Elijah in the Wilderness, Frederick, Lord Leighton, 1878

A reproduction of Lord Frederic Leighton’s “Elijah in the Wilderness” of 1878.  This is a depiction of the exile of the prophet Elijah while being persecuted by Queen Jezebel.  The prophet sleeps in this painting while an angel of the Lord comes to being him bread and water.  The angel’s wings are still expanded creating the impression that he has just silently arrived.  The muscled body of the exhausted prophet are in dramatic juxtaposition with the calm stance of the angel who looks down on the prophet in compassion.  The original is in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, England.

Frederic Leighton was born in 1830 in Scarborough, Englnad and did not study art until after attending University College School in London.  He studied on the continent, notably in the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence in 1854.  He was in Paris between the ages of twenty-five to twenty-nine and there met Ingres, Delacroix, Corot and Millet.  He returned to London where he joined the Pre-Raphaelites and began to create sculputes as well as paintings.  A great success, he was knighted when aged fifty-eight and was created Baron Leighton in 1896.  He died the next day.  As a bachelor, he left no children and his home became the Leighton House Museum.

Click here for more information