Flaming June is famous for its blaze of orange and for how close it came to being lost. Frederic Leighton painted the sleeping woman in 1895, the year before he died. Then the picture vanished for decades, and when it came back, almost nobody wanted it.
Today it belongs to the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico, and it has drawn crowds at the Prado, the Frick Collection and the Royal Academy. Its fans call it the Mona Lisa of the Southern Hemisphere.
Cool Stories About Art is a newsletter to learn art the fun way.
Join 200,000+ readers and get:
10 new art stories / month
The entire archive of content (1,000+ articles)
Comment, ask questions, and chat with other readers
The odd part is how it was found. In 1962, builders working on a house on Clapham Common, in south London, came across the canvas behind panelling over a fireplace, according to local historians. They had no use for the picture. They thought the frame might be worth something, so they carried it to an art and framing shop on Battersea Rise.
The painting sold for £60. The frame was judged to be worth more. In 1895, the owner of a London magazine had paid just over £1,000 for the same canvas. Sixty-seven years later, it was an afterthought with a good frame.
So how does a picture that cheap end up in the world's great museums? I don't think the color explains it. The answer starts with a pose that Leighton did not invent.
What You'll Discover
Where her pose was borrowed.
Who really posed for her.
What Leighton painted out.
Where it hid for thirty years.
Who finally rescued it.