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Details
- Date
- 1884
- Media category
- Painting
- Materials used
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 163.0 x 328.0 cm sight; 218.4 x 390.0 x 15.5 cm frame
- Signature & date
Not signed. Not dated.
- Credit
- Purchased 1976
- Location
- South Building, ground level, Grand Courts
- Accession number
- 210.1976
- Copyright
- Artist information
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Frederic, Lord Leighton
Works in the collection
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About
Not only president of Britain's prestigious Royal Academy of Arts but a Peer of the Realm, Frederick Leighton occupied a uniquely privileged place in the artistic and social establishment of Victorian England.
The first of many major paintings he exhibited at the Royal Academy was purchased by Queen Victoria herself - an unbeatable beginning to a lifetime of official reward and international recognition. Leighton's taste, like that of his audience, was for ceremonial arrangements of beautifully draped figures in classical surroundings. The contemporary realities of industrial England made no appearance in his work, which is unashamedly nostalgic and idealising.
The languorous splendour of 'Cymon and Iphigenia' - the tale of a raw youth brought to moral excellence by the revelation of feminine beauty - perfectly expresses the technical finesse and intense eroticism of Leighton's style. Iphigenia's extraordinary undulations betray a sensuous sensibility quite as much as the artist's obligatory scrutiny of classical statuary. The direct source of the narrative is Boccaccio's 'Decameron', in which the well-born and handsome young Galesus was renamed Cymon - meaning beast - on account of his brutishness. On a mild afternoon in May, Cymon chanced upon the sleeping Iphigenia, sensing at once that she was 'the loveliest object that any mortal being had ever seen'. Falling instantly in love, he became a lifelong devotee of beauty and philosophy.
AGNSW Handbook
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Exhibition history
Shown in 7 exhibitions
Royal Academy of Arts, 1884, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1884–1884
Unknown, Berlin, Dresden, Vienna 1885, Exhibition Venue Unknown, , 1885–1885
Royal Academy of Arts winter exhibition, 1897, Royal Academy of Arts, London, Winter 1897–Winter 1897
Unknown, Guildhall 1897, Mansion House, , 1897–1897
Frederic, Lord Leighton, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 15 Feb 1996–21 Apr 1996
Pre-Raphaelites and Olympians. Selected works of Victorian art from the John and Julie Schaeffer and the Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 19 Apr 2001–09 Sep 2001
Grand Courts collection rehang, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Nov 2021–2023
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Bibliography
Referenced in 79 publications
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Russell Ash, Lord Leighton, London, 1995, np, col illus pl 27.
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Mrs Russell Barrington, Leighton, London, 1906, vol 1, p 25, vol 2, pp 258 note, 259, 389. Study illus vol 2, after p 256.
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Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionnaire critique et documentaire des peintres, sculpteurs, dessinateurs et graveurs, Paris, 1999, vol 8, pp 463–64.
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Richard Beresford, Pre-Raphaelites and Olympians, selected works of Victorian art from the John and Julie Schaeffer and the Art Gallery of New South Wales collections, Sydney, 2001, pp 5, 41, col illus p 41.
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Edmund Capon AM, OBE and Jan Meek (Editors), Portrait of a Gallery, 'European art in the old courts', Sydney, 1984, p 16, col illus p 16.
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Christie's London, Catalogue of the highly important collection of ancient and modern pictures and water colour drawings of Sir W Cuthbert Quilter Bart who has disposed of his house and picture gallery, 74 South Audley Street, London, 09 Jul 1909, p 19, no 65, illus opp p 19.
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Alice Corkran, Frederick Leighton, London, 1904, pp 81, 89–90, 183–84, 196. Study illus opp p 90.
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Patricia Crawford, History and legend in some selected paintings at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 1980, p 5, illus p 5.
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Sonia Del Re (Editor), Beauty's awakening. Drawings by the Pre-Raphaelites and their contemporaries from the Lanigan Collection, Ottawa, 2015, p 92, fig 32.1, col illus p 92.
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Fine Art Society PLC, Cymon and Iphigenia painted by F. Leighton: the story of the picture, London, 1884.
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Renee Free, Catalogue of acquisitions 1976, 'Cymon and Iphigenia: "Renaissance and renaissnaces"', Sydney, 1976, pp 8–12, illus p 9.
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Renée Free, AGNSW Collections, 'The Western Heritage, Renaissance to Twentieth Century', Sydney, 1994, p 135, col illus p 135.
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Renée Free and Rose Peel, Dreams and realities: Victorian works on paper, Sydney, 1993, p 2.
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Renée Free, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'European', Sydney, 1988, p 42, col illus pp 42–43.
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Renée Free, Art Gallery of New South Wales catalogue of British paintings, Sydney, 1987, pp 109–10, illus p 109.
