God Speed By Edmund Blair Leighton

God Speed by Edmund Blair Leighton

God Speed, which appeared at the RA in 1900, shows a young woman binding an embroidered sleeve on the arm of her knight as he departs, horsed, fully armed, and bearing a lance decorated with a pennant, for the tournament. Other knights have already passed beneath the portcullis and are entering the field of battle. The picture was the first of several painted by Blair Leighton in the 1900s in which a knight and his lady are seen in incidents illustrative of the code of chivalry; The Accolade followed in 1901, and The Dedication in 1908. The arms and armour which feature in all these pictures were no doubt in the artist's own collection, which is known to have included many examples.