In 1849, the Leighton family felt the social unrest had subsided sufficiently to allow them to return to Frankfurt. Here the young artist embarked on three years rigorous study under the guidance of Johan Edward Steinle (1810-1886). He benefited from both the stability of this time, and the instruction from Steinle, whom he always referred to afterwards as his master, and who remained his confidant until his death.

In 1851, the Leighton family returned to London, and, visited that seminal Victorian event The Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. The Leighton parents must have felt the need for a base in England, because they bought a house in Bath. Young Fred, then twenty-one years old, was by now sufficiently independent, to return to Italy on his own. Initially he stayed in Rome, where it seems he was not happy. It was at this time that he met Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who became lifelong friends, and even more importantly Adelaide Sartoris an attractive sophisticated older woman who became his greatest friend and mentor. Leighton became part of an extensive artistic circle, including Thackeray (William Makepiece Thackeray 1811-1863 novelist and satirist), George Sand (nom de plume of Armandine Lucile Aurore Dupin 1804-1878 pioneer feminist, writer, and mistress of Chopin), George Hemming Mason (1818-1872 landscape painter), Mrs Kemble, Gérôme (1824-1904 historical genre painter), and Bouguereau (Adolphe-William Bouguereau 1825-1905 the great nineteenth century French painter, and opponent of Impressionism).

It was at this time that Leighton started work on his famous picture Cimabue’s Celebrated Madonna, which first brought him to the attention of the art-loving public. It also showed many characteristics of his art which persisted until the end of his life. The picture was meticulously planned, highly finished, skillfully painted, showed great talent in composition, and was very static. It was shown at the RA exhibition in 1855, when concern about its size was expressed by the Hanging Committee – it is over 17 feet long (520.5 cm). It was bought by Queen Victoria, at the prompting of Prince Albert, for 600 guineas making an auspicious start to the painter’s career. Leighton did not regard the Queen’s purchase in an entirely favourable light, feeling that it would provoke a reaction from the critics, and he was proved right. The following year his exhibits at the Academy exhibition received a severe mauling from the art press, and for a few years he was unable to repeat his initial success. In 1858 Leighton showed The Fisherman and the Syren. This painting is another expression of the femme fatale theme found so compelling by nineteenth century English artists. It is notable for another reason. It is the only Leighton nude I have seen which could be described as erotic. The Syren is beautiful, with glowing flesh tones and a very sexy figure – to lapse in to modern day vernacular. The painting is in Bristol City Art Gallery.

In 1861 Elizabeth Barrett Browning died at her home in Florence, to the great distress of her famous husband who asked Leighton to design her tomb, in the Cimiterio Accatolico. It is very handsome monument to a great human being. Should any of our visitors wish to have a look at it, the tomb may be seen on www.findagrave.com.

In the early 1860s Leighton met Ruskin, and G. F. Watts who painted his portrait on a number of occasions, less than convincingly I think – than the artists’ self-portrait in the Uffizi Gallery which is much superior. This I find surprising as, for instance, Watt’s portrait of Edward Burne-Jones is superb. Watts and Leighton became close friends, and remained so until the latter’s death. At this time the painter, as well as keeping up his busy working life, travelled extensively in Europe and the Near East, mainly alone, but sometimes with Adelaide Sartoris. In 1864 he became Associate of the Royal Academy. Two years later Leighton moved from his previous residence at 2 Orme Square, Bayswater, to Leighton House, which was designed for him by George Aitcheson RA, though the artist himself supervised the construction of the house.

Some of the pictures he painted in the 1860s are amongst the most accomplished things he did, for instance the smaller decorative ones, like the Odalisque, In 1868 Leighton made a further visit to Egypt, followed by a tour of the country in the company of Ferdinand de Lesseps (1805-1894) the originator, and the prime mover in the construction of the Suez Canal. In 1870 the Winter Exhibitions of Old Masters commenced at the Royal Academy mainly at the instigation of Leighton. Throughout the 1870s Leighton continued to work relentlessly, and to live an extremely active life. In 1873 he, once more, traveled to Egypt, and, perhaps as a result of this, there followed a number of Orientally-inspired pictures, including The Egyptian Slinger and The Moorish Garden. He had also collected some Persian tiles, which were the inspiration for the famous Arab Hall at Leighton House.

In 1878, Sir Francis Grant, the President of the Royal Academy, and emphatically not an admirer of our man died. Frederic Leighton, aided amongst others by his friend the Prince of Wales, was elected the new President, a role he was to hold for the next eighteen years. In 1879 Adelaide Sartoris died, a considerable blow for the artist, but she had lived to see here protégé achieve the leading role in English art. In the early 1880s the painter met Ada Alice Pullen, a cockney girl who was attempting to support herself and her younger sisters by working as an artists’ model. Leighton was very fond of Dorothy Dene the (stage name of Ada Pullen), and painted many pictures using her as his model throughout the 1880s. Her sisters Edith Ellen, Henrietta Sarah (Hetty), and Isabell Helena (Lena), also sat to him. Dorothy had aspirations to a career as an actress, which the painter did his best to assist, but she was not successful. Leighton used to visit these pretty, vivacious sisters in their small home, and this must have provided a welcome relief from his classical paintings, ceremonial and administrative duties the RA, and high profile social life. George Bernard Shaw knew the artist and his favourite model, and there has been speculation that they provided the inspiration for Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle in Pygmalion.

From the early 1890s Leighton’s health gradually started to decline, though his artistic standards did not deteriorate. His father 1892 died in his ninety third year. In truth the PRA had travelled, painted, worked and lived at a frenetic pace for many years, and was now having to pay the price for a life lived in such a way. At the beginning of 1895, his health deteriorated further, and the heart condition angina was diagnosed. A restful holiday in a warm climate was the treatment recommended by his doctors. In the absence of the President his duties were assumed by his old friend Sir John Millais, unhappily himself no longer enjoying the robust health which had been such a feature of his life. Leighton was, unfortunately, chronically hyper-active and unable to live life at a slower pace. In the Summer he returned to London and his duties at Burlington House. In the early Autumn, he set off on his travels again, going first to Worcester, where he stayed for a few days, then taking the ferry to Ireland. From Dublin he went to Killarney, and then up the West Coast to Donegal. This does not sound very restful to me. It is also to be remembered that he took the tools of his profession with him, and in 1998, an oil sketch of a Head of a Girl painted during this holiday was sold at Sotheby’s. I say a sketch, but it is an exuberant production of a talented artist enjoying the handling of paint.

On January 1st 1896, it was announced that Sir Frederic Leighton was to be ennobled as Baron Leighton of Stretton. His patent bore the date January 24th, and on the afternoon of Saturday 25th January he died at Leighton House after a few days of extreme pain and distress which had ultimately made the use of Morphine necessary. He was, therefore, only a peer for one day. With him at the end were his sisters Alexandra, Mrs Orr Sutherland, and Augusta Mrs Matthews, as well as his great friend Val Prinsep RA.