Flaming June: The Making of an Icon
4 November 2016 - 2 April 2017
|
Flaming June Frederic Leighton, 1895 ©Museo de Arte de Ponce.
The Luis A. Ferré Foundation, Inc.
|
#flamingjune
HAVE YOU VISITED THE EXHIBITION? PLEASE FILL IN
OUR
SHORT VISITOR SURVEY
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.
At 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.
EXHIBITION CATALOGUE: The catalogue for
Flaming June: The Making of an Icon contains essays by
Pablo Perez d’Or, Associate Curator of European Art at the Ponce
Art Museum, Susan Grace Galassi, Senior Curator, The Frick
Collection, Daniel Robbins, Senior Curator at Leighton House
Museum, Patrick Monahan, MPhil in History of Art and contributor to
Vanity Fair and Country Houser and Professor Elizabeth Prettejohn
of the University of York
For online purchases please email Sam Butler on sam.butler@rbkc.gov.uk
Price: £20. Postage & Package: UK £3.46 | EU £7.60 | ROW
£11.15
Frederic, Lord Leighton Twixt Hope and Fear, 1895
Flaming June: The Making of an Icon is
sponsored by Investec Wealth
& Investment and supported by Cockayne -
Grants for the Arts and The London Community
Foundation