Lot Essay
This and the following two lots are from a sequence of five decorative paintings that Leighton carried out for the staircase of 44 Belgrave Square, the London house of the Hon. Percy Wyndham. They formed part of a scheme which also incorporated work by Val Prinsep and Wyndham's wife Madeline, all under the supervision of the architect George Aitchison, who had designed Leighton's own house in Holland Park, the present Leighton House, in 1864-6 and was a close friend of the artist. Aitchison's study for the Wyndhams' staircase, now in the drawings collection at the RIBA (Ormond, op.cit., 1996, p.54, fig.8) is dated 1869. It shows two of the figures offered here, lots 569 and 570, and the third, lot 571, must have faced them across the stairwell. The scheme is mentioned in Moncure Conway's Travels in South Kensington (1882). 'In the house of the Hon. Percy Wyndham, Belgrave Square, there is a grand staircase, which has on the wall, near one of its landings, five life-size classical figures, by Sir Frederic Leighton, and at the top a deep frieze of cormorants, storks, and other wild birds; and the dining-room of the same beautiful mansion has been elegantly adorned by Mrs Wyndham - herself an artist - aided by Mr V. Prinsep'.
The scheme was in the extreme 'aesthetic' taste of the day, the figures, with their gold grounds, being seen in a setting of pink, grey and powder blue. It was the first of three domestic decorative projects with which Leighton was involved, none of them surviving in situ today. In the early 1880s he painted two friezes on the theme of music and dance (see lots 565 and 566), one in the drawing-room of the wealthy stockbroker Stewart Hodgson at 1 South Audley Street (the paintings are now at Leighton House), the other for the New York collector Henry Marquand.
Percy and Madeline Wyndham were great patrons of the arts. Burne-Jones was a close friend and Madeline was painted by Watts, just as her daughters were by Sargent. But the Wyndhams' greatest achievement was the creation of 'Clouds', their country house in Wiltshire, which was designed for them by Philip Webb and furnished by William Morris in the early 1880s. The whole family was closely involved with the social set known at 'The Souls'; for further information, see Jane Abdy and Charlotte Gere, The Souls, 1984, ch.6.
We are grateful to Stephen Jones for his help in preparing this entry.
The scheme was in the extreme 'aesthetic' taste of the day, the figures, with their gold grounds, being seen in a setting of pink, grey and powder blue. It was the first of three domestic decorative projects with which Leighton was involved, none of them surviving in situ today. In the early 1880s he painted two friezes on the theme of music and dance (see lots 565 and 566), one in the drawing-room of the wealthy stockbroker Stewart Hodgson at 1 South Audley Street (the paintings are now at Leighton House), the other for the New York collector Henry Marquand.
Percy and Madeline Wyndham were great patrons of the arts. Burne-Jones was a close friend and Madeline was painted by Watts, just as her daughters were by Sargent. But the Wyndhams' greatest achievement was the creation of 'Clouds', their country house in Wiltshire, which was designed for them by Philip Webb and furnished by William Morris in the early 1880s. The whole family was closely involved with the social set known at 'The Souls'; for further information, see Jane Abdy and Charlotte Gere, The Souls, 1984, ch.6.
We are grateful to Stephen Jones for his help in preparing this entry.