Background
Leighton was born in London, United Kingdom, on September 21, 1852. He was the son of the artist Charles Blair Leighton and Caroline Leighton (née Boosey). He was only two when his father died.
Frognal, London, United Kingdom
University College School.
Burlington House, Piccadilly, Mayfair, London W1J 0BD, UK
Royal Academy of Arts.
Leighton was born in London, United Kingdom, on September 21, 1852. He was the son of the artist Charles Blair Leighton and Caroline Leighton (née Boosey). He was only two when his father died.
Initially, Edmund Leighton studied at University College School. After evening courses at South Kensington and Heatherley's, he enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools (Royal Academy of Arts).
Leighton exhibited his works for the first time in 1874, and four years later had a success in securing the verdict of the Hanging Committee of the Royal Academy in favour of his two works, Witness My Act and Seal, and A Flaw in the Title. So, from 1878 to 1920 he exhibited annually at the Royal Academy.
Edmund Leighton was a meticulous painter, producing highly finished, decorative pictures, mostly displaying romanticized scenes that were very popular with the public. In his artworks, he depicted Arthurian legends, patriotism, and nostalgia for an elegant chivalrous past. However, he left no diaries or journals.
Leighton created such paintings as The Dying Copernicus (1880), To Arms (1888), Lay thy sweet hand in mine and trust in me ( 1891), Two Strings (1893), Launched in Life (1894), Tristan and Isolde (1907), The Dedication (1908), The Shadow (1909), The Boyhood of Alfred The Great (1913).
Abelard and His Pupil Heloise
My Fair Lady
Off
Lady Godiva
Accolade
The Golden Train
The Charity of St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Till Death Do Us Part
The King and the Beggar Maid
Ribbons and Laces for Very Pretty Faces
Old Times
In Time of Peril
In 1816
The Windmiller's Guest
The Wedding Register
The Dedication
My Next Door Neighbour
God Speed!
Tristan and Isolde
Courtship
Stitching The Standard
The Elopement
On the Threshold
Alain Chartier
Courtship
Delivering the New Hat
Involuntary variations
Tristram and Isolde
Prelude
The request
The Keys
Leighton was a member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters. Though Edmund Leighton exhibited at the Royal Academy for over forty years, he was never made an Associate or Academician.
Leighton married Katherine Nash in 1885. They parented a son and a daughter.