Frederic, Lord Leighton by Margot Brandlhuber

Leighton House would be his personal advertisement – his calling card to a society which, until recently, had still tended to send all but a handful of artists round to the tradesmen's entrance.įor that reason the house needed to be spectacular. With the Victorian art market booming, and questions of domestic taste pressing hard on the middle classes, Leighton needed a space where he could demonstrate his position as both president of the Royal Academy and chief exponent of a new aestheticism in painting and design. Frederic, Lord Leighton built the Kensington studio-house in increments from 1865, not just as a place to live and paint but also as a stage on which he could act out the newly-dignified role of artist. As Leighton was renowned for his lack of confidence and shyness, many of his contemporaries believed he felt he had betrayed too much of his own emotion to feel comfortable exhibiting the picture.L eighton House, which has reopened to the public after a £1.6m restoration, is a testimony not simply to one man and his vision but to a particular moment in British cultural history. The Painter's Honeymoon was first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1866 – it appears that Leighton deliberately prevented it from being shown publicly in the years following its completion. Generally, the composition and glowing color of the picture reflect the influence of such 16th-century Venetian painters as Giorgione and Titian. Leighton appears to have had difficulty in painting it – on close inspection, the oranges look as though they have been enameled.

The soft tones and accuracy with which Leighton painted the couple contrasts obviously with the harshness of the orange tree behind them.

Importantly, his hands are painted in fine detail, emphasizing how crucial they are to his work. The Italian man who sat for the newly married painter occurs often in Leighton's work: he was apparently one of the artist's favorite models. This is an interesting composition for Leighton, who usually veered towards Classical images and, in particular, favored nudes – the latter were so common in his work that many of his pictures had to be removed from the 1857 exhibition of English art that toured America, because they gave offense. 1864 and currently housed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The Painter's Honeymoon is a painting by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, produced c.

Frederic, Lord Leighton by Margot Brandlhuber