Studies for 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna...': Hands

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Drawing details

Title: Studies for 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna...': Hands
Date: 1854
Media: Pencil on white paper
Dimensions: 29.0 x 23.0 cm
Location: Leighton House Museum
Picture credit: Leighton House Museum, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Reference number: LHO/D/0965
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower right "Nino / Roma. / 18 FL 54" in pencil, in the artist's hand. Inscribed lower right "955" in pencil. Inscribed on reverse, centre "M54" encircled, in pencil.

Interpretation

These studies of hands are inscribed "Nino / Roma. / 18 FL 54" by Leighton. Nino was Leighton's nickname for his friend Giovanni Costa (Italian painter, 1826-1903). In a letter to William Cornwallis Cartwright (landowner, Member of Parliament for Oxfordshire, and journalist, d.1915), a mutual friend, he refers to Costa as "dear old Nino" ulthough its seems unlikely that the studies were modelled by Costa. Leighton made several studies of hands for the two paintings he worked on in Rome between 1852 and 1855, 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna...' and 'The Reconciliation...'. As his career progressed and his confidence and abilities grew, he no longer felt the necessity to study hand gestures in this way.

Description

Upper third of sheet: study for the right hand of the male figure in a red tunic, immediately in front of the King's horse, in the painting 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna...' (c.1853-55, Royal Collection). Centre of sheet: study for the left hand resting on the hip of the same figure. Lower third of sheet: Study for a right hand resting on a cushioned surface, possibly the hand of the male figure looking down from a window, to the left of the painting. 

Provenance

Collection of Leighton House Museum, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea 

Bibliography

• Anon., 'Catalogue of Drawings by the late Lord Leighton Preserved for the Nation', Leighton House Committee, 1897, catalogue number 47 "Sketches of early designs"
• Barrington, Mrs. Emilie Isabel (preface), 'Catalogue: Lord Leighton's House and What it Contains', 1900, reprinted as part of 'A Collection of Essays on Lord Leighton and his Works with Illustrated Catalogue of the Contents of Leighton House', privately published, London, 1900-01, London, p.168 catalogue number 49
• Gere, Charlotte, et 

Exhibition history

• April 1897 to c.1899, 'Drawings by the late Lord Leighton Preserved for the Nation', Leighton House Museum, London, catalogue number 47 (Sketches for early designs)
• 09 April 1900 to at least 1936, 'The Leighton House Collection' (intended to be a permanent display), Leighton House Museum, London, catalogue number 49 (exhibited in the silk room)
• 1969, 'Display of Drawings and Paintings in the Winter Studio and Perrin Gallery', Leighton House Museum, catalogue number 43
• 08 November 2006 to 25 F