The first Lord Leverhulme was a Victorian industrialist in the grand manner, and his art collection expanded at the same pace as his domestic products empire. Every week his picture dealers, Gooden and Fox, would send him sale catalogues marked up with recommended purchases (Leverhulme spent £14,852 with the St James’s firm during one week in November 1919). This tiny oil was duly purchased on his behalf at Christie’s sale of Sir George Henschel’s collection in 1916, at a cost of £26. Hazlitt Gooden and Fox faced a stiffer contest at the Leverhulme sale before buying it back for £92,000 (plus 20/15/10% buyer’s premium).
Colour sketch for the painting Flaming June by Lord Frederic Leighton
Illustrated is one of Lord Frederic Leighton’s most famous compositions Flaming June. This 41/2in by 41/4in colour sketch for the painting was understandably one of the sensations of Sotheby’s dispersal of the Leverhulme Collection at Thornton Manor, Merseyside, on June 26-28.
