The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton Volume II Part 13

The artistic events of the years 1862, 1863, and 1864 culminated in Leighton being elected an a.s.sociate of the Royal Academy. His old friend, Mr. George Aitchison, wrote at the time of Leighton's death: "In 1860 he took a studio at Orme Square, Bayswater. It was during this time that his conversation was so brilliant and so free from restraint. I remember a summer afternoon I spent with him, Mason, and Murch on the terrace at the Crystal Palace, when he gave vent to the freest criticism on books, artists, philosophy, science, and the methods of teaching, and deplored the waste of time to students of making large chalk studies, when everything that was wanted could be shown on a sheet of smooth paper, seven inches high, with a hard pencil. He was a great admirer of Boxall and his delicate painting, of Mr. Watts' and Sir E. Burne-Jones' work, and persuaded the last two to join the Royal Academy. In 1864 he was made an A.R.A., and after this he became very cautious of expressing any but the most general opinions on contemporary English art, as his remarks generally got into the papers."

"Eucharis," 1863; "Dante at Verona," and "Golden Hours," 1864, are three works which might be placed in the first rank of Leighton's achievements. In the following letters references are made to the pictures:--

_April 29, 1863._

DEAR MAMMY,--I have just been to the R.A., having been invited to the "Varnishing Day." _Four_ pictures are hung--"Elijah,"

_high_, of course, but in a centre place; it looks well, but _much_ darker than in the studio. "Peac.o.c.k Girl,"[33] very well hung, exactly where "The Vision" was a few years ago; it looks well. "The Crossbowman" and "The Girl with the Fruit"[34] are fairly hung, but look, to me, less well than in the studio. The "Salome"[35] is the one not taken. Altogether I am well treated.

In the following letters from Ruskin his interest is expressed in the pictures exhibited in the Academy of 1863, and for the "Romola"

ill.u.s.trations:--

MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I've only just had time to look in, yesterday, at R. Ac., and your pictures are the only ones that interest me in it; and the two pretty ones, peac.o.c.ks and basket, interest me much. Ahab I don't much like. You know you, like all people good for anything in this age and country (as far as Palmerston), are still a boy--and a boy can't paint Elijah. But the pretty girls are very nice--very _nearly_ beautiful. I can't say more, can I? If once they _were_ beautiful, they would be immortal too. But if I don't pitch into you when I get hold of you again for not drawing your Canephora's basket as well as her head and hair! You got out of the sc.r.a.pe about the circle of it by saying you wanted it hung out of sight (which _I_ don't). But the meshes are all wrong--_inelegantly_ wrong--which is unpardonable. I believe a j.a.panese would have done it better.

Thanks for nice book on j.a.pan with my name j.a.panned. _It_ is very nice too. I wish the woodcuts were bigger. I should like it so much better in a little octavo with big woodcuts on every other page. But I never do anything but grumble.--Faithfully yours,

J. RUSKIN.

MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--The public voice respecting the lecture you are calumniously charged with, is as wise as usual. The lecture is an excellent and most interesting one, and I am very sorry it is not yours.

I am also very sorry the basket _is_ yours, in spite of the very pretty theory of accessories. It is proper that an accessory be slightly--sometimes even, in a measure, badly--painted, but not that it should be out of perspective; and in the greatest men, their enjoyment and power animated the very dust under the feet of their figures--much more the baskets on their heads: above all things, what comes near a head should be studied in every line.

There is nothing more notable to my mind in the minor tricks of the great Venetians than the exquisite perspective of bandeaux, braids, garlands, jewels, flowers, or anything else which aids the _roundings_ of their heads.

It is my turn to claim Browning for you, though I know what your morning time is to you. I must have you over here one of these summer mornings, if it be but to look at some dashes in sepia by Reynolds, and a couple of mackerel by Turner--which, being princ.i.p.als instead of accessories, I hope you will permit to be well done, though they're not as pretty as peac.o.c.ks.

