"Phoenicians Bartering with Ancient Britons," by Frederic Leighton

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Phoenicians Bartering with Ancient Britons

Frederic Lord Leighton, P. R. A. (1830-1896)

1894

Spirit fresco

17ft 6in x 11ft

Source: Hutchinson, facing p. 304

Fresco in the Royal Exchange, London

This was Leighton's contribution to the cycle of scenes depicting trade and commerce at the Royal Exchange, for which the artist was just reimbursed for the cost of his materials. It was quite a problematic piece of work, not simply for its scale, but also for its other practicalities. [Commentary continues below.]

Scanned image, text and and formatting by Jacqueline Banerjee. [Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

Leighton worked on it at home, in its studio, and rolling up the canvas to send it across London for fixing it in place proved tricky: "... either the ground or the pigment — probably both, as they are of the same substance — was extremely brittle and cracked right across, cracking at a rather abrupt tangent from the circumference of the circle." The workmen stopped work in dismay. However, wrote Leighton, "As far as the painting itself is concerned, I do not believe that any serious damage is done, because on re-straining it flat, the cracks are barely perceptible, and probably would not be at all perceptible in situ" (qtd. in Barrington 301). That indeed proved to be the case.

One of the female figures was modelled by Mary Lloyd, perhaps the dark-haired woman towards the middle, in the group seated on the left. She must have been proud of her part in this: Angela Bolger tells us that she "kept a magazine illustration of the work, along with others in which she is the sole model, amongst her memorabilia."

Links to Related Material

Bibliography

Barrington, Mrs Russell. The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton. Vol. II. London: George Allen, Ruskin House, 1906. Project Gutenberg. Web. 25 September 2024.

Bolger, Angela. "Mary Lloyd - The Face of an Angel, Part II." Victorian Web. Web. 25 September 2024.

Hutchinson's Story of the Nations. London: Hutchinson, nd. Internet Archive, from a copy in Robarts Library, Univeristy of Toronto. Web. 25 September 2024.

Created 25 September 2024