Artists & Neighbours: The Holland Park Circle – Leighton House, London (LAST CHANCE TO SEE)

Leighton House’s reopening exhibition helps to resituate it within a community of artists – The Holland Park Circle.

A Welcome Return To Leighton House

I had not been to Leighton House for a number of years, and have never written about it on the Salterton Arts Review. West London always seems like a bit of an expedition to me (living in South East London), so it takes a special exhibition or event to get me over there. Only having a couple of weeks left to see Leighton House’s reopening exhibition was just such an occasion.

Leighton House was built for Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-96). You may have heard of him, or you may not, but the point is that he was a notable Victorian artist. As such, his popularity fell when Victoriana became less fashionable, but has revived somewhat in more recent times. So too have the fortunes of Leighton House risen and fallen.

Leighton acquired a plot in 1864 and began to make plans with architect George Aitcheson for a home and studio. Over many years the house was further extended, making room for more working space and also for decorative arts collected by Leighton on his travels. Leighton’s possessions were dispersed after he died in 1896, but the house itself soon opened as a museum. It has belonged to the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea since the 1920s, and has changed substantially over the years. After many years as more of a general local museum, it was restored closer to its appearance as Leighton’s home in 2008-10, and has recently undergone another extensive renovation. Leighton House today has brand new, accessible visitor facilities, and is even closer to its original appearance.

Artists & Neighbours: The Holland Park Circle (Part I)

It wasn’t just Leighton who had a home and studio near Holland Park, however. George Frederic Watts was the trailblazer around here, with Leighton hot on his heels. Many more followed, attracted by the possibilities that living near such prominent artists entailed. Firstly, having an address in an area associated with art and artists came with its own cachet. But if one was able to mingle with Leighton, Watts and others, perhaps that would also open doors in its own right…?

In the last few years Leighton House has expanded its collection of works by artists in the Holland Park Circle. The first temporary exhibition since reopening shows off some of these works, as well as a handful of supplementary loans. The exhibition, in a single room, does a good job of bringing to life this artistic and social circle. Artists are represented by a couple of works, with biographical information covering the broad outlines of their careers, reception, and time in Holland Park.

Some of the names may be known to visitors, including Leighton, Watts, or Solomon J. Solomon (not a household name, but I’ve seen his work in Pre-Raphaelite exhibitions). Many of the artists I hadn’t heard of were Royal Academicians. So they were successful and well renowned in their time, but have suffered from that same lack of popularity for Victorian academic style and sentimental subjects. Even today when appreciation for such things is not at its lowest ebb, some of the works on view are rather fussy and formal for modern tastes.

Artists & Neighbours: The Holland Park Circle (Part II)

I don’t want that to give you the impression, however, that I didn’t like the exhibition. I actually rather like a Victorian painting. Maybe it’s the historian in me, but I often like artworks as much for what they tell us about their time as for their intrinsic qualities. I feel the same about the collection at the Guildhall Art Gallery, which is heavy on Victorians. You can learn a lot about their preoccupations, moral codes, and society. Individual works give glimpses into the lives of artists and their family relationships. And in this case, the interconnectedness of the works tells an additional, fascinating story.

With so many artists living within a few blocks of each other, it’s little wonder their lives and work entwined. With a limited selection of paintings, Artists & Neighbours gives a good sense of these connections. We see portraits of one artist by another (eg. Leighton painted by Watts). As well as works by artists who were students of someone living close by. The text panels accompanying each work draw out these connections. They paint a picture (so to speak) of a lively social circle with established artists, social climbers, family workshops and more.

The memory of Holland Park as an artistic hot spot hasn’t necessarily lived on in the way that somewhere like St Ives is still known for drawing artists together. I therefore appreciated this exhibition for bringing this Victorian artistic and social circle back to life. It’s a nice bit of curation and exhibition design, with deep purple walls and strong spotlights making each work sing. If you fancy an excursion to West London this is worth a detour to see.

Out And About In Holland Park

To supplement the new focus on the Holland Park Circle, visitors to Leighton House receive a booklet which presents both the house itself and some notable artists’ houses in the surrounding area. After my visit to Leighton House I followed the trail, reading about each house and the artist(s) who lived there. The surviving houses are very grand. For me it reinforced both that a lot of this social circle came from money already, and that a decent living could be made as a Victorian artist. You can spot the studio spaces with their massive windows in many of the houses. Plus various architectural flourishes, often Gothic.

I’d never walked around these streets before when visiting Leighton House or other destinations in the area (like Opera Holland Park or the Design Museum). The houses are quite charming in their own right, and you can spot more blue plaques dedicated to artists or other notable residents in addition to those in the Leighton House booklet. It helped me to better imagine the artistic families living in close proximity, with garden parties, social calls and students working alongside masters.

The booklet looked to me like it was designed to outlast the temporary exhibition itself, so look out for it if you visit Leighton House in the near future. In my opinion it’s a nice stroll and a way to bring history to life with a little imagination.

Salterton Arts Review’s rating: 3.5/5

Artists & Neighbours: The Holland Park Circle on until 19 March 2023