Lord Leighton PRA, Squared up tracing for the whole composition of  'The Arts of Industry as Applied to Peace'

Squared up tracing for the whole composition of 'The Arts of Industry as Applied to Peace', by ca. 1884

Lord Leighton PRA (1830 - 1896)

RA Collection: Art

A small-scale squared-up tracing for the whole composition of The Arts of Industry as Applied to Peace (1884-86, Victoria and Albert Museum, London). The figures are drawn in rough outline but compositionally this tracing is almost identical to the finished fresco lunette.

Leighton produced a colour study and a half-size cartoon in monochrome for this composition in 1873, following the same method he had used for The Arts of Industry as Applied to War in the previous year. The War fresco was painted in 1878-80 and was followed by Peace in 1884-86. This tracing was probably made in the 1870s when Leighton was working on the composition of both frescoes.

These tracings relate to the composition of Frederic Leighton's two lunettes for the Victoria and Albert Museum, 'The Arts of Industry as Applied to War' and 'The Arts of Industry as Applied to Peace'.

In 1868 Leighton was invited by Henry Cole to design a composition for two lunettes in the museum's South Court and made his first preliminary drawings in the summer of 1869. Eventually, following extensive correspondance between the two regarding the specific area to be painted, Leighton presented the museum with his proposed design for a fresco entitled 'The Arts of Industry as Applied to War' in December 1870. Two outline copies of this design were made, one on a large canvas which Leighton painted up as a monochrome cartoon, and the other on a smaller canvas which the artist used as the basis for a colour study in oils. These finished studies were returned to the museum in January 1872. However, Henry Cole's retirement in 1873 caused delay and work did not begin on the actual painting of the fresco until 1878.

Leighton followed the same method to produce the second fresco, 'The Arts of Industry as Applied to Peace' which was painted between 1884-6.

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Object details

Title
Squared up tracing for the whole composition of 'The Arts of Industry as Applied to Peace'
Artist/designer
Lord Leighton PRA (1830 - 1896)
Date
by ca. 1884
Object type
Drawing
Medium
Pencil on tracing paper (squared up in pen and red ink over pencil)
Dimensions

142 mm x 257 mm

Collection
Royal Academy of Arts
Object number
04/1177
Acquisition
Given by Augusta Matthews 1896 and Mrs Alexandra Orr 1896
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