Head of Dorothy Dene

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Drawing details

Title: Head of Dorothy Dene
Date: 1881
Media: Pencil on white paper
Dimensions: 22.8 x 17.4 cm
Location: Leighton House Museum
Picture credit: Leighton House Museum, The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Reference number: LHO/D/1039
Inscriptions: Signed and dated, lower left "FL / 1881" in pencil. Inscribed lower left "[illegible] x 7 1/2 s of frame" in pencil, possibly in the artist's hand. (Inscription cut off at left hand side.) Inscribed lower centre "7 3/4 x 5 1/8 / 2 1/2 2 1/2" in penci

Interpretation

This drawing is unusual as it is in pencil and is initialled and dated '1881' by the artist. By 1881 Leighton generally worked in black and white chalk and rarely signed or dated his work. It may have been copied from a chalk study for 'Antigone', and made as a gift. The calculations along the bottom are probably measurements, taken by Leighton, for a frame and mount for the drawing. The original mount is also in the collection at Leighton House Museum.

Description

Copy of a study for the painting 'Antigone' (c.1882, untraced). 

 

Bibliography

• Gere, Charlotte, et al., 'A Victorian Master: Drawings by Frederic, Lord Leighton', Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, 2006, p.83 catalogue number 5.2 (illustrated)
• Rhys, Ernest, (prefatory essay by Stephens, F. G.) 'Sir Frederic Leighton, Bart., P.R.A.: An Illustrated Chronicle', George Bell and Sons, London, 1895, illustrated opposite p.34 

Exhibition history

• 08 November 2006 to 25 February 2007, 'A Victorian Master: Drawings by Frederic, Lord Leighton', Leighton House Museum, London, catalogue number 5.2