A young painter quietly sketches on his board while his wife sits beside him looking on. Though they are both keenly staring at the drawing and not each other, the undercurrent of intimacy is present throughout. What details of intimacy can you spot?
It is thought that Leighton deliberately withheld the painting from being exhibited after it's initial showing to the public. Contemporaries seemed to have believed that it was because the subject matter was too personal for the shy, private painter.
Leighton, however, was unmarried.