A woman sleeps curled up on a marble bench, wrapped in glowing orange fabric so fine it seems transparent. Behind her, the sea glitters in summer heat.

Frederic Leighton was one of the most celebrated artists of Victorian Britain. But by the 1960s, Victorian painting had gone out of fashion, and according to a popular story, Flaming June failed to sell at auction even at a tiny price. It was bought by the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico, where it still hangs.

Look at the branch in the top-right corner: it's oleander, a beautiful flowering plant that is also highly poisonous — a hint, some say, of the thin line between sleep and death.