The Leighton Drawings Project

In 2004 Leighton House Museum was awarded a grant, by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, for a six-month project to compile an online catalogue of all drawings by Lord Leighton in public collections worldwide. This initial project was devoted to bringing together information on drawings not held at Leighton House Museum.

The following year the museum received a further grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund for a project to conserve, photograph, fully catalogue and exhibit the Leighton House Drawings Collection. The catalogue records have been added to the online database. The database allows all Leighton’s studies for a particular work to be compared and viewed alongside one other as well as alongside the finished works they relate to.

The project has culminated in a touring exhibition, educational events, and a conference on Victorian drawing, held between 2006 and 2008. The touring exhibition of the drawings, which opened at the Museum in November 2006, travels to Scarborough Art Gallery (Leighton’s home town), Bristol Museum, the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum in Bournemouth, and the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow. It is accompanied by a fully illustrated printed catalogue, available from Leighton House Museum.