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| Edmund Blair Leighton God Speed, 1900 oil on canvas 63 X 45¾ in. |
Sotheby's Auction House in London will be holding its sale of British & Irish Art on May 10th. Among the artists represented in the 185 lots are some stand-outs such as John William Waterhouse, John William Godward, Frank Cadogan Cowper, Arthur Hughes, Fredric Lord Leighton, Herbert James Draper, John Atkinson Grimshaw, Dante Gabriel Rosetti, George Frederic Watts, Sir Edward Burne-Jones, Walter Crane, Charles Spencelayh, Sir Alfred James Munnings, Stanhope Alexander Forbes, Sir George Clausen, Sir John Lavery, and Sir William Orpen. Of special interest are three works by Edmund Blair-Leighton, including God Speed, which was acquired by the current owner only five years ago at a Sotheby's New York sale.
Kara Ross, of the Art Renewal Center, has published several articles on Blair Leighton, and is currently compiling a catalogue raisonné on the artist. She had this to say about God Speed and its creator in the sale catalog notes:
In the protected courtyard of a medieval castle a young knight on a white charger takes leave of a beautiful maiden, who leans from a balustrade to tie an embroidered scarf around his arm as a token of her love for him and her belief that he will return to her. Pink rambler roses are clinging to the stonework but their petals are starting to fall, perhaps a symbol that love is in danger. He is going to war and it is not clear whether he and his comrades will return to the castle and he to her.
Edmund Blair Leighton's romantic painting of honour, stoicism and valour was painted in 1900 at the time of the worst of the second Anglo Boer War and therefore the symbolism of the painting would have been clear to the visitors to the Royal Academy show. Blair Leighton's friends Frank Dicksee and Solomon Solomon exhibited very similar paintings at the Royal Academy exhibition of 1900. Dicksee's The Two Crowns (FIG 1. Tate) depicts a valiant knight in golden armour parading through a medieval street, whilst Solomon's Laus Deo (private collection) depicts a knight crossing a ford and hearing the voices of angels. Leighton would have known both of these paintings, as they were both painted in Dicksee's St. Johns Wood studio where Leighton and his family were often guests. However Blair Leighton had already made subjects of Medieval romance and history his forte, with paintings such as How Lisa Loved the King of 1890, Lady Godiva of 1892 (Leeds City Art Gallery), The King and the Beggar Maid of 1898 (Christie's, London, 30 November 2000, lot 9), and Elaine of 1899. He painted the same blonde model again in The Accolade of 1901 (FIG 2. private collection) and in the same year painted the same subject of a lover departing for war in Adieu (Manchester City Art Galleries), in which the drama is set in Napoleonic times and the girl appears less confident that her beloved will make it back alive.
Fig. 1
Fig. 2 Blair Leighton painted a world of medieval romance that was to be a potent influence on early film-makers, as significant perhaps to the conception of the medieval world at the cinema as Lawrence Alma-Tadema was to that of the classical world. Blair Leighton's paintings met the need of those who wanted to immerse themselves in romance for a moment, as Yockney explained, 'We live in an age of unnatural haste and of wonderful scientific progress. The main roads and rivers bear witness to the changes which are taking place, while by-paths and back-waters and the very air we breathe are penetrated by the vibrating inventions of mankind. There seems to be little repose and no room for sentiment. Yet in the midst of this material world there is everyday evidence that the chief animating principles of life are lacking in force unless associated with affection. The audience of one remains the most potent inspiration, knight-errant survives, prisoners of love sue for deliverance, and journeys still end in lovers' meetings.' (Alfred Yonckley, 'The Art of Edmund Blair Leighton', special Christmas edition of Art Annual, 1913, p.14) The same is still relevant and Blair Leighton's work retains the power to charm with the yearning romance of its beauty.
