Eminent Victorians

At Leighton House in Holland Park, one of the most delightful of London’s museums, is currently an exhibition of drawings by the master of the house himself, Lord Leighton (1830–96). It’s the culmination of a major programme of cataloguing and conservation, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and is on the first leg of a national tour lasting until spring 2008. The show consists of 55 drawings with a handful of paintings and is accompanied by an excellent catalogue (£15 in paperback). Leighton was unusual in placing a high value on his drawings and keeping virtually every one he made (amounting to 1,650 by the time of his death), though they were subsequently sold off mostly for small sums, from five shillings to 15 guineas. Almost two thirds of them were returned to Leighton House when the museum was set up, though at some point about 400 drawings went missing, in the days when he wasn’t quite as highly regarded as he is now.