Frederic Lord Leighton Part 4

Filmy garments, which have slipped from her shoulders on to the sand; arms folded about her knees; every detail of the picture carries out the effect of dreamy loveliness that pervades Psamathe and her surroundings.

_Iostephane_ is a three-quarter length figure, less than life size, of a girl in light yellow drapery, with violets in her fair hair, who stands facing the spectator and arranging her draperies over her right arm; there are marble columns and a fountain in the background. _The Light of the Harem_ is a version of one of the groups in the fresco of _The Industrial Arts of Peace_ at South Kensington. The picture now known as the _Nymph of the Dargle_ was also exhibited this year under the t.i.tle of _Crenaia_. It represents a small full-length figure facing the spectator; the river Dargle flows through Powerscourt, and forms the waterfall here represented in the background, hence its name.

_Rubinella_, a girl with red gold hair was shown at the Summer Exhibition and a large number of sketches and studies at the Winter Exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery this year.

In 1881, the portrait of the Painter, painted by invitation in 1880 for the collection of autograph portraits of artists in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, deserves particular mention. Not even Mr. Watts' best portrait of Leighton is quite so like as this, which shows the striking head of the artist to great effect, a.s.sisted by the decorative President's robe and insignia. The _Idyll_, shown the same year, has been compared by some critics with the _Cymon and Iphigenia_, the scene and circ.u.mstance of both being to a certain degree similar, while there are similar effects in both of colour and of composition. In the _Idyll_, we have a lovely female figure, lying at full length, attended by a second nymph, and by a piping man, all grouped beneath an arm of a beech tree, that extends overhead and shadows the upland ridge on which they have come to rest, while they gaze on a river winding among sunlit meads. The water reflects the blue and white of sky and clouds; the land is dashed by shadows. The nymphs' robes are red, blue, and pale yellow.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PHRYNE AT ELEUSIS (1882)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DAY DREAMS (1882) _By permission of the Fine Art Society_]

We ought not to overlook another idyllic picture in the same exhibition, _Whispers_, an ill.u.s.tration of Horace's well-known line, "Lenesque sub noctem susurri." In this charming work, amid ma.s.ses of crimson flowers and green leaves, two lovers are seen seated upon a marble bench, while he whispers tenderly in her ear, and she listens with dreamy eyes and maidenly mien. The n.o.ble picture of _Elisha and the Shunamite's Son_ (reproduced at p. 114) was also shown this year, as well as _Bianca_, a fair-haired girl in a white dress, standing with folded arms, _Viola_, and two portraits, _Mrs. Augustus Ralli_, exhibited at the Royal Academy, and _Mrs. Algernon Sartoris_, at the Grosvenor Gallery.

In the 1882 Academy appeared two of the most popular of Sir Frederic's pictures, _Wedded_ and _Day Dreams_. In the latter, a fair Sybarite is pressing her cheek against her hands, as she stands near a tapestry, with eyes gazing far away, the images of love-dreams in them; her purple mantle, embroidered with silver, produces a charming effect of colour.

Still more famous is _Wedded_,--"one of the happiest of Sir Frederic's designs," said a critic at the time, "and as a composition of lines, difficult, subtle, and original, may be called one of the most remarkable productions of this decade." Other pictures shown this year were _Antigone_ and the much-debated _Phryne at Eleusis_--a notable study of the famous hetaira, who is seen standing, and holding out with one hand the ma.s.s of her deep auburn hair. Her skin is of a ruddy golden hue, as if seen under a glow of sunlight. Red tissue, which falls from her shoulders and extended arms, and an olive-coloured mantle that has fallen at the foot of the marble columns behind her, backed by a sky, very characteristic of the painter, in which snowlike ma.s.ses of cloud float in a southern azure, produce a total effect of a certain super-womanly order of beauty. A _Design for a portion of a Proposed Decoration in St. Paul's_, a picture ent.i.tled _Melittion_, and a _Portrait of Mrs. Mocatta_, were also hung at the Academy in 1882; _Zeyra_, a little Eastern child in plum coloured headdress, a rich bit of colour elaborately painted, was shown at the Grosvenor Gallery.

