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Notes
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Edmund Blair Leighton’s ‘title’ is both legal and literal. The precise nature of the ‘flaw’ is mysterious, presumably referring to the open document. We are privy to a meeting in a lawyer’s office, in the late–18th century. A well-dressed client leans over the table, awaiting response from the lawyer opposite him. The latter studies an important deed intently. His colleague looks on, quill in mouth. Behind the screen another lawyer works at a window seat, the glimpse of the outside world providing relief. Someone has rummaged through the open chest, its papers now strewn about the floor and around the waste-paper basket. Leighton creates a sense of time in his historical tableau, through these references to past activity and the solution that remains to be solved.
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham
Title
A Flaw in the Title
Date
1878
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
H 60.9 x W 91.4 cm
Accession number
THC0035
Acquisition method
purchased for Thomas Holloway, 1883
Work type
Painting
Inscription description
E. BLAIR LEIGHTON. 1878
Royal Holloway, University of London
Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX England
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