![]() "The artist selects as a rule themes which offer an excuse for old-world costume, and an easily read anecdote. This short comment regarding the work of Leighton was written in 1897, by Gleeson White, a writer and journalist on art. ![]() (A little prince likely in time to bless a royal throne)Īppeal of The Work of Edmund Blair Leighton ![]() A new element, tender & compassionate sympathy, has been brought into the fable that transforms and ennobles it. But modern thought holds views on the mystery and meaning of Death different from the old, and Mr. In their adaptation of the idea of the Greeks added further details. "It was ancient Egyptians whose dead were always carried across a lake, to typify the embarkation of the parting soul for the voyage over the silent sea of Eternity to a new existence in the Unknown Land. The presence of a ship in the harbor, though distant, creates the sense of his impending departure - likely to battle - and gives significance to her drawing as possibly the only remembrance she may have of him for some time to come. The poignancy of the moment captured in EB Leighton's painting, "The Shadow" is immediately apparent: a knight, in full chain mail, stands in profile before a castle wall, absolutely still and unhurried, while his beloved traces the shadow he casts with a piece of charcoal vine. Lay thy sweet hand in mine and trust in me: 1891 E J Blair Leighton, who has also adopted painting as a profession. He had married in 1885, Miss Katherine Nash, by whom he had, with a daughter, one son, Mr. E Blair Leighton had been a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Among the better known of his pictures, many of which were published, may be named 'The Dying Copernicus (1880), To Arms (1888), Lay thy sweet hand in mine and trust in me ( 1891), Lady Godiva (1892), Two Strings (1893), Launched in Life (1894), The Accolade (1901), Tristram and Isolde (1907), The Dedication (1908), The Shadow (1909), 'To the Unknown Land (1911),' and 'The Boyhood of Alfred The Great,' 1913. He commenced exhibiting in 1874, and succeeded, four years later, in securing the verdict of the Hanging Committee of the Royal Academy in favor of two works, entitled respectively 'Witness My Act and Seal,' and 'A Flaw in the Title.' Since then his highly wrought style was regularly represented at Burlington House until two years prior to his decease. The son was educated at University College School, before taking a position in an office in the city, but entered the Royal Academy Schools after a course of evening study at South Kensington and Heatherley's. Blair Leighton was born in London, on September 1st 1853, his father being that Charles Blair Leighton, portrait and subject painter, whose exhibits at the Royal Academy and other London galleries covered the period between 18. Edward Blair Leighton, on September 1st, removed from our midst a painter who, though he did not attain to the higher flights of art, yet played a distinguished part in aiding the public mind to an appreciation of the romance attaching to antiquity, and to a realization of the fellowship of mankind throughout the ages. Obituary - The late Edmund Blair Leighton 1853-1922 I set out below a short obituary of Leighton, taken from a magazine published early in 1923. He lived at 14 Priory Road, Bedford Park, London, and died on the 1st September 1922. Leighton was, as might be expected from his historic genre paintings a collector of old musical instruments, art, and furniture. He exhibited annually at the RA from 1878 to 1920. Leighton married Katherine Nash in 1885 they had a son and daughter. He was educated at University College School, before becoming a student at the Royal Academy Schools. I set out below such information as I have been able to accumulate on the elusive Leighton.Įdmund Blair Leighton was born on the 21st September 1853, the son of the artist Charles Blair Leighton. It would appear that he left no diaries, and I have been unable to locate any mention of him in biographies, and though he exhibited at the Royal Academy for over forty years, he was never an Academician or an Associate. Leighton was also a fastidious craftsman producing highly- finished beautifully painted decorative pictures. The reasons for the continuing popularity of the artist's work are not difficult to understand, as they are similar to those in his lifetime, namely nostalgia for an elegant chivalrous past. Rather like Waterhouse, and Herbert Draper, Leighton the man has virtually disappeared. ![]() English Pre-Raphaelite (2nd Wave) PainterĮdmund Blair Leighton was a painter of historical genre pictures, mainly of medieval times, but also regency.
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