After more than a century as a museum, one of the capital’s best-kept secrets, is open to the public following a refurbishment which has restored the ambience it boasted when Leighton died there in his simple bedroom in 1896.
It’s been a painstaking task. Floors and walls have been stripped; original decorative schemes have been painstakingly researched and reinstated. Furniture, paintings and objet d’art have been tracked down and either borrowed, bought or reproduced.
On the edge of Holland Park in Kensington, the house is one of the most remarkable buildings of the 19th century. The most perfect setting to see a most remarkable artist….. Marquis Toliver . On October 28 and November 25, artist and curator Hassan Hajjaj invites established and up-and-coming musical talent to perform live sessions as part of the Nour Festival.
The house was the former home and studio of the leading Victorian artist, Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-1896). Built to designs by George Aitchison, it was extended and embellished over a period of 30 years to create a private palace of art.
Leighton was a man of means and varied tastes. A gentleman traveller with a penchant for North Africa and the Middle East, he was a voracious collector of artistic bric-a-brac. He had an eye for everything from contemporary sculpture and finely bound books to Chinoiserie and Persian rugs. His ever-expanding house soon became the talk of Victorian London.
Its centrepiece was, and remains, the Arab Hall. Leighton created it, like all of the house’s extensions, with his architect and friend George Aitchison to accommodate his growing collection of Persian tiles and glasswork. Like the rest of the house, it’s a heady concoction.
The Arab Hall is the centerpiece of the house. Designed to display Leighton’s priceless collection of over a thousand Islamic tiles, mostly brought back from Damascus in Syria, the interior evokes a compelling vision of the Orient.
The opulence continues through the other richly decorated interiors, with gilded ceilings and walls lined with peacock blue tiles by the ceramic artist William De Morgan. On the first floor is Leighton’s grand painting studio with its great north window, dome and apse.
Nour Festival of Arts: October-December 2010
The word Nour, which translates as ‘illumination’ or ‘light’ in many Middle Eastern languages, is an appropriate title for this showcasing of contemporary arts and culture from the Middle East and North Africa. Fine art exhibitions, film screenings, literary readings and musical concerts.