98 files changed, 41127 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6833f05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.gitattributes
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+* text=auto
+*.txt text
+*.md text
diff --git a/35934-8.txt b/35934-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b3e8f3b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13255 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic
+Leighton, by Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton
+       Volume I
+
+Author: Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2011 [EBook #35934]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, LETTERS OF FREDERICK LEIGHTON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                                       |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has     |
+    | been preserved.                                           |
+    |                                                           |
+    | The Errata on page xxiii have been incorporated into      |
+    | this e-book.                                              |
+    |                                                           |
+    | The Illustration list has one image out of sequence.      |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For     |
+    | a complete list, please see the end of this document.     |
+    |                                                           |
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  The Life, Letters and Work of
+  Frederic Baron Leighton
+  Of Stretton
+
+  VOL. I
+
+
+
+
+    "_If any man should be constantly penetrated with a gift
+    bestowed on him, it is the artist who has realised as his
+    share a genuine love for nature; for his enjoyment, if he
+    puts his gift to usury, increases with the days of his life._"
+
+
+    "_Every man who has received a gift, ought to feel and act as
+    if he was a field in which a seed was planted that others
+    might gather the harvest._"
+
+                                        _FREDERIC LEIGHTON._
+
+    _August 1852._
+
+
+
+
+  The Life, Letters and
+  Work of
+  Frederic Leighton
+
+  BY
+
+  MRS. RUSSELL BARRINGTON
+
+  AUTHOR OF "REMINISCENCES OF G.F. WATTS," ETC. ETC.
+
+  IN TWO VOLUMES
+
+  VOL. I
+
+  LONDON
+  GEORGE ALLEN, RUSKIN HOUSE
+  1906
+
+  [All rights reserved]
+
+
+
+
+  Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+  At the Ballantyne Press
+
+    [Illustration: EARLY PORTRAIT OF LORD LEIGHTON
+    From the Painting by G.F. Watts (Photogravure)
+    By permission of the Hon. Lady Leighton-Warren and Sir Bryan
+    Leighton, Bart.]
+
+
+
+
+    TO ALL WHO HOLD DEAR THE
+    MEMORY OF FREDERIC LEIGHTON
+    THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED WITH
+    THE AUTHOR'S APOLOGIES FOR
+    ITS VERY MANY SHORTCOMINGS
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Ten years and more have passed since Leighton died, yet it is still
+difficult to get sufficiently far away, to take in the whole of his
+life and being in their just proportion to the world in which he
+lived.
+
+When we are in Rome, hemmed in by narrow streets, St. Peter's is
+invisible; once across that wonderful Campagna and mounting the slopes
+of Frascati, there, like a huge pearl gleaming in the light, rises the
+dome of the Mother Church. As distance gives the true relation between
+a lofty building and its suburbs, so time alone can decide the height
+of the pedestal on which to place the great.
+
+The day after Leighton's death Watts wrote to me:--
+
+"...The loss to the world is so great that I almost feel ashamed to
+let my personal grief have so large a place.
+
+"I am glad you knew him so well. I am glad for any one who knew him.
+No one will ever know such another, alas! alas! alas!
+
+"I am glad you have enjoyed the friendship of one of the greatest men
+of any time."
+
+This is the estimate of a great artist who knew Leighton for forty
+years, and for many of those years enjoyed daily intercourse with him.
+
+A few like Watts required no length of time before forming a right
+estimate of Leighton. They not only knew him to be great, but knew why
+he was great. Undoubtedly as a draughtsman Leighton was unrivalled;
+but bearing in mind his English contemporaries--Watts, Millais, Holman
+Hunt, Rossetti, and Burne-Jones--it is not as a painter that even his
+truest friends would claim for him his right to the exceptional
+position he undoubtedly occupied.
+
+What was it that gave Leighton this position? He himself was the very
+last to claim it as a right. His creed and his practice were ever to
+fight against the weaknesses of his nature rather than to rejoice in
+its strength. For assuredly, however strong the intellect, beautiful
+the character, brilliant the vitality, and fine the intuitive
+instincts, a man may yet have within his nature foibles in common with
+the herd. The difference is, that in the truly great the unworthier
+side of nature is viewed as unworthy--is fought against and banished
+like the plague.
+
+"A good man is wise, not because all his desires are wise, but because
+his reasonable soul masters unwise desires and is itself wise.
+
+"He is courageous, because he knows when to fight, and does so under
+control of reason.
+
+"He is temperate, because his pluck and his desires unite in giving
+the first place to the reasonable soul; and finally, he is just,
+because each principle is in its place and stops there."
+
+In a letter to his mother when he was twenty-three Leighton wrote: "I
+feel I have of my nature a very fair share of the hateful worldly
+weakness of my country people;" adding, "Still, I have found no
+sufficiently great advantage or compensation for the tedium of going
+out." Again, three years later, after describing to his sister the
+delight he felt in the beauty he found in Algiers, he wrote: "And yet
+what I have said of my feelings, though _literally true_, does not
+give you an exactly true notion; for, together with, and as it were
+behind, so much pleasurable emotion, there is always that other
+strange second man in me, calm, observant, critical, unmoved,
+blas�--odious!
+
+"He is a shadow that walks with me, a sort of nineteenth-century
+canker of doubt and discretion; it's very, very seldom that I forget
+his loathsome presence. What cheering things I find to say!"
+
+Doubtless Leighton had within him the possibilities of becoming a
+worldling, and also of becoming a cynic. He overrode and banished the
+first as despicable, the second as hideous.
+
+But it is not in the wisdom that--Socrates-like--steered his life by
+reason, that we find the adequate answer to the question, "Why was
+Leighton the prominent entity he was?" Diverse as were his natural
+gifts and his power of achievement on various lines, he differed
+radically from that modern development--the all-round man, who has no
+concentrated fire as a centre to illumine his life, but develops all
+his capacities so that they shall shine forth equally on certain high
+levels. From childhood Leighton had one overriding passion, and from
+this sprang the will-force and vitality which throughout his life
+succeeded in bringing his intentions to fruition. Whatsoever his hand
+found worthy to do at all, he did with the whole might of his great
+nature. Still even that would not adequately answer the question. His
+greatness truly lay in the fact that the choice he made of what was
+worth doing was never limited by personal interests. He impelled the
+force of his powers for the welfare of others, and for the causes
+beneficial to others, as much or more than to those matters which
+concerned himself alone. Hence his true greatness and his great
+fame--for �schylus is right: "The good will prevail."
+
+A sense of duty--"the keenest possible sense of it," to use Mr.
+Briton Rivi�re's words--which was the keynote of all Leighton's
+actions, was impelled in the first instance by a feeling of gratitude
+for the joy with which beauty in nature and art had steeped his being
+from a child; a deep well of happiness, a constant companion, ever
+springing up in his heart, which he craved that others should share
+with him. This happiness gave sweetness to his life, lovableness to
+his character, irresistible power to his control. Leighton's was truly
+a life of praise and gratitude for the joys nature had bestowed on
+him. He had a pleasant way of making the truth prevail. The
+description by Marcus Aurelius of his "third man" applies well to the
+character of Leighton.
+
+"One man, when he has done a service to another, is ready to set it
+down to his account as a favour conferred. Another is not ready to do
+this, but still in his own mind he thinks of the man as his debtor,
+and he knows what he has done. A third in a manner does not even know
+what he has done, but he is like a vine which has produced grapes, and
+seeks for nothing more after it has once produced its proper fruit. As
+a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee
+when it has made the honey, so a man, when he has done a good act,
+does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to
+another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season."
+
+Leighton's work in every direction was complete work, because his mind
+grasped completely the proportion and aspect of everything he
+undertook. His inborn affection for, and sympathy with, his
+fellow-creatures impelled him to feel that the area of self-interest,
+however gifted that self might be, was too restricted for him to find
+full completeness therein. This could only be attained by working with
+and for others. Such feelings and doctrines are common in religious
+and philanthropic men; but in the ego of the modern artist there is
+generally something which seems to demand a concentration of attention
+on his own ego in order to develop his gifts as an artist. The
+attitude of Leighton towards his own work, and towards that of others,
+was essentially contrary to this concentration.
+
+In his letters to his mother, and to his master, Eduard von Steinle,
+are found the bases on which the superstructure of his after career
+rested, the underpinning of that monumental feature of the Victorian
+era--namely, in unflagging industry, in ever striving to make his life
+worthy of the beauty and dignity of his vocation as an artist, and in
+ever endeavouring to make his work an adequate exponent of "the
+mysterious treasure that was laid up in his heart": his passion for
+beauty.
+
+In my attempt to write Leighton's life I have purposely devoted more
+space to the earlier than to the later years of his career as an
+artist. With an artist more than with others is it specially true that
+the boy is father to the man; and if Leighton's example is in any way
+to benefit students of art, the early struggles, the failures, more
+even than the successes, will teach the lesson that there is no short
+cut on the road which has to be travelled even by the most gifted.
+From the family letters and those to his master, which are, with a few
+exceptions, given in full, it will also be seen that, however high was
+the pedestal on which Leighton placed his mistress Art, he felt keenly
+likewise the beauty of his family relationships, and a deep, grateful
+affection for the master who had given him his start on the road to
+fame.
+
+If this endeavour to present a true picture of Leighton the man has
+any value, it is owing mainly to the fact that Mrs. Matthews has
+placed at my disposal the family and other letters in her
+possession,--an act which demands the thanks of all those who are
+interested in the fame of her brother.
+
+I also wish to acknowledge with gratitude the considerate kindness of
+several of Leighton's friends in contributing "notes" and letters,
+which are of true value in bringing before the public a right view of
+the man and of the artist. First and foremost among these contributors
+must be placed Dr. von Steinle, son of Professor Eduard von Steinle of
+Frankfort-on-Main, the beloved master to whom Leighton in 1879
+referred as "_the indelible seal_," when writing of those who had
+influenced him most for good. The first letter of the correspondence
+which was carried on between the master and pupil, and preserved
+preciously by each, is dated August 31, 1852, the last 1883. Only
+second in interest to this correspondence, which discloses Leighton's
+intimate feelings and aspirations as an artist, are the notes supplied
+by Mr. Briton Rivi�re, R.A.--notes which could only have been written
+by one whose own nature in many ways was closely attuned to that of
+Leighton's, and which give the intimate aspect of Leighton as an
+official. "It would be difficult for any one," writes Mr. Briton
+Rivi�re, "to give in a short space any adequate account of a character
+so full and complex as Leighton's." And indeed it would require a
+great deal more than two volumes even to touch on all the events of
+this eventful life, which might further illustrate Leighton's
+character; but Mr. Briton Rivi�re has noted certain salient
+characteristics of his friend with a sympathy, and a fine touch, which
+I think will prove of very rare interest in this record. The tribute
+to Leighton of Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, R.A. (from a sculptor's point of
+view), carries great weight, and gives also, as does that of another
+old comrade in the Artists' Volunteer Corps, an appreciative account of
+Leighton as the soldier. To these, to Lady Loch, the Hon. Mrs. Alfred
+Sartoris, Sir William Richmond, R.A., Mr. Walter Crane, Mr. Alfred
+East, P.R.B.A., I offer my thanks for so kindly contributing notes
+which help to solve the problems presented by "a character so full and
+so complex." For courteous permission to publish letters I wish to
+express my thanks to Alice, Countess of Strafford, the executor of Mr.
+Henry Greville, who was one of, if not the most intimate of the
+friends who loved Leighton; the Hon. Mrs. Leigh, Mrs. Fanny Kemble's
+daughter and executor; the Right Hon. Sir Charles Dilke, executor of
+Mrs. Mark Pattison (afterwards Lady Dilke); the Right Hon. John
+Morley, Dr. von Steinle, Mr. John Hanson Walker, Mr. Cartwright, Mr.
+Robert Barrett Browning, Professor Church, Mr. T.C. Horsfall, and Mrs.
+Street, daughter of the late Mr. Henry Wells, R.A.; the executor of
+George Eliot, Mrs. Charles Lewes; and the executors of John Ruskin.
+There are many other letters and notes of interest which have been
+preserved by Mrs. Matthews, but which cannot be inserted for want of
+space. Among these are affectionate notes from Joachim, Burne-Jones,
+Hebert, Robert Fleury, Meissonier, G�rome, Tullio Massarani; also
+friendly letters from Cardinal Manning, Viscount Wolseley, Sarah
+Bernhardt, John Tyndall, Froude, Anthony Trollope, Sir John Gilbert,
+Lady Waterford, and Lord Strangford. A number of letters exist from
+members of the Royal Family to Leighton, all evincing alike admiration
+for the artist and an affectionate appreciation of the man.
+
+In these pages there will be found a repetition of several sentences.
+This is intentional. Watts would often remark, "A really wise and true
+saying can't be repeated too often"; and in Leighton's letters are
+several tallying with this description, which it would be a pity to
+detach from their own context, and yet which are also required
+elsewhere to enforce the argument.
+
+As regards the kindness shown in allowing reproductions of pictures,
+I have to tender my loyal gratitude to the Queen for the gracious loan
+of the picture presented to her Majesty by Leighton; also to the
+Prince of Wales for allowing the "Head of a Girl," given to his Royal
+Highness as a wedding present by the artist, to be reproduced in these
+pages.
+
+Other owners of pictures to whom I proffer also my warm thanks are
+Lord Armstrong, Lord Pirrie, the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, the Hon.
+Lady Leighton-Warren, Sir Bryan Leighton, the Hon. Mrs. Sartoris, Sir
+Elliot Lees, Sir Alexander Henderson, Mr. E. and Miss I'Anson, Mr. S.
+Pepys Cockerell, Mr. T. Blake Wirgman, Mrs. Stewart Hodgson, Mr.
+Hanson Walker, Mrs. Henry Joachim, Mrs. Stephenson Clarke, Mrs. C.E.
+Lees, Mrs. James Watney, Mr. Hodges, Mrs. Charles Lewes, Mr. H.S.
+Mendelssohn, Mr. Phillipson, and Dr. von Steinle.
+
+Also to the Fine Art Society, the Berlin Photographic Co., Messrs.
+Agnew & Son, Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi, Messrs. Henry Graves, Messrs.
+Lefevre, Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co., and the directors of the
+Leicester Galleries.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+  INTRODUCTION                                                       1
+
+  CHAPTER I
+  ANTECEDENTS AND SCHOOL DAYS, 1830-1852                            34
+
+  CHAPTER II
+  ROME, 1852-1855                                                   91
+
+  CHAPTER III
+  PENCIL DRAWINGS OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS, 1850-1860                 197
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+  WATTS--SUCCESS--FAILURE, 1855-1856                               222
+
+  CHAPTER V
+  FRIENDS                                                          250
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+  STEINLE AND ITALY AGAIN--FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE EAST,
+    1856-1858                                                      278
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+VOLUME I
+
+
+   1. DESIGN FOR REVERSE OF THE JUBILEE MEDALLION                Cover
+      Executed for Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Government,
+      1887.
+
+   2. CROWN OF BAY LEAVES                                          "
+      From Drawing made by Lord Leighton at the Bagni de Lucca,
+      1854.
+
+   3. PORTRAIT OF LORD LEIGHTON BY G.F. WATTS, ABOUT 1863
+      By kind permission of the Hon. Lady LEIGHTON-WARREN      To face
+      and Sir BRYAN LEIGHTON, Bart. (_Photogravure_)        Dedication
+
+   4. HEAD OF YOUNG GIRL                                To face page 1
+      By the gracious permission of HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.
+
+   5. PORTRAITS OF LORD LEIGHTON'S FATHER AND MOTHER WHEN YOUNG     17
+      From Miniatures.
+
+   6. EARLY PAINTING OF BOY SAVING A BABY FROM THE CLUTCHES OF AN
+      EAGLE (_Colour_)                                              19
+
+   7. PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR EDUARD VON STEINLE                      27
+      By kind permission of his Son, DOCTOR VON STEINLE.
+
+   8. PORTRAIT OF MRS. SARTORIS, 1856                               28
+
+   9. CRYPT UNDER ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL WHERE BARRY, SIR JOSHUA
+      REYNOLDS, TURNER, AND LORD LEIGHTON WERE BURIED               33
+
+  10. PORTRAITS OF LORD LEIGHTON AND HIS YOUNGER SISTER, MRS.
+      MATTHEWS                                                      37
+      Drawn by him when a boy.
+
+  11. EARLY COMIC DRAWING MADE IN FRANKFURT                         43
+      By kind permission of Mr. JOHN HANSON WALKER.
