The Art of Lord Leighton

The author states at the outset that Leighton's life has already been well documented, so only enough of his biography appears here to frame the context for his pictures. Instead, Newall chooses to analyze the art itself, which "... presents the world a hard, glossy carapace apparently designed to resist the critic's probe." Given this unpromising premise, I opted to study the pictures themselves, and dip only lightly into the text analyzing that which resists analysis. The pictures themselves are easy to enjoy - skillful, classical, and carefully designed to appeal to Victorian tastes and to create a position for Leighton within the hierarchies of art and society. (He succeeded in both.) Many of this books reproductions honor his work beautifully, in lush color and fine printing, on bright, opaque paper. Those images generally make the most of the book's largish size,. As a result, the reader can enjoy much of Leighton's meticulous detail in rendering romanticized images of contemporary and classical topics. Something like half of the reproductions, however, are black and white, undersized for the book's large format, and sometimes murky. The book chooses not to address Leighton's life, except tangentially, but under-represents the visual impact of his art, too. The large, lovely color reproductions are very enjoyable, but might not be enough to deliver the value that a reader might expect. -- wiredweird

Lord Frederic Leighton stands at the top of the pinnacle of British art of the late nineteenth century. Though his images of dramatic, cloaked figures are easily recognizable, few art collectors or even museum visitors recognize the name of Lord Leighton. Now, with the resurgence of interest in this school of painting his name will certainly become more of a household word. This slim though fine monograph is strong on images and less successful on information: Christopher Newell is a fine writer, he just wasn't given enough space to tell us much about the artist. Divided into sections - 'Outsider 1855 - 1864', 'Academician 1864 - 1878', and 'President of the Royal Academy 1878 - 1896' - Newell outlines the rise of this figurative artist and gives some insights as to his subject matter and influences. But the beauty of this book is in the fine reproductions of his dramatic, grand, elaborate renderings of both historic and literary subjects. A bit on the kitsch side? Yes, but that was part of the Grand Victorian tradition. The paintings may be saccharine but oh, they are lovely to look at! Grady Harp, September 05

Though I thought it could be thicker the pictures are well viewed and some like "Flaming June" take the whole page, awesome!