The Accolade

Leighton was a painter of historical genre pictures, mainly of medieval times, but also regency. He is now one of the most popular of the painters with his pictures being amongst the most frequently reproduced as posters.  The reason for the continuing popularity of the artist’s work is not difficult to understand, as it is similar to that in his lifetime, namely nostalgia for an elegant chivalrous past. Leighton was also a fastidious craftsman, producing highly- finished, beautifully painted, decorative pictures.  

This short comment regarding the work of Leighton was written in 1897, by Gleeson White, a writer and journalist on art.

"The artist selects as a rule themes which offer an excuse for old-world costume, and an easily read anecdote. To place Mr. E Blair Leighton's work in a class to which it makes no pretence to belong, or to contrast it with the masterpieces of the past, or even of the present, would be to do it an injustice. It is the pictorial equivalent of light literature, of belles letters, of graceful novels and vers de societe, of much that is charming of its kind, if by its very nature ephemeral."

Obituary - The late Edmund Blair Leighton ROI 1853-1922

The death of Mr Edward Blair Leighton, on September 1^st, removed from our midst a painter who, though he did not attain to the higher flights of art, yet played a distinguished part in aiding the public mind to an appreciation of the romance attaching to antiquity, and to a realisation of the fellowship of mankind throughout the ages.