Squared-up tracing for 'The Arts of Industry as Applied to War', by 1878-80

Lord Leighton PRA (1830 - 1896)

RA Collection: Art

A small squared-up tracing for the left-hand side of The Arts of Industry as Applied to War (1878-80, Victoria and Albert Museum, London). The tracing is very sketchy and though it appears to feature the same three groups of figures (the circle of seated women sewing and the two men being fitted with armour) a number of the individual figures differ considerably.

Though Leighton was commissioned in July 1868 he did not begin painting the lunettes in the V&A until 1878. His first preparatory sketch for the composition was carried out in the summer of 1869.

Leighton first produced a design for The Arts of Industry as Applied to War to be copied onto two canvases, one larger (half the size of the lunettes) and one much smaller. On the smaller he then painted a free-hand oil sketch in colour and on the larger a detailed monochrome cartoon. Both canvases were handed in to the museum in January 1872. This tracing was probably carried out before this date, when Leighton was still working out the composition, probably around 1869-70.