Red House
"the beautifullest place on earth" - Edward Burne-Jones

Note to self: I need to book my 45 minute guided tour at either: 11am, 11.30am, 12pm, 12.30pm and 1pm. It is best to pre-book to avoid disappointment on our booking line 0208 304 9878 (manned Tues-Sat 9.30am -1 .30pm). Then visit unguided from 1.30pm you can visit the house without booking and wander around on your own to sample the atmosphere. 

I can't wait to dine in the kitchen and pantry of Red House, now a charming cafe. Cake and cream tea for me please! I'm sure my husband will favor the higgidy pies (whatever those are).
Creativity and love fill every splinter of wood, pane of glass, inch of wall, and thread of tapestry at The Red House. It was designed by Philip Webb for William Morris who incorporated many beloved Victorian artists in it's decoration in his never ending effort of 'transforming the world with beauty.'
Morris refered to Red House as his 'Palace of Art' and wanted the house to look like a jewel box, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote that it was ‘more of a poem than a house‘. I love that he wanted this to be an artistic collaboration with all of his friends. Splendid idea.














Dining Room with furniture designed by Philip Webb. It was intended to have an Aphrodite theme. 
Uncovered in 2013 from behind a wardrobe is part of this original decoration showing figures from Genesis painted as if hanging on fabric. (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/red-house/features/visit-the-house)

Sadly, after about five years, Morris put the Red House on the market. There were several reasons - the increasingly frequent commutes to Bloomsbury (which took over 4 hours a day), the cold windy landscape, difficulty in getting a doctor to the rural location, etc. The family left in 1865 to live over the workshop and Morris never came back. He said later that the sight of the house would be more than he could bear.

P.S. Do they make Arts and Craft style crates for me to ship home all my booty from the gift shop?

The Victoria and Albert Museum

10.00 - 17.45 daily
10.00 - 22.00 Friday (reduced gallery openings after 18.00)

The National Art Library

10.00 - 17.30 Tuesday to Saturday, 10.00 - 18.30 Friday.

I've already signed up for my Reader Card to view Rainy days at Brig O'Turk : the Highland sketchbooks of John Everett Millais - a book I've been dying to see for nearly 20 years! 

The Prints & Drawings Study Room

By appointment only. Appointments are available at 10.15 and 14.15 Tuesday to Friday.

In 1851 the British Empire was at its peak, the Industrial Revolution in England was going full steam and the Great Exhibition was taking place in the Crystal Palace. Just the name is enough to make me sigh that I'm nearly 100 years too late to see it in person (it was destroyed in a fire in the 1930s). The building was constructed in 10 months out of cast iron and 300,000 of the largest glass sheets ever constructed. 

Aeronautic view of The Palace of Industry For All Nations, from Kensington Palace by Charles Burton, England, 1851 - 1852. 

 

 The State Opening of The Great Exhibition in 1851. Colour lithograph, England

Prince Albert was a co-financier and co-organizer for this Great Exhibition that aimed to declare Britain's triumphs in design, technology, and engineering. Over 100,000 objects were displayed from 7,000 British Exhibitors and 7,000 from the rest of the world. 

 

Nestled within Hyde Park the Crystal Palace enclosed full grown trees. 

John Absolon (1815-95) 'View in the East Nave (The Amazon, by Kiss)' 1851

It must have been amazing. The following year the Victoria and Albert Museum was established with the founding principle to make works of art available to all, to educate working people and to inspire British designers and manufacturers. In 1899 the cornerstone for the building was laid by Queen Victoria. Today it is the world's leading museum of art and design with millions of objects from 2,000 years of history.

While we are visiting this will be the exhibition on display: 

Botticelli Reimagined

5 March 2016 - 3 July 2016

£16.50 Full, including donation* 

EXHIBITION: This innovative exhibition explores the variety of ways artists and designers from the Pre-Raphaelites to the present have responded to the artistic legacy of Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510), assembling 150 works from around the world. Botticelli is now celebrated as one of the greatest artists of all time, but was largely forgotten after his death until his work was progressively rediscovered in the 19th century.

The V&A Café
Garden Café

10.00 -17.15 daily
10.00-21.30 Fridays

You know, because looking at all that beauty might make us hungry...

We  might also search our the originals of our wedding bands which were cast from posy rings in the V&A's collection. 

Leighton House

Leighton House

Just saying it out loud makes me giddy and dizzy with visual delight. This was top on my list for our visit to London. Our hotel was within walking distance! Their website was the source of much of the info found here and definitely worth a visit. The pictures, sadly, are not mine.

Our visit:

I didn't visit this lovely house under ideal conditions. My husband and I had traveled for a full day and then flew to London overnight. With lots of delays and very little sleep, we dropped off our luggage and pushed on to Leighton House for the 3pm tour. It was hard to take in because it is so dazzling and my brain was foggy but it was truly amazing. 

I recognized the house as soon as we approached. The deep red brick and distinctive dome truly stood out.

Just past the initial entry we could view his office. Copies of documents and letters were arranged as if he had just stepped out. Leighton House has been lovingly restored. The guide told us that they were able to paint the studio dark sage due to a passing comment in a letter from a contemporary visitor who resided in Australia!

The blue tiles of the Narcissus Hall and staircase were my favorite shade of blue. Pictures (which aren't allowed) simply don't do justice to their vibrant color. Everything was on a smaller scale than I expected. Still very grand and impressive but not unusually large. 

