“Leighton’s Flaming June”

An associate of the Pre-Raphaelites, British artist Sir Frederic Leighton (1830–1896) favored classical and biblical allegories, but his true metier, perhaps, lays in the portrayal of female subjects. Near the end of his career, he drifted away from allegorical subjects to embrace the Modernist philosophy of “art for art’s sake.” His late masterpiece, Flaming June, was painted the year before his death, and its depiction of a sleeping nymph, curled up in a diaphanous bright-orange gown, is almost a pure color study. Returning to New York for the first time in 35 years, the painting is presented alongside four full-length portraits from the Frick’s collection by Leighton's contemporary, James McNeill Whistler.