Leighton House Museum is a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 in Holland Park

Holland Park

Holland Park is a district and a public park in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, in west central London, England.Holland Park has a reputation as an affluent and fashionable area, known for attractive large Victorian townhouses, and high-class shopping and restaurants...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is housed in the former home of the painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

 Frederic, Lord Leighton

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton PRA , known as Sir Frederic Leighton, Bt, between 1886 and 1896, was an English painter and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical and classical subject matter...

. The first part of the house (2 Holland Park Road, later renumbered as 12) was designed in 1864 by the architect George Aitchison

George Aitchison

George Aitchison Jr. was a British architect.He was the son of George Aitchison . He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School and University College London....

, although Leighton was not granted a lease on the land until April 1866. Building commenced shortly afterwards, and the house, which cost £4,500, was ready for occupation by the end of the year. The building is of red Suffolk bricks with Caen Stone

Caen stone

Caen stone or Pierre de Caen, is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in northwestern France near the city of Caen.The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about 167 million years ago...

 dressings in a restrained classical style. Subsequently the building would be extended over a period of 30 years by the original architect. The first phase was only three windows wide. The main room was the first floor studio, facing north, originally 45 by 25 feet, with a large central window to provide plenty of light for painting. There was also a gallery at the east end, and a separate staircase for use by models. The house was extended to the east in 1869-70.

The major extension was made in 1877-9. This was the two storey Arab Hall, built to house Leighton's collection of tiles collected during visits to the Middle East

Middle East

The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

.
According to Aitchison and Walter Crane

Walter Crane

Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered to be the most prolific and influential children’s book creator of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of...

 the design was based on the palace of La Zisa

Zisa, Palermo

The Zisa is a castle in the western part of Palermo, Sicily.The construction was begun in the 12th century by Arabian craftsmen for king William I of Sicily, and completed by his son William II...

 in Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

. The 17th century tiles are complemented by carved wooden lattice-work windows of the same period from Damascus

Damascus

Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...

. There are also large 16th century Turkish

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

 tiles. The west wall has a wooden alcove with inset 14th century tiles. The room also contains Victorian elements, the capitals of the smaller columns are by Sir Joseph Boehm

Joseph Boehm

Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, 1st Baronet, RA was a medallist and sculptor, best known for the Jubilee head of Queen Victoria on coinage, and the statue of the Duke of Wellington at Hyde Park Corner.-Biography:...

, from Aitcheson's designs. The capitals of the large columns, gilded and carved in the shape of birds are by Randolph Caldecot. The mosaic frieze was designed by Walter Crane. The Marble

Marble

Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...

 work was by George P. White. Elaborate decorative paintwork decorates the domed ceiling and in the centre of the floor there is a fountain. The tiles in the passage to the Arab Hall are by William de Morgan

William De Morgan

William Frend De Morgan was an English potter and tile designer. A lifelong friend of William Morris, he designed tiles, stained glass and furniture for Morris & Co. from 1863 to 1872. His tiles are often based on medieval designs or Persian patterns, and he experimented with innovative glazes and...

.

In 1889 an additional winter studio was added to the building the final addition by Aitcheson was the top-lit picture gallery in 1895. After Leighton died in 1896 the contents of the house was sold, including at least 1000 of his own drawings, almost all of which were bought by the Fine Art Society. In 1927 Mrs Henry Perrin offered to pay for additional gallery space, the building was extended to the designs of Halsey Ricardo, the Perrin Galleries opening in 1929. This extension was in memory of Mrs. Perrin's daughter Muriel Ida Perrin, an artist who had trained at the Royal College of Art

Royal College of Art

The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...

  and worked for the catalogue section of the The Aircraft Manufacturing Company (Airco

Airco

The Aircraft Manufacturing Company Limited was established in 1912 by George Holt Thomas at The Hyde in Hendon, north London, England.-Geoffrey de Havilland:...

) during the First World War. Muriel had died on 12 March 1919, aged 29, of pneumonia following Spanish Influenza.

The museum has on permanent display works of art by various members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti...

 including John Everett Millais

John Everett Millais

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.-Early life:...

, Edward Burne-Jones

Edward Burne-Jones

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet was a British artist and designer closely associated with the later phase of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, who worked closely with William Morris on a wide range of decorative arts as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner, and Company...

 and George Frederick Watts as well as 81 oil paintings by Leighton himself.

