Capri Sunrise

Travelling was a big part of Frederic Leighton’s life. He could speak French, German, Italian and Spanish. It was on sojourns to Rome, Greece and North Africa that he made some of his most attractive yet least-known paintings.

2Capri Sunrisewas painted whilst on a trip to the Italian island in 1859. It shows a town scene from behind, with Leighton’s easel set up amid a grove of olive trees. The lighting effects are reminiscent of Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, whom Leighton admired deeply.

3In Leighton’s work, the perfectly delineated planes of the buildings capture the slow-moving light and shadow of a sunrise. In the distance, the land and sky are painted in pastel tones of peach,mauve and blue. These colours work as the ideal ground for the more prominent shades of white, khaki and tan that make up the foreground. These simple shades match the rock rising up on the left-hand side, giving the whole foreground a unified feel and a brilliantly worked sense of space.

旅行是弗雷德里克·莱顿生活重要的组成部分。他会说法语、德语、意大利语和西班牙语。在意大利罗马、希腊和北非逗留期间，他创作了一批极具魅力却鲜为人知的画作。

2《卡普里日出》是1859 年莱顿在意大利卡普里岛旅行时所画。此画从背面描绘了一个城镇的风貌，莱顿作画的地点位于一片橄榄树树林中。画面呈现的光影效果让人想起法国巴比松画派著名画家让-巴蒂斯特-卡米耶·柯罗——柯罗是莱顿非常敬仰之人。

3在莱顿的画作中，建筑立面勾勒完美，清晰捕捉到日出时缓慢移动的光影。远处的大地和天空呈现出柔和的桃红、淡紫和天蓝——这些颜色极好地映衬了前景，让前景深浅不一的乳白、卡其和黄褐更加突出。这些朴素的色调与左边高耸的岩壁相得益彰，使整个前景和谐统一，空间感把握得恰到好处。