Step into the world of leading Victorian artist Frederic, Lord Leighton, whose opulent home is as much a work of art as the paintings he put on canvas
To understand something of the nature of Victorian painter, draughtsman and sculptor, Frederic, Lord Leighton, you need to stand in the Arab Hall of his London studio-home: experience the awe and drink in the splendour. Words cannot do such a room justice – it is a place of senses and of feeling. The ceiling is golden and domed, blazing like a Middle Eastern sun, shining on richly tiled walls of cobalt blue. Vain peacocks strut along the gold of a frieze while a pool cools the centre of a black-andwhite mosaic floor.
Even for Daniel Robbins, senior curator of Leighton House, familiarity has never lessened the impact. ‘On a sunny morning, when light is coming through the screens, casting shadows across the pool and illuminating the gold mosaics, the Arab Hall has a sort of presence; it is never a secondhand experience or a partial thing.’
The space attracted deep admiration from the moment it was finished in 1882. Leighton was an extremely generous host and he welcomed everyone from budding artists looking for society entrée to famed members of the Establishment.
‘There is an account of a dinner at which Edward Burne-Jones, Albert Moore and Whistler are present. It says they came through to the Arab Hall after dinner to smoke cigars and drink coffee. And one of them – unnamed – walked backwards and fell into the pool!’
Yet, remarkably, considering the house’s magnificence and its owner’s hospitality, that account is tremendously rare. Hardly any intimate details are known of this artist whose work was admired and acquired by Queen Victoria herself – and that is exactly the way Leighton preferred it to be.
Physician to Tsars
Just like his house, even the details of the Leighton ancestry are somewhat curated. What is clear is that family money had been a relatively recent phenomenon: Leighton’s grandfather, James, spent a large part of his career in Russia, serving Tsar Alexander I, and rising to the position of ‘Doctor of Our Royal Court’ under Nicholas I.
‘When Leighton was interviewed, it is clear that he was happy to talk about his grandfather and St Petersburg but becomes vague about any previous generation,’ Daniel says. The fact that those ancestors tended to be coal merchants and innkeepers might go some way to explaining the reticence.
Certainly, the money was a boon. Leighton’s mother, Augusta, did not enjoy the rosiest of health, but at least their comfortable inheritance allowed the family to indulge in the kinder climes of Continental Europe. Those travels also enriched the education of the three children from a young age. The family rubbed
