Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, P.R.A. (1830-1896), Studies for Captive Andromache, c.1888

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, P.R.A. (1830-1896)
Studies for Captive Andromache
With the artist studio stamp (Lugt 1741a) (lower left); inscribed 'Andromache' (lower right)
c.1888
Charcoal and white chalk on buff paper laid down on card
10 x 13.7/8 in. (26.6 x 35.2 cm.)

This preparatory drawing for Leighton’s 1888 Captive Andromache offers a rare opportunity to own a piece of the material history of a masterpiece. Captive Andromache (Fig.1), at over four metres in length, is the largest work of Leighton’s late period, and has been called the ‘last and greatest of Leighton’s great processional paintings’ [1]. The painting was purchased by Manchester Art Gallery for £4000 in 1888 – a record price for a Leighton painting during his lifetime. The painting remains in the Manchester collection, whilst Leighton’s first major work, Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna, was purchased by Queen Victoria and is now held in the National Gallery, London.

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, P.R.A. (1830-1896) spent his early years in Germany, Switzerland and Italy, being educated from 16 at the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, where he was tutored by Eduard von Steinle [2]. Leighton is remarkable in having received a complete education in continental Europe, where most of his contemporaries only spent a year [3]. This may be observed in his flair for depicting classical subjects in academic style. In this accomplished preparatory drawing, Leighton studies the female form alongside a Greek storage jar. His focus is on the torsion within a figure, paused in motion whilst holding these vases. By the completion of the final work, the pottery has changed into specific pelikai (or kalpis [4],) and hydriai [5], with scenes delineated in both red and black figure styles. The final vases reference specific examples in the British museum collection, some which had been recently acquired. Yet it is possible that Leighton observed them from secondary sources during his drawing [6]. Ian Jenkins notes that, when rendering the vases, his living models likely posed with ‘whatever was to hand among the bric-à-brac of Leighton House’ [7].

Classical references can be seen in this drawing’s deeply delineated al antica drapery which reflects Leighton’s ‘increasingly sculptural style’ [8], which sought to reiterate the ‘ideal beauty inspired by Classical statuary… to resurrect past epochs of artistic achievement and an academic working-method associated with the “Old Masters”’ [9]. This ideal beauty coincides with an attention to naturalism as in this drawing the artist utilises white chalk to mark the play of highlights, which cascade across the classical drapery [10], situating the figures in the physical space of the viewer- and yet just out of reach. This sense of a liminal longing is expanded on in the final painting. Leighton was inspired by Homer’s Iliad and centres the present work around Andromache, former wife of the Trojan hero Hector killed in the Trojan war. Subsequently captured by the Greeks, she became the concubine of the conquering Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. The final work depicts her arrival in Epirus, and Leighton’s rendering of her mournful figure dressed in black contrasts with the vibrant frieze of colourfully clothed people surrounding her, including the figures drawn here, thus indicating Andromache’s isolation. In a typically Greek reversal of fortune, Andromache is reduced to the humble status of a water bearer, the occupation studied within the present work. Leighton’s treatment of Andromache is arresting: with her head bowed, she looks silently towards the baby to the bottom right of the painting, observing what she could have had and yet completely alienated from the warmth of the interaction before her. This sense of sadness was evidenced in 1888, when the work was exhibited at the Royal Academy [11], accompanied by lines from Leighton’s friend, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's, contemporary translation of the Iliad: Some standing by, Marking thy tears fall, shall say ‘This is she, The wife of that same Hector that fought best Of all the Trojans when all fought for Troy’ [12].

This work bears, on the reverse, the artist’s studio stamp (lower left) and the inscription ‘Andromache’ (lower right). These studies offer fascinating insights into the artist’s process. The left-most figure (Fig.2), depicted leaning over a vase with an arm outstretched, is visible on the far right of the final painting, clothed in orange with a hand pressed against the wall. The outline of the figure behind her is loosely sketched in the study. The right-hand figure wears brown drapery in the final painting, and stands between Andromache and the group of
women near the wall (Fig.3). The right-hand figure shown here is translated in the final work to stand just behind Andromache. This further evinces the ultimate importance of draughtsmanship to Leighton, as he places a firm focus on disegno in this work [13]. In this drawing, we can see several positions for the woman’s feet being worked through, in order to achieve the delightfully balanced contrapposto which is found in the painting. This technical excellence was well recognised by Leighton’s contemporaries: having moved to London in 1860, Leighton became an associate of the Royal Academy in 1864, an Academician from 1868, and was made president in 1878. In 1896, just a day before his death, he became Baron Leighton of Stretton – the first painter to be given a peerage. He was the ‘late Victorian period’s most institutionally powerful artist’ [14], and ‘an academic painter par excellence’ [15]. His draughtsmanship continues to be recognised, receiving significant attention in the touring exhibition of Leighton’s works in 2006-2008 [16]. Leighton attributed a great deal of importance to his drawings, some of which he displayed in his studio, and which he intended to be preserved [17]. A number of similar studies for Captive Andromache are housed in Manchester Art Gallery, including female figure studies holding vases (such as A.N. 1983.59 and A.N. 1977.166), and a male figure study (A.N. 1982.137) which displays the artist’s attention to muscle definition and the human form.

