Flaming June: A Woman As Hard to Look Away From As Is Her Creator's London House

Lord Leighton caricature

Based on works by Michelangelo and developed through meticulous studies of a live model, the figure in Leighton's Flaming June appears at once a carefully wrought design and supremely natural. The woman’s sinuous form fills the space of the picture. Her torso and limbs are compressed into a rhythmic arrangement of curves and angles. With remarkable skill, Leighton conveys the weight of the body and suggests the pulse of living flesh beneath gauzy veils of fabric. The vibrant colors of gown, scarves, and hair blaze against cool white stone, and the reflection of the bright midday sun on the shimmering sea in the background evokes a sultry atmosphere brimming with sensuality. The bold approach both to color and to the presentation of the female body distinguishes this modern classical masterpiece.

James Tissot, Published in Vanity Fair, 29 June 1872. Caricature of Frederic Leighton (1830-1896). Caption read "A sacrifice to the Graces"

The Museo de Arte de Ponce was founded in 1959 by Don Luis A. Ferré (1904–2003), a patron of the arts and an influential figure in the political and cultural landscape of Puerto Rico. The museum's comprehensive collection includes approximately 5,000 objects dating from the ninth century B.C. to the present, including paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs, drawings, decorative arts, pre-Hispanic and African and Puerto Rican crafts, contemporary ceramics, and video works. The strength of the collection lies in nineteenth-century English paintings and Baroque examples from the seventeenth century. Important examples by Puerto Rican and Latin American artists provide a unique dialogue between Europe and the Americas. Flaming June is a beloved highlight of the collection. Other signature works include Head of the Magi by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, King Arthur's Dream in Avalon by C. Edward Burne-Jones, and the imposing twenty-five-foot tall Roy Lichtenstein sculpture Brushstrokes in Flight, which was donated to the institution in 2010.

Children under ten are not admitted to the Collection.

Leighton House Museum in London's Borough of Kensington is currently home to rarely seen masterpieces of Victorian art belonging to the Mexican collector Juan Antonio Pérez Simón. A Victorian Obsession: The Pérez Simón Collection at Leighton House Museum comprises 50 exceptional paintings from the largest Victorian private art collection outside Great Britain, shown for the first time in the UK. Alongside five works by Frederic, Lord Leighton (four of which are returning to the house in which they were painted) A Victorian Obsessionwill present paintings which have seldom if ever been exhibited before. The exhibition will run until 29 March 2015. Leighton House Museum

The images range from the domestic to the romantic and from the symbolic to the overtly sensual. The exhibition's highlights include Alma-Tadema's The Roses of Heliogabalus (1888), an iconic image of Roman decadence which has not been exhibited in London since 1913. One of the great paintings of the Victorian era, it memorably depicts the Emperor Heliogabalus's suffocation of his guests beneath a torrent of rose petals. Leighton’s Greek Girls Picking up Pebbles on the Sea Shore (1871) is one of his earliest and most striking 'aesthetic' works, placing formal harmony above narrative content and showing Leighton as the master of English drapery.

Leighton House Museum, Borough of Kensington, London

Two further works, Antigone (1882) and Crenaia (ca.1880), feature the model Dorothy Dene. Leighton's relationship with Dene was significant in his later years, when her role as his principal model, muse and social companion was widely commented on.

Outstanding pictures by Albert Moore, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, John William Waterhouse, Edward Poynter, John Strudwick and John Godward will also be displayed in Leighton House. As President of the Royal Academy, Leighton and his extraordinary studio-house were at the centre of the late Victorian art world. His annual concerts and receptions became fixtures of the artistic social calendar. These artists knew the house well and Leighton's own collection contained pictures by several of them, including a nude study by Albert Moore that returns to Leighton House for the first time since 1896 as part of the exhibition.

Editor's Note: We've been to Leighton House which is a startling original in Kensington. Don't neglect the rear of the house; it presents a lovely view of architect George Aitkinson's design.

The Frick Collection released last year its plans for a new addition, Realizing a Long-Deferred Architectural Plan: New Addition Will Enhance Museum and Library

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Flaming June: A Woman As Hard to Look Away From As Is Her Creator's London House

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