Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva, painted in 1892 and now at Leeds Art Gallery, depicts one of the most enduring legends of English history: the noblewoman who, according to an account first recorded by Roger of Wendover in the thirteenth century and embellished over centuries, rode naked through the streets of Coventry to protest her husband Earl Leofric's oppressive taxation of the town's citizens. Leighton painted the subject at a moment when the Lady Godiva legend had particular contemporary currency — Alfred, Lord Tennyson had published a celebrated poem on the subject in 1840, and several Victorian painters had treated the theme. John Collier's famous version was shown in 1897, but Leighton's 1892 treatment predates it and participates in the same Victorian fascination with the combination of feminine courage, vulnerability, and sacrifice. Leeds Art Gallery, opened in 1888, was by 1892 actively collecting contemporary British painting and the acquisition of this work reflects the institution's commitment to significant narrative subjects. Leighton treated the subject with characteristic delicacy, focusing on the emotional gravity of the act rather than on explicit nudity.

The solitary figure of Godiva on horseback demands careful management of the relationship between the nude or barely draped female figure, the animal, and the architectural setting of the town. Leighton's academic training allowed him to handle the classical nude with propriety.