Attributed to Frederic, Lord Leighton

By family tradition acquired directly from the studio of Frederic Leighton by Paul Paul (1865–1937), United Kingdom;

thence by descent to the current owners

S. Jones (et. al.), Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1996, p. 202, no. 93 (referenced, unillustrated)

Imbued with a natural ease and nonchalant pose, the present wax sketch is, according to family tradition, Leighton's original study made for his famous Sluggard.

The Sluggard was modelled after one of Leighton’s Italian life models, Giuseppe Valona. The story goes that Valona stretched out after a long sitting, upon which Leighton grasped some wax to directly model his spontaneous and effortless pose in an almost impressionistic manner. The present wax is described by Stephen Jones in the aforementioned Leighton exhibition catalogue of the Royal Academy, London of 1996 (op. cit., p.202):

'A small wax modello exits (priv. col.) which is, according to oral tradition, the original study made by Leighton from Valona. Though the modello exhibits the energy and immediacy associated with Leighton's studio models in wax, the pose is reversed, and the gesture of the left arm differs significantly from that of the right arm in the finished sculpture. It has not been possible to confirm whether this wax model is indeed Leighton's work' (Stephen Jones in, Frederic Leighton, op. cit., p. 202, no. 93).

The attribution is, however, supported by the provenance, as the wax is said to have been acquired from the artist’s studio by the painter Paul Paul (1865–1937), whose collection was passed on by family descent to the present owner.

The Sluggard, originally titled An Athlete awakening from sleeping, is arguably one of Leighton’s most iconic works, a figure that perfectly balances between realism and idealism. He commenced sketching by the early 1880s and the finished version was first exhibited in the Royal Academy of Arts in London, 1886. Leighton felt much inspired by the strong pose of this figure, which he featured and adapted in many of his paintings in particular circa the 1880s when he was still in the process of finalising the model, including in the figure of the shepherd in An Idyll, and in two painted friezes Music and Dance in his house in Holland Park, London. 

RELATED LITERATURE

A. Kader and B. Read, Leighton and his sculptural legacy, British sculpture 1875-1930, London, 1996, pp.35 and 50; N. Penny, Catalogue of European Sculpture in the Ashmolean Museum: 1540 to the Present Day, vol. iii, Oxford, 1992, p. 114, no. 533