Year 12s appreciate 'art for art's sake'

During the final week of the Spring Term, our Year 12 students of English Literature enjoyed a visit to the Leighton House Museum in Holland Park. Leighton House was the artistic haven of renowned painter and sculptor Frederic Leighton (1830-1896), President of the Royal Academy and champion of different movements in Victorian art. The academic context of our visit was our A Level study of Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Picture Of Dorian Gray (1891), a text which explores the Aesthetic Movement and its notion of art for art's sake. 

We began our visit with a picnic lunch, enjoying the serene atmosphere of the house's grounds. Students then explored the house itself, including Leighton's stunning Arab Hall and magnificent studio. Savouring the artist's meticulous creation of a beautiful and harmonious environment, we reflected on how the house's opulent interiors and artwork, such as "A Girl with a Basket of Fruit" (1863) and "Eurydice to Orpheus" (1864), link with Wilde's evocation of the Aesthetic Movement in the novel.

Leading us through Narcissus Hall, the senior curator who conducted our tour offered fascinating insights into the discrepancy between the performative nature of Leighton's public life and the obscure privacy of his personal life; we were reminded of existential questions posed in The Picture Of Dorian Gray about the relationship of selfhood to art. All in all, the combination of April sunshine, art and literature made for a truly memorable day.