I love having an excuse to visit Leighton House. It is a wonderful setting for exhibitions, with its jewel-blue walls and peacock feathers, wide open rooms and massive walls. I have a seen a few collections displayed there so far, and on Saturday I saw
Pre-Raphaelites on Paper: Victorian Drawings from the Lanigan Collection...
King Pelles' Daughter Bearing the Vessel of the Sanc Graal (1861)
Frederick Sandys
This is the extraordinary collection of Dr Dennis T. Lanigan, a surgeon from North America who fell in love with Victorian art while training in London in the 1970s. What you can see in this exhibition are works on paper, from slight sketches to the most complex pieces, such as
King Pelles' Daughter above, all of them lovely.
Mens Conscia Recti (1868) Edward Clifford
The exhibition is spread over two floors and many rooms, and covers themes such as 'Antiquity', 'Biblical', 'Middle Ages' and 'Models', but many of the pictures could be fitted into any of those categories. Some pictures, such as sketches for Waterhouse's
Lamia will be very familiar to visitors, but others, like Edward Cliffords
Mens Conscia Recti (A Mind Conscious of Rectitude) will be new. The prevalence of single female heads, from Leighton and Waterhouse to Burne-Jones and Legros act as touchstones, guiding you from one section to the next until you reach the last room of portraits, the faces of sisters, mothers and lovers of the artists (as well as the artists themselves).
Profile Portrait of Elizabeth Siddal with Irises in Her Hair (1854)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The last room is full of familiar faces, clear and glorious. Fanny Holman Hunt faces her sister Edith; Ellen Terry's hopeful face is gazed at by Elizabeth Siddal, crowned by the man who loved her. What this exhibition shows more than anything is that beauty dwells in every moment of paintings, not just its final expression in oil. Many of these pictures were not intended to be anything more than snapshots, captured time in black, white and gray. Some were destined to be works of great scale and color but here they are in details, a face, some hands, a draped figure, ingredients of the final vision.
Study of the Head of Lamia for 'Lamia' (c.1905)
John William Waterhouse
If I had an observation (which isn't really a criticism) it would be that the exhibition could be seen as a difficult sell if you weren't already invested in the paintings. There are some astonishingly beautiful drawings but there are also some very rough sketches of famous works, such as
Apple Blossoms by Millais or Morris'
La Belle Iseult. For those who know and love these artworks, seeing how the artist built them from lines, curves, and the suggestion of a body under folds of fabric is fascinating, but it might be that the knowledge and love of subject is a prerequisite.
Study of the Figure of Love for Date's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice
(1874) Dante Gabriel Rossetti
In conclusion, this exhibition of 122 pieces is an amazing chance to see all that is delicate and graceful behind some of the most famous Pre-Raphaelite paintings. More than that, it shows the skill of the artists, the love they had for their models, the imagination and vision they applied to their subjects. In this collection, Dr Lanigan has gathered some wonderful pieces of art and has generously shared them with us. It is an irresistible offer I urge you to accept.
Pre-Raphaelites on Paper is on until the end of May and further information can be found
here.