WHS STUDIO ART

"Tangerine Tango",  Pantone's official Color of the Year for 2012. 

This deep-red orange hue welcomes the warmth and energy we need to make this new year an amazing one!“Flaming June” was a well-loved painting long before Pantone decided that tangerine was the “color of the year,” but we’ll take any excuse to bring this masterpiece back to the fore!

Flaming June, c.1895
By Frederic Leighton

Though the artist, Frederic Leighton, was only loosely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, “Flaming June,” is one of the paintings most often associated with the movement. Leighton (1830 – 1896) was born to a family in the import and export business in Scarborough, England. He was educated in London, studied art in Italy, and then moved to Paris in 1855. While there, he associated with artists like Delacroix, Ingres, and Millet, and adopted romantic and realist touches in his works.

It wasn’t until 1860, when he moved to London, that he became associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. The brotherhood had been founded in 1848, and their aim was to reject the Classical poses and elegant compositions of the Mannerist movement, and to work toward expressing genuine ideas, study nature directly, and depict the things they deemed to be “serious” or “heartfelt.” Leighton’s subjects were mostly historical, biblical, and classical, and the woman in this print alludes to the nymphs and naiads of classical Greek art, while the oleander branch in the top right alludes to the link between sleep and death.