Basic HTML Version
16
City & Village Tours: 0845 812 5000 info@cityandvillagetours.com
actress, was making a living modelling for artists.
Mrs Barrington thought she’d be an ideal subject for
Leighton who tracked her down and asked her to sit
for him. Although two of her sisters also modelled
for him it was Ada who became his principal model
and muse for the rest of his life. There are three
paintings of Ada still hanging at Leighton House:
Bianca
on the staircase,
Desdemona
in the Silk
Room and
Clytie
which was Leighton’s last work
and still hangs in his studio today.
Leighton supported Ada’s acting ambitions in very
material ways.
Knowing that her Cockney accent
and lack of training could hold her back he paid for
elocution, music, acting, dance and etiquette lessons.
Leighton’s relationship with Ada, who changed her
name to Dorothy Dene for her stage career, was the
most significant of his later life. Dorothy made her
acting debut in London in 1885 and for a few years
established a small acting career that included
working in New York. But the critics rated her
looks far more than her dramatic talents and within
a few years her acting career faltered. Leighton and
Dorothy Dene were often seen together around town
at exhibition openings and the theatre and there was
speculation in the press that the pair might marry
but both Leighton and the actress insisted that the
rumours were not true.
When Leighton died in 1896, Dorothy was one of
the few close friends allowed to attend his death bed.
He left a small fortune to Dorothy and her sisters in
his will. Dorothy kept acting for a short time, but
died aged just 40 only three years after Leighton.
Lord Leighton was buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral
while Dorothy Dene lies in the fashionable Victorian
graveyard at Kensal Green.
George Bernard Shaw knew both Leighton and
Dorothy and reviewed Dorothy in her role as Juliet
in Romeo and Juliet. He was certainly familiar with
the gossip and press speculation about the artist and
his muse. The Pygmalion myth was a popular
subject in Victorian times and a number of
playwrights had worked with the story including
WS Gilbert whose Pygmalion and Galatea was first
presented in 1871 eight years before Leighton and
Dene had met. So was George Bernard Shaw
inspired by the relationship between Frederic
Leighton and Dorothy Dene? Shaw didn’t write the
play until 1912 but in developing the Pygmalion
story to incorporate a rich upper class man, a little
Cockney sparrow and a great deal of elocution it’s
probably somewhat churlish to dismiss the link out
of hand. Ultimately it will have to remain a mystery
just as the private life of Lord Frederic Leighton will
always remain a mystery.
Visit Leighton House in Holland Park as part of our
new itinerary Secret London. The day also includes
visits to Hatton Garden and the London Silver Vaults.
Read more on page 46 in the print version of our 2014
brochure. Call or read it online
Dorothy Dene