Ghost Objects: Summoning Leighton's Lost Collection

Four missing objects from Leighton's original collection reappear in this exhibition as life-size paper sculptures, created by celebrated international artist, Annemarieke Kloosterhof.  Reimagining the presence of these long-lost treasures, the works are intricately handcrafted in white paper, featuring hand-cut details and using techniques like layering, embossing and sculpting. 

 A 15th-century carved and gilt Italian tabernacle shrine attributed to sculptor Domenico di Paris and acquired by Leighton in 1886 to go on display in his studio. Annemarieke has painstakingly recreated every detail of the shrine out of individual pieces of white paper, producing over 8,000 cut-out elements, intricate embellishments, and delicate folds, making this the largest and most detailed piece she has ever made.

 An ebonised klismos chair and matching stool, seen in several of Leighton’s paintings,  refers to his fascination for the classical world and displays many of the characteristics of the fashionable art-furniture of the 1880s.  With no surviving photographs of the chair, Annemarieke worked backward by measuring the Silk Room and consulting historic paintings depicting the object in situ, in order to authentically recreate it.

 A Northern Italian ebony cabinet,  formerly in Leighton House’s drawing room. The piece sits at the heart of an ongoing mystery about the dating and attribution of Italian cabinets: is it a 17th-century treasure or a masterful 19th-century homage? The contemporary paper recreation includes openable doors and is made of varying thickness of paper, resulting in different shades of white that highlight the details in the intricately engraved ivory and equestrian figures.

 A distinctive brass jardiniere, long believed to be Indian and now thought to be a hybrid Anglo-Indian object likely created for Western decorative tastes, remains an enigma as no comparable example has been identified. Annemarieke Kloosterhof’s paper recreation, on display near the striking historic staircase,  reaches over three meters high and includes a palm tree rising from the jardinière and features a papier-mâché base made from recycled paper cutoffs from the other three artefacts.