Studies for 'Fatidica' and 'The Marquand Ceiling': Female Figures

• enlarge drawing

Drawing details

Title: Studies for 'Fatidica' and 'The Marquand Ceiling': Female Figures
Date: 1893
Media: Black and white chalk on brown paper
Dimensions: 22.5 x 30.3 cm
Location: Leighton House Museum
Picture credit: Leighton House Museum, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Reference number: LHO/D/0735
Inscriptions: Stamped lower left "LLC" encircled, in black ink. Inscribed on reverse of backing board, upper centre "FATIDICA" / E" encircled, in pencil. Inscribed on reverse of backing board, lower right "78" encircled, in pencil, crossed out in blue biro.

Interpretation

The study to the right of this sheet is almost certainly an early study for the central figure of Mnemosyne (mother of the muses) seen in the central panel of 'The Marquand Ceiling' (c.1886, untraced).

Description

Full-length study for the female figure in the painting 'Fatidica' (c.1894, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight). 

Provenance

Bequeathed by the artist to his sisters, Mrs. Augusta Matthews (n+e Augusta Neunburg Leighton, 1835-1919) and Mrs. Alexandra Orr (n+e Alexandra Leighton, 1828-1903); purchased by the Fine Art Society in 1896; collection of Leighton House Museum 

Bibliography

• Corkran, Alice, 'Frederic Leighton', Methuen and Co., London, 1904, illustrated opposite p.129
• Ormond, Leon+e and Richard, 'Lord Leighton', Yale University Press, London, 1975, p.172 (listed under catalogue number 381)
• Spielmann, Marion Harry Alexander, 'The Royal Academy , 1894 - I', 'The Magazine of Art', 1894, illustrated on p.217