I have been watching the "Romola" plates with interest. The one of the mad old man with dagger seemed to me a marvellous study (of its kind), and I feel the advancing power in all.

Will you tell me any day you could come--any hour--and I'll try for Browning.--Ever faithfully yours,

J. RUSKIN.

I'm always wickeder in the morning than at night, because I'm fresh; so I'll try, this morning, to relieve your mind about the peac.o.c.ks. To my sorrow, I know more of peac.o.c.ks than girls, as you know more of girls than peac.o.c.ks--and I a.s.sure you solemnly the fowls are quite as unsatisfactory to me as the girl can possibly be to you; so unsatisfactory, that if I could have painted them as well as you could, and _had_ painted them as ill, I should have painted them out.[36]

_Monday._

DEAR LEIGHTON,--I saw Browning last night; and he said he couldn't come till Thursday week: but do you think it would put you quite off your work if you came out here early on Friday and I drove you into Kensington as soon as you liked? We have enough to say and look at, surely, for two mornings--one by ourselves?

I want, seriously, for one thing to quit you of one impression respecting me. You are quite right--"ten times right"--in saying I never focus criticism. Was there ever criticism worth adjustment? The light is so ugly, it deserves no lens, and I never use one. But you never, on the other hand, have observed sufficiently that in such rough focussing as I give it, I measure faults not by their greatness, but their avoidableness.

A man's great faults are natural to him--inevitable; if _very_ great--undemonstrable, deep in the innermost of things. I never or rarely speak of them. They must be forgiven, or the picture left. But a common fault in perspective is not to be so pa.s.sed by. You may not tell your friend, but with deepest reserve, your thoughts of the conduct of his life, but you tell him, if he has an ugly coat, to change his tailor, without fear of his answering that you don't focus your criticism. Now it so happens that I am in deep puzzlement and thought about some conditions of your work and its way, which, owing to my ignorance of many things in figure painting, are not likely to come to any good or speakable conclusion. But it would be partly presumptuous and partly vain to talk of these; hence that silence you spoke of when I saw you last. I wish I had kept it all my life, and learned, in place, to do the little I could have done, and enjoy the much I might have enjoyed.--Ever faithfully yours,

J. RUSKIN.

Send me a line saying if you will give me the Friday morning, and fix your own hour for breakfast to be ready; and never mind if you are late, for I can't give you pretty things that spoil for waiting, anyhow.

Leighton writes to his mother:--

I had a kind note this morning from Ruskin, in which, after criticising two or three things, he speaks very warmly of other points in my work and of the development of what he calls "enormous power and sense of beauty." I quote this for what it is worth, because I know it will give you pleasure, but I have NOT and _never shall have_ "enormous power," though I have some "sense of beauty." The "Orpheus" and "Golden Hours" are not in the _great_ room but in the next to it. I have not seen Gambart lately, and do not, therefore, know whether he has got rid of any more of my pictures (by-the-bye, I have sent the "duet"--"Johnny"--to America to an Exhibition for the Sanitary Commission, on the request of Mrs. Kemble's daughter). He will, _I think_, engrave the "Honeymoon," but probably only photograph the others; by-the-bye (again), Mammy, tell Gussy with my love that I shall present her with a copy of each and shall not "_think her greedy_," having no thoughts for her but affectionate ones. With regard to the money paid me by Gambart, I invested as soon as I got it 1000 in Eastern Counties Railway _debentures_, at par, 4-1/2 per cent., this on the advance of Coutts' stock clerk. Lord Ashburton's portrait was scarcely begun.[37] I have offered to try to finish _tant bien que mal_ from photographs, and to _give_ it to Lady A. She is very grateful. The child's picture also goes to the wall, as she won't be able to sit for some time, and would then be _changed_.

Lady A. wanted to pay the price of the sketch as it stood; this I of course refused. She has commissioned me to paint her a fancy picture for 300.

