The Accolade
The Accolade c1901 by British Painter Edmund Blair Leighton (1852 – 1922); known for his historical genre paintings and his specialization of Regency (a period at the end of the Georgian Era…) and Medieval subjects.
This painting depicts Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122 – 1204) Queen of France from 1137 to 1152 and wife of King Louis VII; and the Queen of England from 1154 to 1189 as the wife of King Henry II and Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right from 1137 until her death in 1204.
The man on his knees with his helmet beside him, is her son Richard the Lionheart (1157 – 1199), King of England from 1189 to his death in 1199; that she is through a ceremony, conferring knighthood upon, which includes tapping the flat end of the sword on the shoulders of the candidate chosen for such an honor.
To the side of the ceremony we can see a flag bearer, a boy holding a shield which may be his squire (amour-bearer of a knight), behind the boy a friar (monk); and then four other people watching the event.
This is a remastered digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image that is available as a canvas print online.
Information Below Derived From Wikipedia.org
Edmund was born to Caroline Leighton (née Boosey) and artist Charles Blair Leighton (1823 – 1855) in London England on September 21, 1852; and was educated at the University College School, which he left at the age of 15 to work for a tea merchant.
As he had an interest in art and wanted to study it; he enrolled at South Kensington and began taking lesson in the evening; and from there attended Heatherley’s School in Newman Street, London.
When he was 21 years of age he entered the Royal Academy of Arts, which was founded in 1768; and would later receive his first art commission doing monochrome illustrations for Cassell’s Magazine and its Book of British Ballads.
He exhibited his first painting titled: A Flaw in the Title in 1874 at the Royal Academy, which earned him 200 Pounds; and would exhibit his works annually for the next 40 years at the Royal Academy until 1920.
Edmund was an artist who paid great attention to detail and produced highly finished decorative historical artworks, that featured romanticized scenes of chivalry and women in medieval attire, that had great popular appeal.
