| Details | | Publication Date: | 1996-03-01 | | Editor: | Frederic Leighton Leighton of Stretton |
| Size | | Length: | 256 pages | | Height: | 12.0 in | | Width: | 10.3 in | | Thickness: | 1.0 in | | Weight: | 64.8 oz |
Publisher's Note
The first time Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) showed a picture at the Royal Academy in London, Queen Victoria bought it. This eminent painter and sculptor went on to become president of the Royal Academy and was the fist artist to be made a lord. Now, one hundred years after his death, the Royal Academy is honoring him with a major retrospective exhibition, for which this book serves as the catalogue. Although his oeuvre runs the gamut of Victorian themes - landscapes, portraits, genre paintings, and classical subjects - Leighton is most renowned for his masterly figure paintings, which he infused with a pulsing sensuality. Leighton always put his own imprint on his work: his gorgeously costumed figures were painted with bravura and with a skill that bespoke his many years of training. His famous Flaming June, with its alluring subject barely clothed in a sheer apricot gown, is characteristic of his mature work - vibrant, sexy, and evocative. Leighton's life was as intriguing as his art. Born into a well-to-do English family, Leighton studied widely on the Continent, ceaselessly visiting museums and palaces. He traveled wherever great art was to be found: down the Nile, in Italy, in North Africa, in Syria. His work and his home reflected his taste for the exotic: Arabic tiles decorated his walls; gowns from Turkey and Syria clothed his models. Many surprising facets of this grand Victorian - including his friendship with the Brownings - emerge in the astute essays by leading experts on Leighton and his nineteenth-century European milieu.
This book serves as catalogue to an exhibit held by the Royal Academy to commemorate the centary of the death of Frederic, Lord Leighton. This eminent Victorian painter and sculptor went on to become president of the Royal Academy and was the first artist to be made a lord. With 128 colorplates, additional illustrations that reveal his working methods, and never-before-published photographs of the artist and his circle, Frederic, Lord Leighton is not only the most fully illustrated study of this towering figure but the first work in 20 years to present him in depth.
Industry Reviews
Lush, sensual figures clothed in draperies, mythical tales, exotic locales, narrative paintings, and more are part of this catalog, published for the centenary exhibition held at the Royal Academy in London earlier this year. Much more than a catalog of works, however, this volume is also a scholarly exposition of the role played in the Victorian art world by this most intriguing and accomplished man. Skillful prose explores the mind and the methods behind the works. The individual entries are splendid examples of their kind, and the illustrations superbly capture the depth of color and shadow. The subject matter and style of this fascinating study may not fit current taste, but the sensibility and depth, the color and form never fail to capture the imagination of the viewer. Highly recommended. Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New York
Breitman
An eclectic, cosmopolitan classicist, English Victorian painter Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) continues to delight and surprise with his seductively poetic visions. His carefully composed pictures of elegant women fuse implicit sensuality, gorgeous color and fantastic juxtapositions. Leighton, elected president of London's Royal Academy in 1878, trained in Florence, Berlin, Rome, Frankfurt and Paris, and by synthesizing diverse influences Pre-Raphaelites, Venetian masters, the German Nazarene school, French classicism, etc. he reimagined Greek mythology and the ancient world in boldly dramatic works suffused with mystery. His output includes pencil and silverpoint studies of flowers and plants, seascapes awash in elemental power, strikingly evocative portraits and naturalistic travel paintings full of exotic charm. The catalogue of an exhibition at the Royal Academy, this beautifully illustrated, full-scale reassessment, featuring essays by British art historians, should help dispel the facile stereotype of Leighton as the archetypal academic artist. (May)
Lopate
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