Qui M’aime Me Suit 1891

Edmund Blair Leighton painted this oil on canvas depicting a woman in historical costume, although the specific date of its creation is unknown. As a painter, Leighton specialized in meticulously rendered scenes of medieval and early modern life. The image is filled with signs of wealth and status – the ornate staircase, the patterned carpet, the painting in the background, and the woman’s elegant, golden dress, all of which speak to the tastes of the upper-middle class in late Victorian England, the social group that constituted the main audience for paintings like this. Leighton was a regular exhibitor at the Royal Academy. His paintings reinforced a conservative, idealized vision of English history. Historical paintings like this one served a social function by offering viewers an opportunity to imagine a past that was stable and ordered, in contrast to the rapid social changes of the artist’s time. To learn more, explore the exhibition catalogs of the Royal Academy, which are now available in digital archives.