Flaming June
{{short description|Painting by Frederic Leighton}}
{{About|the Frederic Leighton painting|the 1997 trance song by BT|Flaming June (song)}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox Artwork
| image_file=Flaming_June,_by_Frederic_Lord_Leighton_(1830-1896).jpg
| image_size=320px
| title=Flaming June
| artist=Frederic Leighton
| year=
| medium=Oil on canvas
| height_metric=
| width_metric=
| height_imperial=47
| width_imperial=47
| metric_unit=cm
| imperial_unit=in
| city=Ponce, Puerto Rico
| museum=Museo de Arte de Ponce
}}
Flaming June is a painting by Sir Frederic Leighton, produced in 1895. Painted with oil paints on a {{convert|47|x|47|in|adj=on}} square canvas, it depicts a sleeping woman in a sensuous version of his classicist Academic style. It is Leighton's most recognisable work, and is much reproduced in posters and other media.
Flaming June disappeared from view in the 1930s and was rediscovered in the 1960s. It was auctioned shortly after, during a period of time known to be difficult for selling Victorian-era paintings, where it failed to sell for its low reserve price of US$140 (the equivalent of $1,126 in modern prices). After the auction, it was promptly purchased by the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Ponce, Puerto Rico.
Appraisal
Flaming June was first begun as a motif to adorn a marble bath in one of Leighton's other works, Summer Slumber. He became so attached to the design that he decided to create it as a painting in its own right.
{{Quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=The funereal solemnity of Michelangelo's monumental nude has been considerably warmed up, by the Victorian painter, in the act of appropriating and adapting it. Leighton has arranged matters in such a way that, although clothed, his somnolent girl's many charms are alluringly displayed for the delectation of the viewer – who is implicitly put in the position of a voyeur... Her cheeks are flushed, reddened with a blush suggesting that somehow she knows she is being watched, even though she is sleeping.{{cite web|first=Andrew |last=Graham-Dixon|title= ITP 266: Flaming June by Frederic Leighton |date=5 June 2005|work= The Sunday Telegraph|author-link=Andrew Graham-Dixon|url=http://www.andrewgrahamdixon.com/archive/itp-266-flaming-june-by-frederic-leighton.html}}}}
According to art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon "her pose is loosely modelled on that of Michelangelo's famous statue of Night, in the Medici Tombs in Florence, which Leighton regarded as one of the supreme achievements of Western art."
The position of the sleeping woman gave Leighton a great deal of trouble. He made several preliminary sketches to determine the way in which she should lie; in particular he had difficulty making the angle of her right arm look natural. His studies show that the picture went through at least four evolutionary sketches before Leighton came to the end result. Out of these studies, four are nude and one is draped.Cf. T. Barringer & E. Prettejohn, Frederic Leighton: Antiquity, Renaissance, Modernity, Yale University Press (1999), s.v. "Flaming June". The draped figure looks the least lifelike, demonstrating Leighton's claimed need to draw from a naked model to achieve a fidelity to nature.
The toxic oleander branch in the top right possibly symbolizes the fragile link between sleep and death.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/great-works/leighton-frederic-flaming-june-1895-814972.html|title= Leighton, Frederic: Flaming June (1895)|work= The Independent|date=25 April 2008}}
Flaming June has become Leighton's most recognisable picture. Samuel Courtauld, founder of the Courtauld Institute, called it "the most wonderful painting in existence". The realism of the transparent material worn by the sleeping woman, the stunningly rich colours and the perfectly recreated marble surround are characteristic of Leighton's work, as is his use of natural light. He allows the sunset in the background to appear as molten gold.A. Weidinger, Magnificent Extravagance – Frederic, Lord Leighton's Flaming June 1894–95, Belvedere (2010), passim.
Provenance
The painting's first owners, The Graphic magazine, bought it to create a high-quality reproduction which was given away as a Christmas gift in 1895.{{Cite web |date=2017-03-20 |title=The Return of Flaming June |url=https://nigelip.com/2017/03/20/flaming-june-leighton-house/ |access-date=2024-03-31 |website=Nigel Ip |language=en-GB}} When Leighton died in January 1896 it was put in their office window which was passed by the funeral procession.
It was loaned to the Ashmolean Museum in early 1900s; its whereabouts after this are unknown. The painting was rediscovered in a Battersea home in the early 1960s, boxed in over a chimney. Andrew Lloyd Webber saw it soon afterwards in a shop on the Kings Road, but his grandmother refused to lend him the £50 asking price, stating: "I will not have Victorian junk in my flat".{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/jun/20/flaming-june-frederic-lord-leighton-house-museum|work=The Guardian|title= Leighton's Flaming June to go on display in studio where it was painted |date=20 June 2016|author=Maev Kennedy}}
In 1963 Luis A. Ferré{{snd}}the noted Puerto Rican industrialist and politician, who would be elected governor five years later{{snd}}was on a trip around Europe, engaged in purchasing paintings and sculptures for the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico, which he had founded. "It’s extremely curious to know that this work of such late Victorian importance was bought in Amsterdam by Luis A. Ferre for less than $1,000 dollars in 1960."[http://puertoricoartreview.com/2015/05/02/flaming-june-drawing-rediscovered-after-100-years-of-silence/ Flaming June Sketch Rediscovered After 100 Years of Silence.] Joey Medrano. Puerto Rico Art Review. 2 May 2015. Accessed 30 January 2019.