In 1883, _Memories_, though not one of the most typical of Leighton's pictures, decidedly pleased the general public. It shows the half-length figure of a blonde, in a black and gold dress. More interesting artistically was a decorative frieze, _The Dance_, for a drawing-room, the design for which we reproduce, and which may, in so far, answer for itself. Other pictures of 1883 are _Kittens_, a full-length figure of a fair-haired child in purple and embroidered drapery, seated on a bench covered with a leopard skin, holding a rose in hand and looking down at a kitten sitting beside her; and the _Vestal_, a bust of a girl with her head and shoulders swathed with white gold-embroidered draperies. To this year also belongs a _Portrait of Miss Nina Joachim_, a child in a blue frock with crimson sash.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Cymon and Iphigenia._ _By permission of the Fine Art Society._ _F. Leighton. pinxt._ _Swan Electric Engraving Co. Sc._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STUDIES FOR TWO FRIEZES "MUSIC" AND "THE DANCE"]

The next year, 1884, brought _Letty_, that most delightful of English maidens, _A Nap_, _Sun Gleams_, and the imaginative and admirably romantic _Cymon and Iphigenia_. _Letty_ was one of Leighton's pictures which particularly excited Mr. Ruskin's admiration. It shows a simply pretty child, with soft brown hair under a black hat, a saffron kerchief about her neck. The _Letty_ and the _Cymon and Iphigenia_, with a few other notable pictures, did much to leave a pleasant recollection of the exceptional Academy of 1884. "A more original effect of light and colour, used in the broad, true, and ideal treatment of lovely forms,"

said a French critic, "we do not remember to have seen at the Academy, than that produced by the _Cymon and Iphigenia_." Engravings and other reproductions of the picture have made its design, at any rate, almost as familiar now as Boccaccio's tale itself. There are some divergences, however, in the two versions. Boccaccio's tale is a tale of spring; Sir Frederic, the better to carry out his conception of the drowsy desuetude of sleep, and of that sense of pleasant but absolute weariness which one a.s.sociates with the season of hot days and short nights, has changed the spring into that riper summer-time which is on the verge of autumn; and that hour of late sunset which is on the verge of night. Under its rich glow lies the sleeping Iphigenia, draped in folds upon folds of white, and her attendants; while Cymon, who is as unlike the boor of tradition as Spenser's Colin Clout is unlike an ordinary c.u.mbrian herdsman, stands hard-by, wondering, pensively wrapt in so exquisite a vision.

Altogether, a great presentment of an immortal idyll; so treated, indeed, that it becomes much more than a mere reading of Boccaccio, and gives an ideal picture of Sleep itself,--that Sleep which so many artists and poets have tried at one time or another to render.

In 1885, among the five contributions of the President to the Academy, appeared the vivacious portrait of Lord Rosebery's little daughter, _The Lady Sybil Primrose_, who appears in white with a blue sash, carrying a doll. _A Portrait of Mrs. A. Hichens_ and _Phoebe_ were the only other pictures this year. A frieze, _Music_, was shown, and at the Grosvenor Gallery _A Study_ of a fair-haired girl, in green velvet dress. 1886 was chiefly notable for the statue in bronze of _The Sluggard_, in which Leighton again furnished us with a plastic characterization of Sleep, which he designed by way of contrast to his statue of the struggling Athlete. It was suggested, Mr. Spielmann says, by accidental circ.u.mstances. The model who had been sitting to him fell a-yawning in his interval of rest, and charmed the artist, not only with his exceptional beauty of line and play of muscle, but also with the artistic contrast of energy and languor. But that he might not lay himself open to the charge that the work was a glorification of indolence, the sculptor made concession to what after all was an artistic suggestion, and placed under the yawner's foot

"The glorious wreath of laurel leaves Heel trodden and despised."