Leighton was for five years an a.s.sociate before being elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1869. During these years the number of important pictures he exhibited each season notably increased. In at least twelve of these works the many-sided Leighton is worthily represented--"Dante at Verona,"[38] "Golden Hours," "David,"

"Syracusan Bride" (exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1866 and in the Paris International Exhibition in 1868), "Helen of Troy,"[39]

"Greek Girl Dancing," "Venus Disrobing from the Bath," "Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus, Ariadne Watches for his Return, Artemis Releases Her by Death," "Actaea, the Nymph of the Sh.o.r.e," "Daedalus and Icarus,"

"Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon," "Helios and Rhodos." The extreme variety from every point of view which exists in this group of twelve pictures, chosen from the twenty-six paintings and the numerous sketches executed in these five years, would be a proof in itself, if one were needed, of Leighton's extraordinary versatility as regards the _motives_ of his pictures.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "GREEK GIRL DANCING." 1867 By permission of Mr. Phillipson]

[Ill.u.s.tration: DRAWING FOR THE PAINTING "A PASTORAL." 1866 Leighton House Collection]

In the spring of 1865, after years of delicate health, Mrs. Leighton at the last died suddenly, at her home in Bath. At the time Leighton was staying at Sandringham where he received a telegram announcing her death, and on the same day he joined his family at Bath. It has been said that, as long as a man is blessed by possessing a mother, he still retains the blessing of being--in the eyes of one person at least--a child. To Leighton's tender-hearted nature this blessing was a very real one, as is testified by his correspondence with his mother.[40] The first chapter of Leighton's life seems, in a sense, only to end with this great sorrow.

_Translation._]

FRANKFURT AM MAIN, _April 30, 1865_.

DEAREST FRIEND,--As your last friendly lines of 14th March did not bring your address, I grasp the opportunity offered me by Mr. Tobie Andre to express to you my heartfelt sympathy on the loss of your dear mother. I remember that you often spoke to me of this mother with true filial affection, and I have secretly blessed you for it; I know now also that you will treasure her memory!--Always, your truly devoted,

STEINLE.

FOOTNOTES:

[26] See Appendix, "Lord Leighton's Sketches."

[27] See page 59, vol. ii., poem, Leighton's "Francesca di Rimini," by R.A.

[28] Head painted on the wall of the Vestry of Highnam Church--since destroyed.

[29] "Eucharis."

[30] Sir Hubert Parry writes: "I remember Leighton made a practical test of my father's medium by painting a fine dashing sketch of a head on the wall of the Vestry at Highnam Church. I used to admire it greatly. Unfortunately that Vestry was pulled down; and though efforts were made to preserve the sketch by cutting a great piece of plaster out of the wall, I understand that during the many years when I was hardly ever at Highnam, the plaster crumbled and collapsed." See letter to Steinle.

[31] Photographs of the Lyndhurst fresco.

[32] The ground on which Leighton built his house, 2 Holland Park Road, now preserved for the public.

[33] "Girl feeding Peac.o.c.ks" (see sketches in Leighton House Collection). Leighton painted a small and exquisite water-colour on ivory of the picture, which was sold at Christie's after his death.

[34] "Eucharis."

[35] See List of Ill.u.s.trations: reproduction from sketch in Leighton House.

Mr. Frith, R.A., wrote the following respecting the rejection of "Salome":--

10 PEMBRIDGE VILLAS, BAYSWATER, W., _April 29, 1863_.

MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--We have been unable to hang one of your best pictures--not because it was an excellent work, as the profane world would say--but because we had already placed so many of your pictures that the s.p.a.ce due to Leighton was more than exhausted. M.C. Mortlake called us over the coals dreadfully on your behalf, but I, for one, resisted his arguments, and I believe you have to blame me for your picture being returned to you. I should have said nothing about the matter, but for the fear that I might be thought so stupid as not to see the merit of your work. Pray believe that my motive was a good one, and that I have tried to do what is right to you and to the rest.--Ever, dear Leighton, faithfully yours,

W.P. FRITH.