Lord Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton was an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical and classical subject matter. Leighton was born in Scarborough, to a family in the medical profession. He was educated at University College School London. He then received his artistic training on the European continent, first from Edward von Steinle and then from Giovanni Costa. When in Florence, aged 24, where he studied at the Accademia di Belle Arti, he painted the procession of the Cimabue Madonna through the Borgo Allegri. He lived in Paris from 1855 to 1859, where he met Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Delacroix, Jean Camille Corot, and Jean Francois Millet. In 1860, he moved to London, England, where he associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. In 1864 he became an associate of the Royal Academy and in 1878 he became its President (1878-96). Leighton was knighted at Windsor in 1878, and was created a baronet eight years later. He was the first painter to be given a peerage, in the New Year Honours List of 1896. The patent creating him Baron Leighton, of Stretton in the County of Salop, was issued on 24 January 1896; Leighton died the next day of angina pectoris.