Flaming June is arguably the most recognisable painting associated with Frederic Leighton today. Created in 1895, it presents a sleeping woman curled within a near-square composition, her brilliant orange dress becoming the dominant visual element.

The painting's power comes partly from its extraordinary formal control. The figure is arranged within a strong geometric structure, while the intense orange fabric contrasts with the blue-green world beyond the balustrade. The Met notes that Leighton conceived the composition around elementary geometric forms, using the circular shape of the figure within the square format of the canvas.

The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895 and was well received. It is now part of the collection of the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico.

Leighton's Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna Carried in Procession Through the Streets of Florence was the work that secured his early fame. The Victoria and Albert Museum notes that the painting was bought by Queen Victoria after it was shown at the Royal Academy in 1855.

The subject imagines a celebrated moment in the history of Italian painting: Cimabue's Madonna being carried through Florence. Leighton filled the scene with historical figures, architectural detail, rich textiles and a carefully constructed procession.

The painting demonstrates why Leighton became associated with historical painting. He was not simply reproducing an old scene; he was constructing an immersive vision of the Renaissance past through an exceptionally controlled academic technique.

Captive Andromache is one of Leighton's most ambitious Homeric compositions. It depicts Andromache, widow of Hector, after the fall of Troy, as she sits apart while the new order established after the Trojan War unfolds around her.

The enormous horizontal composition gives the subject an almost theatrical scale. Architecture, repeated figures and controlled movement create a sense of ritual and social hierarchy, while Andromache's isolation gives the scene its emotional focus.

The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1888 and was purchased by Manchester Art Gallery in 1899. The extensive surviving preparatory drawings demonstrate the methodical process Leighton used to develop the final composition.

Greek Girls Picking up Pebbles by the Sea is one of Leighton's most admired early mature works. It combines a classicalised subject with the atmosphere of a contemporary seaside scene.

The women, drapery, rocks and sea are arranged with unusual attention to colour and surface. The work demonstrates Leighton's interest in classical antiquity while also showing his ability to create a modern sense of leisure and beauty.

Leighton House records the painting as a 1871 work and has exhibited it as part of the Pérez Simón Collection. The painting is particularly useful for understanding how Leighton blended historical and classical references with the visual pleasures of Victorian aestheticism.

Lachrymae is one of Leighton's major late paintings. The Latin title refers to tears, and the composition is structured around a woman in dark robes standing beside a memorial, with a withered wreath and cypress reinforcing the theme of mourning.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art identifies the cypress as a symbol of mourning and immortality. The strongly vertical composition is reinforced by the monumental frame, which Leighton designed himself.

Its mood contrasts dramatically with the radiant sensuality of Flaming June. Seen together, the two works demonstrate the range of Leighton's late art: one luminous and sensuous, the other sombre, solemn and contemplative.

The Garden of the Hesperides transforms Greek mythology into a highly decorative Victorian image. The Hesperides were associated with the garden containing the golden apples of Hera, guarded by the dragon Ladon.

The subject allowed Leighton to combine mythology, female figures, ornamental pattern and a carefully controlled decorative surface. Rather than treating classical mythology as a simple narrative, he used it as a framework for exploring beauty, colour and form.

The circular composition further emphasises the work's decorative character, making it an especially strong example of Leighton's late interest in the relationship between painting and design.

The Bath of Psyche is a celebrated mythological figure painting in which Leighton turns the story of Psyche into an opportunity for studying the human body, architecture, light and decorative surface.

The elongated format concentrates attention on the central figure and the carefully arranged architectural setting. Drapery, marble and flesh are treated as contrasting materials, allowing Leighton to demonstrate his exceptional command of surface and texture.

The painting is part of the Tate collection and is an important example of Leighton's late classical aesthetic.

Music Lesson shows another side of Leighton's art. Instead of a vast historical procession or a single monumental figure, he creates an intimate decorative interior in which music, clothing, furniture and architecture contribute to the composition.

The work demonstrates the importance of pattern and design in Leighton's painting. The figures are integrated into their surroundings rather than treated simply as isolated portraits.

This combination of music, decorative objects and idealised beauty is characteristic of the broader Aesthetic interest in the idea of art as an experience of beauty.

Daedalus and Icarus allowed Leighton to explore one of the most famous stories of Greek mythology: the inventor Daedalus preparing wings for his son Icarus.

The subject was particularly suited to Leighton's interest in the human body and classical form. The relationship between the older and younger figures introduces a psychological dimension, while the wings create a strong visual metaphor for both ingenuity and impending danger.

It is an important example of Leighton's long-running engagement with Greek mythology, which remained central to his art throughout his career.

Perseus and Andromeda is another major late mythological composition. Leighton's treatment of the story demonstrates his continuing interest in dramatic classical narratives and idealised human form.

The painting belongs to the same broader imaginative world as his other mythological works, but its subject allows him to introduce a stronger sense of action and heroic intervention.

It also illustrates how frequently Leighton returned to classical mythology as a source of visual problems involving movement, anatomy, drapery, landscape and narrative.

The Arts of Industry as Applied to War is one of Leighton's important contributions to monumental public art. Created for the South Court of what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum, it represents a group of noblemen and servants preparing for battle.

The V&A explains that Leighton employed a complex multi-stage fresco process involving sketches, cartoons and enlarged designs. The work combines Renaissance-inspired armour, banners and architectural references with a deep red-and-blue palette influenced by Venetian masters.

Its companion, The Arts of Industry as Applied to Peace, was completed later and shifts the visual setting from Renaissance Italy toward Classical Greece.

The Arts of Industry as Applied to Peace celebrates craftsmanship rather than military action. The V&A describes a classical setting in which labourers unload decorated vases and carpets from a barge while elegantly dressed figures occupy the scene.

The work is particularly revealing because it anticipates the Aesthetic Movement's interest in beauty and decorative experience. Its purpose is less about telling a conventional historical story than about presenting an idealised world in which art, craftsmanship and beauty are integrated.