Copy of a Work by Seymour Stocker Kirkup

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Drawing details

Title: Copy of a Work by Seymour Stocker Kirkup
Date: 1854-59
Media: Pencil on white paper
Dimensions: 23.9 x 19.0 cm
Location: Leighton House Museum
Picture credit: Leighton House Museum, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Reference number: LHO/D/1139 p.21 verso1
Inscriptions: Inscribed upper right "FL" in pencil, in the artist's hand. Inscribed lower right "after S. Kirkup" in pencil, in the artist's hand.

Interpretation

This study is a copy by Leighton of a drawing by Seymour Stocker Kirkup (1788-1880), a British artist who was the leader of a literary circle in Florence and a friend of Leighton's friend, Robert Browning (poet, 1812-1889). Leighton met Kirkup in Florence, whilst he was there from November 1853 until the new year. This small sketch may well date from that time. Seymour Stocker Kirkup was "an aging and eccentric artist", (Ormond, Leon+e and Richard, 'Lord Leighton', Yale University Press, London, 1975, p.19) living in Rome. Leighton first met him in Florence in 1853.

Description

Sheet pasted into an album of drawings. Study of a male head, in profile, facing to the left, after a work by Seymour Stocker Kirkup (1788-1880). The eyes are closed. The figure has short wavy hair, a moustache and beard, and wears a hat. 

Provenance

Collection of Adelaide Sartoris (ne+ Kemble, opera singer, writer and society hostess, 1814-1879); Maas Gallery; purchased by Leighton House Museum in 1969