The mystery of the commission
Sir Frederic Leighton (R21941)
Lord Leighton's last drawing
In 1895 Enriqueta commissioned four paintings from Frederic Leighton, one of the great Victorian artists.
Leighton rarely undertook commissions. He told Enriqueta that “an artist to do himself justice must have absolute freedom” and only agreed to the commission when Enriqueta gave him complete artistic freedom. She did not grant this liberty to the artists involved in the Library building.
Enriqueta asked Leighton to paint four panels for Longford Hall. Leighton decided that each panel would show the figure of a woman, themed by the seasons and the times of day. Sadly, Leighton died before the paintings were finished. This drawing for one of the panels, Summer, was on his desk when he died in January 1896.
Published in The life, letters and work of Frederic Leighton by Mrs Russell Barrington. This copy of the book was in Enriqueta's private library.
The story of Lord Leighton’s commission for Enriqueta was discovered in this locked book from the Library’s archive. We had to pick the lock so we could look inside.
The volume contains copies Enriqueta made of letters she had written. Most of the letters are about the Library, but some are personal. Opened to show copies of Enriqueta’s letters to Leighton and summaries of his replies.
When Enriqueta received letters from famous people she added them to an autograph collection which she had bought in 1891. This meant that some of her personal private correspondence survived the destruction of her personal papers. We found the original replies from Frederic Leighton in this collection, which came to the Library after Enriqueta’s death.
Leighton dictated some of these letters to his secretary, but the later letters are in his own handwriting – which is much harder to read.