Flaming June: The Making of
an Icon (4 November 2016 - 2 April 2017) is a landmark exhibition for Leighton
House Museum, returning Leighton’s most famous and celebrated work to the
artist's house from the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico. Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896), was one
of the pre-eminent artists of his day. President of the Royal Academy from 1878
to 1896, he achieved great fame and influence as a figurehead for art in late
Victorian society; a period when art enjoyed unprecedented public interest and
appreciation.
Depicting a sensual,
sun-drenched, sleeping female figure wrapped in orange draperies against a
Mediterranean backdrop, the exhibition explores the extraordinary story of this
picture, from its creation in Leighton’s studio, its first critical reception
at the Royal Academy, through its ‘disappearance’ in the middle of the
twentieth century, its acquisition by Luis A. Ferré, Governor of Puerto Rico
for the Museo de Arte de Ponce in 1963 and subsequent rise to international
fame as one of the most memorable and reproduced images in the whole of British
art.
Leighton PaintingAt
Leighton House Museum, Flaming June is shown beside the other works submitted
by Leighton to the Academy that year, all of which were memorably captured and
photographed on easels in Leighton’s studio immediately prior to being sent to
the Academy in 1895. They make a fascinating and revealing group,
representative of themes and subjects that had informed Leighton’s work over
the preceding decades. The Maid with Golden Hair, Twixt Hope and Fear and
Candida are on loan from private collections with Lachrymae coming from the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The re-gathering of these pictures places
Flaming June back into the context of its original exhibition, providing a
compelling starting-point for exploring its history. Leighton was already unwell with the heart
condition that would kill him at the time he made this last Academy submission.
The assembled pictures represent his last statement as an artist and allow a
reappraisal of his achievements, relating these five works back to the career
that led up to their production and understanding the legacy of a creative life
that was close to its end.
https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/museums/leightonhousemuseum/flamingjune/flaming.aspx
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