When Frederick Leighton’s Flaming June went to the Royal
Academy Exhibition in 1895, the artist was too ill to attend. In fact he was
dying of angina pectoris. Like so many of his works, that exquisite and sensual
painting, his most famous work of art, was just too meticulous for an era when
Impressionism, with its carefree brushwork, was all the rage. Flaming June, which
would now fetch a fortune, hung almost insignificantly at the Maas Gallery in
London until it was eventually purchased by chance at a bargain price of ₤2,000 in 1963 for the Museo de Arte de Ponce in the Caribbean island
state of Puerto Rico.
Flaming June (Museo del Arte de Ponce), Puerto Rico
It is interesting to note that one of Frederick
Leighton’s least known and perhaps forgotten works of art hangs in another Puerto,
right here in the Canary Islands.
As a mere passer-by I cannot assume it is worth the
fortunes other works of Sir Frederick have fetched at Christies in recent
years. Nevertheless, the artist’s history certainly stirs my imagination.
Born into a
wealthy and cultured family in Scarborough in 1820, Leighton was able to travel
from an early age. Thus he not only learnt several languages but was also
introduced to art and architecture in Europe. His father,
Frederick Septimus, was a doctor. His grandfather, Jacob Leighton, had been
friend and personal physician to the Russian Emperors Alexander I and Nicholas
I. Like so many others who could permit themselves the luxury of leaving the
damp and smoggy England, they sought to find a better climate for his mother
Augusta’s ailing health.
Frederick, Lord Leighton (Aberdeen Art Gallery)
With such a background
young Frederick had also been expected to become a doctor. His father taught
him, in great detail, about human anatomy and this may well have influenced his
meticulous artistic style. Nevertheless, recognising his immense talent, his
father presented Leighton with a set of paints and by the time he was ten he
was receiving his first master classes at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence.
But later, when he lived in Frankfurt, he enrolled at the State Institute of
Art. There he was influenced by other painters like Johann Friedrich
Overbeck and Eduard von Steinle of the German
Nazarene movement, whose religious and spiritual overtones also influenced the
British Pre-Raphaelites.
In 1855 he
exhibited his work at the Royal Academy and when Queen Victoria bought one of
his paintings he instantly became a member of Society circles in London. Leighton also lived in Rome and Paris, meeting other
European painters and training in their studios before he returned in England
in 1859.
But his
purely classical style toiled against the Impressionists, who were in vogue,
and was often criticised for lacking temperament and individuality. Apparently
his stiff technique lacked expression and suggested laborious work and
methodical use of colour rather than natural flair. Consequently critics said
his paintings lost a certain charm. Nevertheless his art was regarded as being
very refined and some of his finest paintings, often betraying his idealistic
attraction to Greek and Roman mythology, suggest his own sensuality and
passion. This became more evident after becoming less inclined to subjugate his
own talent and self-esteem to other masters, especially after he met nineteen
year old lass, Ada Pullan, in 1879.
Frederic Leighton was nearly fifty and fell
captive to her beauty and headful of curls. She became his favorite model
and muse. Although some have tried to suggest Frederick Leighton may have
dabbled in homosexuality, possibly in earlier years, this has never been
certain, especially as he kept his private life very much to himself. It is
more likely that he enjoyed a very secret and passionate love affair with his
model. It is thought he used her nude to paint Flaming June before
adding her light, flaming orange robe to entice and awaken the senses.
Ada posed for Crenaia, The Nymph of the Dargle (Pérez Simon Collection, Mexico)
He persuaded Ada to change her name to Dorothy Dene, he
educated her, he introduced her to fashionable circles and he helped her obtain
a certain amount of success as an actress. It is believed George Bernard Shaw
used her extraordinary relationship with Frederick Leighton to conjure up
Pygmalion, which then reached such fame as the musical My Fair Lady. Leighton
was considered most generous and helped younger painters and sculptors and
was a pioneer in assisting women artists. After becoming President of the
Royal Academy of Arts in 1878 he pushed a case for women artists to have the
same privileges as their male colleagues.
Sir Frederick Leighton was a cultured and handsome man. He spent time at
Cambridge, Oxford, Dublin, Edinburgh and Durham Universities. His talent earned
him the Prussian Pour la Mérite distinction and the Medal of Honour as
sculptor at the Universal Exposition of Paris in 1889. His last house in
Holland Park is known as Leighton’s Art gallery. Many of his works are on
display there, as well as treasures collected during his travels throughout
the world. The mansion is regarded as a work of art in itself because it is
filled with the tastes and fantasies of a man who lived for his art but who was
also an enthusiastic volunteer soldier and commanding officer of what was
known as the Artists Rifles.
Frederick
Leighton visited Tenerife and Gran Canaria in 1887, spending most of his time
in the Orotava Valley. The light and tones of the coast, especially in the
colourful port of Puerto de la Cruz with its volcanic rock pools and Mount
Teide in the nebulous distance, caught his imagination. Consequently one of his
landscapes hangs proudly, albeit almost as discretely as his own private life,
in the Mayor’s office at the Town Hall.
Frederick Leighton's painting in the Canary Islands
(Courtesy The Town Council, Puerto de la Cruz)
It is nothing like the colourful
tourist resort we know today. In fact Frederick Leighton plays with the exact
positioning of Mount Teide and the houses have a more Mediterranean look. But
it is supposed to be a view of Puerto and the old harbour wall, possibly
sketched from close to the San Telmo chapel.
Felipe Machado del Hoyo Solórzano
How Frederick Leighton’s painting should be there, as unaware of
its artist’s prestige as it is of itself, is quite simple. We can thank another
cultured gentleman and soldier, the late Felipe Machado del Hoyo Solórzano who
inherited the title of Count de Las Siete Fuentes, one of the oldest hereditary
titles in the Canary Islands. He was Mayor in Puerto de la Cruz in the 1970s
when he spotted and purchased the painting for the Town Hall at an auction in
Madrid in 1973.
(Certain images have been reproduced from internet with no personal financial gain intended.)
By John Reid Young
Author of The Skipping Verger and Other Tales, a collection of short stories set in Tenerife.