+
+  12. PORTRAIT OF MR. I'ANSON, LORD LEIGHTON'S GREAT-UNCLE, 1850    48
+      By kind permission of Mr. E. and Miss I'ANSON.
+
+  13. THE DEATH OF BRUNELLESCHI, 1851                               55
+      By kind permission of Doctor VON STEINLE.
+
+  14. THE PLAGUE IN FLORENCE, 1851                                  56
+
+  15. STUDIES OF BRANCHES OF FIG AND BRAMBLE                        69
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  16. STUDY OF BYZANTINE WELL HEAD, VENICE, 1852                    81
+      By kind permission of Mr. S. PEPYS COCKERELL.
+
+  17. FROM PENCIL DRAWING OF MODEL, ROME, 1853. "COSTUME DI
+      PROCIDA"                                                      98
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  18. HEAD OF MODEL USED FOR FIGURE IN CIMABUE'S MADONNA,
+      ERRONEOUSLY STATED TO HAVE BEEN THE PORTRAIT OF LORD
+      LEIGHTON, 1853                                               112
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  19. SKETCH OF SUBIACO, 1853                                      116
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  20. HEAD OF VINCENZO, 1854                                       152
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  21. COPY IN PENCIL OF THE PORTRAITS OF GIOTTO, CIMABUE, MEMMI,
+      AND TADDEO GADDI                                             138
+      From the Capella Spagnola, Sta. Maria Novella, Florence,
+      1853. Leighton House Collection.
+
+  22. STUDY OF WOMAN'S HEAD FOR FIGURE AT THE WINDOW--CIMABUE'S
+      MADONNA, 1854 (_Photogravure_)                               145
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  23. ORIGINAL SKETCH IN PENCIL AND CHINESE WHITE FOR CIMABUE'S
+      MADONNA, 1853                                                149
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  24. CIMABUE'S MADONNA, 1855                                      193
+      By kind permission of the FINE ART SOCIETY.
+
+  25. FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM SIR CHARLES EASTLAKE, ANNOUNCING
+      THAT QUEEN VICTORIA HAD PURCHASED CIMABUE'S MADONNA, MAY
+      3, 1855                                                      194
+
+  26. STUDY OF CYCLAMEN, 1856                                      200
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  27. WREATH OF BAY LEAVES, 1854                                   201
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  28. STUDY OF A LEMON TREE--CAPRI, 1859                           202
+      By kind permission of Mr. S. PEPYS COCKERELL.
+
+  29. STUDY OF BRANCHES OF A DECIDUOUS TREE                        202
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  30. EARLY STUDIES OF KALMIA LATIFOLIA, OLEANDER, AND
+      RHODODENDRON FLOWERS                                         205
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  31. STUDIES OF PUMPKIN FLOWERS                                   206
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  32. STUDY OF VINE, 1854--BAGNI DI LUCCA                          206
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  33. STUDIES OF VINE LEAVES, "BELLOSGUARDO," SEPT. 1856           207
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  34. "ARIADNE ABANDONED BY THESEUS--DEATH RELEASES HER." 1868
+      (_Photogravure_)                                             211
+      By kind permission of LORD PIRRIE.
+
+  35. "ELISHA RAISING THE SON OF THE SHUNAMMITE," 1881             211
+      (_Photogravure_)
+
+  36. "D�DALUS AND ICARUS," 1869 (_Photogravure_)                  211
+      By kind permission of Sir ALEXANDER HENDERSON, Bart.
+
+  37. "CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE," 1888 (_Photogravure_)                  213
+      By kind permission of the BERLIN PHOTOGRAPHIC CO.
+
+  38. STUDY IN OILS FOR "CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE" (_Colour_)            213
+      By kind permission of Mrs. STEWART HODGSON
+
+  39. "WEAVING THE WREATH," 1873                                   214
+
+  40. "WINDING THE SKEIN"                                          214
+      By kind permission of the FINE ART SOCIETY.
+
+  41. "THE MUSIC LESSON," 1877                                     214
+      By kind permission of the FINE ART SOCIETY.
+
+  42. STUDIES OF SEA THISTLE, MALINMORE                            218
+      From Sketch Book, 1895.
+
+  43. STUDIES OF SEA THISTLE, MALINMORE                            218
+      From Sketch Book, 1895.
+
+  44. "RETURN OF PERSEPHONE" (_Photogravure_)                      221
+      Corporation of Leeds.
+
+  45. STUDY IN OILS FOR "RETURN OF PERSEPHONE" (_Colour_)          221
+      By kind permission of Mrs. STEWART HODGSON.
+
+  46. FROM DECORATIVE PAINTING ON GOLD BACKGROUND OF CUPID WITH
+      DOVES                                                        223
+
+  47. "IDYLL," 1881 (_Photogravure_)                               229
+
+  48. PORTRAIT OF MISS MABEL MILLS, 1877                           229
+
+  49. "VENUS DISROBING FOR THE BATH," 1867                         230
+      By kind permission of Sir A. HENDERSON, Bart.
+
+  50. PHRYNE AT ELEUSIS, 1882                                      230
+
+  51. PORTRAIT OF MRS. ADELAIDE SARTORIS, DRAWN FOR HER FRIEND,
+      LADY BLOOMFIELD, 1867                                        233
+      By kind permission of the Hon. Mrs. SARTORIS.
+
+  52. STUDY FOR PORTION OF FRIEZE, "MUSIC" (NOT CARRIED OUT IN
+      FINAL DESIGN). 1883                                          234
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  53. FROM SKETCH IN WATER COLOUR FOR TABLEAUX VIVANTS,
+      "THE ECHOES OF HELLAS" (_Colour_)                            241
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  54. STUDY FROM MR. JOHN HANSON WALKER, WHEN A BOY, FOR
+      "LIEDER OHNE WORTE," 1860                                    251
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  55. PORTRAIT OF MRS. JOHN HANSON WALKER, PAINTED AS A WEDDING
+      PRESENT TO HER HUSBAND, 1867 (_Colour_)                      273
+      By kind permission of Mr. WALKER.
+
+  56. FIGURES FOR CEILING FOR MUSIC ROOM, PREVIOUS TO THE DRAPERY
+      BEING ADDED, 1886                                            276
+
+  57. ORIGINAL SKETCH IN CHARCOAL OF DANCING FIGURES FOR THE SAME,
+      1886                                                         276
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  58. WATER COLOUR DRAWING OF THE CA' D'ORO, VENICE                285
+      (_Colour_)
+
+  59. VIEW IN ALGIERS (_Colour_)                                   299
+
+  60. VIEW IN ALGIERS (_Colour_)                                   301
+
+  61. SKETCH FOR "SALOME, THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS," 1857          308
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  62. SIXTEEN SCENES IN FLORENCE--ILLUSTRATIONS TO "ROMOLA"  Beginning
+      By kind permission of Mrs. CHARLES LEWES.               page 310
+
+      1. BLIND SCHOLAR AND DAUGHTER.
+      2. "SUPPOSE YOU LET ME LOOK AT MYSELF;" NELLO'S SHOP.
+      5. "THE FIRST KEY."
+      6. PEASANTS' FAIR.
+      7. THE DYING MESSAGE.
+      8. FLORENTINE JOKE.
+      9. THE ESCAPED PRISONER.
+     10. NICCOLO AT WORK.
+     11. "YOU DIDN'T THINK."
+     13. "FATHER, I WILL BE GUIDED."
+     15. THE VISIBLE MADONNA.
+     16. DANGEROUS COLLEAGUES.
+     17. "MONNA BRIGIDA."
+     18. "BUT YOU WILL HELP."
+     20. "DRIFTING."
+     21. "WILL HIS EYES OPEN?"
+
+
+    [Illustration: HEAD PRESENTED TO THE QUEEN BY LORD LEIGHTON
+    By permission of Her Majesty the Queen]
+
+
+
+
+ERRATA
+
+
+Motto facing Title-page, line 3, _for_ "from," _read_ "for."
+Page  xx, No. 49, _for_ "Figures for Ceiling, &c.," _read_
+          "By kind permission of Sir A. Henderson, Bart."
+Page  31, line 7, _for_ "at all," _read_ "to all."
+Page  60, omit note.
+Page  67, line 31, _for_ "unscorched," _read_ "sunscorched."
+Page 103, line 31, _for_ "worse that," _read_ "worse than."
+Page 127, line 16, _for_ "Wasash," _read_ "Warsash."
+Page 169, line 8, _for_ "Pantaleoni," _read_ "Pantaleone."
+Page 197, note, _for_ "Vol. I.," _read_ "Vol. II."
+Page 213, lines 6, 7, _for_ "owing ... from," _read_ "owing ... to."
+Page 265, note. The reference number should be to "Edward," instead
+          of to "Adelaide."
+Page 296, line 17, _for_ "Couture," _read_ "Conture."
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF LORD LEIGHTON
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In 1860, when Leighton, at the age of thirty, definitely settled in
+England, art was alive in two distinctly new directions. Ruskin was
+writing, the Pre-Raphaelites were painting, and Prince Albert, besides
+encouraging individual painters and sculptors, had, through his fine
+taste and the exercise of his patronage in every branch of art,
+developed an interest in good design as it can be carried out in
+manufactures and various crafts. Leighton followed the Prince
+Consort's initiatory lead; and, by showing the same cultured and
+catholic zeal in her welfare, was enabled to continue and develop
+Prince Albert's important work, thereby widening and elevating the
+whole outlook of art in England.
+
+It has at times been asserted that Leighton was greater as a President
+of the Royal Academy than he was as a painter. It would be truer, I
+think, to say that it was because he was so great as an artist in the
+highest, widest meaning of the word, so sincere a workman, that he
+stands unrivalled as a President. In a letter to a friend, dated May
+1888, ten years after he had been elected President, he wrote, "I am a
+workman first and an official afterwards," and it was, I believe,
+because he carried into his official duties the true artist's warmth,
+sincerity, and zeal for his special vocation, that his influence as an
+official was never deadened by theoretic red-tapeism, nor by secondary
+or side issues. Leighton ever flew straight to the mark, and the mark
+he aimed at in his presidential work was ever the highest essential
+point from the view he also took as an artist. His official duties,
+carried out with so great an amount of scrupulous conscientiousness,
+would have gone far to fill the entire life of an ordinary human
+being; yet these duties were, to the last, subordinated in his
+personal existence to his self-imposed duties as a painter and a
+sculptor.
+
+The words, "I am a workman first and an official afterwards,"
+epitomise the creed of his life. From earliest childhood art had cast
+over Leighton's nature a glamour which made his heart-service to her
+the great passion of his life. His "great nature" had in it many
+sources of stirring interest and of pure delights, which he enjoyed
+keenly; but nothing came in sight, so to speak, which ever for a
+moment seriously challenged a rivalry with the salient ruling passion.
+His character, as it developed, wound itself round it; his strongest
+sense of duty focalised itself in its service; his ambition ever was
+more inspired and stimulated by a devotion to the best interests of
+art than by any purely personal incentive. Leighton was an artist of
+that true type in whom no influence whatsoever can deter or slacken
+incessant zeal for work. In the deepest recesses of his nature burnt
+the unquenchable fire, the paramount longing to follow in Nature's
+footsteps, and to create things of beauty. Among the many loyal
+servants who have dutifully worshipped at the shrine of art, never was
+there one who more completely devoted the best that was in him to her
+service.
+
+"Va! your human talk and doings are a tame jest; the only passionate
+life is in form and colour."[1]
+
+Leighton's nature may be viewed from three aspects. Though each aspect
+is apparently detached from the others, it would be impossible to
+record a true portrait were the three not kept in view while
+attempting to draw the picture.
+
+First, there was Leighton, the great man, the public servant, gifted
+with exceptional powers of intellect and character, who attained the
+highest social position ever reached by an English artist; the
+Leighton the world knew, whose sway was paramount in the many councils
+and assemblies to which he belonged no less than when fulfilling his
+duties as President of the Royal Academy, and whose helpfulness and
+zeal in promoting the extension of a knowledge and appreciation of
+English art in foreign countries and in the colonies became
+proverbial. Lady Loch tells of his invaluable help in the efforts she
+and her husband made to encourage art, while the late Lord Loch was
+Governor of the Isle of Man, of Victoria, and of Cape Colony. "I feel
+it would be impossible," she writes, "to convey in a few words what a
+wonderful friend Frederic Leighton was to my husband from the time he
+first knew him,[2] forty years before Leighton's death, and to myself
+from the time we married. He was always ready to help us at every
+turn. Any deserving artist whom we sent to him would be certain to
+find in him a friend. When we arranged the very small Art Exhibition
+in the Isle of Man, you could hardly imagine with what energy and
+thoughtfulness he entered into the matter, impressing upon us all the
+steps that we ought to take in order to secure its success, even to
+the details, such as packing and insuring the pictures. He himself
+sent us pictures for the Exhibition, and guided our judgment in
+admiring and caring for those which were best and most to be valued,
+with a paternal care and zeal not describable. Again, when we were in
+Australia, and the great International Centennial Exhibition in
+Melbourne took place in 1888, Frederic Leighton selected such a good
+collection of pictures that they simply were the saving of the
+Exhibition financially--they attracted such continuous crowds of
+visitors. Subsequently, when an exhibition of ceramic work was asked
+for in Melbourne, and Henry Loch wrote to consult his friend, amidst
+all Frederic Leighton's important work and duties, he rushed about and
+secured a most interesting collection of all kinds of china and
+pottery, which was greatly appreciated by the Australians. Again, in
+1892, he formed a Fine Art Committee, consisting of himself, who was
+appointed Chairman, Sir Charles Mills, Sir Donald Currie, M.P., Mr.
+W.W. Ouless, R.A., Mr. Colin Hunter, A.R.A., Mr. Frank Walton, and Mr.
+Prange, to select pictures to send for exhibition at Kimberley.
+Besides a picture lent by Queen Victoria, at Leighton's request, of
+the portraits of herself and the royal family by Winterhalter, and
+four by Leighton, which he lent, the Committee secured 181 pictures,
+though not without great difficulty, Leighton told us, because the
+artists were afraid their works would be injured by the burning sun,
+the sandstorms, and the rough journey up from the Cape. Owing,
+however, to Leighton's untiring exertions, a very interesting and
+successful exhibition took place in this then little known town of our
+English colony in Africa."
+
+On the day Leighton died, Watts, his near neighbour and
+fellow-workman, in a letter to a friend, wrote that he had enjoyed "an
+uninterrupted and affectionate friendship of five-and-forty years"
+with Leighton. He continues: "No one will ever know such another. A
+magnificent intellectual capacity, an unerring and instantaneous
+spring upon the point to unravel, a generosity, a sympathy, a tact, a
+lovable and sweet reasonableness, yet no weakness. For my own
+part--and I tell you, life can never be the same to me again--my own
+grief is merged in the sense I have of the appalling loss to the
+nation; it seems to me to be no less."[3] Later, Watts wished it
+recorded that Leighton's character was the most beautiful he had ever
+known. This tribute from the great veteran artist, thirteen years
+Leighton's senior, but who outlived him more than eight years, was
+echoed far and wide by many at the time of Leighton's death. To his
+powers and influence, exercised in the Royal Academy as a body and to
+the members individually, Mr. Briton Rivi�re, the painter, and Mr.
+Hamo Thornycroft, the sculptor, give the following appreciative
+tributes.
+
+Mr. Briton Rivi�re writes:--
+
+"To begin with, I never really knew him--though we had met several
+times before--until I began to serve upon the Council with him very
+soon after his election as President. This at once brought us into
+very intimate relations, and a very few meetings convinced me that his
+opinions and actions on that body were invariably regulated by a true
+spirit of absolute justice and fairness to all, and that if he had his
+own particular art beliefs--which he certainly had, for art was to him
+almost a religion, and his own particular belief almost a creed--he
+never allowed it to bias him in the least. Indeed, I have never worked
+with any one who exhibited a broader or more catholic spirit of
+tolerance, even sympathy with all schools, however diverse from his
+own, only demanding honesty and sincerity should be the basis of each
+kind of work.
+
+"I have always felt that no one, who had heard only his elaborately
+prepared speeches, knew his real power as a speaker.
+
+"He was a master of time. I do not think he ever failed to keep an
+appointment almost to the minute. He was seldom much too early, but
+never too late.
+
+"He was an ideal president for any institution, and after serving
+under him for many years, I cannot think of any one faculty which a
+president should possess, which Leighton wanted."