Some of the most notable oil paintings by Leighton in the collection are:

• The Death of Brunelleschi - 1852
• Charles Edward Perugini - 1855
• A Noble Lady Of Venice - c1865
• Hercules Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestes - 1869-71
• Clytemnestra From The Battlements Of Argos Watches For The Beacon Fires Which Are To Announce The Return of Agamemnon - c1874
• Professor Giovanni Costa - 1878
• The Countess of Brownlow - c1878-9
• The Vestal - c1882-3
• Alexandra Leighton (Mrs Sutherland Orr) - 1890
• And the sea gave up the dead which were in it - c1891-2

Other works by Leighton in the collection include:

• 5 albums and sketchbooks of drawings and water colours.
• 27 water colours.
• 54 prints of Leighton's works.
• 14 items of personal material including documents, personal mementos, embroideries, enamels and caricatures.
• Several small scale sculptures including: Athlete Strangling a Python 1874 & Needless Alarms 1887.

Works in the collection not by Leighton include:

• Antonio Rossellino
  Antonio Rossellino
  Antonio Gamberelli , nicknamed Antonio Rossellino for the colour of his hair, was an Italian sculptor. His older brother, from whom he received his formal training, was the painter Bernardo Rossellino....
  
  's carved and coloured relief
  Relief
  Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
  
  : Madonna of the Candleabra, which had been in Leighton's collection, sold after his death and re-acquired by the Museum in 2006.
• G.F. Watts portrait of Frederic Leighton.
• Luke Fildes
  Luke Fildes
  Sir Samuel Luke Fildes RA was an English painter and illustrator born at Liverpool and trained in the South Kensington and Royal Academy schools....
  
   Still Life & Study for 'The Widower'.
• Sir Alfred Gilbert
  Alfred Gilbert
  Sir Alfred Gilbert was an English sculptor and goldsmith who enthusiastically experimented with metallurgical innovations...
  
   original sketch model for Eros.

The house's pseudo-Islamic court has featured as a set in various film and television programs, such as Nicholas Nickleby

Nicholas Nickleby (2002 film)

Nicholas Nickleby is a 2002 comedy-drama film written and directed by Douglas McGrath. The screenplay is based on The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens, which originally was published in serial form between March 1838 and September 1839.-Plot:In a prologue we are...

(2002), Brazil

Brazil (film)

Brazil is a 1985 British science fiction fantasy/black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam. It was written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard and stars Jonathan Pryce. The film also features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm...

, and an episode of the British television

British television

Public television broadcasting started in the United Kingdom in 1936, and now has a collection of free and subscription services over a variety of distribution media, through which there are over 480 channelsTaking the base Sky EPG TV Channels. A breakdown is impossible due to a) the number of...

 drama series Spooks

Spooks

Spooks is a British television drama series that originally aired on BBC One from 13 May 2002 – 23 October 2011, consisting of 10 series. The title is a popular colloquialism for spies, as the series follows the work of a group of MI5 officers based at the service's Thames House headquarters, in a...

, as well as the music video

Music video

A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...

 for the songs "Golden Brown

Golden Brown

"Golden Brown" is a song by the English rock band The Stranglers. It was released as a 7" single in December 1981 in the US and in January 1982 in the UK, on Liberty...

" by The Stranglers

The Stranglers

The Stranglers are an English punk/rock music group.Scoring some 23 UK top 40 singles and 17 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are the longest-surviving and most "continuously successful" band to have originated in the UK punk scene of the mid to late 1970s...

 and "Gold" by Spandau Ballet

Spandau Ballet

Spandau Ballet are a British band formed in London in the late 1970s. Initially inspired by, and an integral part of, the New Romantic fashion, their music has featured a mixture of funk, jazz, soul and synthpop. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s, achieving ten Top Ten singles...

.

External links

• Museum website
• Information from the 24 Hour Museum
  24 Hour Museum
  Culture24, originally the 24 Hour Museum, is a British charity which publishes two websites, Culture24 and Show Me, about visual culture and heritage in the United Kingdom, as well as supplying data and support services to other cultural websites including Engaging Places.It operates independently,...