In Study for Captive Andromache, a fascinating allusion to materiality is made. The figure to the left shows Leighton perfecting the positioning of this figure, moving the head and the angle of the arm and feet to realise the position of the figure which can be found leaning against the wall to the right of the finished painting. This is, in the words of Christopher Newall, ‘expressed with fluent manual dexterity, and his impressive fecundity of invention, evident in the repeated variants tried and discarded’ [18] Similarly, this drawing with charcoal and chalk allows a rare glimpse of the artist’s hand. An interrogation of materiality is used to gesticulate the immateriality of this vision depicted. Charcoal and chalk become paint and then flesh, and yet the classicising drapery hints at sculptural, and even architectural detail [19]. This transience of material and creation mean that when following the delicate lines of this page, one can follow the artist’s thought process as we witness the creation of a masterpiece.

We would like to thank Professor Liz Prettejohn for her opinion on the present the work, which she deemed ‘a classic example to me, on brown paper (as is typical for drawings of this date) and obviously part of Leighton's preparatory work for Captive Andromache. [20]’

Notes

[1] Edward Morris, Public Art Collections in North-West England: A History and Guide (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2001). Page 118.

[2] Leonee Ormond, 'Frederic Leighton and the Illustrations for Romola,' The George Eliot Review, no. 45 (2014): 50–56. Page 50.

[3] Christopher Newall, The Art of Lord Leighton (Phaidon Press, 1990). Page 9.

[4] Ian Jenkins, 'Frederic Lord Leighton and Greek Vases,' The Burlington Magazine 125, no. 967 (October 1983): 596–605. Page 598.

[5] ibid. Page 597.

[6] ibid. Page 598.

[7] ibid. Page 601.

[8] Karl Kilinski II, 'Frederic Leighton’s "Daedalus and Icarus": Antiquity, Topography and Idealised Enlightenment,' The Burlington Magazine 148, no. 1237 (April 2006): 257–63. Page 257.

[9] Keren Rosa Hammerschlag, Frederic Leighton: Death, Mortality, Resurrection (Ashgate Publishing, 2015), 1–14. Page 5, 3.

[10] Elizabeth Prettejohn, 'The Classicism of Frederic Leighton' in Margot T. Brandlhuber and Michael Buhrs, eds., Frederic, Lord Leighton, 1830-1896 (Munich, Berlin, London, New York: Prestel, 2009). Pages 35-77. Page 43.

[11] Hammerschlag, Frederic Leighton. (2015). Page 4.

[12] Newall, The Art of Lord Leighton. (1990). Page 116.

[13] Amy Concannon, '"Brothers in Art: Drawings by Watts and Leighton" 17 November 2015—19 February 2016 Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey,' The British Art Journal 17, Spring (2016): 149; Christopher Newall, Leighton the Academic, in Stephen Jones and Royal Academy of Arts, Frederic, Lord Leighton: Eminent Victorian Artist (New York: H.N. Abrams; London, 1996). Pages 55-68. Page 62.

A related study is at the Leighton House Museum: Studies for 'Captive Andromache': Drapery for Female Figures, c.1887, Black and white chalk on brown paper, 52.4 x 37.0 cm, Leighton House Museum, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, reference number: LHO/D/0683, https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/lordleightonsdrawings/ldcollection/drawingrecord.asp?workid=1226.

[14] Hammerschlag, Frederic Leighton. (2015). Introduction.

[15] Prettejohn, 'The Classicism of Frederic Leighton' (2009). Page 36.

[16] Amy Concannon, '"Brothers in Art: Drawings by Watts and Leighton' 17 November 2015—19 February 2016 Watts Gallery, Compton, Surrey,” The British Art Journal 17, Spring (2016): 149.

[17] Sally Woodcock, 'Leighton and Roberson: An Artist and His Colourman,' The Burlington Magazine 138, no. 1121 (August 1996): 526–28. Page 527.

[18] Newall, Leighton the Academic. (1996). Pages 55-68. Page 64.

[19] Ciarán Rua O’Neill, 'Column Bodies: The Caryatid and Frederic Leighton’s Royal Academy Sketchbooks,' Sculpture Journal 25, no. 3 (2016): 421–32. Page 431, 423.

[20] Professor Elizabeth Prettejohn, email correspondence on having seen a digital copy of the work, Friday 8th November 2024. Professor Prettejohn further identified a similar piece with which to compare it, A sheet of studies for 'Captive Andromache', 10½ x 13¾ in. Christie’s, ‘Victorian and British Impressionist Art’, 15th June 2011, Lot 8.

Figures

Fig. 1. Captive Andromache, Frederic, Lord Leighton, c. 1888, oil on canvas, 77.1/2 × 160.1/4 in. Manchester Art Gallery.

Fig. 2. Detail of Captive Andromache.

Fig. 3. Detail of Captive Andromache.

Provenance

With Thomas Agnew & Sons, Ltd., London, (no. 29773) (label verso);
With Julian Hartnoll Gallery, London (label verso);
With Christopher Wood, London, 7th January 2003 (label verso; sales receipt included);
With Martin Beisly Fine Art, London (label verso);
Private Collection, Belgravia, London.

Exhibited

London, Shepherd Gallery, English Romantic Art, 1840-1920, Autumn 1998.

Literature

Leonée and Richard Ormond, Lord Leighton (1975) no. 334.