Buckner, a society portraitist whose many clients included Prince Albert, studied in Rome under Canevari, and subsequently set up a studio there by Bernini’s Fontana del Tritone. Buckner was older than Leighton by 18 years and may have first met the boy as early as 1840 when Leighton was only 10 and in the care of his mother, who was in Rome for her health. Leighton was again in Rome in 1852, at the age of 22. Mid-century Rome was full of writers and artists of all nations: Thackeray, George Sand and Browning were there, Gibson, Cornelius, Bouguereau, and Gérôme, and it was about this time that Leighton became friends with George Heming Mason and Giovanni Costa. Amongst his new friends was Buckner, who in 1855 gave Leighton good advice about sending his 17-foot-wide painting Cimbue’s Madonna… to the Royal Academy in London. The question was, should Leighton go with the painting to improve his chances of the picture being accepted to the Summer Exhibition by the Hanging Committee of senior RAs? Buckner said no, advising that ‘the best chance of securing impartial treatment … is to be completely unknown to all of them.’ Buckner seems also at this time to have introduced Leighton to his favourite Roman models: Alessandro di Marco, whom Buckner painted so many times around 1850 that it seems as though he was somewhat obsessed, and another young Roman known as Vincenzo. Leighton’s Death of Brunelleschi (1852) may feature one of them, or even (it has been suggested) Buckner himself, whilst Vincenzo modelled for Romeo in his Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets… (1853-5) and one of the musicians in his Cimabue’s Madonna… (1855) is of Alessandro. Buckner also kept a studio in London, and in 1859 (about the year of this portrait) did Leighton a favour: Leighton had been greatly discouraged when his painting of Samson and Delilah was rejected by the British Institution, so Buckner used his influence to get the picture shown instead at the Society of British Artists.

See also Buckner’s self-portrait painted about 20 years earlier.