The graceful statuette of a little girl who is alarmed by a toad on the edge of a pool or stream of water, called _Needless Alarms_, appeared at the same time; and was so much admired by the President's colleague, Sir John Everett Millais, that he wished to purchase it, whereupon Sir Frederic presented it to him, and received, in return, the charming picture of _Sh.e.l.ling Peas_, which Sir John painted specially for this pleasant exchange. In 1886 also appeared the _Decoration in Painting for a Music Room_, destined for New York, which is ill.u.s.trated[7] by the completed work, and its preliminary studies from life for it.

_Gulnihal_, a single figure, is the only other painting exhibited at the Academy in this year.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LAST WATCH OF HERO (1887) _By permission of the Manchester Corporation_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PORTRAIT OF THE LADY SYBIL PRIMROSE (1885)]

In 1887 appeared a picture which seems scarcely to have received its due appreciation, _The Jealousy of Simaetha the Sorceress_. This is a seated figure in yellow and white drapery, with a purple mantle wrapped around her shoulders; a well-wrought, finely-rendered work. _The Last Watch of Hero_, also first seen this year, is now in the Manchester Corporation Gallery. It is in two compartments; in the upper, and larger, Hero, clad in pink drapery, is seen drawing aside a curtain and gazing out over the sea. Below, in the smaller panel, is the body of the dead Leander, on a rock washed by the waves. A quotation from Sir Edwin Arnold's translation of Musaeus was appended to its t.i.tle:

"With aching heart she scanned the sea-face dim.

Lo! at the turret's foot his body lay, Rolled on the stones and washed with breaking spray."

A picture of a little girl with yellow hair and pale blue eyes, ent.i.tled with a verse by Robert Browning:

"Yellow and pale as ripened corn Which Autumn's kiss frees,--grain from sheath,-- Such was her hair, while her eyes beneath Showed Spring's faint violets freshly born,"

was in the same exhibition, and also a design for the reverse of the Jubilee medallion, executed for her Majesty's Government.

In 1888 appeared another large work, which, although not absolutely a procession, has much in common with the _Cimabue_, the _Syracusan Bride_, and _The Daphnephoria_. It was ent.i.tled _Captive Andromache_, and accompanied by a fragment of the "Iliad," translated by E. B.

Browning:

... "Some standing by Marking thy tears fall, shall say, 'This is she, The wife of that same Hector that fought best Of all the Trojans when all fought for Troy.'"

This, and a _Portrait of Amy, Lady Coleridge_, were the artist's only contributions to the Royal Academy of 1888. The _Portraits of the Misses Stewart Hodgson_ is also of this year, which saw four landscape studies exhibited at the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, and five at the Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street.

The _Sibyl_, exhibited in 1889, is a full-length figure swathed in lilac drapery, seated with her legs crossed, on a chair, her chin supported by her left hand, and gazing out of the picture. Beside her are scrolls, and a sombre sky is behind the figure. _Invocation_, a girl in white robes with arms raised above her head, and a _Portrait of Mrs. F.

Lucas_, were also shown; but _Greek Girls playing at Ball_ is not only the most important, but is also a picture that shows the mannerism of Lord Leighton's treatment of drapery at its finest. Elsewhere the undulating snaky coils may be somewhat distressing, here they float in the air and help the suggestion of movement. The landscape at the back is also both typical and beautiful. An _Elegy_ was the fifth of the artist's contributions to the Academy of 1889.

In 1890 _The Bath of Psyche_ appeared at the Academy. This at once established its position as a popular favourite, and has probably been more widely reproduced than any other. It was purchased under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest, and is now in the Tate Gallery. It was suggested, so Mr. M. H. Spielmann tells us, by the "paper-knife"

picture, as Lord Leighton called it, which he had painted for Sir L.

Alma-Tadema's wall screen. _Solitude_ was also shown this year, and the _Tragic Poetess_, a full-length figure, clad in blue and purple drapery, on a terrace, with the sea beyond. The fourth picture at the Academy was a very faithfully painted transcript of _The Arab Hall_, at No. 2, Holland Park Road.

