Flaming June  

From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Flaming June[1] is a painting by Lord Frederic Leighton, produced in 1895. Painted with oil paints on a 47" x 47" square canvas, it is widely considered to be Leighton's magnum opus, showing his classicist nature. It is thought that the woman portrayed alludes to the figures of sleeping nymphs and naiads the Greeks often sculpted. The (toxic) Oleander branch in the top right, symbolises the fragile link between sleep and death.

Dorothy Dene, the actress, and Mary Lloyd, who was depicted in paintings by various Pre-Raphaelite artists, have been variously credited with modeling for the work.

Flaming June was auctioned in the 1960s, 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 $140 USD (the equivalent of $840 in contemporary prices). Afterward, it was promptly purchased by the Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico where it currently resides (see the following account).

The painting was honored in a song by Paul Weller on his Stanley Road album and Mexican singer Luis Miguel in his music video for the song Amarte es un placer.

It also illustrates the cover of the 1989 album Waltz Darling by Malcolm McLaren.

Circumstances of arrival in Puerto Rico

In 1963, Luis A. Ferré — the noted Puerto Rican industrialist and politician, who would be elected governor five years later — was on a trip around Europe, engaged in purchasing paintings and sculptures for the Ponce Museum of Art in Puerto Rico, which he had founded. On a stop in a gallery in Amsterdam, he and René Taylor found Flaming June abandoned in a corner. They became impressed by the painting's beauty, and asked the owner about it.

The owner said no one was interested in the painting because it was considered too old-fashioned for the time. But he added that if Ferré was interested in it, that he could have it for $10,000. Even though Ferré thought it was expensive (as noted above, it had shortly before been auctioned for much less), they entered into an agreement that Ferré would wire the money for the painting. The man gave his word of not selling it to anyone else.

Antonio Luis Ferré, the industrialist's son, many years later related that his father spent a sleepless night, worried that the gallery owner wouldn't keep his promise. Ferré called him in the morning, assuring him that the money would be wired and asking him to keep his promise - which he did, even though other people had already gone to the gallery and liked the painting.

Thus, Flaming June traveled to the Ponce Museum of Art and was prominently displayed. In later years, it was loaned to important expositions around the world, with the renewal of interest in Victorian art. Flaming June was on display at the Prado, Madrid in 2008 and Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany in 2009.

Literature

• Alfred Weidinger: 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