Leighton, FREDERICK LORD, P.R.A.

Leighton, FREDERICK LORD, P.R.A., was born at Scarborough 3d December 1830. His father was a doctor, but he early recognised his son's bias towards painting, and gave him what he deemed the best training for his profession. Frederick's early years were spent in a series of grand tours. He visited Rome, Florence, Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, and Brussels, and everywhere he received instruction from the most distinguished masters. At fourteen he was already a promising student at the Accademia di Belle Arti at Florence. At Frankfurt he came under the influence of Steinle, a frigid Teuton, the friend and disciple of Overbeck; and there remained a certain coldness in his colour which proved that he never quite lived down the results of Steinle's tuition. He made his first appearance at the Royal Academy in 1855 with his famous picture 'Cimabue's Madonna carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence.' This work was an immediate success and was purchased by the Queen. Of his later works may be mentioned 'The Triumph of Music' (1856), 'Paolo and Francesca' (1861), 'The Odalisque' (1862), 'Ariadne' (1868), 'Hercules wrestling with Death' (1871), 'The Harvest Moon' (1872), 'The Daphnephoria' (1876), 'Wedded' (1882), 'Cymon and Iphigeneia' (1884), 'Andromache' (1888), 'The Bath of Psyche' (1890). He also won considerable distinction as a sculptor, and in 1877 his 'Athlete struggling with a Python' was purchased out of the funds of the Chantry Bequest. In 1864 he was elected Associate of the Royal Academy. Five years later he took his place among the forty. On the death of Sir Francis Grant in 1878 he was elected President and was knighted. He was created a baronet in 1886. He received a grand medal of honour for sculpture at the Paris Exhibition of 1889, and the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and Edinburgh conferred upon him their honorary degrees. He was created Lord Leighton of Stretton on 1st January 1896, died, unmarried, on the 25th of the same month, and was buried in St Paul's. Lord Leighton was a scholar and a man of the world as well as a painter, and discharged the duties of his onerous position with marvellous tact and success. Under his presidency the Academy enjoyed a material prosperity and social influence which it attained under no one of his predecessors. As an artist he was always inspired by the loftiest ideals, and assiduously cultivated the 'grand style.' Neither realism nor archaeology ever availed to turn him aside from the straight path; but it may be objected that his temperament was rather that of the scholar than of the artist. Of his Daphnephoria (sold in 1893 for £3700) Holman Hunt said, 'It is the very noblest painting produced in modern, if it does not excel all of ancient, times.' See Mrs Andrew Lang in the Art Annual, 1885, and a monograph by Ernest Rhys (1900).