Edmund Blair Leighton

Edmund Blair Leighton (1852–1922) was born in London, the son of the artist Charles Blair Leighton. He left University College School at fifteen to work for a tea merchant, then studied at evening classes in South Kensington, at Heatherley's School of Fine Art and, from the age of twenty-one, at the Royal Academy Schools. After early work as a magazine illustrator he gave up black-and-white work and painted in oils for the rest of his career. He specialised in highly finished historical genre scenes, above all medieval and Regency subjects, often of chivalry and of women in period dress. His work is associated with the Pre-Raphaelites but is more naturalistic and less stylised. He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1874 and showed there every year until 1920, yet never became an Academician or an Associate. Here: Accolade.