Head of a Girl: Study for 'Summer Moon'

Head of a Girl: Study for 'Summer Moon', painted in oil on canvas in 1872 and held at Leighton House, is a preparatory study specifically connected to the finished painting Summer Moon of the same year. The study format here demonstrates directly how Leighton worked: the head study resolved the specific facial expression, colouring, and light conditions required for a figure in the planned composition before the final canvas was undertaken. Summer Moon was a large exhibition painting depicting figures in nocturnal or crepuscular Mediterranean outdoor settings — a subject requiring specific attention to how moonlight models the human face differently from the direct Mediterranean sunlight of his daylight compositions. The connection between study and finished work makes this an unusually well-documented example of his working method.

A head study for a moonlit composition required working out how the cool, diffused light of moonlight affects flesh tones — reducing warmth, softening shadows, creating a cooler overall palette than his sunlit subjects. The study would establish the specific tonal adjustments needed for nocturnal conditions before applying them to the full-scale composition. The handling is focused and precise, resolving exactly the problems the finished painting will need solved.