Study for 'Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon': Female Figure

Drawing details

Title: Study for 'Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon': Female Figure
Date: c.1869-69
Media: Black and white chalk on blue paper
Dimensions: 24.3 x 14.0 cm
Location: Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Picture credit: Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne (Tyne and Wear Museums)
Reference number: C13227
Inscriptions: Inscribed, lower right "Antigone" in pencil. Stamped, lower left "LLC" encircled, in black ink.

Interpretation

This study for the female figure in 'Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon' (c.1868-69, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull) is wrongly labelled "Antigone", by someone from the art dealers, the Fine Art Society, who sold the majority of Leighton's drawings after his death. 'Antigone', now untraced, is a much later painting and was modelled by Dorothy Dene (actress and artist's model, 1859-1899).

Description

Study for the figure of Electra in the painting 'Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon' (c.1868-69, Ferens Art Gallery, Hull). This study is roughly drawn, but is similar in pose to the finished painting. 

Provenance

Bequesthed by the artist to his sisters, Mrs. Augusta Matthews (nTe Augusta Neunburg Leighton, 1835-1919) and Mrs. Alexandra Orr (nTe Alexandra Leighton, 1828-1903); purchased by the Fine Art Society in 1896; collection of John George Joicey; bequeathed to the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, by Joicey in 1919 

Bibliography

• Ormond, LeonTe and Richard, 'Lord Leighton', Yale University Press, London, 1975, p.160, (listed under catalogue number 188) 

Exhibition history

• 1972, 'Albert Moore and His Contemporaries', Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, catalogue number 106