God Speed (painting)

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God Speed
Leighton-God Speed!.jpg
Artist Edmund Leighton
Year1900
Medium Oil on canvas
Dimensions160 cm× 116 cm(63 in× 46 in)
Location Private collection

God Speed is a painting by British artist Edmund Leighton, depicting an armored knight departing to war and leaving his beloved. The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1900. [1] God Speed was the first of several paintings by Leighton during the 1900s on the subject of chivalry, including The Accolade (1901) and The Dedication (1908).

Contents

Composition

A woman ties a red sash around a knight's arm, [2] bidding farewell before battle.

When the painting was ready for transportation to the Royal Academy, Leighton made a last-moment change in the studio. [3] He scraped out the work of a week and within two hours made his desired change. [3]

Provenance

After being bought from Leighton, the painting was owned by several people in succession and eventually was put up for sale at Christie's in 1988. [1] It was then housed in an American private collection and in 2000 was again submitted to Christie's. [1]

In 2007, the painting appeared at Sotheby's and then in a British private collection. [1] On 10 May 2012, God Speed was sold again through Sotheby's in London to a private collector for £481,250. [1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Lot 26". Sotheby's . Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  2. "Leighton | 19th century european paintings". Sotheby's. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
  3. 1 2 Rudolph De Cordova. "The Art of Mr. E. Blair Leighton". ArtMagick. Archived from the original on 18 September 2016. Retrieved 28 July 2016.