🖌️🎨Frederic Leighton's 🖼️"Burning June"

 Frederic Leighton's most famous painting, Burning June (1895), was inspired by his model, who one day simply fell asleep in his studio. The artist was amazed by the flexibility of the body and the intricate pose that the girl took without experiencing discomfort.

Working on the model's pose presented some difficulties for Leighton. The girl's left hand was given to him with particular difficulty. It took at least five sketches to ensure that all the details interacted harmoniously, and the model on the canvas would finally take the desired position. It is curious that in four of the five preliminary sketches the girl appears naked, and only in the last one does the master “drape” the model. Most likely, Leighton, with the help of nudity, tried to achieve maximum accuracy in conveying an intricate, but at the same time relaxed pose.

The theme of sleep has excited artists for many centuries and was especially revealed in the Victorian era. Sleep, and especially a girl’s dream, was given a special romanticism and attractiveness. Images of sleeping girls were found in almost every artist of that time, be it the Sleeping Beauty or the dozing Ariadne. But only Leighton managed to capture the dream in such a way that it became recognizable to everyone, to put into it all his understanding of modern art and the works of old masters, to combine mathematical precision and lyrical harmony.

Behind the image of a girl sleeping in a blazing sunset and wearing a fiery tunic is a real woman. This could be Dorothy Dene or Mary Lloyd - two of Layton's favorite models, but researchers have not yet determined which of them belongs to the heroine's face.

In the 1990s, interest in Victorian art increased significantly, and the painting traveled around the world participating in exhibitions. In 2017, for the first time in 85 years, Burning June was returned to the place where it was written by the author: the Leighton House Museum in London.