+
+Mr. Hamo Thornycroft writes:--
+
+"My earliest recollection of Leighton was in 1869, when, with several
+other young art students, I went to his studio. He had promised to
+criticise the designs we had made from Morris' 'Life and Death of
+Jason.' This he did most admirably, it seemed to me, and most
+sympathetically, devoting considerable time to each; and I came away
+encouraged and a sworn devotee of the great man.
+
+"For the next few years, I had the benefit of his teaching at the
+Academy Schools, where he was most energetic as a visitor, and took
+the greatest pains to help the students. He was, moreover, an
+_inspiring_ master. Besides doing much for the school of sculpture,
+till then much neglected, he started a custom of giving a certain time
+to the study of drapery on the living model. His knowledge in this
+department and his excellent method were a new element in the training
+in the schools, and soon had a salutary effect upon the work done by
+the students. His influence, through the Academy Schools, upon the
+younger generation of sculptors was very great. There can be no doubt
+whatever that the rapid advance made in the art of sculpture during
+the last thirty years was to a considerable extent due to the sympathy
+and the interest which Leighton gave to it.
+
+"Leighton, as is well known, carefully prepared his important
+speeches, like many great speakers; but I never saw him fail, or even
+hesitate, when called upon to speak unexpectedly. At meetings of the
+Academy Council or at the general assemblies, his summing up and his
+weighing of the arguments brought forward by members in course of
+discussion was always masterly, just and eloquent. He had such a great
+sense of proportion, and detected what was the essence and the
+essential part of a speaker's argument."
+
+At a meeting held in Leighton's studio, after his death in May 1896,
+for the purpose of furthering the scheme of preserving the house for
+the nation as a memorial to the great artist, the sculptor, Mr.
+Alfred Gilbert, R.A., on rising to speak, said he felt too much on the
+occasion to be able to make a speech, adding, "I can only say that all
+I know, and all the little I have been able to do as a sculptor, I owe
+to Leighton."
+
+In a letter, dated February 9, 1896, Watts again writes: "I delighted
+in shaping a splendid career of incalculable benefit to his
+(Leighton's) epoch. His abilities, his persuasiveness, the peculiar
+range of his cultivation, would have fitted him to accompany a
+delicate embassy, where his efficiency would have been made evident,
+establishing a right to be entrusted with the like as its head; I
+believe something of this and more, if there could be more, was for
+him in the future. You know, I always looked forward to his seat in
+the House of Lords. That came about, and I believe the rest was but a
+question of time. Feeling this, you can understand that my own grief
+seems to me to be selfish. I am glad you enjoyed the friendship of one
+of the greatest men of any time."
+
+In the speech which the King, then Prince of Wales, made at the first
+banquet held after Leighton's death, on May 1, 1897, His Majesty
+referred to the late President in the following words:--
+
+"All of us in the room, and I especially, must miss one whose eloquent
+voice was so often heard at this banquet--a voice, alas! now hushed
+for ever. It is unnecessary, as it would be almost impertinent in me,
+to hold forth in praise of the merits and virtues of Lord Leighton.
+They are known to you all. He has left a great name behind him, and he
+himself will be regretted not only by the great artistic world, but by
+the whole nation. I myself had the advantage of knowing him for a
+great number of years--ever since I was a boy--and I need hardly say
+how deeply I deplore the fact that he can be no more in our midst. But
+his name will be cherished and honoured throughout the country."
+
+It is not necessary to dwell more lengthily on this salient aspect of
+Leighton. During his lifetime it was public property, the great name
+he has left is evidence sufficient to coming generations.
+
+Secondly, as portrayed chiefly by his human qualities, there was the
+aspect of Leighton as his family and his friends knew him; the beloved
+Leighton, the delightful companion, the charming personality, the
+being whose brilliant vitality brought a mental stimulus into all
+intercourse with him. The Leighton _qui savait vivre_ perhaps better
+than did ever any other conspicuous, overworked servant of the public;
+an active, positive influence, radiating strength and sunshine by his
+presence; and playing the game--whatever game it was--better than even
+the experts in special games. In that which perhaps he played best,
+lay his remarkable social power. Leighton had a deep-rooted and
+ingenuous sincerity of nature, and never for a moment lost his
+self-centre; yet he had the rare gift of unlocking the side most
+worthy to be unlocked in the nature of his companion of the moment. He
+had the power of evolving out of most people he met something that was
+real and of interest. Never giving himself away, he yet managed to
+meet other individualities on any ground that existed which could by
+any possibility be made a mutual ground. Though generosity itself in
+believing the best of every one, and at times entrapped by the wily,
+anything like flattery was a vice in his eyes. He neither gave himself
+away, nor induced others to give themselves away while in his company,
+and would always abstain from obtruding his opinions, modestly
+withholding judgment where he saw neither a duty nor a distinct reason
+to pronounce.
+
+Perhaps the strongest mark of Leighton's true distinction lay in the
+fact that, notwithstanding his reserve on all matters of deep feeling,
+notwithstanding his love of form in the living of life as in the
+creating of art, notwithstanding the perpetually shifting and urgent
+claims which, as a public man and a prominent social entity, were
+being continually forced upon him, the inner entity, the real
+Leighton, remained to the end a child of nature. No need was there for
+him to gauge the proportionate merit of the various conflicting
+influences that played on his complicated life; his own instinctive
+preferences clenched the matter indubitably, asserting that the
+noblest grace and the finest taste lay in the spontaneous and the
+natural. When Watts wished it recorded that Leighton's nature was the
+most beautiful he had ever known, he referred, I think, more specially
+to that lovable, kind-hearted ingenuousness and noble simplicity which
+were its deepest roots, notwithstanding a life of conflicts,
+ambitions, and unparalleled success. There are among those who most
+honour and love Leighton's memory, and who felt most keenly his loss,
+poor and unsuccessful artists and students, of whom the world has
+never heard, but to whom the great President gave of his very best in
+advice and sympathy.[4] He never posed, though he was an adept in
+catching the atmosphere of a situation, however new and foreign to
+his usual beat such a situation might be. Scrupulous in his attitude
+of reverence towards his vocation as an artist, _ever_ most scrupulous
+to render unto C�sar the things that are C�sar's, the inner core of
+the nature remained simple and unstained by worldliness.
+
+Then there was the third aspect of Leighton, the Leighton at times
+half-hidden from himself; the yearning, unsatisfied spirit, which,
+though subject at times to great elevations of delight, at others was
+also the victim of profound depressions and a sense of loneliness--a
+state of being born out of that strange, only half-explained region
+whence proceed all intuitive faculties. Such states are referred to
+occasionally in his letters to his mother, and we find their influence
+recorded at intervals in his art. In 1849, on a sketch of Giotto when
+a boy, are written in the corner the words "Sehnsucht"; in 1865, there
+is the David, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove; for then would I fly
+away and be at rest"; in 1894, the "Spirit of the Summit"--these are
+all alike expressions of the home-sickness that yearned for an abiding
+resting-place not found in the conditions of this world. "Oh, what a
+disappointing world it is!" were words he uttered shortly before his
+death. In 1894, when at Bayreuth, a friend was congratulating him on
+his ever fortunate star having even there easily overcome the
+difficulties of the crowd. Leighton, passing over the immediate
+question, answered with a striking serious sadness, "I have not _ever_
+got what I most wanted in this world."
+
+No mind was ever more explicit to itself in its mental working, than
+was his with regard to matters which the intellect can investigate and
+solve. His judgment could never be warped by reason of an insufficient
+brain apparatus with which to judge himself and others impartially.
+But Leighton was a great man, beyond being the one who owned "a
+magnificent intellectual capacity." The qualities he possessed, which
+made him a prominent entity who influenced the interests of the world
+at large, secured for him a footing on that higher level where human
+nature breathes a finer, more rarefied atmosphere than that in which
+the intellect alone disports itself; a level from which can be viewed
+the just proportion existing between the truly great and the truly
+little. Selfishness disappears in a nature such as Leighton possessed,
+when that level is reached. The necessity for self-sacrifice forces
+itself so peremptorily, that there is no struggle to be gone through
+in exercising it. For instance--notwithstanding the absorbing nature
+of his occupations and the intense devotion he felt towards his
+vocation as an artist, when it was a question of the country needing a
+reserve force for her army to draw on in case of war--a need which is
+at this present moment insisted on by Lord Roberts with such zealous
+earnestness--Leighton at once seized the importance of the question,
+and, at whatever sacrifice to his own more personal interests,
+enlisted as a volunteer, and mastered the art and duties of soldiering
+so completely that many officers in the regular army envied his
+knowledge and efficiency.
+
+The following is an appreciation by an old comrade in the Artists'
+Volunteer Corps:--
+
+"The names of those who first enrolled themselves to form the Artists'
+Volunteer Corps in 1860 is a record of considerable interest in
+itself, and calls back many reminiscences connected with art. Leighton
+joined May 10, 1860, and was in a few days given his commission as
+ensign.
+
+"Probably the very character of the first recruits tended to prevent
+that expansion and accession of numbers without which no military body
+can flourish. Lord Bury, the first commandant, became the Colonel of
+the Civil Service Rifles; and whatever attention may have been given
+to firing and detailed training, the early appearances of the
+'Artists' in public at reviews was, as a rule, as a company or two
+attached to the Civil Service Rifle Corps.
+
+"Events, however, brought a change in the command, and Leighton
+having, not without hesitation, accepted it, set himself at once to
+introduce reforms. The Captains, he announced, were to be responsible
+each for the command and drill of his company. He, to carry out before
+promotion as Major Commanding a duty which the previous laxity had
+never required of him, learned the company drill by heart and went
+through the whole complicated system then existing, on a single
+evening under trying circumstances in very insufficient space.
+Reorganisation did not rapidly fill the ranks, and there was much hard
+work to be done before the Artists' Corps appeared as a completed
+eight-company battalion, and took its place among the best of the
+Volunteer Corps of the Metropolis. The personality of the Commander
+did very much to achieve this result, and Leighton became
+Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant in 1876.
+
+"Next to his duty to his Art and to the Royal Academy, as he was ever
+careful to say, he esteemed his duty in the Corps. Busy man, with his
+time mapped out more than most, he was always accessible and ready to
+give the necessary time to those who had access to him on the Corps
+business. He never appeared on parade without previous study of the
+drill to be gone through, while his tact, energy, and personal charm
+were brought out and used at those social meetings with officers and
+with men which do so much to build up the tone of a volunteer body.
+
+"Of camps and duties in the tented field he took his part cheerfully.
+He shared the hardship of the early experience of the detachment at
+the Dartmoor Manoeuvres, where, camping on the barren hills above the
+lower level of the mist, the extemporised commissariat followed with
+difficulty, and the officers consoled themselves for the roughness of
+their fare by the consumption of marmalade, which happened to be
+supplied in bulk, and had to clean their knives in the sand to make
+some show for the entertainment of the Brigadier at such dinner as
+could be had.
+
+"Regarding volunteering so earnestly as he did, the reports of the
+Inspecting Officers would appear of great importance in Leighton's
+eyes. On one occasion paragraphs had appeared in the papers about the
+Corps which probably gave some umbrage to the authorities. The
+Inspecting Officer kept the battalion an unconscionable time at drill,
+changed the command, fell out the Staff Sergeants, yet all went well.
+At length, with Leighton again in command, and a word imperfectly
+heard, the square walked outwards in four directions. The confusion
+was put to rights, and the well-prepared speech from the Inspecting
+Officer as to the importance of battalion drills, &c., followed. It
+was quite a pleasure to point out to the distressed Leighton that the
+whole was manifestly a 'put up thing.'
+
+"The answer he received on another occasion admitted of no
+misinterpretation. Riding with the Officer after the inspection, and
+anxious to know whether in his opinion he was really doing any good
+work by his volunteering, Leighton asked whether the Officer would be
+willing to take the battalion he had just inspected under fire, and
+received the laconic reply, 'Yes, sir, hell fire.'
+
+"On Leighton's election as President of the Academy, his twenty-five
+years active service in the Corps ceased in 1883. All the time that
+the history of the volunteering of the nineteenth century is known,
+his name will be associated with the Artists' Corps to the honour of
+both."
+
+Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, R.A., also adds his tribute in the following
+lines:--
+
+"I should think that few Commanding Officers of Volunteer Regiments
+could surpass Colonel Leighton in efficiency. His wonderful knowledge
+of infantry drill, and the decision with which he gave the word of
+command, made it very easy for the men in the ranks to obey him; and
+the quickness of eye with which he detected an error in any movement
+frequently saved confusion in the ranks on a field day. The Artists'
+Corps soon became one of the smartest in London. I well remember how
+efficiently he commanded the Volunteer Battalion in the Army
+Manoeuvres on Dartmoor in 1876, when for a fortnight of almost
+continuous rain on that wild moorland he kept us all happy and full of
+respect for him by his fine soldierly example. His thoroughness and
+kindness were constant. After a soaking wet night he would come down
+the line of tents in the early morning distributing some unheard-of
+luxury, such as a couple of new-laid eggs to each man, which he had
+managed to have sent from some outlying village."
+
+Besides the obvious results of a complex and astonishingly
+comprehensive nature, there were also phases in Leighton's life which
+were the outcome on that side of his being half hidden to himself.
+
+Most of us have dual natures, not only in the sense that good and bad
+reside within us simultaneously, but we have also a less definable
+duality of nature; nature's original creature being one thing, and the
+creature developed by the conditions it meets with in its journey
+through life, another. Each acts and reacts on the other. We meet the
+conditions forced upon us in life from the point of our own
+individualities. On the other hand, the original creature gets twisted
+by circumstances and the influence of other personalities, and becomes
+partially altered into a different person. This backwards and forwards
+swaying of the influence of nature and circumstances helps to make
+life the intricate business it is. In the case of highly gifted human
+beings there seem to be further complications, arising chiefly,
+perhaps, from the fact that these form so small a minority. Very
+subtle and undefinable is the effect of such gifts on the character
+and nature of those possessing them, for nature herself maintains a
+kind of secrecy and endows her favoured ones with but a half
+consciousness in respect of them. She gives to the artist and to the
+poet the something, unshared with the ordinary mortal, which controls
+the inner core of his being, and which is another quantity to be
+allowed for in his contact with his fellows. It initiates his most
+passionate, peremptory conditions of temperament, yet it remains
+partially veiled to himself, in so far that he cannot explain it, nor
+give it its right place, any more than the lover can explain the
+glamour which is spread over life by an overpowering first love. When
+Plato classes the souls of the philosopher, the artist, the musician,
+and the lover together[5] as having been born to see most of truth, he
+recognises the same inspired instinctive quality in the artist as in
+the lover. In the artist is linked, as part of its separateness from
+the rest of the community, the inseparable shyness of the lover.
+Anything is better than to expose the sacred, indescribable treasure
+to the indifferent stare of the uninitiated. We find every sort of
+ruse adopted by lovers and artists to avoid being forced into
+explicitness on so tender, so intimate a passion; so convincing to its
+possessor, so impossible of full explanation to those who possess it
+not. The necessity to give it a clear outline is only forced when a
+danger arises of the lover being robbed of his mistress, the artist of
+his vocation; then the will, propelled by the all-conquering love,
+asserts itself, and difficulties have to succumb before it.
+
+Such was the result of opposition in Leighton's case. From early
+childhood he was known to care for nothing so much as for drawing, and
+his talent attracted notice and pleased his family, every
+encouragement being given him by his parents in his studies. It was
+only when, as a boy of twelve, he viewed art as the serious work of
+his future life, and when this view was met by the authorities as one
+not to be encouraged, that the strong passion of his nature asserted
+its rights. Clearly in opposition are planted the firmest roots of
+those inevitable developments which make the great of the world great.
+In Leighton was nurtured that sense of responsibility towards his
+vocation, so salient a characteristic throughout his career, partly by
+his father's attitude towards the worship of his nature for beauty and
+for her exponent art. To prove that his self-chosen labour was no mere
+play work, no mere avoiding the hard work of life and the duller paths
+of service generally recognised only as of serious use to mankind, for
+a game which was a mere pleasure, was a strong additional incentive to
+Leighton's own high aspirations, inspiring him yet more to treat the
+development of his gifts as a moral responsibility. He considered it
+almost in the light of a debt owing to those to whom he was attached
+by strong family affection, that he should prove good his cause.
+Though he fought and overcame, having once won his point, he did his
+utmost to satisfy his father's ambition for him, and to be "eminent."
