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OBITUARIES, FOREIGN. (LABSSON LOBAMOPF-ROSTOFSKL) 



Larsson, Olaf, a Swedish politician, born in 1838; 

 died in Falum, Sept. 12, 1896. He was for many 

 years the leader of the great Agrarian party, and at 

 the time of his death was a member of the First 

 Chamber of the Riksdag. 



Laug6e, D6sir6e, a French painter, born in 1823 ; 

 died in Paris, Feb. 3, 1896. He was a pupil of 

 Picot. and first exhibited in 1845. Some of his his- 

 torical paintings are : " Mort de Guillaume la Con- 

 querant," " Mort de Zurbaran," " Les Maraudeurs," 

 and " Louis IX et ses Intimes." His " La Cierge a 

 la Madonne," painted in 1877, is in the Luxembourg. 

 He was a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. 



Leighton, Frederick, Lord, an English painter, 

 born in Scarborough, in December, 1830 ; died in 

 London, Jan. 25, 1896. He was a grandson of Sir 

 James B. Leighton, who was chief of the medical 

 department of the Russian navy and physician to 

 the Empress of Russia. His father also was a phy- 



sician, but abandoned practice and traveled on the 

 Continent on account of his wife's health. Fred- 

 erick Leighton showed early his talent for drawing, 

 which was developed by art lessons from George 

 Lance in Paris in 1839, Filippo Meli in Rome, and 

 other instructors in Dresden and Berlin, and in 

 Frankfort, where he attended school. At his son's 

 solicitation and by the advice of Hiram Powers, the 

 father gave his consent, when in Florence in 1846, 

 to his son's embracing the profession of art. After 

 further and thorough training in Paris and Brussels, 

 he attempted a serious picture, taking for his sub- 

 ject " Cimabue finding Giotto drawing in the Fields." 

 He spent several years at Frankfort under the tui- 

 tion of E. Steimle, producing several paintings, one 

 of which is " The Death of Brunellesco." Next he 

 painted during three winters at Rome, and there 

 produced his first great work, "Cimabue and his 

 Friends and Scholars at Florence accompanying his 

 Picture of the Madonna to the Church of Santa 

 Maria Novella," which was exhibited at the Royal 

 Academy in 1855, and was purchased by the Queen. 

 He exhibited at the Academy from that time for- 

 ward, and had an unbroken series of successes. In 

 the course of the next four years, spent mostly at 

 Paris, he painted "The Triumph of Music," "The 

 Fisherman and the Siren," " Romeo and Juliet," 

 and other works. When visiting Capri in 1859 he 

 painted his " Capri Sunrise." " Paoli and Fran- 

 cesca" and "The Star of Bethlehem" were painted 

 before 1864, when he was elected an associate mem- 

 ber of the Academy. He made a long tour in Spain, 



and then settled permanently in London. His ver- 

 satile talents soon made him known, and the special 

 gift that he had cultivated of treating classical sub- 

 jects with the selective regard for line and form, 

 the classic purity and vigor of a Greek artist, 

 brought distinction upon British art as well upon 

 the first artist who had attained so noble a style. 

 " Venus Unrobing," " Dasdalus and Icarus," " Elec- 

 tra," and " Clytemnestra " are some of his earlier 

 classical paintings. The most forceful and statuesque 

 is his "Eastern Slinger." He was made a full 

 academician in 1868. " Hercules wrestling with 

 Death for the Body of Alcestis" was one of the pic- 

 tures of the year in 1871. The completest and 

 grandest example of his style is the large canvas of 

 " Daphnephora," showing a long and admirably 

 grouped procession of youths and maidens before 

 the temple of Apollo in Thebes, painted in 1876. 

 His Biblical paintings of " Elisha raising the Son 

 of the Shunamite " and " Elijah in the Wilderness " 

 were drawn on a large scale. In subsequent years 

 he painted " The Light of the Harem," " Phryne 

 at Eleusis," " Antigone," " Cymon and Iphigenia," 

 " The Last Watch of Hero," "The Captive Androm- 

 ache," " Greek Girls playing at Ball," " The Ves- 

 tal," " Whispers," " The Music Lesson." " The Bath 

 of Psyche," " The Return of Persephone," " Perseus 

 and Andromeda," "Hit," " Rizpah," and "The 

 Spirit of the Summit." " And the Sea gave up its 

 Dead" is an important work, painted in 1892. In 

 1895 he exhibited "Lachrymse" and "Flaming 

 June" at the Academy. In the Grosvenor Gallery 

 he exhibited some of his smaller pictures, sketches 

 of Damascus taken during an Eastern tour, and 

 some of his portraits. The portraits that he painted 

 were not numerous. A full-face of himself was 

 made for the collection in the Uffizzi Gallery. 1!^ 

 painted one of Capt. Richard F. Burton in 1876, 

 and other fine ones of Prof. Costa, Sir E. Ryan, the 

 Countess Brownlow, and Lady Sybil Primrose. He 

 was elected President of the Academy in 1879, to 

 succeed Sir Francis Grant, the portrait painter, was 

 knighted in consequence, received a baronetcy in 

 1886, and on Jan. 1, 1896, was raised to the peer- 

 age. Oxford, Cambridge, and Edinburgh made 

 him D. C. L.. in France he was a chevalier of the 

 Legion of Honor, and in 1878 he was President of 

 the International Jury of Painting at the Paris Ex- 

 position. He gave his attention to fresco painting, 

 sculpture, and other departments of art outside of 

 his proper field. "Romola" was the only book that 

 he ever illustrated. His best-known frescoes are 

 two large lunettes in the Kensington Museum, rep- 

 resenting the " Arts of War " and " Arts of Peace." 

 His " Wise and Foolish Virgins," in Lyndhurst 

 church, was painted in a single day. His " Athlete 

 struggling with a Python " (1876) and "Sluggard" 

 (1886) are sculptures of a superior order. He took 

 a keen interest in politics and social life, was a 

 ready writer, an effective public speaker, and, 

 though Italian and Greek in his art conceptions 

 and sensibilities, was so thorough an Englishman 

 that he gave some of his time and energy to pro- 

 moting the volunteer movement, and was colonel of 

 a rifle corps of artists. 



Lobanoff-Rostofski, Prince Alexis Borisovich, 

 a Russian statesman, born Dec. 30, 1824 : died near 

 Kieff, Aug. 30, 1896. After passing through the 

 Alexandrofski lyceum, he entered the public service 

 in 1843 in the economic department of the Foreign 

 Office. Attracting the attention of his superiors 

 by his readiness and ability, he was made second 

 secretary in a few months, and in 1847 first secre- 

 tary to Count Nesselrode. In 1850 he was attached 

 to the Berlin embassy, where he remained during 

 the Crimean War, at the close of which he was ap- 

 pointed counsel to the legation at Constantinople. 



