The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton Volume I Part 27

STEINLE AND ITALY AGAIN--FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE EAST, 1856-1858

In Mr. Henry Greville's diary we find the following entry:--

_Thursday, July 24th, 1856._

Went on Monday to Hatchford with Leighton, and pa.s.sed all Tuesday with him and Mrs. Sartoris on St. George's Hills. The day was enchanting, and the Hills in their greatest beauty.

Before leaving London in 1856 Leighton wrote to his mother:--

LONDON, _Wednesday, 1856_.

As my stay in London is drawing to a close, and n.o.body writes to me, I must write to somebody. I am happy to say (for I know it will interest you) that my "Pan" and "Venus" are admired as much as I could wish, so that I am not without hopes of selling one of them at Manchester. Gibson was quite delighted with them; I am, however, bound to say he knows nothing about it. The sketches of my "Orpheus" I have sold to White for 25, which comes "unkimmon" handy, as this place is ruinous. I have made the acquaintance of Rossetti, one of the originators of the pre-Raphaelite movement. He is apparently a remarkably agreeable and interesting man. Hunt also I like much. My plans are these: on Monday next I leave London, and shall spend a small week between the Cartwrights and (perhaps) the Grotes, after which on or before the 12th I shall be with you in Bath, where I shall remain until the 16th, on which day I shall come up by the early train to town, where I shall meet H. Greville, stay long enough to get my pa.s.sport in order, and then be off double quick to Italy. I am longing to get to work again; I am doing nothing whatever except Henry's dog, which takes up what little time I have. Will you tell Papa that I went to the shop he recommended, and got a splendid Shakespeare ready bound in eight volumes for three guineas!

From Bath he wrote to Steinle:--

_Translation._]

9 CIRCUS, BATH, _August 2, 1856_.

MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--In about ten days I expect, on my way to Italy, whither I go on a short student journey, to pa.s.s through Frankfurt or Cologne, according as you are in one or the other, exclusively in order to take my dear master once more by the hand; and if you are at the moment in Frankfurt, I might even spend two or three days in the old Bokaga, and even draw a composition as in the old times. Do, dear friend, send me a line by return of post in order that I may make arrangements.

The rest verbally--I have sadly forgotten my German.

Hoping to meet very soon, dear master.--Think of your pupil,

FRED LEIGHTON.

_Translation._]

BATH. 9 CIRCUS (_later_).

MY VERY DEAR MASTER,--I have just received your dear lines, and hasten to say that nothing could be more delightful to me than to travel with you again, if only for a few days.

I had intended to go _via_ Milan for the sake of quickness, but I will go direct through the Tyrol to Venice.

If all goes well, I will arrive in Frankfurt on the 23rd of this month; does that fit in with your plans?

How delighted I am to see you again, my good Master!

To our speedy meeting!--Your grateful pupil,

FRED LEIGHTON.

Leighton had felt his failure keenly, though, with his usual consideration, he had tried to lessen the disadvantages of it in writing to his mother. The friend who enjoyed constant intercourse with him at the Bagni de Lucca in 1854 wrote at the time of his death: "Leighton longed for and desired success; but only in so far as he deserved it. When he was sharply checked in his upward career, he accepted the rebuke with humility, for he was a modest man." Mrs.

Browning writes to Mrs. Jameson, May 6, 1896, from Paris: "Leighton has been cut up unmercifully by the critics, but bears on, Robert says, not without courage. That you should say his picture looked well, was comfort in the general gloom." Though those critics who were spokesmen for the envious among the artists seemed to revel in Leighton's disaster, he had many friends who took perhaps a too favourable view of the unfortunate picture. But neither excess of abusive ridicule, nor a too favourable view taken by intimate friends, could unduly influence Leighton himself--Leighton the actualist. He had a firm faith that in the _actual_ it is man's lot to find the true and the really helpful. These words of his master, Steinle's, written to him in 1853, doubtless recurred to him, and he felt he must return to the Eternal City to be reinspired after his fall:--

