Frederick Richards Leyland
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Frederick Richards Leyland (30 September 1831 – 4 January 1892) was a Liverpool shipowner and art collector.
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[edit] Career
Leyland served as an apprentice in the firm of John Bibby, Sons & Co, where he rose to become a partner.
In 1867 he took on the tenancy of Speke Hall, Liverpool and in 1869 bought a house in London at 49 Princes Gate.
He founded the Leyland shipping line in 1873.
[edit] Art patron
Leyland's first commissions were to Rossetti and James McNeill Whistler, and date from 1864 and 1867. Leyland collected Renaissance art, as well as that of the Pre-Raphaelites, Whistler and Albert Moore.
Leyland commissioned The Beguiling of Merlin, a painting by the Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones, which was created between 1872 and 1877. The painting depicts a scene from Arthurian legend, the infatuation of Merlin with the Lady of the Lake, Nimue. Merlin is shown trapped, helpless in a hawthorn bush as Nimue reads from a book of spells.
[edit] Later life
Leyland died in 1892, one of the largest shipowners in Britain, and is buried in Brompton Cemetery, London.[1]
[edit] Legacy
In 1892, John Ellerman made his first move into shipping by leading a consortium which purchased the Leyland Line of the late Frederick Richards Leyland. In 1901, Ellerman sold this business to J.P. Morgan for £1.2 million, which was immediately folded into the International Mercantile Marine Co..
Leyland's funerary monument is the only such work by Edward Burne-Jones - the finest Arts and Crafts funerary monument in the UK, and Grade II listed.
[edit] Personal life
Leyland married Frances Dawson (1834-1910) in 1855, but they separated in 1879.
They had four children together:
- Frederick Dawson (b. 1856)
- Fanny (b. 1857)
- Florence (b. 1859), married Valentine Cameron Prinsep
- Elinor (1861-1952)
