Edmund Leighton Oil Painting Reproductions

Who is Edmund Leighton?

Edmund Leighton was an English Pre Raphaelite artist known for his romantic paintings of the Victorian Era. He was born in London in 1852 and married in 1885. His son is the painter E.J. Blair Leighton.

Charles Blair Leighton was the father of Edmund Blair Leighton and also an artist. He lived in Bloomsbury close to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, another famous Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood artist. Although Leighton's father died when he was 2, he was determined to follow in his footsteps to become an artist.

Edmund Leighton received his education at University College School in North London. He attended the Royal Academy of Art School, the oldest art school in Britain. Past students of the School include famous artists J M W Turner, John Constable, and Edwin Landseer. During his artistic career, Leighton exhibited over 60 paintings at the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibitions.

The Royal Academy showed Edmund Blair's first painting in 1874. As an artist, he was fastidious, paying meticulous attention to his romantic paintings. All of his Victorian era paintings tell a story. Victorian art lovers adored his paintings, which the Royal Academy displayed yearly from 1878 until 1920.

Edmund Blair Leighton and Pre Raphaelite Paintings

William Holman Hunt established the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, also known as the Pre-Raphaelites, in 1848. It was a group of English artists, writers, and critics. Initially, the Brotherhood consisted of seven members, including John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and his brother William.

The Pre Raphaelites were always a loose association. However, artists such as Ford Maddox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, Evelyn de Morgan, and John William Waterhouse became associated with the Brotherhood over the following decades. In his early 20s and mid-1870s, Edmund Blair Leighton joined the Pre-Raphaelites.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti drew the movement towards Romanticism in painting and Medieval art. Edmund Blair Leighton's idealized portrayals of the Victorian era art also reflect this. Leighton was an accomplished artist, producing numerous decorative historical paintings that depicted chivalry, knights in armor, and women in medieval attire.

Famous Romantic Paintings by Edmund Blair Leighton

• The Accolade, painted in 1901, is the best-known of Edmund Leighton's paintings. The Accolade is a painting of the Queen bestowing a knighthood on a soldier by placing a sword on his shoulder. Leighton’s painting represents Victorian romanticism and the legend of Queen Guinevere and Sir Lancelot. A private collection holds the painting, which measures 72 x 42 inches.
  
• Edmund Leighton painted Call to Arms in 1888. This is one of the artist's most famous romantic paintings, depicting a bride and groom leaving a church on their Wedding Day.
  A Knight in armor rushes up the steps to the Church, calling the recently married groom to join his army. This painting, measuring 60 x 41 inches, depicts the Victorian idea of Knights in Armor and chivalry. Someone in the US owns the painting, purchased from Sotheby's in 1985, and their identity is unknown.
  
• The Wedding Register is a 1920 painting by Edmund Blair Leighton, also known as The Marriage Register. The newly married couple signs the Register, with the bride signing and her husband beside her. A bridesmaid and several other guests appear in the background of the painting. Measuring 36 x 46 inches, the Bristol City Art Museum in England holds this oil on canvas Victorian painting. The Wedding Register features on our list of recommended romantic paintings.
  
• Tristan and Isolde, or The End of the Song. Tristan and Isolde1902, also known as The End of the Song. An oil on canvas painting based on a Celtic legend, first told in the 12th century. The Knight, Tristan, is sent to fetch Isolde from her home in Ireland to marry Tristan’s uncle, King Mark of Cornwall. The result is a tragic love triangle between the three people. In this painting, Tristan sits with Isolde after playing the harp for her. King Mark is walking up the steps, stroking his beard, which suggests he is suspicious of what he sees. A private collection also owns this painting.
  
• Edmund Leighton painted God Speed in 1900. During the Victorian era, a renewed interest in national legends emerged. This painting is one of many on that topic. The artist exhibited the painting the same year.

Edmund Blair Leighton displayed his art at the Royal Academy for over 40 years, but he was never a member or an Associate. He died in 1922 at the age of 69, and he was buried in Chiswick at the Old Cemetery.

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