I would rather remember that you will receive these lines in the Eternal City, that you are with our friend Rico, and that you are settling to work with renewed vitality and a pocketful of studies. In Cornelius, besides much that is stubborn, you will find so much that is admirable, and so much truly artistic greatness, that you will soon love him, for he is also of a truly childlike disposition, and much too good for Berlin, for which reason he has left the place. You lucky men who have crossed the Tiber--the Vatican of St. Peter, the Courts of St. Onofrio, the Villa Pamfili--where in the world is there anything like them? Where is there a town in which every stone has greater, more splendid things to tell us of every period? Where is there a place where the artist could soar higher than in Rome? Forget that you are practically in an island, and study your Rome; it is invaluable for one's whole life, which is otherwise so commonplace and so small.

Your youth and courage--"the sparrow among the beans" ("Triton among the minnows")--need not be injured thereby; but, dear friend, you must become a man, and there is nothing great in the world that has been achieved except by taking pains.

Addio, carissimo; greet Rico and the friends most heartily. My wife reciprocates your friendly greetings, and I remain, your devoted friend,

STEINLE.

He travelled there _via_ Frankfort to see Steinle, with whom he went to Meran, thence to Venice and Florence, then on to Rome.

FRANKFURT, BRAUSELER HOF, _August 24_.

DEAREST MAMMA,--Being at last in Frankfurt, and having seen Steinle and his works, and, _en revanche_, shown him mine, I sit down to write to you. You will, I am sure, be glad to hear that he was much pleased with my drawings, that he liked the compositions, and what is more, gave me good advice about them. He also suggested to me to paint the little "Venus"

rising out of the sea (from Anacreon), of which I have already made a sketch. My studies he seemed to think excellent; I gave him three of them; I was so charmed to see his dear face again, looking just the same as he always did, and when he showed me what he had been doing, I fairly set up the pipes.

He took me in the afternoon to the Guaitas, who have a series of drawings by him from Clemens Brentano's poems; they are perfectly exquisite; the richness and variety of his imagination is something marvellous. Mr. Guaita, who is about to have them photographed for his friends, has kindly promised me a copy. To-morrow morning I am off for the Lake of Constance, whence through the Finstermunz to Meran, where I and Steinle part, though not till I have stayed there two or three days. To-day I shall go to Mr. Bolton and to Madame Beving to deliver your letter. Altogether Frankfurt has improved in appearance; it looks much more like a capital than it did formerly; new shops have sprung up, old ones are improved, and the whole town looks gay and busy; all this does not prevent it from being highly antipathetic to me, which is, I daresay, in some measure attributable to the hideous jargon that one hears wherever one turns. I have seen Gogel and Koch, who were both very civil, the former asking me to dine with him, which, however, I could not do, being already engaged to Steinle. And you, dearest Mamma, how are you? and Papa and the girls? Tell me all about them--write Venice p. restante.

G.o.d bless you, dear Mamma. Remember the boy.

I have had such a letter from Henry (Mr. Henry Greville); there never was anything like the tenderness of it--you would have been just enchanted.

VENICE, _September 6_.

I believe I told you in my last letter that I was going to spend a few days at Meran with Steinle. Now when I got there I found the place so beautiful and so healthy, and so rich in subjects for "my pencil," that I stayed _a week_, and this accounts for my being rather behindhand with this letter.

Steinle and I had rooms at a sort of hydropathic boarding-house, with splendid accommodation for bathing in the coldest possible mountain water, a convenience of which I availed myself daily to my great enjoyment.

I lived _comme les poules_. I was up at daybreak and a good bit before the sun (who takes a long time before he gets his nose into a valley) and went to bed very shortly after sunset; I worked and walked and ate and slept, that was my simple bill of fare. My good Steinle and myself got on, as of course, capitally. He is most affectionate and kind, and I have derived a good deal of artistic advantage from his intercourse even in that short time.