Edmund Blair Leighton was born in London on 21 September 1852, the only son of Charles Blair Leighton and Catherine Boosey and no relation to Frederick Leighton, the painter. Charles Blair Leighton was an artist destined for greatness as a portrait painter, tutored by the famous Benjamin Haydon, along with Landseer and Eastlake. At the time of Edmund's birth, the Leightons lived at Red Lion Square, the former residence of Rossetti and Deverell, and four years later William Morris moved into the square. In this environment Edmund was raised surrounded by artists and men of position and undoubtedly would have trained in his own father's studio. Unfortunately, the early death of his father, aged thirty-two, prevented this. Edmund was placed in a private boarding school in St. John's Wood and later went to the University College School. He was encouraged to put all hope of becoming an artist firmly behind him and look towards a mercantile career. Although he worked during the day in the City, in the evenings he attended classes at the South Kensington School of Art and at Heatherley's School of Painting where many artists founded their reputations. At the age of twenty-one Edmund Blair Leighton left his office job and launched himself into the art world with great resolve and self-belief and in 1874 he was accepted as a student at the Royal Academy Schools where he excelled. His first exhibit at the Royal Academy was entitled A Flaw in the Title of 1878 (Royal Holloway College) and he continued to exhibit paintings with literary titles, usually with a highly romantic charge. His work can be divided in two, those pictures depicting Eighteenth Century trysts and those with a more dramatic subject of medieval heroines and heroes, from the Morte d'Arthur and Shakespeare. Most memorable among the medieval subjects are Abelard and Heloise, Elaine, How Lisa Loved the King, Lady Godiva, A King and a Beggar Maid, Dedication and Tristram and Isolde. The two qualities which can always be found in his work are beautifully meticulous studied detail and a sensitive capturing of humanity. As Yonckley wrote in 1913, 'Romance, poetry, and the drama of humanity appealed to him strongly from the beginning. He saw a world composed of vital situations awaiting interpretation, and it became his desire to give expression to those emotions which are among the privileges of life at its ripest moments.' (ibid Yockney, p. 13)
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| Edmund Blair Leighton The Elopement, 1893 oil on panel 14 X 9¾ in. |
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| Edmund Blair Leighton The Shadow oil on canvas 36 X 24 in. |
This auction was on traveling exhibit in Ireland and Scotland during the month of April, and will now be available for general viewing beginning this Sunday, at the New Bond Street salesroom in London. The dates and times are as follows:
Sun, 6 May 2012 | 12:00PM - 5:00PM
Tue, 8 May 2012 | 9:00AM - 4.30PM
Wed, 9 May 2012 | 9:00AM - 4.30PM
Thu, 10 May 2012 | 9:00AM – 12:00PM
For those unable to attend the previews, the catalog to the sale is available online, and as an iPad download. Of those two choices, the iPad version is recommended; Sotheby's has not yet perfected the interactive viewing on their website, and certain images when enlarged lose their clarity (as example, see the painting by James MacIntosh Patrick, below).
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| Frederic Lord Leighton Nicandra oil on canvas 10½ X 8½ in. |
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| John William Waterhouse Lady on a Balcony, Capri oil on canvas 21 X 12 in. |
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| Herbert James Draper Study for The Kelpie black and white chalk on grey paper 25¾ X 16¼ in. |
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| Harrington Mann Portrait of Miss Isabella Nairn, 1901 oil on canvas 76½ X 36 in. |
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| Sir William Orpen Portrait of Rose Fourth Marchioness of Headfort oil on canvas 50½ X 38¼ in. |
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| Sir William Orpen Geoffrey, Fourth Marquis of Headfort oil on canvas 32 X 26 in. |
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| Harold Knight Knitting oil on canvas 24 X 24 in. |
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| James McIntosh Patrick Hot Noon, Easdale Near Oban oil on canvas 25 X 30 in. |
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| Alfred De Bréanski, Snr. Ben Lomond oil on canvas 30 X 50 in. |
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| Walter Langley Waiting for the Boats, 1885 watercolor 16 X 47 in. |
3 comments:
Absolutely love Leightons work, but I always see the same five images. Is there a book by any chance?
Raoul - I assume you mean Blair Leighton, and not Frederic. Kara Ross, author of the catalog description, is working on the catalogue raisonné of Blair Leighton's work. The only other book is the Yockney article Ross mentions in the description. I believe that article was also released as a bound edition; this is at least what seems to be indicated by Googlebooks, which, unfortunately, does not yet have a scanned version of the book. Of course, that book would be from 1913, so the images might not be what you have hoped for. I have images of close to 90 different works by EBL that I have collected online, so they are out there. Eventually I will do a post on Blair Leighton (I like his work too), but until then, happy image hunting! :)
Hi,
The quality of these works is astonishing. Following the results that we've been observing during the last couple of years, even in times of crisis, I believe that we'll have some good surprises coming from this auction session.
Even so because emerging art markets are eager to get their hands on European art.
José
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