+
+On August 5, 1879, he wrote to Mrs. Mark Pattison, who was compiling
+notes for an article on his life: "My father, of his own impulse, sat
+down to write a few jottings, which I cannot resist sending you,
+because I was touched at the thought in this kind old man of eighty.
+_He_, by the way, _is_ a fine scholar, and was, at his best, a man of
+exceptional intellectual powers. My desire to be an artist dates as
+far back as my memory, and was wholly spontaneous, or rather
+unprompted. My parents surrounded me with every facility to learn
+drawing, but, as I have told you, _strongly_ discountenanced the idea
+of my being an artist unless I could be eminent in art."
+
+    [Illustration: LORD LEIGHTON'S FATHER
+                   LORD LEIGHTON'S MOTHER
+    From Miniatures, by permission of Mr. H.S. Mendelssohn]
+
+Still--though to excel was Leighton's aim, in order to satisfy his
+father's and also his own ambition--within the hidden recesses of that
+aim lay the reverent, more single-hearted worship for his mistress
+Art--seldom unveiled, it would seem, when with his father, to whose
+purely intellectual and philosophical attitude of mind it would not
+have appealed. Those alone possessed the key to that inner sanctuary
+who did not need the key; who wanted no introduction, and were not
+merely sympathisers, but native inhabitants. There is a freemasonry
+between the inmates of these places remote from the world's usual
+habitations, and these, naturally, have a horror of vaunting the
+possession of a sacred ground to the outsider, the uninitiated. Many
+of Leighton's most intimate acquaintances gathered no clue, through
+their knowledge of him, of the existence of the secluded spot. Dr.
+Leighton's influence, however, non-artistic as was his nature,
+stimulated his son's natural mental elasticity, encouraging a
+comprehensive and unprejudiced view of life and people, a view which
+marked Leighton's undertakings with a stamp of nobility and
+distinction throughout his career. Yet further--the intellectual
+training he received in youth probably enlarged, in some respects, the
+areas of the sacred sanctuary itself, enabling Leighton, when he was
+the servant of the public and possessing wide influence and patronage,
+not only to exercise power with the qualities which spring from a high
+intellectual development, but to mellow with wisdom the guidance of
+the yet higher sympathies of the heart, when helping those staggering
+along the road which he himself had travelled over with such success.
+To many, however, especially to those possessing the artistic
+temperament, it must always remain, to say the least, a questionable
+advantage to a student of art that his intellectual faculties should
+be forced forward at the expense of the development of his more
+emotional and ingenuous instincts, at the age when sensitiveness to
+receive impressions is keenest, and when such impressions have the
+most lasting power in moulding the future tendencies of his nature.
+Certainly the effects of a development of critical and analytical
+faculties is apt to prove a damper to those ecstasies of enthusiasm
+which inspire the most convincing conceptions in art. When first
+starting and facing seriously his independent career alone, Leighton
+writes to his mother: "I wish that I had a mind, simple and
+unconscious as a child." Again, writing to his elder sister from
+Algiers in 1857, after describing the delightful impression produced
+by a first visit to an Eastern country, he adds: "And yet what I have
+said of my feelings, though _literally true_, does not give you an
+exactly true notion, for together with, and as it were behind, so much
+pleasurable emotion, there is always that other strange second man in
+me, calm, observant, critical, unmoved, blas�--odious! He is a shadow
+that walks with me, a sort of nineteenth-century canker of doubt and
+dissection; it's very, very seldom that I forget his loathsome
+presence. What cheering things I find to say!"
+
+Allied to the third, more intimate aspect of his nature were phases in
+Leighton's feelings when heart would seem to conquer head. He would at
+times indulge in what might almost be designated as a self-imposed
+blindness, when he would allow of no criticism by himself or others of
+the cause or person in question. An enthusiastic, unselfish devotion,
+a sense of chivalry or pity, would override his normally
+clear-sighted, intellectual acumen. Having set his belief and
+admiration to one tune, faithful loyalty--and maybe a certain amount
+of obstinacy--would bind him fast in an adherence to the same.
+
+    [Illustration: EARLY PICTURE OF BOY RESCUING SLEEPING BABY
+    FROM EAGLE
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+Belonging also to the intuitive, more emotional side of his nature,
+was the curiously strong influence places exercised over him, certain
+localities affecting him and exciting his sympathies with a strong
+power.
+
+In 1857 he wrote to his elder sister: "If I am as faithful to my wife
+as I am to the places I love, I shall do very well!"
+
+In order to seize fully Leighton's complete individuality, an
+understanding of Italy, his "second home," is perhaps necessary--a
+conception of the nature of the unsophisticated Italian life which
+fascinated him so greatly when as yet no invasion had been made of
+cosmopolitan, so-called civilisation. As a magnet, Italy drew Leighton
+to her.[6] Under the influence of her radiant beauty, breathing such a
+life of charm and colour beneath sunlit skies, he felt the sources of
+happiness in his own nature expand and his powers ripen. In the
+fertility of her soil, the vitality of her people, the superb quality
+of her art--fine and gracious in its perfection, and distributed
+generously throughout the length and breadth of her land--he
+experienced influences which intensified his emotions and vivified his
+imagination. The child-like charm of her people, so spontaneously
+happy, enjoying the ease and assurance of nature's own aristocracy,
+because enjoying nature's generous gifts with unabashed fulness of
+sensation, in whom are non-existent those sensibilities which create
+self-consciousness, restraint, and an absence of self-confidence,
+aroused in Leighton an interest deeper than mere pleasure. It was to
+him like the joy of a yearning satisfied, as of those who, having had
+their lot cast for years with aliens and foreigners, find themselves
+again with their own kith and kin, surrounded by the native atmosphere
+which had lent such enchantment to childhood. Again and again he
+returned to Italy to be made happy, to be revived, to be strengthened
+by her. Her influence became kneaded into his very being, not only
+nourishing his sense of beauty and rendering more complete the artist
+nature within him, but touching the sources from which his artist
+temperament sprang, inspiring his very personality and changing it
+into one which was certainly not typically English. His rapid
+utterance, his picturesque gesture, his very appearance, were not
+emphatically English.[7]
+
+Certain Englishmen who knew Leighton but slightly felt out of sympathy
+with him for this reason, experiencing a difficulty in recognising him
+as one of themselves. It was, however, only on the surface that a
+difference existed. Once intimate with Leighton, he was ever found to
+be _au fond_ English of the English. After the age of thirty it was in
+England Leighton fought the serious battle of life--Italy was but the
+playground, though a playground of such fascination to him that the
+glamour of it was spread over the working hours no less than over the
+holidays. In these days we have to go into the smaller towns and
+villages to discover the typical Italian characteristics; but when
+Leighton, as a child, was taken from the gloom of Bloomsbury to this,
+to him a magic world,--syndicates, building-companies, tramways, and
+modern things generally, had not as yet invaded either Rome or
+Florence. When grown up and master of his own actions, he wandered
+into unsophisticated haunts--villages and towns off the beaten tracks,
+where with abnormal facility he learned the distinctive _p�tois_ of
+every district, listening with delight to local folk-songs, and
+watching the peasants and the aborigines of the soil. In early
+sketch-books we find records of visits to Albano, Tivoli, Cervaro,
+Subiaco, San Giuminiano, and to even smaller and less known villages
+in Tuscany and Veneziano, where he enjoyed the unalloyed flavour of
+Italy and her people. Those who pay only flying visits to the country
+after they are grown up would find a difficulty perhaps in realising
+what Italy was to Leighton; but any one visiting for a few weeks even
+such a well-known place as Albano, without other preoccupation than to
+watch the natives and wander in the beautiful scenery to the sound of
+the many flowing fountains, could still catch something of the true
+national spirit which fascinated him so greatly. The typical Britisher
+might regard the ways of these natives of the _Provincia di Roma_ as
+irrational, idle, semi-savage. Doubtless the streets and piazzas
+abound in noisy inhabitants, gesticulating with wild dramatic fervour,
+who appear to have otherwise little to do in life but to loiter and
+"look on"; sociable groups of women sit round the doorways knitting;
+but it is the talk, accompanied by excited action, which is engrossing
+them. Charmingly pretty children are playing everywhere--idle,
+troublesome, but so happy! To the accompanying sound of running
+waters,--night and day,--cries, yells, and songs ring out through the
+ancient little town.[8] High up on the side of the mountains it
+overlooks the Roman Campagna, the tragic strangeness of those
+land-waves rolling away, flattened and stretched out, for miles and
+miles, under the dome of light and shadowing cloud, a network of
+bright gleams and violet lakelets, to the far-off brilliant shine on
+the sea limit.[9] This noise, dramatic action, gesticulation, all
+ending apparently in nothing in particular, but filling the little
+town with such amazing vitality--what is it all about? The typical
+Englishman does not know--does not care to know, despising the whole
+thing as beneath his notice. But Leighton knew well what it meant.
+From experiences in his own nature he realised that it was but an
+innocent outlet, through voice and gesture, of an excitement resulting
+from an imperative dramatic instinct, a vital force in the emotional
+nature of the Italian. He recognised the necessity for such an outlet
+in such temperaments through his sympathy with the glad exuberance of
+physical vitality enjoyed in this sunlit land; anti-puritan though it
+may be, this exuberance is none the less pure and innocent.
+
+The holy Saint Francis in his ecstasies of spiritual illumination
+would, it is said, break out into song from the natural impulse to
+find an outlet and to throw off the excess of excitement, that
+thrilled through his being.[10]
+
+Leighton knew that to suppress the vitality which needs such an outlet
+was to minimise the forces necessary for life's best work. He himself,
+in the working of his mind, was possessed of a magnificent facility--a
+facility which left the strength of his emotions fresh and free, to
+enjoy the ecstasies of admiration and delight which the choice gifts
+of nature and art had given him; but there are many among modern men
+and women, taught by much reading, who overweight their physical
+vitality in the effort to develop intellect and to forward
+self-interest, till all simple physical enjoyment is lost, and the
+natural man becomes repressed into a mental machine incapable of any
+spontaneous emotions of joy, and blunt to the fine aroma of life's
+keen and pure pleasures--
+
+    "My nature is subdued to what it works in."
+
+To Leighton the simple joyous child of nature, in the form of the
+unsophisticated Italian, was a preferable being. To the end of his
+life he retained much of the child in his own nature, and had ever an
+inborn sympathy with the love for children so evident everywhere in
+unspoilt Italy; for the gracious caressing of them by the poorest of
+the poor--old men in the veriest tatters and rags showing a complete
+and beautiful submission to the dominating charms of babyhood.
+
+The memory of the hideous, gruesome stories of baby-farming in England
+strikes indeed a contrast with the scenes that abound at every turn
+in any old, dirty, picturesque Italian village, and assuredly settles
+the question, Is our English development of civilisation an unalloyed
+benefit?
+
+As a contrast to the definite, explicit German development of his
+intellectual machinery, Leighton had special sympathy with the
+emotional spontaneity of the Italian race; also as a contrast to the
+selective and finely poised conclusions to be worked out in theories
+of composition learnt from his beloved master Steinle, arose a special
+admiration for the casual, unpremeditated, inevitable grace and charm
+in the manners and gestures of this southern people. What laboured
+theories so often failed to achieve, nature here was always doing in
+her most careless moods.
+
+In considering the intimate aspect of Leighton's nature, and the
+interweaving of the original fabric with the forces developed by the
+circumstances he encountered, the influence of Italy must assuredly be
+given a very distinct prominence. From her and her people he acquired
+courage in the exercise of his intuitive preferences, also a
+development of that rapid and direct insight so inborn in her
+children. Like the lizards that dart with such lightning speed across
+her sun-scorched walls and over the gnarled bark of the weird olive
+tree, the perceptions of the typical Italian are swift, and fly
+straight to the mark. In the Italian, however, this vividness of
+perception is mostly expended in ejaculation and dramatic gesture,
+which,--subsiding,--leaves a state of indolence and nonchalance,
+untroubled by any mental exertion. In Leighton the rapidity with which
+his perceptions seized the core of truth was backed by an intellectual
+activity of extraordinary power, by which he worked his intuitive
+sensibilities into the interests which guided the solid aims of his
+life.
+
+Probably no Englishman ever approached the Greek of the Periclean
+period so nearly as did Leighton, for the reason that he possessed
+that combination of intellectual and emotional power in a like rare
+degree. The human beings who achieve most as active workers in the
+world, are doubtless those in whom can be traced a capacity for making
+apparently incompatible forces pull together towards a desired end.
+Leighton succeeded in allying two distinct developments in his nature;
+and by, so to say, putting these into double harness and driving them
+together, acquired an advantage which few other artists, if any, have
+possessed since the time of the Greeks.
+
+But, being essentially English as well as Greek-like, Leighton pushed
+this combination of powers to a moral issue. He held as his creed of
+creeds that the mission of Art was to act as a lever in the uplifting
+of the human race, not by going beyond her own domain, but by
+directing the sense of beauty with which her true priesthood must ever
+be endowed, in order to eliminate from man his more brutal tendencies,
+to refine and perfect his insight into nature, and to develop his
+delight in her perfection. He held that, the stronger the emotional
+force in an artist, the stronger the sense of responsibility should
+be; the more he should seek to express it in a manner which would
+elevate rather than deprave. In his picture of "Cymon and Iphigenia,"
+Leighton expressed the main dogma of his belief. In sentences towards
+the end of his second address to the Royal Academy students in the
+year 1881, he eloquently describes the complex and deep nature of
+those �sthetic emotions whence spring the Arts:--
+
+"It is not, it cannot be, the foremost duty of Art to seek to embody
+that which it cannot adequately present, and to enter into a
+competition in which it is doomed to inevitable defeat.
+
+"On the other hand, there is a field in which she has no rival. We
+have within us the faculty for a range of emotions of vast compass, of
+exquisite subtlety, and of irresistible force, to which Art and Art
+alone amongst human forms of expression has a key; these then, and no
+others, are the chords which it is her appointed duty to strike; and
+Form, Colour, and the contrasts of Light and Shade are the agents
+through which it is given to her to set them in motion. Her duty is,
+therefore, to awaken those sensations directly emotional and
+indirectly intellectual, which can be communicated only through the
+sense of sight, to the delight of which she has primarily to minister.
+And the dignity of these sensations lies in this, that they are
+inseparably connected by association of ideas, with a range of
+perceptions and feelings of infinite variety and scope. They come
+fraught with dim complex memories of all the ever-shifting spectacle
+of inanimate creation, and of the more deeply stirring phenomena of
+life; of the storm and the lull, the splendour and the darkness of the
+outer world; of the storm and the lull, the splendour and the darkness
+of the changeful and transitory lives of men. Nay, so closely overlaid
+is the simple �sthetic sensation with elements of ethic or
+intellectual emotion by these constant and manifold accretions of
+associated ideas, that it is difficult to conceive of it independently
+of this precious overgrowth.... The most sensitively religious mind
+may indeed rest satisfied in the consciousness that it is not on the
+wings of abstract thought alone that we rise to the highest moods of
+contemplation, or to the most chastened moral temper; and assuredly
+Arts which have for their chief task to reveal the inmost springs of
+Beauty in the created world, to display all the pomp of the teeming
+earth, and all the pageant of those heavens of which we are told that
+they declare the Glory of God, are not the least eloquent witnesses to
+the might and to the majesty of the mysterious and eternal Fountain of
+all good things."
+
+Not only could no attempt be approximately made at giving a real and
+vivid picture of Leighton's remarkable personality were not the three
+aspects of his nature taken into account, but also if the influences
+which affected him strongly during those years when his genius and
+character were being developed were not also considered. His
+conscious nature and feelings, during the first thirty years of his
+life, can be best traced in his letters, notably in those to his
+mother. It is easy to recognise, in reading his mother's letters to
+him, from whom he inherits the warm tender generosity which made his
+nature so lovable.
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR EDOUARD STEINLE
+    Drawn by Himself]
+
+When at Frankfort, in 1845, he first became acquainted with the most
+"indelible" influence of his life in that inner sanctuary in which he
+had hitherto been a lonely inmate. Seven years later, in the Diary he
+calls "Pebbles," written for his mother, when, fully fledged, he
+leaves the nest to battle alone on the field of life, he pays a
+tribute of unqualified affection and gratitude to his master, Steinle,
+who first unlocked the door to Leighton's full consciousness of the
+depth of his devotion for his calling (see pp. 61 and 62).
