Art: Lord Frederic Leighton

Dadedalus and Icarus

I first came upon Lord Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), when a friend told me about an opulent house/museum belonging to Leighton that he visited on a recent trip to London. Leighton was a Victorian painter much in favor during his lifetime, who fell into derision and then was rediscovered, or should I say, re-appreciated some 70 years after his death. Leighton painted many portraits and landscapes, but his best works are of historical and classical themes.There is a fantastic quality about Leighton’s paintings. The works seem to pull historical themes out of the past and push them at the viewer. The colors are almost over saturated with rich tones that have a distinct vibrancy. All his paintings are characterized by a certain nobility of concept and a perfection of draftsmanship not seen in many of artists of the British School. His figures have a distinct attitude of dignity and gesture. In other words, Leighton painted “beauty.” That is why looking at his paintings is so pleasing. His forms are perfect, the bodies and landscapes beautiful. Critics believe that Leighton’s genius can best be seen in his sketches, which contain an essence of spiritual beauty and subtlety of expression that often doesn’t make it to his finished works. These sketches are numerous, highly regarded and often prized above some of his paintings. The man himself, lived as he painted, surrounding himself with beauty and opulence, filling his house with sumptuous but somewhat ostentation art and decoration. According to accounts by contemporaries, he was genial and courtly and welcomed into all societies. The irony about Leighton is that he had the shortest lived peerage in history. He was awarded it on January 24^th and died the next day. His house, by the way, can be seen via a virtual tour on the Internet at the Leighton House Museum website.