[Ill.u.s.tration: GREEK GIRLS PLAYING AT BALL (1889) _By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BATH OF PSYCHE (1890) _By permission of the Berlin Photographic Co._]

In 1891 appeared _Perseus and Andromeda_, a very original version of a theme which it seems the destiny of every painter and sculptor of cla.s.sical subjects to attempt at some time. In this Andromeda is bound to a rock, the monster stands over her with outstretched wings, while from the clouds above, Perseus, on his winged steed, is discharging arrows. The clay models for Perseus are reproduced elsewhere (at p. 68).

The _Return of Persephone_ was another important work shown this year.

It represents Persephone, supported by Hermes, being brought back to the upper world, where she is awaited with outstretched arms by Demeter. A _Portrait of A. B. Mitford, Esq._, and a marble version of the _Athlete Struggling with a Python_, were also shown in the same exhibition.

In 1892 a version of a panel of the proposed decoration for the dome of St. Paul's appeared with the t.i.tle, _And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it_; this, purchased by Mr. Henry Tate, is now among the pictures he gave to the Gallery at Millbank. The most important of Leighton's later works, _The Garden of the Hesperides_, in many respects the most sumptuous piece of decoration he ever achieved, was shown this year. It is a large circular picture, the centre occupied by a tree bearing golden apples; under its branches recline the three Hesperides, caressing the dragon who a.s.sists them to guard the treasure. A superbly brilliant sea is in the distance. The charm of this picture is mainly in its colour, but as an example of elaborately artificial composition it is hardly less noteworthy. Unfortunately, despite every effort of Lord Leighton, most kindly exerted on behalf of the editor of this volume, the owners of the copyright refused under any condition to allow it to be ill.u.s.trated herein. _A Bacchante_, and _At the Fountain_, a girl in fawn-coloured and violet draperies, with a bunch of lemons overhanging the marble wall behind her, were shown this year; and also a _Clytie_, which must not be confused with another known by the same t.i.tle, the last picture on which the artist was at work before his death. The 1892 version, shown in the retrospective exhibition, is thus described in its catalogue: "A small figure of Clytie is seen on the right, kneeling on a stone building with arms outstretched towards the sun, which is setting behind a range of moorland hills."

In 1893 _Hit_, _The Frigidarium_, _Farewell_, _Corinna of Tanagra_, and _Rizpah_ were exhibited at the Academy. Of these the most important is the last named. It ill.u.s.trates the story of the two sons of Rizpah, by Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, who were slain by the Gideonites. Rizpah, robed in dark blue, is seen in the act of fetching away their bodies, which are shrouded by dull lilac and blue draperies. Vultures circle above, and two leopards approach stealthily. _Farewell_ is a single figure in olive green and plum-coloured peplis under a portico above the sea, where she pauses to take a last look at an outward-bound ship.

_Atalanta_ depicts the bust only of a dark-haired girl in purple and white drapery, with a snake-like ornament twisted round her arm, which is bare to the shoulder. _Corinna of Tanagra_ is a half-length figure crowned with leaves, in coloured drapery, resting her clasped hands upon her lyre. _The Frigidarium_ is an upright figure in semi-transparent red drapery, which with the background of gold is reflected in the water beneath her feet.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FAREWELL (1893) _By permission of Messrs. Arthur Tooth and Sons_]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "AND THE SEA GAVE UP THE DEAD WHICH WERE IN IT."--REV.

XX. 13 (1892)]

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE FRIGIDARIUM (1893) _By permission of Messrs. H. Graves and Co._]

In 1894 were shown _The Spirit of the Summit_, a white-robed figure with upturned face, sitting on a snowy peak, with starlit sky beyond; _The Bracelet_; _Fatidica_, a figure in green-white robes; _At the Window_, a dark-haired boy in blue, looking over the ledge of a window; and _Summer Slumber_. This last is a somewhat elaborate composition; a girl in salmon colour draperies is lying asleep on the broad rim of a marble fountain, ma.s.ses of flowers are in the mid distance, and a vista of sunny landscape through the open window beyond.