The architecture depicted in The Music Lesson is based on studies Leighton completed during his 1873 journey to Damascus. The costumes worn by the women were most likely made of luxe; lustrous fabrics purchased by the artist on this trip.

The instrument, a Turkish ‘saz’, was probably his own. These non-Western elements provide an exoticising flair to the work.

　This kind of painting - essentially subjectless but highly Romanticised, often showing very beautiful women or girls holding instruments, with exotic tiles/fabrics in warm, sensual colours - was being exhibited by high-profile artists, such as Rossetti, Burne Jones, and Albert Moore, around the same time. The two models featured here reoccur several times in Leighton’s oeuvre. The younger is Connie Gilchrist, who famously sat for Whistler and Holl, and was photographed by Lewis Carroll. She was twelve when the work was first shown and, in 1892, she married and became the Countess of Orkney.

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　Throughout the 19th century, attitudes towards children changed across the whole of society.

　Traditionally seen as small adults, they came to be viewed with greater empathy and in need of special protection, whatever their background. Seen simply as children, with a right to play, learn and explore. The concept of childhood became popular with artists and art enthusiasts alike. Depictions of childhood innocence and domestic happiness provided a welcome distraction from the turbulence of an ever-changing world and artists did not shy away from portraying the full range of emotions connected to childhood and parenting.

　In an exhibition that features rarely-seen works from Guildhall Art Gallery’s collection, escape the perils of modern life to discover the light and shade of the Victorian art of childhood.

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