Edmund Blair Leighton Art Prints

Edmund Blair Leighton, (21 September 1853 – 1 September 1922) was the son of the artist Charles Blair Leighton. (But, no relation to Frederic Lord Leighton) He was educated at University College School, before becoming a student at the Royal Academy Schools. Leighton married Katherine Nash in 1885 and together, had a son and daughter. He exhibited annually at the RA from 1878 to 1920. Leighton was, as might be expected from his historic genre paintings, a collector of old musical instruments, art, and furniture. Edmund Blair Leighton was a painter of historical genre pictures, mainly of medieval times, but also regency. Rather like Waterhouse, and Herbert Draper, Leighton the man has virtually disappeared. The reasons for the continuing popularity of the artist’s work are not difficult to understand, as they are similar to those in his lifetime, namely nostalgia for an elegant chivalrous past. (In particular, “God Speed” c.1900 and “The Accolade” c.1901) Leighton was also a fastidious craftsman, producing highly-finished, beautifully painted, decorative pictures. It would appear that he left no diaries, and is rarely mentioned in biographies, and though he exhibited at the Royal Academy for over forty years, he was never an Academician or an Associate.