+
+In 1879, the year after Leighton was elected President of the Royal
+Academy, in the same letter to Mrs. Mark Pattison already quoted from,
+he writes, respecting the influences which affected his art
+development: "For _bad_ by Florentine Academy, for good, far beyond
+all others, by Steinle, a noble-minded, single-hearted artist, _s'il
+en fut_. Technically, I learnt (later) much from Robert Fleury, but
+being very receptive and prone to admire, I have learnt, and still do,
+from innumerable artists, big and small. Steinle's is, however, the
+_indelible seal_. The _thoroughness_ of all the great old masters is
+so pervading a quality that I look upon them all as forming one
+aristocracy."
+
+During the first year when he settled in Rome, in the beginning of
+1853, he made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris. Leighton's
+friendship with Mrs. Sartoris (Adelaide Kemble), many years his
+senior, and one who had ever viewed her art as a singer from the
+purest and highest aspect, became a strong and elevating influence in
+his life. Professor Giovanni Costa (the "Nino" of the letters), one
+of Leighton's most intimate friends from the year 1853 to the end in
+1896, wrote of Mrs. Sartoris, referring to the early days in Rome from
+1853 to 1856:[11] "The greatest influence on the life of Frederic
+Leighton was exerted by Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris (Miss Adelaide Kemble),
+who had the mind of a great artist. Mr. Sartoris was one of the
+greatest critics of art, and Mrs. Sartoris had a most elevated and
+serene nature."
+
+This great friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris brought with it many
+others, notably those of Robert Browning and of Mr. Henry Greville.
+Some years later, Leighton writes of Mr. Henry Greville, in a letter
+to his pupil and friend, Mr. John Walker: "He is indeed one of the
+kindest and best men possible, I look on him myself as a second
+father"; and Henry Greville in a letter to Leighton writes: "I wish
+you were my son, Fay"--Fay being the name given to Leighton by his
+inner circle of intimates, and certainly a stroke of genius in the one
+who invented it. Writing from Frankfort to his mother, where he
+returned to show his works to Steinle after his family had finally
+migrated to Bath and he to Rome, he says: "I have had such a letter
+from Henry (Henry Greville); there never was anything like the
+tenderness of it. You would have been just enchanted."
+
+The friendship with Mrs. Sartoris only ended with her death in 1879,
+the year after Leighton was elected President of the Royal Academy.
+Being then close upon fifty, deeply sensible of the grave
+responsibilities involved by his new position, Leighton entered on a
+fresh phase in his career. As president of the centre of national
+living art, this phase involved a serious view being taken of the
+interests of art such as could be encouraged by a public body. Also as
+one who had been helped and encouraged by personal friendship and
+influence to work out the best in him, with his ever eager and
+generous nature he felt anxious to hand on the help he had received by
+devoting a like sympathy to the individual interests of other workers.
+His field of action had become enlarged, and he rose with consummate
+ability to the fulfilment of the duties this larger area entailed on
+him. Not only by his biennial addresses to the students of the Royal
+Academy, but by the speeches delivered spontaneously at the councils
+and elsewhere, when no preparation would have been possible, his fame
+as an orator was established. Many there are who have heard the
+impromptu speeches he made, who can vouch, as do Mr. Briton Rivi�re
+and Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, that these were just as fine in language and
+excellent in the concise form in which the words were made to convey
+the intended meaning, as those which Leighton had carefully prepared
+beforehand, and possessed, moreover, the charm of an unlaboured
+effort.
+
+    [Illustration: FROM DRAWING OF ADELAIDE SARTORIS
+    Paris, 1856]
+
+The seventeen years, during which Leighton was President of the Royal
+Academy, and prominent in every direction as the leader of the art of
+his country, were not without saddening influences. His duties
+necessitated contact with many varieties of human nature, some far
+from sympathetic to him. The contrast between his own disinterested
+reverence for beauty, moral and physical, with the indifference
+displayed by many of his brother artists towards his own high aims and
+aspirations, forced itself more and more on Leighton as the optimistic
+fervour and enthusiasm of youth waned with years and failing health.
+He had to face the depressing fact that selfish motives are the ruling
+factors with most men, even with those who ostensibly follow the
+calling of beauty. Much of the joyousness of his spirit was lessened
+accordingly, though his "sweet reasonableness," to quote Watts' truly
+suggestive words, never deserted him. This prevented any bitterness or
+resentment from finding permanent location in his nature. Another
+source of distress arose from the fact that his great position
+aroused the jealousy of the envious. However exceptional his tact,
+however truly heartfelt his consideration for others, no virtues could
+stand against the vice of being so pre-eminently successful in the
+eyes of the envious, whose vanity alone placed them in their own
+estimation on a level with the great.
+
+Nothing perhaps excites so rampant a jealousy in unappreciative and
+envious natures, as does the unexplainable charm of a delightful
+personality. It aggravates the dull and envious beyond measure to see
+a being thus endowed galloping over the ground in all directions with
+ease, there being in their eyes no sufficient explanation for the
+pace. Such success is viewed by the envious as a kind of trick, some
+witchery of fascination, which deludes the world into bestowing
+unmerited advantages on the conjuror. Those, on the contrary, who can
+appreciate a transcendent and delightful personality, recognise it as
+the convincing grace of the power of uncommon gifts flashing their
+radiance into the intercourse of every-day life, modestly ignored as
+conscious possessions but inevitably sparkling out in any human
+intercourse, and from a social point of view making the greatest among
+us the servants of all.
+
+Jealousy fights with hidden weapons. What man or woman ever
+acknowledged being jealous? The passion is disguised. Hence the
+hideous sins that follow in its wake: ingratitude, treachery,
+calumnies, are called into the service to blacken the offending
+object. Bacon says of envy: "It is also the vilest affection, and the
+most depraved; for which cause it is the proper attribute of the
+devil, who is called _the envious man, that soweth tares amongst the
+wheat by night_, as it always cometh to pass that envy worketh
+subtilly, and in the dark; and to the prejudice of good things, such
+as is the wheat."
+
+Leighton suffered from the jealousy of the envious, though in most
+cases the open expression of it was smothered during his life by
+reason of his power and position. Besides being tender-hearted and
+easily hurt at any feeling of hostility shown against him, he
+cordially hated any phase of the ugly.
+
+In the spring of 1895 Leighton said to a friend: "My one constant
+prayer is that I should not live beyond seventy." His great dread was
+to be a burden to any one--to cease to be useful to all. His wish was
+more than fulfilled. He passed onward five years before the allotted
+three score and ten.
+
+Many there were who felt with Watts that life was indeed darkened; "a
+great light was extinguished," a beloved friend was no longer amongst
+them to help, encourage, and brighten the days. To a wide social
+circle, a personality, rare in its charm and endowments, differing
+from all others, had passed off the stage. It was as if, amid the
+sober brown and grey plumage of our quiet-coloured English birds,
+through the mists and fogs of our northern clime, there had sped
+across the page of our nineteenth century history the flight of some
+brilliant-hued flamingo, emitting flashes of light and colour on his
+way.
+
+To the wide public a power and a control, noble and distinguished in
+its quality, had ceased to rule over the art interests of the country.
+Last, but not least, to his "brothers and sisters," as Leighton called
+all earnest students and artists, it was as if a strong support, a
+centre of impelling force, an inspiration towards the best and highest
+in art, had been suddenly swept away.
+
+On the day of his funeral, a friend, whose husband had known him from
+the commencement to the end of the brilliant career, wrote the
+following notes:--[12]
+
+"Lord Leighton's funeral to-day was as brilliant as his life, and we
+came home from the majestic ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral feeling
+that his kind and gracious spirit would have rejoiced--for all he
+loved and honoured in life were there mourning for the loss of their
+gifted and genial friend. As the procession moved slowly into the
+Cathedral the crimson and golden pall was Venetian in its brilliancy,
+and the long branch of palm spoke touchingly of pain over and the
+conquest won. Music, the sister Art he so devoutly worshipped, lifted
+up her voice in pathetic accents to the dome of the vast Cathedral,
+striving to re-echo the solemnity and grief around.
+
+"Dear gracious Leighton, how vividly my husband recalled his earliest
+impressions of him, the handsome young artist at Rome. Visions arise
+in the mind of joyous days in his second home there, the cultured and
+hospitable house of Adelaide Sartoris, which formed the happy
+background of Leighton's life. He remembered the departure of his
+picture 'The Triumph of Cimabue,' sent with diffidence, and so,
+proportionate was the joy when news came of its success, and that the
+Queen had bought it. It was the month of May. Rome was at its
+loveliest, and Leighton's friends and brother artists gave him a
+festal dinner to celebrate his honours. On receiving the news,
+Leighton's first act was to fly to three less successful artists and
+buy a picture from each of them (George Mason, then still unknown, was
+one), and so Leighton reflected his own happiness at once on others.
+To-day as we viewed the distinguished (in the best sense of the term)
+mourners, it seemed an epitome of all his social and artistic life. He
+never forgot an old friend, and not one was absent to-day. The men
+around his coffin all looked heartily sad. It was only when those
+peaceful words came, 'We give Thee hearty thanks, for that it hath
+pleased Thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this
+sinful world,' that we remembered the agony of his last three days on
+earth, and we could be glad for our dear friend that it was past. We
+could give hearty thanks, but it was for him and him alone, for we
+turn with heavy hearts to our homes, feeling that with Frederic
+Leighton ever so much kindness, love, and colour has gone out of the
+world."
+
+    [Illustration: CRYPT UNDER ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, WHERE BARRY,
+    SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, TURNER, AND LORD LEIGHTON WERE BURIED
+    From a photo, by permission of Messrs. S.B. Bolas & Co.]
+
+Attached to the wreath which lay on his coffin were the lines written
+by our Queen:--
+
+    "Life's race well run,
+     Life's work well done,
+     Life's crown well won,
+     Now comes rest."
+
+In Leighton's own letters, more than is possible in any other written
+words, will be traced those qualities of character and feeling which
+guided the rare gifts nature had bestowed. These, used with unstinting
+generosity for the benefit of others, established for our national art
+a position, cosmopolitan in its influence, never previously attained
+by English painting and sculpture, and of which it may be fairly
+hoped, future generations, no less than the present, may reap the
+benefit.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] George Eliot--"Romola."
+
+[2] Lord Loch's cousin, Colonel Sutherland Orr, married Leighton's
+elder sister in the year 1857.
+
+[3] Quoted in G.F. Watts' "Reminiscences."
+
+[4] An incident, one out of many that tell of Leighton's hearty, eager
+helpfulness, happened on one of the evenings at the Academy, after the
+prizes had been given away. A student was passing through the first
+room, on his way to the entrance. He looked the picture of dejection
+and disappointed wretchedness, poorly and shabbily dressed, and
+slinking away as if he wished to pass out of the place unnoticed.
+Millais and Leighton, walking arm in arm, came along, pictures of
+prosperity. Leighton caught sight of the poor, downcast student.
+Leaving Millais, he darted across the vestibule to him, and, taking the
+student's arm, drew him back into the first room, and made him sit down
+on the ottoman beside him. Putting his arm on the top of the ottoman,
+and resting his head on his hand, Leighton began to talk as he alone
+could talk; pouring forth volumes of earnest, rapid utterances, as if
+everything in the world depended on his words conveying what he wanted
+them to convey. He went on and on. The shabby figure gradually seemed
+to pull itself together, and, at last, when they both rose, he seemed
+to have become another creature. Leighton shook hands with him, and the
+youth went on his way rejoicing. It is certain that if other help than
+advice were needed, it was given. But it was the extraordinary zest and
+vitality which Leighton put into his help which made it unlike any
+other. He fought every one's cause even better than others fight their
+own.
+
+[5] In Plato's "Ph�drus," Socrates says: "The soul, which has seen
+most of trouble, shall come to the birth as a philosopher, or artist,
+or musician, or lover; that which has seen truth in the second degree,
+shall be a righteous king, or warrior, or lord; the soul which is of
+the third class, shall be a politician, or economist, or trader; the
+fourth, shall be a lover of gymnastic toils, or a physician; the fifth,
+a prophet, or hierophant; to the sixth, a poet or imitator will be
+'appropriate'; to the seventh, the life of an artisan, or husbandman;
+to the eighth, that of a sophist, or demagogue; to the ninth, that of a
+tyrant; all these are states of probation, in which he who lives
+righteously, improves, and he who lives unrighteously, deteriorates his
+lot."
+
+[6] He wrote to his sister in 1857 from Algiers: "I shall spend my next
+winter in my dear, dear old Rome, to which I am attached beyond
+measure; indeed, Italy altogether has a hold on my heart that no other
+country ever can have (except, of course, my own), and although, as I
+just now said, I was most delighted with Africa, and have not a moment
+to look back to that was not agreeable, yet there is an intimate little
+corner in my affections into which it could never penetrate." And later
+he wrote in a letter to his mother: "I have so often been to Italy, and
+so often written to you from thence, that it seems quite a platitude to
+tell you how much I enjoy it, and what a keen delight I felt again this
+time when I once more trod the soil of this wonderful country; indeed,
+by the time you get this you will already yourself be in full enjoyment
+of its pleasures, and though naturally you cannot feel one tittle of my
+attachment and yearning affection for it, yet you will have all the
+physical delights of sun and serene skies and a good share of the
+wonder and admiration at the inexhaustible natural beauties of this
+garden of the world. I came through Switzerland this time, but as quick
+as a shot, as I was in a hurry to get _home_ to Italy."
+
+[7] Du Maurier, who took much interest in tracing indications of
+various racial distinctions in the remarkable people of his time, was
+troubled on this point. He was convinced that in Leighton existed
+indications of foreign or Jewish blood, but was quite unable to
+discover any facts in support of this theory.
+
+[8] Leighton wrote in a letter to his sister from Algiers of the
+strange sounds which the Moors emit, adding: "Much the same sort of
+thing is noticeable in the peasants near Rome, whose songs consist
+(within a definite shape) of long-sustained chest notes that are
+peculiar in the extreme, and though often harsh, seem to be wonderfully
+in harmony with the long unbroken lines of the Campagna."
+
+[9] On December 1, 1856, Leighton writes to Steinle: "My Italian
+journey afforded me in every way the greatest pleasure and edification,
+and I seem now for the first time to have grasped the greatness of the
+Campagna and the giant loftiness of Michael Angelo."
+
+[10] "Apr�s de pareilles �motions, il avait besoin d'�tre seul, de
+savourer sa joie, de chanter sa libert� d�finitivement conquise, sur
+tous les sentiers le long desquels il avait tant g�mi, tant lutt�.
+
+"Il ne voulut donc pas retourner imm�diatement � Saint-Damien. Sortant
+de la cit� par la porte la plus voisine, il s'enfon�a dans les sentiers
+d�serts qui grimpent sur les flancs du Mont Subasio. On �tait aux tout
+premiers jours du printemps. Il y avait encore �� et l� de grandes
+fondri�res de neige, mais sous les ardeurs du soleil de mars l'hiver
+semblait s'avouer vaincu. Au sein de cette harmonie, myst�rieuse et
+troublante, le coeur de Fran�ois vibrait d�licieusement, tout son �tre
+se calmait et s'exaltait; l'�me des choses le caressait doucement et
+lui versait l'apaisement. Un bonheur inconnu l'envahissait; pour
+c�l�brer sa victoire et sa libert�, il remplit bient�t toute la for�t
+du bruit de ses chants.
+
+"Les �motions trop douces ou trop profondes pour pouvoir �tre exprim�es
+dans la langue ordinaire, l'homme les chante."--_Vie de S. Fran�ois
+d'Assise, par Paul Sabatier._
+
+[11] "Notes on Lord Leighton," _Cornhill Magazine_, March 1897.
+
+[12] The _Morning Post_ of February 4, 1896.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ANTECEDENTS AND SCHOOL DAYS
+
+1830-1852
+
+
+Some light is thrown on Leighton's ancestry by the following letter,
+written by Sir Baldwyn Leighton to Sir Albert Woods, Garter, at the
+time when a peerage was bestowed on Frederic Leighton. It deals with
+the question of associating the name of Stretton with the Barony.
+
+                                        "TABLEY HOUSE, KNUTSFORD,
+                                              _January 10, 1896._
+
+    "DEAR SIR,--In answer to yours of January 9, I beg to say that
+    there are two places called Stretton in the County of Salop;
+    one, now known as Church Stretton, having become a small town,
+    was formerly in the possession of my family through the
+    marriage of John de Leighton, my lineal ancestor, with the
+    daughter and heiress of William Cambray of Stretton in the
+    fourteenth century, whose arms we still quarter (see Herald's
+    Visitation for Shropshire). This no longer belongs to me,
+    having been mortgaged and sold by Sir Thomas Leighton, Kt.
