Frederic Leighton – A Victorian Traveller and Collector in the Middle East
Speaker: Dr Melanie Gibson
Before becoming President of London’s Royal Academy in 1878, the artist Frederic Leighton made several trips to countries around the southern Mediterranean including southern Spain, Egypt, Turkey and Syria. In this talk I will discuss his growing interest in Islamic architecture and design, and look at how he started to build a collection of ceramics, buying in the cities he visited, as well as more locally in Paris and London. An important source of information on his collection were the loans he made to the Burlington Fine Arts Club for the 1885 exhibition of ‘Persian and Arab Art’. His collection was entirely dispersed after his death but I have been able to identify a number of pieces that once belonged to him, some of which ended up in museums like the Victoria and Albert and the Louvre.
Members do not need to book to attend this lecture.
5:30 pm – Society of Antiquaries opens for members’ refreshments
6:15 pm – Lecture begins
Venue Accessibility Information
The Society of Antiquaries welcomes wheelchairs and mobility vehicles however since the main entrance consists of steps they will provide a ramp. Essential companions are also welcome and Hearing Loops are built into the Lecture Room AV system. There are no designated disabled toilets but toilets are located on the ground floor.
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Image: The Drawing Room in Leighton House. Bedford Lemere & Co. 1895.
Speaker
Dr Melanie GibsonEditor of the Gingko Art History SeriesMelanie Gibson is Editor of the Art History Series at GINGKO and a trustee of The Friends of Leighton House. Her academic research has largely focused on the ceramics of the Islamic world and most recently on the impact of Islamic design in Britain in the nineteenth century. Over the last two years Melanie has focused on the Arab Hall at Leighton House, an extravagant extension made by the Victorian artist Frederic Leighton to his studio house in London. In her recently-published book: The Arab Hall — Frederic Leighton, Traveller and Collector, she has explored the nature and extent of Leighton’s travels around the southern Mediterranean, how the impressions and acquisitions that he made on these trips were incorporated into his house and how the Victorian public reacted to what was called ‘the most beautiful room in London’. Melanie has also co-curated an exhibition, The Arab Hall: Past and Present, that opened at Leighton House on 21 March 2026.
