Product Description

A splendid illustrated monograph on the career and major work of the towering Victorian artist Sir Frederic Leighton. Now in paperback, featuring 55 color reproductions. For more than a quarter of a century, Frederic Leighton (1830-96) dominated the Victorian art world. His paintings, ranging across striking and complex historical, literary, and mythological themes, were among the best known of his age. This sumptuous appraisal considers Leighton's life, his influences, and the intelligence and technical virtuosity that distinguish his work. His rise to fame is explored via his principal works, from his controversial nudes to his monumental murals. This superbly illustrated volume features 55 reproductions. The work of Frederic Leighton appears in the collections of many major American museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Yale Center for British Art, Princeton Art Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Russell Ash is the author of many books on art, including James Tissot and Sir Edward Burne-Jones. 96 pp 7 1/2 x 10 1/2 55 color illustrations

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2941191 in Books
• Published on: 1998-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

From Booklist
Ash adds to his series of slim but lavish monographs on nineteenth-century British artists (previous subjects include Alma-Tadema, Burne-Jones, and Tissot) an album of 40 images painted by Frederic Leighton (1830^-96), the punctilious wealthy bachelor whose first great success came when Queen Victoria bought his Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna (1853^-55) because "Albert was enchanted with it." Besides that painting about a painter, the 40 selections include many on mythological and biblical subjects, some portraits and idealized domestic scenes (e.g., Mother and Child and Sisters, recently auctioned for 480,000--proof that Victorian taste is once again fashionable), and a lovely gardenscape that, despite its more meticulously drawn realism, may remind many Americans of their beloved French impressionists. The plates, as in Ash's other offerings, are well printed on big (11-by-14-inch) pages, with generous notes on facing pages. Ray Olson