1830 -1896 · Victorian classicism, aesthetics and Royal Academy

Sculptural bodies, scholarly drapes, ancient myths and precious colors make Frederic Leighton a major figure in British Victorian art.

Frederic Leighton was born in Scarborough in 1830 and spent much of his youth on the European continent. He trained in Berlin, Florence and Frankfurt, notably with Eduard von Steinle, then worked in Rome and Paris. This international education gave him direct knowledge of the Italian Renaissance, academic drawing and classical tradition. His entry onto the London scene was spectacular: Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1855, was purchased by Queen Victoria. Installed in London in 1858, Leighton developed a history painting, portraits and especially compositions inspired by Antiquity. He builds his figures in stages: colorful sketch, study of the nude, search for drapery then development of the whole. Actée, shore nymph, Antigone and Acmé and Septimius combine anatomical precision with an atmosphere of suspended beauty. Captive Andromache transforms a Homeric story into a monumental frieze on exile and memory. Captive Andromache also practices sculpture and designs his Holland Park house-workshop as an aesthetic manifesto, enriched by the Arab Hall and its collections. Elected president of the Royal Academy in 1878, he also practiced sculpture and designed his Holland Park house-workshop as an aesthetic manifesto, enriched by the Arab Hall and its collections. Elected president of the Royal Academy in 1878, he became one of the most influential artists in Victorian Britain. His art defends color, harmony, body beauty and continuity with greek and Roman civilizations. Anobled shortly before his death in 1896, he remained inseparable from the classical ideal and the British aesthetic movement. The "Frederic Leighton" selection notably compares Actaeus, shore nymph and captive Andromache. His reading favors light.

Leighton constructs beauty like architecture: anatomy, drapery, color and rhythm must achieve balance without apparent effort.