Flaming June

Here is a young woman crouching asleep on a marble bench like a sleeping cat. Her silky light-orange dress captures attention. “Flaming June,” drawn by Frederic Leighton, is one of the greatest masterpieces of the Victorian era. The title of this painting gets us interested in its origin.

Leighton, one of the most respected artists in Britain in the late 19th century, spent almost 20 years serving as the head of the Royal Academy of Arts. This work was done when he was 65 years old with his career at its peak. It reflects his artistic viewpoint of highlighting aesthetic purity and visual pleasure in paintings, rather than delivering moral messages. He referred to “Night,” the sculpture by Michelangelo when he directed his model to pose. Frankly speaking, her figure looks unrealistic. Although her long-stretched things and neck, and bent arms draw a perfect circle, the way she poses is impossible anatomically. Behind her lies a glistening sea under the sun. The plant on the right is oleander which blooms to the fullest in June in the Mediterranean climate. He might have been inspired by the model falling asleep in his studio on a June day. This hints about where the title “Flaming June” came from. Her orange dress is the most attention-capturing element on the canvas. In a see-through dress, this sleeping lady has her cheeks blushed in pitch, arousing curiosity and imagination. In fact, it was nothing new that artists fell in love with their models during the era.

Displayed in an exhibition by the Royal Academy of Arts in 1895, the painting earned great acclaim, which led me to become the first artist who was given the title of Baron by Buckingham Palace on Jan. 24 of the following year. Unbelievably, however, he died of angina the day right after. Indeed, his last two days were mixed with the highest honor and the deepest sense of futility he had in his lifetime. At last, this painting has since symbolized such a flaming June of this artist who devoted all his energy to strokes on the canvas in the last moments of his life.