For the first time since 1930, the famous portrait Flaming June will be on display in London.
Running from today (November 4th) to April 2nd 2017, the exhibition Flaming June: the Making of an Icon will see Lord Frederic Leighton’s classic piece returned to the artist’s historic Victorian home, Leighton House. The display, which will feature several other works painted by Leighton during the same time period, aims to showcase how the iconic piece was created.
The display largely recreates Flaming June’s very first exhibition, which took place in 1895. Senior curator at Leighton House Museum Daniel Robbins has collected five of the six works created for the original display, which are on loan from a combination of galleries and private collectors.
It is hoped that placing the image in its original context will help viewers see the painting afresh. The exhibition will then take visitors on a more detailed journey through the creation of Flaming June, which is on loan from the Museo de Arte de Ponce.
This will include preparatory drawings, as well as insights into the methodical processes used to refine the lady’s iconic pose as the sensual, sleeping red-headed figure draped in transparent orange robes.
Visitors will also learn about the painting’s life, from its creation in the celebrated studio of Leighton House and first exhibition, to its disappearance in the mid-20th century and final acquisition by Luis A Ferre, governor of Puerto Rico for the Museo de Arte de Ponce in 1963.
“I am delighted that over 125 years on we can reunite these five paintings created by Leighton in the home and studio he cherished. This exhibition will be a chance for visitors to look more closely into this final body of work with Flaming June as its centrepiece and consider afresh Leighton’s achievements as an artist,” stated Mr Robbins.
Flaming June’s exhibition at Leighton House Museum will give visitors the chance to see the painting where it was created, in the former home to Lord Leighton. The house itself provides several attractions to visitors, particularly as it’s the only purpose-built studio-house that’s open to the public in the UK.
Leighton had the house built to his specifications, with his huge upstairs studio being one of the highlights in its heyday, full of works in progress. Today, it houses not only an array of paintings and sculptures created by Leighton himself, but also his contemporaries.