Frederic Leighton & Leighton House

Leighton House is the former studio-home of Victorian painter and sculptor Frederic Leighton (1830-1896). Born in 1830 in Scarborough, Yorkshire, Leighton’s life and career spanned the Victorian era. He rose to prominence in 1855 with the exhibition of his first picture, Cimabue’s Celebrated Madonna, at the Royal Academy which was purchased by Queen Victoria for £600 and continued to produce large scale historical and classical pictures up until his death in 1896, leaving his final work Clytie unfinished in his studio. The Royal Academy was critical to his success, it was where he exhibited the majority of his paintings and in 1878, he became President of the institution, placing him at the centre of the Victorian art world, and making him something of a celebrity.

Leighton purchased the lease on a plot of land on Holland Park Road in 1864, and went about creating his ideal studio-home, working with his friend architect George Aitchison. The house was designed around Leighton’s collection, including antique ceramics he had purchased on his travels to Egypt and Syria amongst other places, and his paintings by Renaissance masters and his contemporaries. Following his death, his home became a museum, and today the collections include both pieces Leighton owned, and works by the artist himself.

In 2022, the museum reopened following a major capital project which created new exhibition and display spaces. The museum’s current exhibition Leighton and Landscape: Impressions from Nature explores the landscape sketches Leighton made during his travels around Europe, South West Asia and North Africa. A lesser-known area of Leighton’s practice, these small jewel-like studies were made by Leighton on the spot, capturing the light and atmosphere of a particular moment. Rarely exhibited and never sold during his lifetime, for Leighton, these pictures seem to have represented an escape from life in London. In his own words making them was ‘irresponsible and soothing’.

Frederic Leighton and George Howard

Leighton generally travelled and sketched alone with a few exceptions. Featured in the exhibition is a reproduction, Frederic Leighton (Drawing) by George Howard, 9^th Earl of Carlisle (1843-1911), which shows Leighton in profile looking downward, glasses on, absorbed in his sketching. Leighton probably met Howard in the early 1860s, painting a portrait of Howard’s wife Rosalind in 1866. The two artists moved in similar circles, Howard forming a friendship with painter Giovanni Costa in 1865-6, who was also a close friend of Leighton’s. The three artists occasionally worked together making studies of the landscape. 

Leighton travelled several times to Howard’s estate Naworth Castle, Cumbria, making the painting A Garden Scene in the grounds of Naworth Castle probably in 1879 or 1880. Now part of the Leighton House collection the picture shows the influence of Constable on Leighton’s English landscape paintings, in the swirling clouds, and richly textured trees. Ahead of one visit to Naworth, Leighton wrote to Howard asking him to ‘try before the 27^th to spot for me a tree like that shown on the other side of this document. I shall else spend one day in looking for my model.’ On the reverse of the letter is a rough sketch of a tree with a distinctive trunk and long branch annotated by Leighton. Leighton’s familiarity with the trees in the grounds at Naworth, suggests the frequency of these sketching trips. Howard was clearly able to find the desired tree, as it features in the background of at least three of Leighton’s exhibition pictures, including The Garden of the Hesperides, 1892 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight).

Works by George Howard

The watercolours by Howard featured in Dreweatts upcoming Old Master, British and European Art sale, including Lanercost Priory at Sunset (Lot 223),and Costebelle near Hyéres (Lot 225), reflect the two artists’ shared fascination with the natural landscape, in particular the effects of changing light. Howard’s sensitivity as a portraitist, demonstrated in his sparing sketch of Leighton drawing, can also be seen in his sketches of his grandchildren Wilfred, fondly referred to by the artist as Jeshurun, and Christina (Lot 239) in the sale.  

Browse all George Howard paintings in Dreweatts' auction.

Leighton House

Visit Leighton House and discover Leighton's extraordinary home and collections.

Opening times:
Wednesdays to Mondays: 10am - 5.30pm (Last entry 4.30pm)
Leighton House, 12 Holland Park Road, London W14 8LZ

Learn more
Buy General Admission

Leighton and Landscape: Impressions from Nature is open at Leighton House until 27 April 2025

www.rbkc.gov.uk/museums/leighton-house