Study for 'The Plague in Florence': Composition

Drawing details

Title: Study for 'The Plague in Florence': Composition
Date: 1851
Media: Pencil and oil on white paper
Dimensions: 14.6 x 21.5 cm
Location: Victoria and Albert Museum
Picture credit: Courtesy of Leighton House Museum, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (Rhys, Ernest, 'Sir Frederick Leighton', 1895, opposite p.4)
Reference number: 425-1897
Inscriptions: Inscribed in the mount "THE PLAGUE IN FLORENCE. / SKETCH, EXECUTED ABOUT 1851, FOR A PICTURE. B.1830] LORD LEIGHTON OF STRETTON P.R.A., R.W.S. [D.1896. No.425-1897." printed.

Interpretation

In Cockerell's forward to the catalogue of the Fine Art Society exhibition of Leighton's drawings (1896), he wrote of this work: "Every sort of contrast of emotion is brought in to work up the horror of the subject." Indeed the scene includes the juxtaposition of languid, drunken men, a child leading an ass, a mother protecting her baby, and the horror of corpses being piled on top of one another.

Description

Study for the composition of the painting 'The Plague in Florence' (1851, untraced). The central study is a female figure in blue robes carrying a baby in orange robes. The figure wears a white head dress and to the left are a baby and an ox. On the far right hand side a monk is praying. On the upper left hand side blood is spilling from the arm of one of three male figures sitting at a table and drinking. To the right of the central female figure, a male figure is covering a pile of corpses with a sheet. He wears a grey robe and orange hat. Two other male figures are helping to lift the corpses. At the upper right of the sheet are the head and upper torso of a male figure hanging out of a window. At the lower left, a male figure or a corpse is lying on the ground with the head nearest the viewer and the legs resting against the stairs he may have just fallen down. Through an arch in the background two figures are struggling to support a third figure. 

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); purchased by the Fine Art Society (Fine Art Society reference number Q80, originally priced at ú15:15:0); purchased from the Fine Art Society for ú14:2:0 (including a 10% discount) by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1896 

Bibliography

• Cockerell, Samuel Pepys (Forward), 'Catalogue of a Collection of Studies for Pictures, Designs and Sketches by the Late Lord Leighton, P.R.A.', The Fine Art Society, London, 1896, p.7, p.16 catalogue number 15 

Exhibition history

• December 1896 to 1897, 'Collection of Studies for Pictures, Designs and Sketches by the Late Lord Leighton, P.R.A.', Fine Art Society, London, catalogue number 15