By-the-bye, before I left Frankfurt I received through H.

Greville a letter from Mr. Harrison, secretary to Col. Phipps, asking me to go to the Palace to look at the canvas of the "Cimabue," which appeared to be defective in some parts; though what on earth can be the matter with it I don't know; at the same time I got another saying, that as I was not in England, there would be no necessity for me to make a special journey to England on that account, and merely wishing to know when I expected to return. I sent an appropriate answer, which I submitted to Henry Greville, and now am waiting for further instructions from Harrison here in Venice.

Writing of his delight in being again in Italy he adds:--

How I revelled in the first really Italian bit, the lake of Lugano! What an exquisite little picture it is with its villas and terraces, its cypresses and its oleanders, and the little town itself too! stretching its cool arcades along the blue margin of the water; a lovely drive along the lake took me to that of Como, and from thence I went by rail to Milan; stayed a day, went to the Scala, performance so bad I was obliged to leave the house, and now I am for a week in Venice gliding along in lazy gondolas, winking up at grey palaces and glittering domes. I suppose you won't leave Italy this time without seeing Venice once more, and feeding your eyes again on t.i.tian and Bonifazio, Veronese and Tintoretto. By-the-bye, I am doing a sketch from a superb Bonifazio in the Academy here; yesterday I painted hard for six hours, so you see it is not _all_ boats, and now I must close. I will write to you again from Florence, and I hope with a better pen. G.o.d bless you, Mammy, give my love to all from your loving boy.

To his father Leighton writes:--

FLORENCE, HoTEL DU NORD, _25th September 1856_.

About my pictures[67] I have heard (for Henry makes the Ellesmeres keep him _au courant_, which of course is very convenient for me) that they are pretty well hung, but that the "Romeo" is not seen very well owing to a defect in the lighting of the room. Lady E. said the "Pan" and "Venus"

seemed to be very well painted, or something, but Lord Brackley thought them improper! Henry, of course, was furious at their prudishness. I don't for the life of me know where to have them sent to, nor can I know for the next three weeks about, as I must write to consult Henry and get his answer and then write to you, but surely there is time. You have, of course, received the letter in which I tell you that I _must_ go to England at the beginning of November to see about my picture, but you need not be afraid about my having to do it over again; that would be a good joke; no artist ever yet was responsible _pro_spectively for what might happen to his picture; but it will be a frightful bore in the expense line coming back from Italy fairly swept out as I shall be. Were you so kind as to pay the rent for me as I asked you?

_Translation._]

FLORENCE, _28th September_.

MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Well may you say that the Meran post is tardy, for I only received your dear letter of the 13th three days ago. Meanwhile you have probably long since received mine, in which I thanked you heartily for the beautiful coat received in Venice.

I have already stayed here in Florence eight days, and though I have not worked very arduously, I have yet thoroughly enjoyed myself, and also, I hope, learned something from the lovely things that I am seeing again here; meanwhile there remains much for me to see in the two days that I have still to stay, amongst others the Capella of Benozzo Gozzoli in the Palazzo Riccardi, a work which I love excessively. To see the old Florentine school again is a thing which always enchants me anew, for one can never be sated with seeing the n.o.ble sweetness, the childlike simplicity, allied with high manly feeling, which breathes in it. But I speak to you of plain things which you know far better than I. I am quite eager to see the new drawings at Fabiola, and I am much excited about those at Cologne; but the G.o.ds alone know when I shall see them.

On Wednesday I go to Rome, where I hope to see Rico; if only I could take _you_ with me, dear master! Meanwhile I beg you to remember me most kindly to Madame Steinle, and yourself believe in the love of your grateful pupil,

FRED LEIGHTON.

_P.S._--My stay in Rome will (alas!) only be very short, for I am unexpectedly obliged to go soon to London, confound it!--instead of a month, _ten_ days! _Povero me!_