Rizpah, a colour sketch

Details

FREDERIC, LORD LEIGHTON, P.R.A., R.W.S. (BRITISH, 1830-1896)
Rizpah, a colour sketch
oil on canvas
7 ½ x 7 ½ in. (19 x 19 cm.)

Provenance

The artist's studio sale (†); Christie's, London, 11 and 13 July 1896, lot 93 (13 gns to H. Baldwin).
Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 13 May 1977, lot 59.
with The Fine Art Society, London, December 1977.

Literature

E. Rhys, Sir Frederic Leighton Bart, P.R.A. An Illustrated Chronicle, London, 1895, p. 90.
A. Corkran, Frederic Leighton, London, 1904, p. 200.
Mrs Russell Barrington, The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, London, 1906, vol. II, p. 391.
L. and R. Ormond, Lord Leighton, London, 1975, p. 172.

Exhibited

London, Suffolk Street, Royal Society of British Artists, 1894, no. 6.
London, The Fine Art Society, Victorian Painting, 1977, no. 31.
London, Leighton House, 2010-16, on loan.

Conditions of sale

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Lot Essay

This painting is a study for Rizpah, Leighton's Royal Academy exhibit of 1893 (no. 159). In the Bible King David ordered the execution of the two sons of Saul to appease the Gibeonites. Their mother, Rizpah, faithfully guarded their bodies, and came to symbolise grieving motherhood.

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