Tag Archives: Leighton House Museum

Alma-Tadema!

Alma-Tadema: At Home In Antiquity, Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Rd, London, W14,, until 29th October 2017

I am grateful to John Kirkwood for visiting and writing about this exhibition:

 

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, The Finding of Moses, 1904. © Private Collection

Unbelievably for such a well-known artist, this is the first exhibition of the works of Alma-Tadema in London since 1913. He was a great friend of Lord Leighton and will of course have visited the House which makes the placing of the exhibition here most fitting.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema,
Self-Portrait of Lourens Alma Tadema, 1852.
© Fries Museum, Collection Royal Frisian Society

A visit to Pompeii on his honeymoon inspired Alma-Tadema to depict carefully researched scenes of life in Ancient Rome which reminded me very much of scenes from the very popular spectacular epic films of the fifties and sixties such as Quo Vadis?, The Ten Commandments, The Fall of the Roman Empire and Ben-Hur and apparently Alma-Tadema had been an inspiration for some of the filmmakers even as late as Gladiator. Indeed many of his paintings are amazingly in the CinemaScope ratio!

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema,
A Pyrrhic Dance, 1869.
© Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London

There are photographs, artefacts and drawings and paintings from his two houses, one close to the Regent’s Canal and the other in Grove End Road whose exterior remains largely unchanged.  There is also a selection of the panels painted by Alma-Tadema’s artist friends including Lord Leighton which hung in Alma-Tadema’s house and which are reunited for this exhibition. The Studio will also house the portrait of Leopold Lowenstam a friend of Alma-Tadema which was rediscovered on the Antiques Roadshow in 2016 and is on public display for the first time.

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema,
Coign of Vantage, 1895.
© Ann and Gordon Getty

The exhibition is a wonderful journey through Alma-Tadema’s work displayed in a beautiful and atmospheric setting.

 

 

http://www.leightonhouse.co.uk

 

AT HOME: ‘Flaming June’

‘Flaming June: The Making of an Icon’, Leighton House Museum, 12 Holland Park Rd, London, W14, until 2nd April 2017

Flaming June: The Making of an Icon, installation shot at Leighton House Museum. Photo: Kevin Moran. Courtesy: Leighton House Museum

Flaming June: The Making of an Icon, installation shot at Leighton House Museum.
Photo: Kevin Moran. Courtesy: Leighton House Museum

What an exciting exhibition this is! Leighton’s iconic painting Flaming June has come back to the house where it was painted and not only that it is reunited with the other works that Leighton included in what was to be his last showing of work at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition because he died in January 1896.

The original installation in Frederic Leighton's Studio, by Bedford Lemere, 1 April 1895. ©Historic England Archive. Image Courtesy of Leighton House Museum

The original installation in Frederic Leighton’s Studio, by Bedford Lemere, 1 April 1895.
©Historic England Archive. Image Courtesy of Leighton House Museum

If that were not enough on its own we are even more spoilt because it is being shown alongside other works (thanks to loans from private collections and the Metropolitan Museum of Art) that he showed at that year’s Summer Exhibition.

Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-96), was one of the leading artists of his day and between 1878 and his death was President of the Royal Academy. Although not particularly well received at the exhibition Flaming June has become justly famous – its history is fascinating as this exhibition reveals – and is on loan from the Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico.

Flaming June: The Making of an Icon, installation shot at Leighton House Museum. Photo: Kevin Moran. Courtesy: Leighton House Museum

Flaming June: The Making of an Icon, installation shot at Leighton House Museum.
Photo: Kevin Moran. Courtesy: Leighton House Museum

Thanks to the April 1895 photograph showing Flaming June and it’s fellow works before they were submitted to the Royal Academy it has been possible to give now an idea of what visitors on a studio open day would have seen.

Leighton House’s senior curator, Daniel Robbins, sums it up saying: “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. I am extremely grateful to those who have loaned the works to us for the exhibition and to those who helped us track down the paintings held in private collections.”

Flaming June: The Making of an Icon, installation shot at Leighton House Museum. Photo: Kevin Moran. Courtesy: Leighton House Museum

Flaming June: The Making of an Icon, installation shot at Leighton House Museum.
Photo: Kevin Moran. Courtesy: Leighton House Museum

 

Open daily except Tuesdays, 10am – 5.30pm but check for opening times over the holiday period.

http://www.rbkc.gov.uk/FlamingJune

The Lanigan Collection – a generous gift

Pre-Raphaelites on Paper: Victorian Drawings from the Lanigan Collection, Leighton House Museum 12 Holland Park Road, London W14, until 29th May 2016

Frederick Sandys, King Pelles Daughter Bearing the Vessel of the Sangreal, 1861. Promised Gift from the Lanigan Collection ® NGC

Frederick Sandys,
King Pelles Daughter Bearing the Vessel of the Sangreal, 1861.
Promised Gift from the Lanigan Collection
® NGC

There is still time to see this remarkable collection of drawings and sketches which includes, portraits, allegories, religious and literary scenes and landscapes.  Some are preparatory studies for works by painters such as Holman Hunt and Burne-Jones.

Frederic Leighton, Study of Iphigenia for Cymon and Iphigenia, 1883, Promised Gift from the Lanigan Collection ® NGC

Frederic Leighton,
Study of Iphigenia for Cymon and Iphigenia, 1883,
Promised Gift from the Lanigan Collection
® NGC

This collection which adorns the walls of the Museum’s rooms, with the exception of Lord Leighton’s studio, has been put together by the Canadian collector Dr. Dennis T. Lanigan over a thirty-year period. In recent times Lanigan has given or promised much of the collection to the National Gallery of Canada.  A very generous gift indeed.

Edward Burne-Jones, Study for The Wedding Feast of Sir Degrevaunt (for William Morris Red House),1860 ® NGC

Edward Burne-Jones,
Study for The Wedding Feast of Sir Degrevaunt (for William Morris Red House),1860
® NGC

http://www.leightonhouse.co.uk