About Edmund Blair Leighton: The British Artist, Edmund Blair Leighton was born in London. He married Katherine Nash in 1885 and they went on to have a son and daughter. Edmund Blair Leighton Paintings were exhibited annually at the Royal Academy from 1878 to 1920. Edmund Leighton was a fastidious craftsman, producing highly-finished, decorative pictures. It would appear that he left no diaries, and though he exhibited at the Royal Academy for over forty years, he was never an Academician or an Associate.