Frederic Leighton

Frederic Leighton was unique among eminent Victorian artists. He trained almost exclusively on the Continent, initially with the Nazarene artist Edward von Steinle (1810-1886) in Frankfurt, 1850-52, where his father, a successful doctor, had moved the family, and subsequently with Giovanni Costa (1826-1903) in Rome, 1852, where he painted his first masterwork, Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna Is Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence (Her Majesty the Queen). While in Paris from 1855 to 1859, he associated with many of the leading artists of the century, including Ingres (q.v.),...