Frederic Leighton (1830-1896)

Photographer: David Wilkie Wynfield (1837–1887)

1860s

Albumen print

8 3/8 x 6 3/8 inches (21.3 x 16.2 cm)

Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, accession no. NPG P77

Photo: © National Portrait Gallery, London.

Reproduced with kind permission. [Click on image to enlarge it, and see commentary below; mouse over the text for links.]

Frederic Leighton (homepage)

Wynfield as a Painter

Commentary by Dennis T. Lanigan

Wynfield portrays Leighton full-face wearing a Renaissance costume of a white shirt under a darker coat with full sleeves gathered at the shoulders like in Mannerist portraits by artists like Pontormo or Bronzino. Hacking feels it is likely that Leighton suggested the costume for his portrait because of its resemblance to that worn by the male figure in his painting Golden Hours of 1864 (21). In another portrait, the three-quarter profile portrait that Wynfield made of Leighton, he wears "an elaborate white costume similar to that worn by Cimabue in Leighton's monumental canvas Cimabue's Madonna is Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence" (21), the work that first established Leighton's reputation. Wynfield would have known Leighton from when both served with the 38th Middlesex corps of the Artists Volunteer Rifles [Artists Rifles] if not before.

In the 1860s Leighton was not yet the establishment figure he would later become and was closely associated with the progressive young artists of his time, even being a member of the Hogarth Club for a short period. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy in 1864 and a full member in 1868. In 1878 he was elected president of the Royal Academy and knighted by Queen Victoria. He remained President of the Royal Academy until his death in 1896. In 1878 he was made an Officer of The Order of Légion d'Honneur. He was created a Baronet in 1885 and in 1896, the day before he died, he was raised to the peerage, as Lord Leighton of Stretton. He was another of the most successful British artists of his day.

Bibliography

"Frederic Leighton." National Portrait Gallery, London. Web. 14 December 2023.

Hacking, Juliet. Princes of Victorian Bohemia. London: Prestel, 2000. 76-77; 79.

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Created 14 December 2023