Leighton House Museum

On Monday my long-dormant Stendhal syndrome made itself present when I visited the Leighton House Museum. (picture is taken from the street as the gits don't let you take any photographs inside, and I apologise for the quality of some of the photographs, the best I could find on the internet but still...)

In what appears to be a rather plain facade in Holland Park, lived and worked the brilliant Frederick, Lord Leighton. My curiosity about this artist came about when I first saw an image of Flaming June - not the original as it's in a museum in Puerto Rico, or was it Costa Rica? Anyway, it is a beautiful painting nevertheless.

Back to Lord Leighton, he was also a sculptor, became President of the Royal Academy of Arts in1878 and is the only British artist to have been ennobled - he is buried in St Paul's Cathedral.

His house in Holland Park is true to the Aesthetic Movement Lord Leighton has often been associated with: gilded ceilings and walls lined with peacock blue tiles, as well as rich and colourful silks, with countless paintings and drawings.

In his dining room Lord Leighton was host to some of the greatest names of the Victorian era: Robert Browning (for whom he designed his memorial), Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Morris and even Queen Victoria herself!

The centrepiece of the house is the Arab Hall, decorated with over a thousand tiles he purchased in Syria which date back to the 17th century.

Above the Arab Hall, on the first floor, is a Mashrabiya, an Egyptian latticework window, that overlooks the Hall.

The studio has changed somewhat...

Leighton House is open daily from 10am to 5.30pm, although it is closed on Tuesdays.