Leighton House is the stuff of dreams. With its opulent Arab Hall, electric-blue tiled walls and a taxidermy peacock perching on the stairwell banister, the former home and studio of artist and president of the Royal Academy, Frederic Lord Leighton, is Victorian decadence incarnate. It’s fitting, then, that these impressive works owned by Mexican collector Juan Antonio Pérez Simón should wind up on display here. Most of the artists would have been familiar with, and even visited, Leighton’s audacious abode – and four works by Leighton himself are on show.
The surroundings add to the intensity of these classically inspired scenes. Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s ‘The Roses of Heliogabalus’– which hasn’t been seen in London for over a hundred years – explores a decadent Rome, a favourite subject of London society at the time. Beautifully deceptive, the explosion of rose petals isn’t just a decorative trope for a ceremonial celebration, though. Rather, it depicts a scene from the ‘Augustan History’, in which the young Roman emperor Heliogabalus attempts to suffocate his guests with an avalanche of potpourri. If you’re good at holding your breath you’ll be able to enjoy this Victorian marvel without distraction, otherwise it could be a case of life imitating art: the room has been scented with a Jo Malone rose fragrance and it’s almost as overbearing as the petals in the painting.
As you move through the house, you travel along allegorical timelines from antiquity to Arthurian legend. There are distinct uses of light and rich colours that envelope the scenes. But it’s the use and abuse of the female form that stands out – from moments of utter despair as in John Melhuish Strudwick’s ‘Elaine’, to enchantment, as portrayed in John Waterhouse’s ‘The Crystal Ball’. Whether or not you buy into the stories, these fantastical visions are too delicious to pass up.
Freire Barnes