+    Banneret, temp. Hen. VIII. But there is another Stretton in
+    the parish of Alderbury with Cardeston which does still belong
+    to me, and has always belonged to the family from time
+    immemorial. I have been in communication with Sir Frederic
+    Leighton on the subject, and it _is_ my wish that he should
+    adopt the supplemental title of Stretton. According to a
+    pedigree made out by a Shropshire antiquarian some thirty
+    years ago, Sir Frederic's branch descends from the younger son
+    of the John de Leighton who married the Cambray heiress, and
+    who was admitted burgess of Shrewsbury in 1465. Therefore I
+    am of opinion that it _is_ a very proper supplemental title
+    for Sir Frederic to assume.--I remain, yours, &c.,
+
+                                               "BALDWYN LEIGHTON.
+
+   "To Sir ALBERT WOODS, Garter."
+
+In 1862, Leighton writes to his mother:--
+
+"You must know that I received some time back a letter from the _Rev.
+Wm. Leighton_ (address, _Luciefelde, Shrewsbury_) asking me very
+politely to give him whatever information I could about our family, as
+he was making a pedigree of the Leighton family, and was anxious to
+find out something about a branch that had settled and been lost sight
+of in London. I answered that I regretted I could give him no definite
+information on the subject, beyond our belief that we were of a
+younger branch of the Shropshire Leightons, whose arms and crest we
+bore, that I knew personally nothing of my family further back than my
+grandfather, telling him who and what he was. I ended by referring him
+_to Papa_, to whom I immediately wrote, telling him the nature of Mr.
+Leighton's request, and begging him to write to him at once in case he
+could give him any clue that might facilitate his researches. I then
+received a second, and very interesting, letter from Mr. L. telling me
+that he had found in Yorkshire some Leightons (I forget the Christian
+names, but not Robert) who claimed to descend from the Shropshire
+stock, and whose crest differed from the Leighton crest exactly as
+ours does, _i.e._ in the _forward_ expansion of the right wing of the
+Wyvern; a peculiarity, by the by, which did not appear to be of weight
+with him. There was more in this letter which I don't clearly
+remember, but nothing establishing our claim; this letter I
+immediately forwarded to you, and since then both myself and Mr.
+Leighton have been waiting to hear from Papa."
+
+The conclusion arrived at from these inquiries was--that, three or
+four hundred years ago, the descendants of John de Leighton and the
+Cambray heiress migrated from Shropshire to Yorkshire, and that
+Leighton's grandfather, Sir James Leighton, court physician to the
+Emperor Nicholas of Russia, was a descendant of this branch. Dr.
+Leighton, the artist's father, married the daughter of George Augustus
+Nash of Edmonton. He and his wife, early in their married life, went
+to St. Petersburg, and it was supposed that he would probably succeed
+his father as court physician to the Czar, who favoured Sir James
+Leighton with his intimacy; but the climate of St. Petersburg not
+suiting Mrs. Leighton's health, they remained there but a few years.
+It was at St. Petersburg that the two eldest children were born,
+Fanny, who died young, and Alexandra, the god-child of the Empress
+Alexandra, who became Mrs. Sutherland Orr. From St. Petersburg, the
+family moved to Scarborough, and it was at Scarborough, on December 3,
+1830, that the most famous member of the Leighton family was born. The
+question as to which was the actual house in which the event took
+place was satisfactorily settled at the time when Leighton was raised
+to the peerage, in letters which appeared in the press,--one
+containing the testimony of Mrs. Anne Thorley, who was in Dr.
+Leighton's service for three years with the family at Scarborough, and
+for two years after they moved to London. She affirms that Leighton
+was born in the house in Brunswick Terrace, now numbered 13, but which
+at that time consisted only of three houses. Mrs. Thorley adds,
+"Fred's mother was a splendid lady--such a good one with her children,
+and most affectionate."
+
+A second son named James, who died in his infancy, was also born at
+Scarborough, and five years after the birth of Leighton his younger
+sister Augusta, now Mrs. Matthews, was born in London.
+
+    [Illustration: Lord Leighton when a Boy
+    From a Portrait by Himself
+    By permission of Mr. H.S. Mendelssohn]
+
+    [Illustration: Lord Leighton's younger Sister when a Child
+    From a Drawing by Lord Leighton
+    By permission of Mr. H.S. Mendelssohn]
+
+Dr. Leighton had every prospect of excelling among those most
+distinguished in his profession. Deafness, however, by which he was
+unfortunately attacked about that time, made it impossible for him to
+practise any longer as a physician. Deprived of his active work, he
+turned his attention to more abstract lines of study, and to
+philosophy.
+
+In 1840, Mrs. Leighton, after a severe illness, required a drier
+climate than that of England, and the family travelled on the
+Continent, visiting Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.
+
+Family annals record the delight with which Leighton, the boy of ten,
+enjoyed the beauty of nature in Switzerland, the flowers and
+everything he saw in the land of mountains. When he reached Rome, the
+buildings, the fountains, the ruins, the models awaiting hire on the
+Piazza di Spagna, fascinated him, and he filled many sketch-books with
+records of all the picturesque scenes that struck him as so new and
+wonderful. From earliest days, drawing was Leighton's greatest
+amusement, and he had it always in his own mind that he would be an
+artist and nothing else. When in Rome, he was allowed to study drawing
+under Signor Meli, but his father insisted on other lessons being
+carried on with regularity and industry. We hear of his elder sister
+and Leighton learning Latin together from a young priest. Dr. Leighton
+had a commanding intelligence, and made his will felt. As with many
+fond fathers who centre their chief interest on an only son, and
+foster thoughts of a notable future for him, Dr. Leighton seems to
+have felt that the greater his interest and affection, the greater
+must be the exercise of strict discipline over his boy. Leighton
+received, to say the least, a stern upbringing from his father,
+mitigated, however, by the greatest tenderness from his mother. The
+boy's will respecting his future career proved sufficient for the
+occasion, and he had reason to be thankful that the general knowledge,
+which Dr. Leighton insisted on his acquiring, was instilled at so
+early an age. From the time he was ten years old he was made to study
+the classics, and at twelve he spoke French and Italian as fluently as
+English. Dr. Leighton had himself taught the boy anatomy, ever
+cherishing the hope that he would, when he came to years of
+discretion, renounce the idea of being an artist, and follow in the
+footsteps of his father and grandfather by becoming a doctor. In
+either case a knowledge of anatomy was thought necessary, and, in
+after years, Leighton declared he knew much more anatomy when he was
+fourteen than he did when he was President of the Royal Academy. "I
+owe," he said, "my knowledge to my father. He would teach me the names
+of the bones and the muscles. He would show them to me in action and
+in repose; then I would have to draw them from memory; until my memory
+drawing was perfect, he would not let it pass."
+
+The family returned to England for the summer of 1841, spending it at
+the paternal grandfather's country house at Greenford; and during the
+following winter Leighton studied at the University College School in
+London. Mrs. Leighton's health again declined in England, and the
+family migrated to Germany, the country chosen by Dr. Leighton as that
+in which the education of the children could be best carried forward.
+Leighton studied under tutors at Berlin, it being only in his spare
+moments that he found time to sketch, or to visit the galleries. Then
+followed a move to Frankfort, and thence to Florence. There he was
+allowed to enter the studio of Bezzuoli and Servolini, celebrated
+artists in Florence, but of whose real greatness Leighton, even at
+that early age, entertained his doubts. It was in Florence that the
+father's will had finally to submit to the son's passion for his
+vocation. Dr. Leighton was too wise to allow prejudice to affect his
+serious actions. He could no longer blind himself to the fact, that
+this desire to be an artist was a vital matter with his son. He felt
+it would be wrong to try and override the boy's desires without
+seeking the opinion of an expert on art matters as to whether there
+was any probability of Leighton excelling. He therefore took him and
+his drawings to Hiram Powers, the sculptor, for the verdict to be
+given. The well-known conversation took place after Powers had
+examined the work.
+
+"Shall I make him a painter?" asked Dr. Leighton.
+
+"Sir, you cannot help yourself; nature has made him one already,"
+answered the sculptor.
+
+"What can he hope for, if I let him prepare for this career?"
+
+"Let him aim at the highest," answered Powers; "he will be certain to
+get there."
+
+Leighton had won: he had now to prove good his cause. Even though
+theoretically his father had given in, he yet hoped that, as years
+went on, a change in his boy's views might come about; but he was
+allowed to work at the Accademia delle belle Arti, under Bezzuoli and
+Servolini, and besides continuing his study of anatomy with his
+father, Leighton attended classes in the hospital under Zanetti. Of
+this time in Florence, one of his life-long friends, Professor Costa,
+writes: "I knew, both from himself and from his fellow-students, that
+at the age of fourteen Leighton studied at the Academy of Florence
+under Bezzuoli and Servolini, who at this time (1842) had a great
+reputation. They were celebrated Florentines, excellent good men, but
+they could give but little light to this star, which was to become one
+of the first magnitude. Leighton, from his innate kindness, loved and
+esteemed his old masters much, though not agreeing in the judgment of
+his fellow-students that they should be considered on the same level
+as the ancient Florentines. 'And who have you,' said Leighton one day
+to a certain Bettino (who is still living), 'who resembles your
+ancient masters?' And Bettino answered, 'We have still to-day our
+great Michael Angelos, and Raffaels, in Bezzuoli, in Servolini, in
+Ciseri.' But this boy of twelve years old could not believe this, and
+one fine day got into the diligence, and left the Academy of Florence
+to return to England. Although the diligence went at a great pace, his
+fellow-students followed it on foot, running behind it, crying, 'Come
+back, Inglesino! come back, Inglesino! come back,' so much was he
+loved and respected. He did come back, in fact, many times to Italy,
+which he considered as his second fatherland."
+
+It was, however, at Frankfort, where the family settled in 1843, that
+Leighton fell under the real, living art influence of his life, in the
+person of Steinle. Leighton described this artist later as "an
+intensely fervent Catholic, a man of most striking personality, and of
+most courtly manners." In the temperament of this religious Catholic
+was united a fervour of feeling with a pure severity in the style of
+his art which belonged to the school of the Nazarenes, of which
+Steinle was a follower, Overbeck and Pf�hler having led the way. A
+spiritual ardour and spontaneity placed Steinle on a higher level as
+an artist than that on which the rest of the brotherhood stood.
+Leighton, boy as he was, at once realised in his master the existence
+of that "sincerity of emotion,"--to use his own words when preaching,
+nearly forty years later, to the Royal Academy students; a quality
+ever considered by him as an essential attribute of the true
+artist-nature--of that inner vision of the religious poet, of that
+finer fibre of temperament which endowed art in Leighton's eyes with
+higher qualities than science or philosophy alone could ever include.
+Steinle viewed art with the reverence and nobility of feeling which
+accorded with those aspirations that had been hinted to the boy's
+nature in his best moments, but which had had no sufficiently clear,
+decisive outline to inspire hitherto his actual performances. In
+Steinle's work he found the positive expression of those aspirations;
+there, in such art, was an absolute confutation of the creed that art
+was but a pleasant recreation, having no backbone in it to influence
+the serious work of the world; the creed which meant that, if taken up
+as a profession, it led but to the making of money by amusing the
+�sthetic sense of the public in a superficial manner. The view taken
+by the magnates--the "Barbarians" of the time--was, that unless a
+painter were a Raphael, a Titian, or a Reynolds, his position was
+little removed from that of the second-rate actor or the dancer. It
+was not the profession, but the individual prominence in it which
+alone saved the situation. In Steinle, Leighton found an exponent of
+art, who reverenced the vocation of art itself as one which should be
+sanctified by the purest aims and the highest aspirations.
+
+In the nature of one who exercises a strong influence over another is
+often found the real clue to the nature influenced. Circumstances had
+led Leighton to be reserved with regard to his deepest feelings
+respecting art, but with Steinle that reserve vanished. Under the
+influence of this master he realised an adequate cause for this
+deep-rooted, peremptory passion. Steinle's nature explains that of his
+pupil; for Leighton was, in an intimate sense, introduced to a full
+knowledge of his own self by Steinle. This influence, to use his own
+words, written more than thirty years later, was the "indelible seal,"
+because it made Leighton one with himself. The impress was given which
+steadied the whole nature. There was no vagueness of aim, no swaying
+to and fro, after he had once made Steinle his master. The religious
+nature also of the German artist had thrown a certain spell over him.
+Leighton possessed ever the most beautiful of all qualities--the power
+of feeling enthusiasm, of loving unselfishly, and generously _adoring_
+what he admired most. Fortunate, it may possibly have been, that his
+father's strict training developed his splendid intellectual powers at
+an early age; fortunate it certainly was, that, when emancipated from
+other trammels, he entered the service of art under an influence so
+pure, so vital in spiritual passion as was that of Steinle.
+
+However, it was not till Leighton reached the age of seventeen that he
+was allowed to give his time uninterruptedly to the study of art. At
+that age he had acquired sufficient knowledge of the classics and of
+the general lines of knowledge even to satisfy his father. He had also
+completely mastered the German, French, and Italian languages. The
+vitality of his brain was almost abnormal, otherwise his constitution
+was not strong. Constantly such phrases as "I am not ill, but I am
+never well" occur in his letters, and he suffered from weakness and
+heat, also from "blots" in his eyes, perhaps the result of scarlet
+fever, which he had as a child. His school days seem to have had their
+_mauvais moments_. When he was fifteen, his parents and elder sister
+went to England, leaving him and his little sister at school during
+their holidays. The love for his mother, and his longing to be with
+her, is told in the following pathetic appeal:--
+
+                                                 "FRANKFORT A/M.,
+                                         _Friday, June 26, 1845._
+
+    "[DEAR MAMMA],--Your letter, which I have just received,
+    caused me the greatest pleasure, for I have been anxiously
+    expecting it for three long days. I am very pleased to hear
+    that Lina is getting stronger, though slowly, and hope that
+    Hampstead will agree with her and you better than London. I am
+    very sorry to hear that you are not very well. I hope that the
+    country will refresh Papa after all his fatigues. I need not
+    tell you that I was very unhappy when I heard what you said
+    about my going to England; ever since I have been here, from
+    the time I wake to the time I go to bed, I think of London;
+    the other night, indeed, I went in my dream to see the new
+    British Museum. However, if there is nothing to be done....
+    From Hampstead you can see London, and there is the dear old
+    common where I and the Coodes used to play, and the pretty
+    little lake where I went to slide, and it's such a pleasant
+    walk to London and the galleries, and ... is there _no_ little
+    hole left for poor Punch?[13] On the 16th July all the
+    schoolboys go on a three weeks' journey, whose wing but yours
+    can take care of me for so long a time? I will ask for money
+    to buy a clothes-brush, I have none; 2 fl. I spent on
+    water-colours for the painting lesson, 5 fl. a splendid book,
+    'Percy's Relics of Old English Poetry,' 1 fl. sundries, my
+    last florin I lent to Bob, but he was fetched away in a hurry
+    before his money was given to him, however he said he would
+    send it me from Mayence, but I have not seen it since. It is a
+    great bore to have no money; that 1 fl. would have lasted the
+    second month very well as I only want it for sundries. I have
+    dismissed Mottes, my _new_ boots have already been _re_soled,
+    and he made me wait three weeks for a pair of boots, which of
+    course I did not take. I wish I had had turning clothes, my
+    jacket is very shabby, and I cannot afford to put on my best
+    whilst it goes to the tailor; my black trowsers are ruined,
+    but I must wear them whilst my blue ones go to be lengthened.
+    Little Gussy looks very well, she is very well, and has sundry
+    'zufrieden's' and 'tr�s content's.' On the advice of _Pappe_,
+    the master of mathematics and nat. phil., I have got a
+    'Meierhirsch's Algebraische Aufgaben.' I want a Euclid, mine
+    is in England, how shall I get at it? I am quite well, but
+    _long_ to see you all, and to have some _wing_; pray write
+    very soon. Give my best love to Papa and Lina, and believe me,
+    dear Mamma, your affectionate and _speckfle_ son,
+
+                                                    F. LEIGHTON."
