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

Cymon and Iphigenia
1884
Oil on canvas.
63 × 328 cm.
Private collection
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/collection/works/210.1976/

 

Based on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, the painting depicts a scene from the first tale of day five; Iphigenia is sleeping in the woods and Cymon, a young nobleman, stands gazing at her beauty which fills him with inspiration. After seeing her, Cymon changes from a badly mannered lout to an ideal polymath.