Sir Frederic Leighton, P.R.A.

Thomas Agnew & Son, London;
J.S. Maas & Co, London, where bought by the present owner in 1973

London, Grosvenor Gallery, 1879, no.104

Ernest Rhys, Frederic Lord Leighton - An Illustrated Record of his Life and Work, 1898, p. 88;
Mrs Russell Barrington, The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, 1906, p.388;
Leonee and Richard Ormond, Lord Leighton, 1975, p.165, cat.no.264;
BBC Homes & Antiques, March 1999, p.84, illus. p.85

STRUCTURE Original canvas. There are faint stretcher bar marks along the upper and lower edges and a hairline crack to her nose. There are some discoloured retouchings to the background. The surface is slightly dirty and the work may benefit from a light clean. ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT UV light reveals an opaque varnish. There appears to be a small area of retouching to her chest and some retouchings to the background. FRAME Held in a gilt composite frame.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Leighton's beautiful bust-length portrait of a young girl, entitled Nicandra is one of a series of studies of beautiful models painted in the late 1870s, including the contemporary Serafina of 1878 (sold in these rooms, 14 December 2006, lot 119).

Nicandra was probably painted during Leighton's visit to Italy in the autumn of 1878 when he visited his friend the artist Giovanni Costa at Lerici. It was during this trip that Leighton painted a powerful portrait of Costa (Leighton House Museum) and several heads of local girls. The same model posed for both Nicandra and for a profile portrait entitled Neruccia (FIG 1. whereabouts unknown). Whilst in Italy Leighton learnt of the death of Sir Francis Grant, the President of the Royal Academy and soon after his return to London in October he was elected as Grant's replacement and elevated to the most prominent position in the British art world.

Dressed in a simple Italian peasant costume of a blue bodice trimmed in scarlet, over a cream smock-shirt and with her hair drawn back in a loose plait and decorated with a wild-flower, the model has the appearance of a young milkmaid or shepherdess of the Campagna. Her skin has been coloured by the Mediterranean sun and she has the large brown eyes of the Caprese and Roman girls that Leighton painted in the previous decade. Lost in thought she appears to be daydreaming or in quiet meditation. The composition is beautifully pared down, being free of all incidental detail or anecdotal association, nor is any information given about the identity or personality of the sitter. Thus the painting lends itself to a purely aesthetic response, allowing the spectator to take delight in the softly-lit physiognomy, the colour of her blushed skin and pink lips reciprocated by the trimming of her bodice necklace, and the rich colouring and sfumato of her hair and the background. The same costume and background was used for Biondina (Kunsthalle, Hamburg, a study of a blonde model of a similar age to Nicandra exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1879.

Nicandra's costume, hair-style and the model's colouring recall Leighton's famous depictions of the handsome Italian woman Nanna Risi, Pavonia painted in 1859 (one in the collection of Her Majesty The Queen and the other in a private collection). Paintings of this type were undertaken by Leighton as exercises in colour and form, for their own sake. He only occasionally painted formal portraits, finding the engagement with and demands made by the subject taxing, and always being on guard against allowing the demands of portrait commissions to interrupt work on larger paintings. Paintings of unidentified models allowed complete artistic independence, and gave free reign to the artist's inventiveness and love of rich patterning and colour. Works of this kind were, however, more than purely personal undertakings. Leighton regularly sent paintings of anonymous models (in this case the title is probably his own invention rather than the girl's real name, and is intended simply to support the peaceful atmosphere of the composition) to exhibitions at the Royal Academy and in this case, the Grosvenor Gallery a venue associated with the progressive Aesthetic Movement, the aim of which was to produce paintings essentially without narrative and concentrating upon colour harmonies. Masterpieces of the Aesthetic Movement were recently seen in the exhibition The Cult of Beauty at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Musêe d'Orsay in Paris and the de Young in San Francisco.

This picture was seen on BBC Antiques Roadshow at Plymouth in 1999 .