+
+    [Illustration: EARLY COMIC DRAWING, About 1850
+    By permission of Mr. Hanson Walker]
+
+History does not record whether the "little hole for poor Punch" had
+been found or not. Together with other studies, Leighton was allowed
+to attend the model class at the famous Staedelsches Institut, and, in
+1848, when the family went to Brussels, he painted his first picture,
+Othello and Desdemona, his elder sister sitting as model for the
+Desdemona, and also a portrait of himself. From Brussels he went to
+Paris, studying in an _atelier_ in the Rue Richer, among a set of
+Bohemian students, and then to Frankfort, to work seriously under his
+beloved master Steinle. The following letter to his father shows how
+unsatisfactory he considers his studies had been in both Brussels and
+Paris, and that now, as he expressed it, he is girding his "loins for
+a new race."
+
+                                     "CRONBERG, _Friday evening_.
+
+    "[DEAR PAPA],--As I have reason to believe that you are not
+    indifferent to the fate of the studies which met with
+    Dielmann's censure, and at the same time opened my eyes to the
+    fact that I have not yet (to use a German phrase) 'die Natur
+    mit dem L�ffel gefressen,'[14] I now write to tell you that I
+    have retouched better parts of them, and _that_ to Burger's
+    satisfaction as well as to mine. Of course some are better
+    than others. Independently of the intense irritation which bad
+    sitting (as well you know) occasions to my nerves, they give
+    me great trouble, and I take it; but this can hardly astonish
+    me, when I consider that, in point of fact, during the whole
+    time that has elapsed between my leaving the model class in
+    the Staedelsches Institut up to my return to Frankfurt, I have
+    _never_ studied from nature; that I did not in Brussels, I
+    need not remind you, and you must also remember that
+    everything I painted in Paris, in the way of portraits, was
+    done _before_ nature, I grant, but with a certain _ideal_
+    colour or tone, the consistency of which might be illustrated
+    by putting Rubens, Reynolds, Titian, Tom Lawrence, Vandyke,
+    Velasquez, Correggio, Carracci, Rembrandt, and Rafael into a
+    kaleidoscope, and setting them in a rotatory motion, in a
+    word--
+
+          When taken
+          Well shaken.
+                 (What's his name--Hem!)
+
+    I am therefore girding my loins for a new race, far from
+    discouraged, but rather with the persuasion that one with my
+    innate love for colouring, and, I think I may add, sharp
+    perception of the merits and demerits of the colouring of
+    others, has a fair chance of success; nor am I dissatisfied
+    with my beginning."
+
+In the year 1849, he went to London to paint the portrait of his
+great-uncle, Mr. I'Anson, Lady Leighton's brother, and wrote to his
+father and mother the following:--
+
+    "Fleeced at Malines--very fine passage--slept well, why the
+    deuce had not I a carpet bag? horrid inconvenience! my chest
+    of drawers twenty feet below the surface of the deck, obliged
+    to get on friendly terms with a sailor to borrow a comb (which
+    had got blue with usage)--lovely brown tints about my shirt,
+    cuffs more picturesque than tidy; two hours stifling in that
+    confounded hole of a waiting-room in the custom house; arrive
+    at last at Mr. I'Anson's at about three o'clock; as he was not
+    at home I dressed and ran half round London before dinner;
+    crossed Kensington Gardens, saw the outside of the Exhibition,
+    went down Hyde Park, along Green Park, stared at Buckingham
+    Palace, rushed down St. James' Park, flew up Waterloo Place,
+    made a dive at Trafalgar Square, and a lunge at Pall Mall,
+    gasped all along Regent Street, turned up Oxford Street, bent
+    round to the Edgware Road, and from there the whole length of
+    Oxford Terrace, I brought home a very fine appetite!"
+
+    "[MY DEAREST MOTHER],--I have resumed my Uncle's likeness, and
+    as far as it goes (the head is done) very successfully. Will
+    you tell Papa from me that it is more 'aufgefasst' (as I
+    expected) than 'durchgef�hrt,' but that I have seized the
+    _twinkle_ of his mouth to a T.
+
+    "Mr. I'Anson treats me with the utmost kindness, it is of
+    course superfluous to tell you that I enjoy myself beyond
+    measure.
+
+    "I am a very slow writer--I am without readiness either of
+    thought or speech owing to the picturesque confusion which
+    possesses my brain, and not, God knows, from a phlegmatic
+    habit of mind."
+
+Letter to his mother from Norfolk Terrace, Hyde Park:--
+
+    "[DEAREST MOTHER],--I have received your kind letter, and
+    conclude from your silence on that point that Lina is now
+    getting on well. In order to avoid losing time on fluency of
+    style, I shall follow, strictly as I find them, the heads of
+    your epistle, and answer them in the same succession. First, I
+    hasten to thank you and Papa for your kind permission to
+    prolong my stay, a permission which I value the more that I
+    know that Papa was desirous I should return as soon as
+    possible. You tell me, dear Mamma, that I am not to lose time
+    in seeing the _lions_ of London, and Papa, in his displeasure
+    at my having done so little as yet towards the real object of
+    my visit, seems to imply an idea that I _have_ been so doing;
+    I regret very much that you should entertain that notion, and
+    assure you that I have neither hitherto dreamt, nor have
+    ultimate intention, of seeing that long list of wonders, the
+    Colosseum, the polytechnic, the cosmorama, the diorama, the
+    panorama, the polyorama, the overland mail, Catlin's
+    exhibition, the Chinese exhibition, nor even Wild's great
+    globe, for that, I am told, costs five shillings; this is a
+    decided case of 'Frappe, mais �coute.' And if Papa did not
+    think that I had so wasted my time, is it not very certain
+    that, if I had not thought it a matter of duty, I would not
+    have tired myself making what I most hate, calls, instead of
+    seeing works of art?
+
+    "Lady Leighton looked in some respects worse, and in some much
+    better, than I expected; I was surprised to see her walk with
+    her back bent, and leaning on a stick; but I was more
+    surprised still to see a face so free, comparatively, from
+    wrinkles, and bearing such evident traces of former beauty.
+    Her reception was of the warmest; in her anxiety lest I should
+    be lonely and uncomfortable in an inn, she insisted on my
+    sleeping in her house. She talked much, long, and _well_,
+    though slowly and in a suppressed tone; she dwelt tenderly on
+    Papa's name, and advocated warmly our return to England. I saw
+    two letters which she wrote to her brother, my uncle, and
+    which were both most elegantly written; both contained a
+    paragraph in allusion to me; in the first, written before my
+    visit (in answer to one in which my uncle had prepared her for
+    seeing me), she expresses herself most _eager to receive and
+    to love the grandson, of whom all speak so highly_; in the
+    second, written after my return to London, she says that her
+    _dear and fascinating grandson amply realises all her
+    expectations_, and that seeing him has increased that pain
+    which she feels at being separated from us all.
+
+    "Now, I will give you a _catalogue raisonn�_ of whom I have
+    seen: Cowpers, this you know; Smyths, ditto; Laings, very
+    kind, though Mr. Laing, like the Cowpers, did not know me till
+    I mentioned my name; Wests, exceedingly kind, invitation to
+    dinner; Richardsons, motherly reception, party, given for me;
+    Moffatt, very _pr�venant_, asked me twice to dinner, both of
+    which invitations I was unfortunately obliged to refuse, but
+    wrote a very civil note, and went next morning in person to
+    apologise; Hall, dreadfully busy, but gave me cards to
+    Maclise, Goodall, Frith, Ward, Frost; Maclise was not at home,
+    but I found Goodall, Ward, and Frith, and was pleased with my
+    visits. There is a new school in England, and a very promising
+    one; correctly drawn historical _genre_ seems to me the best
+    definition of it. They tell me there is a fine opening for an
+    historical painter of merit, and that talent never fails to
+    succeed in London. Goodall, a young man about thirty, who
+    painted 'The Village Festival,' in the Vernon Gallery, and of
+    which you have an engraving in one of your Art Journal
+    numbers, sells his pictures direct from the easel; and he does
+    not stand alone. Sir Ch. Eastlake received me very politely,
+    but looks a great invalid; Lance, very jolly, and Fripp,
+    ditto. Bovills and E. I'Ansons, very kind, invitations, of
+    course; Mackens, you know; I have found no time to call on Dr.
+    Holland, Mr. Shedden, or Tusons.
+
+    "Having told you _whom_, I will now tell you rapidly _what_, I
+    have seen: Vernon Gallery, very much gratified; Dulwich
+    Gallery, very much disappointed; British Institution, ditto;
+    National Gallery, pictures magnificent, locality disgraceful,
+    I must make another visit there; Royal Academy, on the whole,
+    satisfactory; British Museum, very fine; Mogford's Collection,
+    very indifferent; Marquis of Westminster (Mr. Laing), very
+    fine indeed; private collection (through interest of Mr.
+    Moffatt), delightful; Windsor, _Vandyke_, superb; _Lawrence_,
+    a wretched quack. Time presses--_la suite au prochain
+    num�ro_."
+
+    [Illustration: MR. I'ANSON, LORD LEIGHTON'S GREAT-UNCLE. 1850
+    By permission of Mr. E. I'Anson]
+
+The portrait of his great-uncle, Mr. I'Anson, here reproduced, proves
+that the visit to London effected the desired result. On his return to
+Frankfort he painted the portraits of Lady Cowley and her three
+children. Lady Cowley writes: "I am delighted with the pictures of my
+dear little girls, and again return you my most sincere thanks for
+having painted them." And in another letter: "I should have called on
+Mrs. Leighton all these days, had I not been very unwell with the
+grippe, as I wished to express to her, as well as to yourself, how
+very grateful I am for the beautiful portrait you have made of my
+little Frederick. I am quite delighted with it, as well as every one
+else who has seen it. Besides being extremely like, it is such a good
+painting that it must always be appreciated. Ever yours sincerely,
+Olive Cecilia Cowley." In the spring of 1852, Leighton, being then
+twenty-one, went to Bergheim, to paint the portraits of Count
+Bentinck's family. He writes from there:--
+
+    "[DEAREST MAMMA],--Having naturally a reflecting turn of mind,
+    I am struck with the truth of the following aphorism: 'It's
+    all very well to say I'll be blowed, but where's the wind?'
+    Circumstances induce me to deliver a sentiment of a parallel
+    tendency; it's all very well to say 'mind you write'; but
+    where's the post? A deficiency in that latter commodity is a
+    leading feature in the economy of the principality of Waldeck;
+    so much so, that any individual residing in Bergheim, and
+    desiring to carry on a correspondence 'ins Ausland,' is
+    obliged to take advantage of the privilege freely granted him
+    by the liberal constitution of the country of carrying his own
+    letters to the first frontier town of the next state, and
+    having posted them, waiting for an answer. I, however,
+    _knowing my privileges_, and not being desirous of availing
+    myself of them in _that line_, humbly and modestly send these
+    lines by my hostess's flunkey, who is going to Fritzlar
+    to-morrow on an errand of a similar description. _N.B._--If
+    you want a person to receive an epistle within a fortnight
+    (that is allowing you to be a neighbour), you must chalk up
+    _per express_ on the back of it, in consideration of which he
+    or she will receive it through the medium of a hot messenger,
+    much, and naturally, fatigued and excited by a journey
+    performed at the rate of half a mile an hour, not including
+    the pauses in which the _inner man_ is refreshed and
+    invigorated by a cordial gulp of 'branny un worrer.'
+
+    "Fancy a man getting to a place, by appointment, expecting a
+    carriage and trimmings to take him to a lovely retirement in
+    the country, and finding--devil a bit of it! Well that's
+    precisely what did not happen to me when I got to Waldeck,
+    because although the carriage was not there, there was a
+    letter to say it could not come. The road to Bergheim, which
+    crosses a river of no mean pretensions without the assistance
+    of a bridge (other advantageous peculiarity of the state of
+    Waldeck), was, it appeared, rendered impracticable by an
+    inundation of the torrent alluded to; it was therefore
+    proposed to me (without an option) to perform the journey on
+    the top of an _oss_ provided for the purpose and accompanied
+    by a groom mounted on another; I willingly accept an offer so
+    much to my taste, and for the first time after a lapse of
+    nearly three years put a leg on each side of a steed. The
+    first part of the road was executed at a round trot on a very
+    nice level _chauss�e_, but I cannot say that I felt altogether
+    at home on my saddle. An eye to effect is nevertheless kept
+    open, which is manifested by my catching up two drowsy,
+    drawling, jingling 'po shays' and sweeping past them with
+    supreme contempt, but at a great expense of my lumbar muscles.
+    Presently, however, my continuation-clad members began to thaw
+    a little, and to adapt themselves to the saddle, which also
+    lost some of its rigid severity; I began to feel very
+    comfortable, and, by Jove! it was a good job I did, for on
+    getting out of Fritzlar, we left the high road (for reasons
+    above given) and plunged into a rugged, donkey-shay sort of
+    by-path in which the ruts were without exaggeration a foot
+    deep. Nothing daunted, however, I make light of this 'terrain
+    l�g�rement accident�,' cross stream and ride along tattered
+    banks with the nonchalance of the Chinese Mandarin in the
+    Exhibition of '51; in fact, such is my confidence in myself,
+    that I at last begin to feel above my stirrups, I scorn them,
+    fling them over my saddle, and perform without their
+    assistance the rest of the journey to within half a mile of
+    Bergheim, and that on a road the profile of which was about
+    this:
+
+    (Here was drawn a line representing a hill-side almost
+    perpendicular.)
+
+    "On my arrival I am of course kindly received by the Countess
+    (her husband is still at Oldenburg), got my tea, and go to bed
+    rather stiff after an equestrian performance of about two
+    hours and a half. The house is large and rambling, fifteen
+    windows in a row, and yet I cannot get a satisfactory light,
+    the only available north room looking on a lane, the
+    white-washed houses of which reflect disagreeably on the
+    picture, whenever the sun shines. However I must make up my
+    mind to it and do my best; I am at present painting the
+    Countess."
+
+                                             "BERGHEIM, _Sunday_.
+
+    "[DEAR MAMMA],--In the midst of my anxious expectations of a
+    letter from you, it suddenly occurred to me that I had
+    forgotten to give you my direction; in the full confidence
+    that _late is far preferable to never_, I now hasten to make
+    up for my omission--
+
+                    Mons. F. Leighton
+                           bei
+             Ihrer Erlauchten der Gr�fin von
+                   Waldeck und Pyrmont
+                       zu Bergheim
+                       bei Fritzlar
+                   F�rstenthum Waldeck.
+
+    "_N.B._--You will not forget to write _per express_ on the top
+    of the envelope; for reasons, see my letter of last Sunday.
+
+    "Being sorely pressed for time, I now huddle on to the rest of
+    the paper a few loose remarks, for the incoherency of which I
+    crave your indulgence.
+
+    "The aspect of affairs is much changed since my last epistle;
+    then, I was looking forward with anxious though sanguine
+    expectation to the labour before me; now, I look back on one
+    portrait (that of the Countess), achieved to the great
+    satisfaction of those for whom it is intended, and contemplate
+    with satisfaction the progress which the other is making in
+    the same direction. I must, however, add that, owing to the
+    necessary absence of the Countess for two days next week, my
+    return home will be delayed in proportion, as I have a few
+    more touches to give to the portrait of my eldest patient,
+    whose husband is desirous of taking it over to England with
+    him. (I shall probably be with you Saturday afternoon--at all
+    events I shall let you know beforehand.)
+
+    "What I said a few lines back will have suggested to you what
+    I am now going to add; Colonel B. is now returned from
+    Oldenburg, and will probably be in London in the early part or
+    middle of June; he is _much_ pleased with the pictures, and in
+    his kindness has promised me an introduction to his brother in
+    town, and also to another relation, whose name I have
+    forgotten; the result of which is to be: access to the
+    collections of Lord Ellesmere, Duke of Sutherland, and Sir
+    Robert Peel. I told Colonel B. that if on his road to or from
+    Toeplitz in the autumn he should pass through Frankfurt, I
+    should be very glad if he could bring the pictures with him,
+    as they would both want a varnish, and the children probably a
+    few glazes and touches; he said that he would make a point of
+    so doing, that indeed after all the trouble and pains I had
+    taken for him, it was the least he _could_ do; for these and
+    other reasons (not unimportant) which I shall communicate when
+    I see you, you need not regret my having made two journeys to
+    paint his wife and children.
+
+    "That I spend one of the days of the Countess' absence in
+    seeing _Wilhelmsh�he_, a sight reputed unique of its kind,
+    will, I hope, not seem unreasonable.
