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Two studies of a female nude for 'And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it'

Maker

(artist)
1830-1896

Title

Two studies of a female nude for 'And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it'

Date of Production

(circa) 1877 - 1884

Medium

black and white chalk on heavy brown wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 32.6 cm
Width: 23.6 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.3279

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords






Label Text

Trained abroad, Leighton maintained the Continental practice of making successive preparatory drawings for details in finished images. This is one of many studies for a mosaic roundel commissioned as part of a decorative scheme for the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, London (which was later abandoned). The quotation describes a scene from the biblical Last Judgement. A similarly posed figure in reverse of this study can be seen in the upper right corner of a later painting (Tate, London) but there Leighton replaced the female body with that of a man.

Provenance

stamped with the artist's mark, L.1741a; Valentine Cameron Prinsep, London (1838-1904); Fine Art Society (London) by 1897 [per the RA exhibition label now in the object file]; Spink & Son (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b, n.d.; Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/02/2011-15/05/2011

unnumbered typescript - title was possibly 'A Selection of Drawings from The Witt/Courtauld Collections [as exhibited in 1964 at University of Sussex, Falmer]', Nottingham University, 1966

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, American Federation of the Arts, Washington, D.C. and nine cities in the USA, 1951 ...More

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1949 - 1950

200th Winter Exhibition, Royal British Academy, Suffolk Street, London, 1943-44

British Fine Art, Paris, 1900

Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1897 ...Less

Literature

Life, Legend, Landscape: Victorian Drawings & Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
no. 4
ill. on p. 49

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
cat. no. 4
ill. on p. 49

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 32 ...More

Some British Drawings on loan to the National Gallery of Canada from the Collection of Sir Robert Witt, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1949-50
no. 37

Hubbard, Hesketh, Some Victorian Draughtsmen, Cambridge, 1944
fig. 53

Roe, F. Gordon, The Nude from Cranach to Etty and Beyond, Leigh-on-Sea, 1944
pl. 44

Cockerell, Samuel Pepys, Drawings and Studies by the Late Lord Leighton of Stretton, P.R.S.A., London, The Fine Art Society 1898
pl. 30 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower centre edge, graphite: "study". Verso: upper left corner, graphite: "x"; centre, graphite, circled: "M10"; now not visible, but evident in a photo (see IMAF photos): graphite: "N10 / Val Prinsep / JW [?] Prinsep." Support? (removed, now in object file): graphite: "#10 / Val Prinsep.".

Label: Removed, now in object file on a Witt Library mount: printed in black and filled in with blue crayon: "PARIS EXHIBITION, 1900. / British Fine Art Section. / CASE. / No. 14"; printed in black and filled in with brown (very faded) ink: "N.B. - This Label to be affixed to the back of the frame (not the canvas) of the P[cut off] / ROYAL ACADEMY WINTER EXHIBITION, 1897 / Name of Artist Lord Leighton P.R. / Title of Work / (Please correct if not properly given) / Name and Address of Owner The Fine Art Society / 148 New Bond St.".

Collector's mark: Recto: lower left corner, blindstamped: Frederic Leighton (L.1741a). Mount (removed, see photo), Recto: lower left, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b)

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