Study of three standing draped female figures, for "Music"

Study of three standing draped female figures, for "Music"

Frederic, Lord Leighton

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This sheet relates to "Music," a frieze Leighton painted in 1885 for Stewart Hodgson's drawing room at 1 South Audley Street, London. It was conceived to complement one he had completed two years earlier titled "Dance." Typically, the artist worked in well-defined stages—first making a color oil sketch, then nude studies in chalks, and finally drawings of draperies. The classical robes seen here are worn by three girls who sing, play a stringed instrument, and hold music, appearing at right in the completed composition. Leighton's childhood was spent mostly on the Continent, where he pursued academic studies at Florence and Frankfurt before return to London for a sensational debut at the Royal Academy in 1855. When he showed "Cimabue's Madonna Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence" that year, it was purchased by Queen Victoria. The young artist's precocity and continental training rubbed many academicans the wrong way, however, and delayed his election to full membership until 1869. From that date forward, however, Leighton assumed a leading place within London's art world.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study of three standing draped female figures, for "Music"Study of three standing draped female figures, for "Music"Study of three standing draped female figures, for "Music"Study of three standing draped female figures, for "Music"Study of three standing draped female figures, for "Music"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.