Frederic Leighton, Baron Leighton
39 of 59 portraits of Frederic Leighton, Baron Leighton
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Frederic Leighton, Baron Leighton
by Ralph Winwood Robinson, published by C. Whittingham & Co
platinum print, published 1892
7 7/8 in. x 6 1/8 in. (200 mm x 154 mm) image size
Given by Royal Academy of Arts: London: UK, 1969
Photographs Collection
NPG x7373
Sitterback to top
- Frederic Leighton, Baron Leighton (1830-1896), Painter; President of the Royal Academy; ex-officio Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. Sitter in 59 portraits, Artist or producer associated with 8 portraits.
Artistsback to top
- Ralph Winwood Robinson (1862-1942), Photographer; son of Henry Peach Robinson. Artist or producer associated with 60 portraits.
- C. Whittingham & Co, Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 59 portraits.
Linked publicationsback to top
- Rogers, Malcolm, Camera Portraits, 1989 (accompanying the exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery from 20 October 1989 - 21 January 1990), p. 127 Read entry
In 1892 Ralph Robinson, elder son of the photographer and writer on photography Henry Peach Robinson, published a volume of fifty-seven portrait photographs entitled Members and Associates of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1891. All show the distinguished artists at home or in their studios, rather than in the photographer's studio, an unusual procedure at the time, and this makes the book an especially valuable social document.
Robinson captures Leighton, President of the Royal Academy (1878-96) and the foremost representative of High Victorian academic painting, in the first floor studio of his house at 2 (now 12) Holland Park Road, London. By him stands a small plaster of his sculpture The Sluggard (c.1882-5); hanging on the wall (top left) is a cast of Michelangelo's 'Taddei' tondo (Royal Academy, London), alongside a group of Leighton's own oil sketches. He holds a figurine of a female torso. At about this time Leighton was working on two large canvases, And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it for Sir Henry Tate (Tate Gallery, London) and Perseus and Andromeda (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool), in both of which his admiration for sculptural forms is readily apparent. Both Ralph Robinson and his father were founder members of the Linked Ring.
Placesback to top
- Place made and portrayed: United Kingdom: England, London (sitter's home, Leighton House, Holland Park Road, Kensington, London)
Portrait setback to top
Events of 1892back to top
Current affairs
Gladstone's fourth and final term as Prime Minister begins, and is again dominated by the issue of Home Rule as he attempts to push through the third Home Rule Bill.The first Indian MP, Dadabhai Naoroji wins the seat for Finsbury Central, and Keir Hardie becomes the first MP for the Independent Labour Party, winning the seat for West Ham.
Art and science
William Butler Yeats forms the National Literary Society in Dublin, and also publishes The Countess Cathleen, a short play and his first contribution to Irish poetic drama.Rudolf Diesel is issued a patent for his internal combustion engine; Diesel's engine eventually replaces steam power.
The Nutcracker, based upon a story by E. T. A. Hoffman, composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky has its premier in St Petersburg.
International
Fifteen year old Annie Moore, from Ireland, is the first person to enter the United States through Ellis Island, newly opened as the point of reception for all new immigrants. Between 1892-1924, more than twenty million immigrants passed through Ellis Island.The Falkland Islands, east of the South American mainland, become a British colony.
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