About Leighton
House
Leighton House Museum is the former
home of the Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton
(1830-1896). The only purpose-built studio-house open to the
public in the United Kingdom, it is one of the most remarkable
buildings of the nineteenth century, containing
a fascinating collection of paintings and
sculpture by Leighton and his contemporaries.
Built to Leighton’s precise requirements, the house
was extended and embellished over the 30 years that he lived
in it. From modest beginnings it grew into a ‘private palace
of art’ featuring the extraordinary Arab Hall with its golden dome,
intricate mosaics and walls lined with beautiful Islamic
tiles. Upstairs, Leighton’s vast painting studio was one of
the sights of London, filled with paintings in different stages of
completion, the walls hung with examples of his work and lit by a
great north window. Many of the most
prominent figures of the Victorian age were entertained in
this room; including Queen Victoria herself who called on Leighton
in 1859. But Leighton lived alone in his palace, occupying the
house’s only bedroom on the first floor.
Leighton House Museum is surrounded by a group of other
studio-houses, all of which were built during the second
half of the nineteenth century. This group provides a unique
insight into the wealth, status and taste of successful artists in
the late-Victorian period. To find out more please visit
The Holland
Park Circle.
_v_Variation_3.jpg "Arab Hall larger")