Study for 'Captive Andromache': Composition

Drawing details

Title: Study for 'Captive Andromache': Composition
Date: c.1888
Media: Black and white chalk on blue paper
Dimensions: 21.9 x 40.5 cm
Location: Manchester Art Gallery
Picture credit: Manchester City Art Galleries
Reference number: 1981.52

Interpretation

This drawing indicates that many studies for women with pitchers, similar to those in the painting 'Captive Andromache', are indeed early studies which were later dropped from the composition. Some of the poses used in the finished work are not included in this early composition, whereas others remain virtually unchanged. As Christopher Newall explains: "Countless preparatory drawings were made, some tentative and exploratory, in which the artist tried out different possible treatments of the figures - Andromache was always intended to stand in isolation at the centre of the composition but the eventual poses of the mass of the figures emerged more slowly." [Newall, Christopher, 'The Art of Lord Leighton', Phaidon Press Ltd., London, 1990, p.117] There is a squared up tracing of this composition at Leighton House Museum (reference number LHO/D/0663).

Description

Study for the composition of the painting 'Captive Andromache' (c.1888, Manchester Art Gallery). There are several extra figures in the drawing not included in the final painting and conversely a few figures seen in the final painting are not included in this drawing. 

Provenance

Sold through Sotheby's, London on 01 October 1973 (lot 86); bought by Colnaghi (art dealer) for 100 guineas; purchased from J. S. Maas (dealer) by Manchester City Art Gallery (now Manchester Art Gallery) in 1981. 

Bibliography

• Newall, Christopher, 'The Art of Lord Leighton', Phaidon Press Ltd., London, 1990, fig. 79, p.117