The Shadow by Edmund Leighton
The Shadow by Edmund Leighton
The poignancy of the moment captured in “The Shadow” by Edmund Leighton is immediately apparent: a knight, in full chain mail, stands in profile before a castle wall, absolutely still and unhurried, while his beloved traces the shadow he casts with a piece of charcoal. The presence of a ship in the harbor, though distant, creates the sense of his impending departure – likely to battle – and gives significance to her drawing as possibly the only remembrance she may have of him for some time to come.
Edmund Blair Leighton (21 September 1852 – 1 September 1922) was an English painter of historical genre scenes, specializing in Regency and medieval subjects.
Leighton was the son of the artist Charles Blair Leighton. He was educated at University College School, before becoming a student at the Royal Academy Schools. He married Katherine Nash in 1885 and they went on to have a son and daughter. He exhibited annually at the Royal Academy from 1878 to 1920.
Leighton was a fastidious craftsman, producing highly finished, decorative pictures, displaying romanticized scenes with a popular appeal. It would appear that he left no diaries, and though he exhibited at the Royal Academy for over forty years, he was never an Academician or an Associate.
About the Middle-ages
The Middle Ages, which are said to have lasted from approximately the 5th to the 15th century, saw massive social and economic change, as well as significant developments in agriculture and medicine. Yet childbirth, famine and bad weather threatened the survival of ordinary people, and reminders of death were ever-present in life and art.
About Chivalry
The code of chivalry that developed in medieval Europe had its roots in earlier centuries. It arose in the Holy Roman Empire from the idealisation of the cavalryman—involving military bravery, individual training, and service to others—especially in Francia, among horse soldiers in Charlemagne’s cavalry. The term chivalry derives from the Old French term chevalerie, which can be translated to “horse soldiery”. Gautier states that knighthood emerged from the Moors as well as the Teutonic forests and was nurtured into civilization and chivalry by the Catholic Church.
