'Study for 'A Girl Feeding Peacocks': Composition

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Drawing details

Title: 'Study for 'A Girl Feeding Peacocks': Composition
Date: c.1862
Media: Pencil on tracing paper
Dimensions: 50.4 x 36.4 cm
Location: Leighton House Museum
Picture credit: Leighton House Museum, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Reference number: LHO/D/0474
Inscriptions: None

Interpretation

Some aspects of this composition are more like the watercolour version, now in a private collection, (sold though Sotheby's) in which the female figure wears a headscarf and the scale of the architectural feature to the left, on which the peacocks perch, is smaller. Other features, such are the dove or pigeon flying in from a distance (seen to the right), and the fullness of the figure's skirt, are more like the painting. These features indicate that this tracing was made after the watercolour, and in preparation for the painting.

Description

Study for the composition of the painting 'A Girl Feeding Peacocks' (c.1863, private collection). The composition is similar to that of the finished painting, although some adjustments were made. For example, in the finished work the architectural feature to the left, on which two peacocks perch, is smaller, the surface on which the figure stands is visible, and the features and hair of the figure are different. 

Provenance

Acquired by Leighton House Museum before 1926 

Bibliography

• Ormond, Leon+e and Richard, 'Lord Leighton', Yale University Press, London, 1975, p.154 (listed under catalogue number 89)