Flaming June

Flaming June, painted by Lord Frederic Leighton in 1895, is perhaps the most famous work of the great Victorian artist and his swan song, considering that around that time, Leighton began to suffer from heart problems that led to his death on January 25, 1896, at the age of only 65.

The model immersed in a warm, golden sleep is believed to be Dorothy Dene, the painter’s muse and lover. There was no happy ending for Dorothy either: her last portrait, where she appears as Clytie—the unfortunate nymph described by Ovid—was placed in Lord Leighton’s coffin, almost foretelling her sad fate. Dorothy Dene died in 1899, at the age of only 39.

After nearly seventy years of obscurity, Flaming June resurfaced in London and was purchased in 1963 by a small antique dealer on Fulham Road for £50, then immediately resold by the gallery owner Jeremy Maas to the patron Don Luis Alberto Ferré for £2000. This very piece, which is worth millions of euros today, is the most prestigious item in the collections of the Museo de Arte de Ponce, founded by the future governor of Puerto Rico in 1957.