Career
He was also a major art collector, who commissioned works from several of the Pre-Raphaelite painters. In 1867, he took on the tenancy of Speke Hall, Liverpool, and in 1869 bought a house in London at 49 Princes Gate. Under his direction the line expanded into transatlantic trade and by 1882 had 25 steamships.
Leyland"s first commissions were to Rossetti and James McNeill Whistler, and date from 1864 and 1867.
Leyland collected Renaissance art, as well as that of the Pre-Raphaelites, Whistler and Albert Moore. Leyland commissioned The Beguiling of Merlin, a painting by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones, which was created between 1872 and 1877.
The painting depicts a scene from Arthurian legend, the infatuation of Merlin with the Lady of the Lake, Nimue. Merlin is shown trapped, helpless in a hawthorn bush as Nimue reads from a book of spells.
In the 1870s, Leyland commissioned Whistler to decorate his dining room.
The resulting Peacock Room is considered one of Whistler"s greatest works. After Leyland"s death, his widow sold the Peacock Room to the American industrialist and art collector Charles Language Freer who had it dismantled and shipped to the United States. lieutenant now resides in the Smithsonian Museum"s Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, District of Columbia.
Leyland died in 1892, one of the largest shipowners in Britain, and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.
The grave is 10m west of the main path between the north entrance and colonnade but is highly recognizable due to its unique form and design.
In 1892, John Ellerman made his first move into shipping by leading a consortium which purchased the Leyland Lincolnshire of the late Frederick Richards Leyland. In 1901, Ellerman sold this business to Justice of the Peace Morgan for £1.2 million, which was immediately folded into the International Mercantile Marine Company
Leyland"s funerary monument is the only such work by Edward Burne-Jones – the finest Arts and Crafts funerary monument in the United Kingdom, and Grade II* listed.