Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton (born in Scarborough, England on December 31, 1830; died January 25, 1896) was an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical and classical subject matter, painted for Victorian sensibilities.

Leighton received his artistic training on the European continent, first from Edward von Steinle and then from Giovanni Costa. He lived in in Paris from 1855 to 1859, where he met Ingres, Delacroix, Corot, and Millet. In 1860, he moved to London, where he associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. In 1864 he became an associate of the Royal Academy and in 1878 he became President of the Royal Academy.

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.

His work includes:

• Death of Brunelleschi (1852), oil on canvas
• Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence (1853-5), oil on canvas. This was his first major work and was exhibited at the Royal Academy. Queen Victoria was so taken with it that she bought it for 600 guineas on the opening day of the exhibition.
• The Discovery of Juliet Apparently Lifeless (c.1858)
• The Villa Malta, Rome (1860s), oil on canvas
• Actaea, the Nymph of the Shore  (1868), oil on canvas
• Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis (1869-71)
• An Athlete Wrestling with a Python  (1877), bronze sculpture

External Links

• Leighton House Museum
• Obituary from The Times
• Biography from the Cleveland Museum of Art