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Renée Free, Art and Australia, 'European Acquisitions: 1972-83', Sydney, Spring 1984, pp 63–67: p 63, col illus p 65.
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Algernon Graves, The Royal Academy of Arts: a complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904, London, 1906, p 32.
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Algernon Graves, A century of loan exhibitions, 1813–1912, London, 1913, pp 673, 679.
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Keren Hammerschlag, Women: a cultural review, vol 23, no 2, ‘The deathly sleep of Frederic Leighton’s painted women', Aug 2012, pp 201–15: pp 201, 204–09, col illus fig 1, p 203.
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Keren Rosa Hammerschlag, Frederic Leighton: death, mortality, resurrection, Farnham, 2015, pp 91–92, 94, 122, col illus pl 6.
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Luke Herrmann, Nineteenth century British painting, 'The revival of the classical' George Frederic Watts, OM, RA (1817-1904) and Frederick, Lord Leighton, PRA (1830-96), London, 2000, p 323, illus p 323.
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Bruce James, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'Western Collection: Paintings and Sculpture', Sydney, 1999, p 44, col illus p 44.
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Stephen Jones, Christopher Newall, Leonée Ormond, Richard J. Ormond and Benedict Read, Frederic, Lord Leighton: eminent Victorian artist, London, 1996, pp 199–200, no 89, p 202, col illus pl 89.
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Stephen Jones, Magazine Antiques, ‘Frederic, Lord Leighton’, New York, Feb 1996, pp 292–303: p 303, col illus p 300.
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Anne Kirker and Peter Tomory, British painting 1800–1990 in Australian and New Zealand public collections, Sydney, 1997, pp 122–23, no 1326, illus p 122.
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Alison Ledes (Editor), Frederick Lord Leighton, New York, 1996.
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Lord Leighton’, Studio, ‘Studies, London, 1896, pp 106–17: p 117.
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Clem Lloyd and Peter Sekuless, Australia's national collections, Sydney, 1980, p 250, col illus p 255.
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Felice Mehlman, Antique collector, 'Victorian sentimentality', London, May 1978, p 57. Illustrates preparatory drawing.
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Alice Meynell, Art Journal, ‘Cymon and Iphigenia’, London, May 1884, pp 129–32.
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Wilfred Meynell (Editor), The modern school of art, London, 1886-1888, pp 4–5.
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Cosmo Monkhouse, British contemporary artists, London, 1899, p 111.
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Christopher Newall, The art of Lord Leighton, Oxford, 1990, p 104.
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Leonée Ormond and Richard J. Ormond, Lord Leighton, New Haven, 1975, pp 130, 167–68, no 313, col illus pl VII.
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Harry Quilter, Preferences in art, life and literature, London, 1892, pp 352–53.
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Ernest Rhys, Sir Frederic Leighton, Bart, PRA ..: an illustrated chronicle, London, 1895, pp xxx, 36–39, 71, illus opp p 36 (photogravure).
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Ernest Rhys, Frederic, Lord Leighton, late President of the Royal Academy of Arts: an illustrated record of his life and his work, London, 1898, pp 32, 34, 51, 89, illus opp p 50 (photgravure).
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Mary Roberts, British Art Studies, issue 9, ‘The resistant materiality of Frederic Leighton’s Arab Hall’, Summer 2018, np, fig 3. https://doi.org/10.17658/issn.2058-5462/issue-09/mroberts
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M H Spielmann, Magazine of Art, ‘The late Lord Leighton, PRA, DCL, LLD’, London, 1896, pp 197–216: pp 207, 214.
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Edgcumbe Staley, Lord Leighton of Stretton, PRA, London, 1906, pp 126–27.
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F G Stephens, Magazine of Art, 'The collection of Mr W Cuthbert Quilter, MP: The modern English masters – I', London, 1897, pp 121–28: pp 127–28, illus p 121.
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Hiroyuki Tanita, Frederic Lord Leighton, Tokyo, 1995, p 62, col illus p 63.
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A.G. Temple, The art of painting in the Queen’s reign, being a glance at some of the painters and paintings of the British school during the last sixty years, London, 1897, pp 180–81.
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A.G. Temple, Catalogue of the loan collection of pictures by painters of the British school who have flourished during Her Majesty’s reign, London, 1897, p 17, no 20.
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Angus Trumble (Curator), Love and Death: art in the age of Queen Victoria, Adelaide, 2001-2002, p 98, col illus p 99.
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Brook Turner, Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Leighton goes home’, Sydney, 07 Feb 1996, p 17.
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Christopher Wood, Olympian dreamers: Victorian classical painters 1860–1914, London, 1983, pp 54, 70–75, illus pp 76–77, fig 23.
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Christopher Wood, Victorian painting, 'Leighton and the classical revival', London, 1999, pp 189, 192, illus p 184, pl 225.