Once it had become part of Museo de Arte de Ponce's collection, it became its symbol and most recognised artwork. Since then, the painting has been loaned to important museums around the world including the Museo del Prado in Madrid in 2008, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart in Germany in 2009, and the Frick Collection in New York City in 2015.[https://www.frick.org/sites/default/files/pdf/press/pressrelease_web.pdf Leighton's Iconic Painting Flaming June on View in New York City for the First Time: June 9 through September 6, 2015.] Press Release 256. 4 May 2015.
In 2016 the painting was loaned to the Leighton House Museum in Kensington, and was displayed in the studio where it was created.{{cite news|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/arts/jimmy-page-welcomes-flaming-june-painting-back-to-kensington-a3385021.html|title=Jimmy Page welcomes Flaming June painting back to Kensington|date=2 November 2016|newspaper=Evening Standard}}{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/flaming-june-will-brighten-the-darkness-vfm7vfkrx|title=Flaming June will brighten the darkness|newspaper=The Times}}
File:Study for Flaming June by Frederic Leighton.jpg
In 2015 an original pencil and chalk study for the painting{{snd}}the model's head{{snd}}was found on the back of a bedroom door in the mansion inherited by Bamber Gascoigne after the death of his great aunt Mary Innes-Ker, Duchess of Roxburghe.{{citation|newspaper=The Guardian |date=1 May 2015 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/01/pre-raphaelite-study-discovered-behind-door-in-english-mansion |title=Pre-Raphaelite study behind door in English mansion |access-date=3 May 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518085215/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/01/pre-raphaelite-study-discovered-behind-door-in-english-mansion |archive-date=18 May 2015 |url-status=live}}
In 2023 Leighton's only known colour study for the painting, a small work in oil, was presented to Leighton House Museum by Sir David Verey.{{cite news |last1=Thorpe |first1=Vanessa |title=Flaming June, once a student poster favourite, returns to London home |url=https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/may/28/flaming-june-once-a-student-poster-favourite-returns-to-london-home |work=The Observer |date=28 May 2023}}{{cite web |title=Study for Flaming June: oil on canvas |url=https://www.gallery19c.com/artworks/9371 |website=Gallery 19C |access-date=28 May 2023}}
Models
While the body of the woman remains a mystery, there is speculation that the face is that of either of Leighton's two favourite models in the 1890s, Dorothy Dene{{cite magazine|url=http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2015/06/flaming-june-identity-frederic-lord-leighton-dorothy-dene|title=The Strange Journey of One of the World's Most Famous Paintings|first=Patrick|last=Monahan|magazine=Vanity Fair}}{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/11236508/Dorothy-Dene-Lord-Leightons-secret-lover.html|title=Dorothy Dene: Lord Leighton's secret lover?|work=The Daily Telegraph}} or Mary Lloyd.{{cite book|author=Jill Berk Jiminez|title=Dictionary of Artists' Models|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ogFYAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA593|date=15 October 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-95914-2|pages=593–}}{{Cite web |url=http://www.claphamsociety.com/Articles/Article2/original/LHS_2_PIC_9.html |title=Apollo Magazine |access-date=18 January 2017 |archive-date=2 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130102131656/http://www.claphamsociety.com/Articles/Article2/original/LHS_2_PIC_9.html |url-status=dead }}
Mary Lloyd was the daughter of an impoverished country squire.{{Cite web |title=Frederic, Lord Leighton {{!}} Lachrymae |url=https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/436869 |access-date=2023-05-02 |website=The Metropolitan Museum of Art |at=Catalogue Entry |language=en}} She came to London and established a highly successful career as an artist's model, posing only for the head and hands, and not nude – an important distinction.{{Cn|date=May 2023}} She started posing for Leighton in about 1893, was requested to come to pose in January 1895 for Leighton's Lachrymae (1894–1895). She is probably also the model for his
References
{{Reflist}}
Bibliography
- Barringer, Tim & Prettejohn, Elizabeth, Frederic Leighton: Antiquity, Renaissance, Modernity (Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art), Yale University Press (1999). {{ISBN|978-0-300-07937-1}}
- Barrington, Russel, The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton, 2 Voll., BiblioBazaar (2010). {{ISBN|978-1-143-23340-1}}
- Weidinger, Alfred, Magnificent Extravagance – Frederic, Lord Leighton's Flaming June 1894–95. Sleeping Beauty. Masterpieces of Victorian Painting from Museo de Arte de Ponce. Edited by Agnes Husslein-Arco and Alfred Weidinger. Belvedere, Vienna 2010. {{ISBN|978-3-901508-84-4}}
External links
{{Commons category|Flaming June}}
- [http://www.frederic-leighton.org Frederic-Leighton.org] 114 works by Frederic Leighton
- Discussion by Janina Ramirez: [https://www.acast.com/artdetective/minisode-flamingjune Art Detective Podcast, 29 Jan 2017]
- [https://nigelip.com/2017/03/20/flaming-june-leighton-house/ The Return of Flaming June]
- [https://thelongvictorian.com/2017/02/13/the-peculiar-life-times-of-flaming-june-the-most-wonderful-painting-in-existence/ The peculiar life & times of Flaming June: “The most wonderful painting in existence”], WordPress blog entry
{{Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood}}
{{Frederic Leighton|state=expanded}}
Category:Paintings by Frederic Leighton
Category:Paintings in the Museo de Arte de Ponce
Category:Recovered works of art