.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Considered purely as a piece of painting, this portrait is one of the most beautiful works in Leighton's œuvre. The refinement of the handling in the face brings the sitters features into clear relief, contrasting with the spontaneity exhibited in the loose treatment of the fichu that covers the sitter's head and the broad impasto brushstrokes of her pink silk dress.
The sitter was the daughter of Adelaide Sartoris, the hostess and author who played a vital role in Leighton's early life. The artist met Mrs Sartoris in Rome in 1853, and although they were probably never lovers, the intensity of their relationship certainly gave rise to gossip. In Paris and London they were also inseparable, and by introducing him to society, Mrs Sartoris did much to advance Leighton's career.
Before her marriage in 1842 at the age of twenty-nine, Adelaide had enjoyed an international reputation as an opera singer, excelling in the title role of Norma. She came from a famous theatrical family. She was the niece of John Philip Kemble and Sarah Siddons, the two greatest tragedians of their day and the subject of celebrated portraits by Lawrence, Gainsborough and Reynolds. Her sister, Fanny Kemble, was also a distinguished actress. May was an accomplished amateur actress herself, and the dark background Leighton depicts is evocative of a theatre’s auditorium.
Leighton was very fond of May and she sat to him several times. A full-length portrait, showing her walking towards the spectator, her black riding habit slashed dramatically by a bright red scarf, was painted about 1860, when the sitter was in her teens (Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth), while a later and more conventional image, representing her seated in a dark red dress (Leighton House, Kensington), was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1875. Our painting comes between these two portraits, and has a freshness and immediacy which neither of them possesses. Dating from the early 1870s and therefore showing May in her late twenties, it may have been painted at the time of her marriage to Henry Evans Gordon in 1871.
We are grateful to Richard Ormond for his assistance in preparing this catalogue entry.