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Catalogue of the reproductions of the late Lord Leighton’s pictures, London, [1896], p [7], illus (of photogravure).
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Saturday Review, ‘The picture galleries – III’, London, 17 May 1884, pp 641–42: p 641.
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Builder, 'The Royal Academy', London, 10 May 1884, pp 632–33: p 632.
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Builder, London, 03 May 1884, p 600.
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Catalogue of the special loan collection of selected pictures illustrative of contemporary British art, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1907, p 31, no 81.
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Sir Cuthbert Quilter’s pictures: London collection, London, [1909], p 46, illus opp p 46.
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Athenaeum, ‘The Royal Academy (first notice)', London, 03 May 1884, pp 571–73: p 572.
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Times, 'The Royal Academy (first notice)', London, 03 May 1884, p 7.
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Collection of oil paintings and watercolour drawings, the property of A B Triggs, Esq, Yass, NSW, London, [1925], p [41].
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Catalogue of modern pictures and water-colour drawings, the properties of Leopold Albu, esq, deceased, late of 4 Hamilton Place, W1 (sold by order of the executors), London, 15 Jul 1938, p 11, no 42.
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Old master & 18th & 19th century paintings, drawings & prints, London, 13 Mar 1969, p 22, no 225, illus opp p 13.
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Fine Victorian pictures..., London, 13 Feb 1976, p 13, no 45, illus np, pl 6.
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Report of the trustees of the Art Gallery of New South Wales: report covering the period January–December 1976, Sydney, 1977, pp 7, 20.
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Magazine of Art, ‘Current art – I’, London, 1884, pp 347–52: p 350.
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Olympian dreamers, an exhibition of Victorian classical paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints, to celebrate the publication of Christopher Wood’s ‘Olympian Dreamers’ by Constable in October 1983, London, 1983, under no 8.
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Follow Me, ‘The worm in the bud’, Double Bay, Oct 1983-Nov 1983, col illus pp 120–21. Rreview of Ronald Pearsall 'The world of Victorian sexuality'.
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Illustrated London News, London, 03 May 1884.
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Art Gallery of New South Wales annual report 1991, Sydney, 1991, p 24.
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Art Journal, ‘The exhibition of the Royal Academy’, London, 1884, pp 209–11: p 209, illus (sketch) p 209.
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Second autumn exhibition, Manchester, 1884, p 30, no 391.
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Art Gallery of New South Wales annual report 1996 [for the year ended 30 June 1996], Sydney, 1996, p 59.
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Victorian pictures, drawings and watercolours, London, 07 Jun 1996, p 48, under no 564. No 564 is chalk study for Iphigenia.
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The exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, MDCCCLXXXIV, the one hundred and sixteenth, London, 1884, p 14, no 278.
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Art Journal, 'Art Notes', London, 1883, pp 305–07: p 306.
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Author Unknown, Sleeping Beauty, Tokyo.
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Catalogue of acquisitions 1976, Sydney, 1978, p 81, no 251, illus p 81.
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Magazine of Art, ‘The Guildhall exhibition’, London, 1897, p 104.
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Drawings and studies in pencil, chalk & other mediums by the late Lord Leighton of Stretton, PRA, London, 1898, under captions to pls XXVI and XXVII.
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Builder, ‘The Burlington House and New Gallery exhibitions’, London, 09 Jan 1897, pp 29–30: p 30.
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Athenaeum, ‘The Royal Academy – winter exhibition: Lord Leighton’s pictures (second notice)’, London, 06 Feb 1897, pp 189–90: p 190.
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Athenaeum, 'Fine-art gossip', London, 10 Apr 1897, p 485.
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Provenance
Fine Art Society PLC, 1884, London/England
Sir W.E. Cuthbert Quilter, pre 09 Jul 1909, Sussex/England, his sale Christie's London, 9 July 1909, 'The collection of Pictures & Drawings of Sir W. Cuthbert Quilter, Bart' lot no. 65
H Smith, post 09 Jul 1909, Purchased from Quilter sale, Christie's London, 9 July 1909, lot 65
Leopold Albu, pre 15 Jul 1938, London/England, sold after his death, Christie's London 15 July 1938, lot 42
Mitchell, post 15 Jul 1938, Purchased from Albu sale, Christie's London, 15 July 1938, lot 42
John Avery, pre 13 Mar 1969, dates unknown
The Maas Gallery, London, post 13 Mar 1969, England, Purchased from Knight, Frank & Rutley, 13 March 1969, lot 225
Pamela Cavendish, pre 13 Feb 1976, sold Christie's London, 13 February 1976, lot 45
Christie's London, 13 Feb 1976, London/England, Purchased by the AGNSW from Christie's London, 13 February 1976, lot 45