Leighton, Frederick Leighton, Baron

Leighton, Frederick Leighton, Baron lāˈtən [key], 1830–96, English painter and sculptor. He studied in Florence. His first exhibited picture, which showed Cimabue's Madonna being carried through the streets of Florence, was purchased by Queen Victoria in 1855. Leighton was president of the Royal Academy from 1878 until his death. His popular pictures dealt with subjects taken from antiquity.

See biography by E. Rhys (3d ed. 1900); M. H. Shackford, The Brownings and Leighton (1942); W. Gaunt, Victorian Olympus (1952).

See more Encyclopedia articles on: European Art, 1600 to the Present: Biographies