Study for 'Samson and Delilah': Composition

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Drawing details

Title: Study for 'Samson and Delilah': Composition
Date: c.1857
Media: Pencil on tracing paper
Dimensions: 10.9 x 10.6 cm
Location: Royal Academy of Arts, London
Picture credit: Royal Academy of Arts, London
Reference number: 04/1184
Inscriptions: Inscribed lower right "No 43" in pen and ink.

Interpretation

Further studies relating to this composition can be found at the Royal Academy (reference numbers 03/3963-4 and 04/494), and at Leighton House Museum (reference numbers LH0460 & LH0461). The surviving drawings allow one to get an impression of how the completed painting, now untraced, would have looked.

Description

Tracing for a composition, possibly for the painting 'Samson and Delilah' (c.1858, untraced). The drawing is squared up. 

Provenance

Bequeathed by the artist to his sisters, Mrs. Augusta Matthews (nTe Augusta Neunburg Leighton, 1835-1919) and Mrs. Alexandra Orr (nTe Alexandra Leighton, 1828-1903); presented to the Royal Academy of Arts, London by Matthews and Orr in 1896