The Arab Hall

The distinguished Victorian artist and President of the Royal Academy Frederic Leighton was a prominent member of society–he was knighted in 1878, made a baronet in 1886 and given a peerage in 1896. He adored the house he built in Holland Park: it was his home, his studio and his entertaining space. Its construction and decoration were a continuous project on which he lavished attention and money throughout his life.

In this book Melanie Gibson follows the journeys Leighton made to Algeria, Spain, Anatolia, Greece, Egypt, Syria and Sicily to investigate how the impressions and acquisitions that he brought home from these trips were incorporated into his house. His most distinctive creation was the ‘Arab Hall’ a domed room with decoration that included glazed tiles, coloured glass, marble, mosaics and elaborate woodwork. 

Although countless books have been written about Frederic Leighton, no publication has addressed the activities that dominated his life before he became President of the Royal Academy in 1878: his travelling and collecting. While on his travels Leighton gathered up a portfolio of visual impressions as well as buying objects—tiles, dishes, woodwork, textiles and carpets, coloured glass windows—all of which fed into his scheme for what he called his ‘rash and wild project’, but one that marks a significant moment in the history of Orientalist taste and interior design, and which still delights and intrigues today.