The 'New Old School': Furnishing with Antiques in the Modern Interior--Frederic, Lord Leighton's Studio-House and Its Collections

Abstract

From its very inception, the distinctive studio-house of Lord Frederic Leighton (1830–96) was a repository for his collections, which provided the ‘biographical interest’ in these unique spaces; he belongs to a generation of ‘bric-a-brac hunters’ for whom collecting was a means of forging a reputation for originality and refinement. Leighton's practice as a collector, his desire for the ‘material old’ and the ‘true antique’ are framed here within the aesthetic cult of individuality. With the loss of his ‘treasures’ following the sale of Leighton's effects in July 1896, the artist's presence has been lost and his reputation as a connoisseur obscured. This loss has also concealed Leighton's position in forging the taste for furnishing with antiques, that, as a critique of industrialization and commercialization, has been positioned by Stefan Muthesius as a sign of ‘modernity’. Leighton was not alone in privileging antique furniture over modern; contemporary commentators lionized Dante Gabriel Rossetti as the progenitor of the new taste for the ‘authentic’ old. Such claims demonstrate the important position held by artists in setting the parameters of taste. This analysis explains Leighton's aesthetic strategy, as he used antiques to fashion a modern interior, drawing on their forms and styles, as well as historical and personal associations, to construct his persona. For Leighton, beauty was experienced through the ‘arresting artefact’, sumptuous textiles or lavish porcelains, objets d’art used to enhance experience, enabling the aesthete to ‘live in the moment’. It is argued here that Leighton positioned himself as an amateur de curiosité, the décorateur or metteur-en-scène and the inventor of interiors. Leighton's interiors would be conducive to reflection, a harmonious synaesthesia instilling a sense of repose, a beautiful urban idyll. Using Leighton's interiors as a case study also allows a consideration of the synergies and dislocations between contemporary advice literature and social praxis.

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