Sketchbook of Italy

Painting details

Title: Sketchbook of Italy
Date: 1852
Media: Pencil on white paper, leather binding
Dimensions: 15.2 cm x 10.3 cm cm
Location: Royal Academy of Arts, London

Interpretation

Leighton carried this sketchbook during his journey of 1852 from Frankfurt, where he had lived with his parents and sisters, to Rome, where he would make his first home independent of his family. He travelled with his former master, Eduard Jakob von Steinle. Ormond notes that: 'The journey had its lighter side, for a notebook which he carried with him at the time contains amusing caricatures of himself and Steinle by one another, some curious Chinese figures by Steinle, and studies of the countryside and people.' A sketch of San Miniato in Florence within the book was used as a study for the painting 'Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna....' (c.1853-55, Royal Collection), although Leighton altered the landscape around the church for the painting. The same study was also used for the view of San Miniato seen in a vignette illustration for George Elliot's novel 'Romola' (published in 1862-63, 'Cornhill Magazine'). This sketchbook also contains a small sketch of a composition later become the painting 'Paolo and Francesca' (c.1860-61, Salar Jung Museum, Hyderabad). [see Ormond, LeonTe and Richard, 'Lord Leighton', Yale University Press, London, 1975, p.15, 27, 58-59]

Description

Includes the following studies: f.2v - studies of Chinese figures; f.3r - study of a profile; f.11r - study of a woman and child; f.13r - study of Venetian gondolas; etc.

Provenance

Bibliography

• Ormond, LeonTe and Richard, 'Lord Leighton', Yale University Press, London, 1975, p.15, 27, 58-59