Portrait of May Sartoris

Frederic Leighton executed this Portrait of May Sartoris around 1860, depicting the fifteen-year-old daughter of his friend and patron Adelaide Sartoris. The setting is the family's country residence in Hampshire, where May stands beside a fallen tree that suggests the passage of time and mortality, accentuating her fragile beauty.

Leighton was a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement, trained in the continental academic tradition in Germany, Italy, and France. He insisted upon beauty and form as the artist's primary concerns. In 1853, the young Leighton had met Adelaide Sartoris, a former opera singer and celebrated hostess whose friendship provided him an entrée into artistic and fashionable society.

May Sartoris was a descendant of the Kemble family, one of England's most distinguished theatrical dynasties. A talented amateur actress and singer, she married Henry Evans Gordon in 1871. Leighton painted two more portraits of her in subsequent years. The painting measures 152.1 x 90.2 cm and resides at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, a poignant example of Victorian portraiture that captures both beauty and melancholy.