After GEORGE FREDERIC WATTS OM RA HRCA (1817-1904)
Biography
PAUL ADOLPHE RAJON (c.1843-1888)
Sir Frederick Lord Leighton, etched in 1880 or 1881 etching, signed and dated 1880 in the plate by Watts, after the painting by George F. Watts exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1881 and now in the National Portrait Gallery, or after a preliminary drawing for this painting (England, c.1880)
SoldEtching on paper
Dimensions
40.60cm high
28.50cm wide
(11.22 inches wide)
Description / Expertise
A note on the edition:Published by the British and Foreign Artists' Association, declared to the Printseller's Association of London, 25 May, 1881. Edition: artist's proofs on vellum - 200; presentation proofs - 25; proofs before letters - 25; prints - 1,250.
This etching is based on the second of Watts's three portraits of Frederic Leighton. The first (exhibited Royal Academy 1871, Sir Michael Leighton, Bart.) shows the artist full face. The second, painted two years after Frederic Leighton's election as President of the Royal Academy, was part of the series of portraits of great Victorians Watts painted for presentation to the nation, and is now in the National Portrait Gallery. The third, also representing a seated pose, was painted for the Royal Academy's own collection in 1890 and was first exhibited at the New Gallery in 1896 as a memorial to Leighton.
Watts and Leighton had been friends since the late 1850's, but were brought into closer friendship after Leighton's move to Kensington in the mid-1860's. Watts's three portraits document their friendship and also the esteem in which he held the younger man.
Rajon was a French etcher, who returned to France shortly after this print was made. He exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1872 and 1887.
