Flaming June

 

 

Frederic Leighton, (Scarborough, 3 dicember 1830 – London, 25 january 1896)
"Flaming June", 1895, oil on canvas
Museo de Arte de Ponce, Ponce, Puerto Rico

 

If you like Flaming June, what do you like? At a guess, the exquisitely sensitive painting of the gauze shift, its gossamer transparencies and rippling folds; the elegantly curled up pose of the sleeping woman, configured into a rounded, rose-like form; the orange glow that envelops her, radiating from her dress into the reddish tints of her arms and cheeks; the overall feeling of irresistible dreamy languor, on a sultry evening, on the shores of the ancient Med.