Frederic Leighton
(1830 - 1896)

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, PRA, known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British Victorian painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subject matter in an academic style. His paintings were enormously popular and expensive, during his lifetime, but fell out of critical favour for many decades in the early 20th century.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederic_Leighton

Portrait of May Sartoris
c.1860
Oil on canvas,
152 x 90 cm
Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, US.
https://kimbellart.org/collection/acf-196403

In 1853, the young Leighton met Adelaide Sartoris, a former opera singer and celebrated hostess whose friendship provided him with an entrée into artistic and fashionable society. He seems to have painted this celebrated portrait of Adelaide’s daughter, Mary Theodosia (May) around 1860, the year after he settled in London. She is aged about fifteen and depicted in the setting of the family’s country residence in Hampshire. The fallen tree suggests the passage of time and mortality, accentuating her fragile beauty.