Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Leighton, Charles Blair
LEIGHTON, CHARLES BLAIR (1823–1855), artist, born on 6 March 1823, was son of Stephen Leighton and Helen Blair, his wife. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a silver-engraver for seven years, but abandoned engraving at the end of his apprenticeship. He always devoted his spare time to drawing and the study of anatomy, and became a student of the Royal Academy. He painted portraits and figure-pieces, and was an occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy. Leighton also practised for a time in lithography, and worked with his brother, George Cargill Leighton, in the chromolithographic business of Leighton Brothers. Leighton died on 6 Feb. 1855, aged 31. He married, in April 1849, Caroline, daughter of Thomas Boosey, music publisher, by whom he left two daughters, and a son, Edmund Blair Leighton, who has obtained some distinction as an artist.
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