When he returned to London from Italy in 1921, he became increasingly distressed with the advent of modernism, and died the following year, a century ago today.
Leighton
He died a century ago, perhaps the last painter to paint art for art’s sake, avoiding narrative or meaning. Paintings from the first half of his career.
His paintings are set in mediaeval times, with tales of chivalry, or in ‘Regency’ times, with tricorn hats and jovial men selling ribbons door-to-door.
Often considered a Pre-Raphaelite, with common themes, he was an academic outsider whose photo-real paintings are finely crafted fantasies.
Two specialists in the sub-genre, John Godward and John Singer Sargent, show us how to chill out in their paintings.
If you remember one Shakespeare play well, it’s Romeo and Juliet, shown here in paintings of the balcony scene, and the couple’s tragic deaths.
Paintings by Joseph Wright of Derby, William Dyce, Walter Crane, JW Waterhouse, Velázquez and others with allusions to the thread of time.
The story of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae and commander of the Greek forces in the Trojan War, who was murdered by his wife.
From conception in the rape of Danaë by Zeus, to his mission to bring the head of Medusa to King Polydectes, paintings by Klimt, Burne-Jones, and others.
A series to examine visual development of figures within narrative paintings, according to their type of plot. The fall of Icarus used as an example.