Leighton traveled to Turkey in 1867, to Egypt in the following year and to Syria in 1873. On each of these trips he collected textiles, pottery and other objects that were later to be displayed in his house. It was on his trip to Damascus that Leighton collected the tiles line the walls of the Arab Hall. He was also inspired by a 12th century Sicilio-Norman palace called La Zisa at Palermo in Sicilyo.

The Arab Hall was much more intimate and peaceful than I imagined. It was exotic and dazzling. A jewel in the middle of London. It was not fully lit when we visited so the glow of the gold was soft and sleepy. 

The Dinning Room had his original table cloth and table. The room had been restored based on some red raised velvet wallpaper found under a lighting fixture. The plates had been arranged according to old pictures of the house. 

The most notable thing in the dinning room (for me, anyway) was Byam Shaw's painting Silent Noon. I couldn't help but think of Millais' Ophelia (see below) that we would view at the Tate. That dark haired man next to her could reference Rossetti. It also reminded me of Orpheus and Eurydice and the way Rossetti continually tried to call Lizzie back. 

The Drawing Room had a circular ceiling painting by Delacroix and different paintings than in the picture above. By this point we were about to fall alseep standing up so we quietly stepped away from the tour to view the upstairs on our own.

The Silk Room awaits you at the top of the stairs. This is where the main body of the Leighton House's collection hangs. One splendid canvas after another. 

I wish I could remember the name of the area. it has hand-carved screens that look out over the Arab Hall. It looked blissful to my jet lagged eyes.

Leighton's studio was bright and large. The large thin black door to the left of the apse was the canvas door to allow his large paintings to be easily removed from his studio.

The opposite end of the studio had a green balcony. It was so beautiful! One of the things that I learned on the tour was that Leighton strongly identified with Michelangelo and had several studies of his artwork in the house. 

Leighton lived alone in this magnificent house only has one bedroom (not counting servant's quarters). It was incredibly simplistic compared to the rest of his house.

About Leighton:

Frederic, Lord Leighton Baron of Stretton. He is the only British artist to have been ennobled (happened just before he died)

Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna, 1853 Royal Collection

Queen Victoria bought his first major painting in 1855 - we got to see it at the Victoria & Albert Museum!

Eucharis-A Girl With a Basket of Fruit, 1863, Private Collection

In 1864 he was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy and commissioned George Aitchison to design Leighton House.


The Painter's Honeymoon, 1864, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Massachusetts
Four years later he is elected a full member of the Academy. Ten years later in 1878 he is elected President of the Royal Academy.

Lily Mason

Leighton was intensely private man. His friend and fellow artist William Powell Frith once said, "I have known Leighton for 30 years, and I don't know him yet." Some suspect that he was gay but some documents have come to light that suggests he may have had a son with one of his models, Lily Mason. The child was also named Frederic and reportedly looked like Leighton who provided a regular allowance to the boy. Read more here.

Leighton and Dorothy Dene

He was very good friends with his model Ada Pullan who later changed her name to Dorothy Dene upon Leighton's insistence that it was a better stage name for the aspiring actress. There is speculation that the playwright George Bernard Shaw modeled Professor Higgins and Eliza Doolittle in his play Pygmalion on their relationship. Newly discovered letters indicate that the relationship was likely even closer than previously suspected with a close friend referring to Dene as Leighton's "wife." Read more here. 

Invocation, 1889 Private Collection

Flaming June, 1895 Museo de Arte de Ponce Ponce, Puerto Rico

He designed Elizabeth Barrett Browning's tomb in Florence

He was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral in 1896.

 

If you want more on his art you can read here.

More About Leighton House:

This dazzling house was custom built and embellished over 30 years

'He built the house as it now stands for his own artistic delight. Every stone of it had been the object of his loving care. It was a joy to him until the moment when he lay down to die.'
                    Leighton’s sisters in a Letter to The Times,                                                                      26 January 1899


 

The south facade, facing the street, was given the appearance of an Italian palazzo. The north facade overlooking the garden was dominated by the large studio window on the first floor.  We didn't get to go outside into the garden but it looked lovely.



The Winter Studio
The problem of winter smogs and fogs was a concern for many artists whose year was focussed on the submission of their work to the Royal Academy at the end of March or early April. Leighton’s solution was to commission a large winter studio to be added at the east end of his main studio. Effectively a greenhouse on legs, the Winter Studio was supported by pairs of substantial cast iron columns.

Two views of Leighton's Studio in 1880s. I searched for the once hidden staircase to the studio used only by his models accessible via a private entrance but didn't see it. If we had continued the tour I definitely would have asked for it.




Last painting was Clytie - still in his studio




Holland Circle
Leighton and G. F.Watts were the two artists at the heart of the ‘Holland Park Circle’. They were close friends and would often call on each other using a gate that connected their gardens. 


Leighton House has collected 76 oil paintings by Leighton as well as 700 sketches and studies. The catalog can be found here.

The paintings include works by John Everett Millais (1829-1896), George Frederic Watts (1817-1904), Frederick Sandys (1829-1904), Byam Shaw (1872-1919), Charles Fairfax Murray (1849-1919) and Solomon J. Solomon (1860-1927).
Drawings include examples by Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), J A M Whistler and George Howard (1843-1911) and watercolours and other works on paper by George Pryce Boyce (1826-1897), Thomas Rooke (1842-1942), Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919) and Leighton's inspirational master at the Stadelesches Kunstinstitut, Edward von Steinle (1810-1886).
Also included is a group of photographs by Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879) whose family had close associations with the Holland Park artist's colony.


Much love to Leighton House for such wonderful info
https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/museums/leightonhousemuseum/aboutthehouse/aboutleightonhouse/historyofthehouse.aspx