+
+    "I have noted down, as they occurred to me, during the last
+    few days one or two little arrangements, relative to my
+    approaching journey, which I would ask you to make during my
+    absence, trusting at the same time that if in the meanwhile
+    anything else should occur to your provident mind, and be
+    transmitted to your _many-knotted_ pocket-handkerchief, you
+    will kindly carry it into execution, in order to avoid delay
+    when I return from the country, as _my_ time will be almost
+    entirely taken up by Lady P.'s [Pollington's] sitting and the
+    _business calls_ I have to make.
+
+    "Will Papa kindly order a tin case for my compositions; it
+    should be a plain cylinder, about an inch and a half in
+    diameter, with a lid at one end; let its length be that of my
+    'Four Seasons.'
+
+    "To my amazement I have just received a letter from you, dear
+    Mamma--_did_ I give you my direction? You forgot the _per
+    express_ on the back of the letter. Pray write soon. Much love
+    and many kisses to all.--Your dutiful and affectionate son,
+
+                                                    F. LEIGHTON."
+
+Soon after Leighton's return to Frankfort Lord Cowley was appointed
+British Ambassador in Paris, and writes the following letters. The
+invitation he gives to Leighton to make his home at the Embassy while
+pursuing his studies was not accepted, Steinle's teaching being only
+given up later for the charms of Italy.
+
+    "MY DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I am more obliged than I can say by
+    the kindness you have shown in painting portraits of my
+    children. I never saw anything so like, or in general so
+    pleasing, as the portrait of Frederic, and I only regret that
+    it is not in England to be seen and appreciated. Once more
+    accept my thanks, and believe me to be very truly yours,
+
+                                                         COWLEY."
+
+                                             "_Sunday Afternoon._
+
+    "MY DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--It has been quite out of my power to
+    get to your house, as I had intended, to take leave of you,
+    and to thank you again for the valuable reminiscence which
+    through your talent and kindness I carry away with me. It will
+    give Lady Cowley and myself great pleasure if you will visit
+    us at Paris. You cannot find a better school of study than the
+    Louvre, and we shall be most happy to lodge and take care of
+    you.
+
+    "Pray present my best compliments to the members of your
+    family.
+
+    "I regret very much not being able to do it in person.--Very
+    faithfully,
+
+                                                         COWLEY."
+
+On his return from Waldeck, Leighton painted the portrait of Lady
+Pollington, one of his Frankfort acquaintances.
+
+During these years, when Leighton studied under Steinle, his family
+lived also at Frankfort, and therefore few other letters written at
+that time exist. There was a journey to Holland, made during the early
+summer of 1852, from England, where he and his family had returned for
+a visit. The journey back to Frankfort, _vi�_ Holland, is the subject
+of a long letter to his mother.
+
+    "There I am at the Hague. Pretty place, the Hague, clean,
+    quaint, cheerful, _and_ ain't the Dutch just fond of smoking
+    out of long clay pipes! _And_ the pictures, _Oh_ the pictures,
+    _Ah_ the pictures! That magnificent Rembrandt! glowing,
+    flooded with light, clear as amber, and do you twig the _grey_
+    canvas? _What_ Vandykes! what dignity, calm, gently breathing,
+    and a searching thoughtfulness in the gaze, amounting almost
+    to fascination; and only look at that Velasquez, sparkling,
+    clear, dashing; Paul Potter, too, only twenty-two years old
+    when he painted that bull, and just look at it; Jan Steen,
+    Terburg, Teniers, _Giov. Bellini_ (splendid), &c. &c. There I
+    catch myself bearing something in mind: 'And yet, after all'
+    (with an argumentative hitch of the cravat), 'all that those
+    fellows had in advance of us was a palette and brushes, and
+    _that_ we've got too!' I walk down to Scheveningen, and
+    sentimentalise on the seashore; I find the briny deep in a
+    very good humour, and offer _you_ mental congratulations.
+
+    "About the Rembrandt at Amsterdam, I say nothing, for it is a
+    picture not to be described. I can only say that, in it, the
+    great master surpasses himself; with the exception, however,
+    of this and the Vanderhelst opposite to it, which is full of
+    spirit and individuality, the _Ryko Museum_ is tolerably flat.
+    After a dull afternoon, I hurry off to Arnheim, and to
+    Mayence, and to Frankfurt, where I arrive on Wednesday
+    evening. From Cologne to Frankfurt, Janauschek[15] was on the
+    same conveyance as myself; I made her acquaintance, which was
+    a great blessing to me on that tedious, cockney-hackneyed
+    journey. She is lady-like, interesting, amiable, and
+    _severely_ proper, almost cold; she observed the strictest
+    incognito. Towards evening, however, when she had ascertained
+    that I was a resident at Frankfurt, and therefore probably
+    knew her perfectly well, and that I was an artist, which
+    excited her sympathy, and that my name was Leighton, a name
+    with which she was acquainted (through Schroedter and others)
+    as that of one of the most talented young artists of Frankfurt
+    (hem!), she relaxed considerably. She has a melancholy and
+    most interesting look, and talks very despondently of the
+    state of dramatic art nowadays. I made myself useful to her at
+    the station, and she was warmly grateful. About my picture[16]
+    (which I have entrusted to Steinle's care) I have nothing to
+    communicate, except that I am confirmed in thinking that it
+    has been universally well received; even Becker seems to like
+    it in many respects--of course you know that the leading fault
+    is that it was painted under his rival; Oppenheim said (when I
+    talked of it as a daub) that he wished he could daub so, and
+    that he promised me a great future; Prince Gortschakoff (who,
+    by the by, preferred the portraits, and judges with all the
+    _aplomb_ of a Count Briez) introduced himself to me in the
+    gallery, and told me in the course of conversation that he
+    regretted very much having no work of mine, adding that he
+    only bought masters of the first order; _that_ was a
+    compliment, at all events; Dr. Schlemmer has been very kind to
+    me, and has given me a letter for Venice; I dined with him on
+    Sunday, and made the acquaintance of Felix Mendelssohn's
+    widow, a charming woman."
+
+    [Illustration: "THE DEATH OF BRUNELLESCHI." 1851
+    By permission of Dr. Von Steinle]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE PLAGUE IN FLORENCE." 1851]
+
+Between the years 1849 and 1852 Leighton painted, besides the
+portraits mentioned, three finished pictures, "Cimabue finding Giotto
+in the Fields of Florence," "The Duel between Romeo and Tybalt," and
+"The Death of Brunelleschi"; and also made the notable drawing, now in
+the Victoria and Albert Museum, of a scene during the plague in
+Florence. His master, Steinle, easily discerned that Leighton was
+truly enamoured of Italy; the subjects he chose were Italian, and his
+memory was full of the charm and fascination of the country which he
+ever referred to, to the end of his life, as his second home. It was
+decided that he should go to Rome, his father having determined to
+leave Frankfort and to reside at Bath, where his mother, Lady
+Leighton, was then living. Steinle gave Leighton an introduction to
+his friend and fellow "Nazarene," Cornelius, and on the eve of his
+departure his mother wrote a farewell letter of "injunctions,"
+flavoured happily by hints of humour. There is something very quaint
+to those who knew Leighton after he was thirty in the admonitions
+with regard to manners and politeness, which occur in several of his
+mother's letters.
+
+    "MY DEAREST CHILD,--As we are about to part, you may perhaps
+    think you will be rid of my lectures, but no, I leave you some
+    injunctions in writing, so that you will not be able to urge
+    the plea of forgetfulness if you continue your negligent
+    habits, though you certainly may _forget_ to read what I
+    write--but I trust to your love and respect for me, though the
+    latter needs cultivation nearly as much as habits of
+    refinement in you. I have no new advice to give you, I can but
+    repeat what I have urged on you many times from your childhood
+    upwards; I do implore you, let your conscience be your guide
+    amidst all temptations, they will be such as they have never
+    yet been to you, as you will henceforward have no other
+    restraint on your actions than what is self-imposed. I beseech
+    you, do not suffer your disbelief in the dogmas of the
+    Protestant Church to weaken the belief I hope you entertain of
+    the existence of a Supreme Being. Strive to obey the law He
+    has implanted in us, which approves good and condemns evil,
+    though the struggle for the mastery between these principles
+    is sometimes fearful, as every one knows, especially in youth.
+    My precious child, if one sinful mortal's prayer for another
+    could avail, how carefully would you be preserved from moral
+    evil (the greatest of all evil); but I need not tell you there
+    is no royal road to Heaven any more than to excellence in
+    inferior objects, every advantage must be obtained by energy
+    and perseverance. May God help you to keep free of the
+    greatest of all miseries, an upbraiding conscience; for though
+    this can be deadened for a time in the hurry of life while
+    youth lasts, there comes an hour when life loses its
+    attractions, and _then_ issues the troubled consequence of
+    merry deeds. I am aware you have heard all this a hundred
+    times, and better expressed, but it will bear repetition; and
+    now that it is your mother who is counselling you, you will
+    not, I trust, turn a deaf ear.
+
+    "I can but repeat what I have continually told you--to refine
+    your feelings you must neither utter nor encourage a coarse
+    thought. It would be an inexpressible pleasure to me to leave
+    you confirmed in good habits; but wishes are idle. I trust to
+    your desire to improve in all ways and to please me. The next
+    sheet I wrote some time ago, intending to rewrite it, but the
+    trouble is too great for my shaking hands, and I add what I
+    have written to-day on separate pieces of paper. I have
+    written enough; I have only now to add an entreaty that you
+    will not throw these admonitions away, but sometimes read
+    them, remembering they come warm from your mother's heart.
+
+    "My child, your manners are very faulty, and I am consequently
+    much disappointed. You take so much after me, and my nearest
+    relations had such refined manners, that I made sure you must
+    resemble my father and brothers. There is, however, nothing on
+    earth to prevent your becoming the gentleman I wish to see
+    you, and remember to write ineffaceably on the tablets of your
+    memory, 'Too much familiarity breeds contempt.' You remember
+    how seriously young ----'s forwardness has been commented on.
+    Well, it is true, you have never, as far as I know, spoken as
+    he has done; but as I have seldom seen you in company, nor
+    your father either, without observing some want of politeness,
+    is it not probable that other people have their eyes open
+    also?"
+
+These admonitions received, Leighton started on his journey to Rome.
+At Innsbruck, on August 18, 1852, he began to write a Diary, in order
+that his mother should hear the details of his travels, and to serve
+"as a clue" by which he might one day recall the "impressions and
+emotions of the years of his artistic noviciate."
+
+Leighton's utterances on paper in these early days display the same
+intense exuberance of vitality which, during the whole of his notable
+career, served to spur on his mental and emotional powers to perform
+with great completeness all the various kinds of work which he
+undertook; a vitality which conquered triumphantly the effects of
+indifferent health and troubled eyesight. In the diaries and letters
+is also to be traced the existence of that Greek-like combination of
+qualities so characteristic of Leighton--namely, explicit precision in
+his thought and expression, and a subtle power of analysis, united
+with great emotional sensitiveness and enthusiastic warmth of
+temperament. His feeling for beauty was an intoxicating joy to him.
+Heartfelt and genuine joy engendered by beauty in nature and art is
+not a very common feeling among the moderns, though so much fuss is
+made by many in our day in their endeavours to become "_artistic_";
+but, as a ruling guide, beauty has gone out of fashion. The accounts
+that Leighton gives of his ecstasies in the presence of beautiful
+scenes, enforce the belief entertained by those who knew him best,
+that it was the power which beauty exercised over him that developed
+his exceptional strength in all artistic directions. What force in the
+over-riding of difficulties does not passion give to the lover! No
+less a force was engendered in Leighton by the inspiration of the
+beauty of nature.
+
+In the letter to his mother, which accompanies the Diary, referring to
+the joy he has been experiencing, Leighton adds: "I feel almost a kind
+of shame that so much should have been poured down on me. I will put
+my talent to usury, and be no slothful steward of what has been
+entrusted to me. Every man who has received a gift ought to feel and
+act as if he was a field in which a seed was planted, that others
+might gather the harvest." The purity of purpose which guided
+Leighton's life to the end, generated first by the precepts of his
+mother in the fertile soil of his own beautiful nature, subsequently
+developed by the teaching of the high-minded Steinle, and finally
+established later by other elevating influences, chastened the
+emotional side of Leighton's passion for beauty, and disentangled it
+even in the earliest days from lower and purely sensuous
+contamination. The puritanical attitude of mind towards beauty
+appeared to Leighton absolutely impure and desecrating, in that it
+associated influences and feelings which are of the lowest with the
+appreciation of God's most beautiful creations, and some of man's
+highest aspirations with sensations entirely degraded and unworthy.
+
+Fun and humour abound in the family letters, and in the Diary.
+Leighton was never guilty of being sentimental, and when referring to
+the word _ideal_ in one of his letters, he writes he "hates such
+stuff." After he died, it was written of him: "He was no idealist;
+needless to say, he was no materialist, no one less so; nor does the
+term realist seem to recall his nature. He was--if such a word can be
+used--an actualist, the actual was to him of primary importance. But
+the actual meant a great deal more to Leighton than it does to most of
+us. Life and its vivid interests was spread over a much wider area; so
+many more of its various ingredients were such very actual entities to
+him."[17]
+
+And when Leighton started, at the age of twenty-one, to begin his
+independent life, we feel that it is with the _actual_ that he
+grappled--the actual in his sensations, his feelings, his impressions,
+his conditions. An unmistakable note of reality rings through his
+description of all these. He has no tendency, even unconsciously, when
+under the glamour of the most entrancing impressions, to colour the
+picture other than he _actually_ saw it. In the strength of his own
+real nature he goes forth on the journey of life.
+
+
+DIARY
+
+                                    INNSBRUCK, _August 18, 1852_.
+
+    [Sidenote: I contemplate the life and
+    adventures of Mr. Thumb.]
+
+"When Hop o' my Thumb, a nursery hero of European note, first sallied
+out into the world with an eye to making a fortune, his first step was
+(justly foreseeing what the world would expect of the hero of a future
+romance) to lose himself in a large and horrid forest, in which it was
+pitch dark all day long, and nothing was heard but ... &c. &c. (Here
+see biog. of H.O'M. Thumb, Esq., vol. i.)
+
+"Now, in those days mile-posts were not yet come in, and maps were
+excessively expensive; how, then, was H.O'M.T., after he should have
+realised a large independence, to find his way back through this
+intricate waste? Here admire the man of parts and sagacity! '_He
+determined_,' says the historian, '_to drop pebbles in a row all along
+the path_'!
+
+    [Sidenote: and adopt one of his
+    measures,]
+
+"Admirable Thumb! I, too, purpose, as I stroll along, to drop every
+now and then mental pebbles, which shall serve as a connecting link
+between the past and the future, and as a clue by which I may one day
+recall the emotions and impressions of the years of my artistic
+noviciate.
+
+"Be with me, oh Thumb!
+
+    [Sidenote: but make a reservation.]
+
+"_N.B._--Quality of pebbles not warranted.
+
+
+PEBBLES
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble I.]
+
+"Kind, affectionate, earnest Steinle!
+
+    [Sidenote: A tribute of affection and
+    respect for my dear Steinle.]
+
+"In a record of whatever concerns me as an artist, _his_ name should
+be at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. _Now_, at the
+beginning, for our parting is still painfully present to my mind; our
+parting, and the last few days we spent together: the sad face and
+moistened eye with which he watched the diligence in which I rolled
+off from Bregenz; his fitful way, when we travelled together--one
+moment jovial and facetious, another laying his hand affectionately on
+my shoulder and remaining silent; his saying to me before I started,
+'I shall be all alone to-morrow, here, and yet I shall be with you all
+the day.'...
+
+"_In the middle_, all through, and to the end--because if ever,
+hereafter, my works wear the mark of a pure taste, if ever I succeed
+in raising some portion of the public to the level of high art, rather
+than obsequiously acquiesce in the judgments of the tasteless and the
+ignorant, and if I keep alive, to the end, the active conviction that
+an artist, who deserves the name, never ceases to learn, the key of
+such success will be in one name: Steinle; in having constantly borne
+in mind his precept, and his example.
+
+    [Sidenote: I find on reflection that
+    though I started a week ago, I am only
+    just gone!]
+
+    [Sidenote: I look forward,]
+
+"Although a week has already elapsed since I left Frankfurt, so long
+my home, it is only now that I have parted from Steinle that I really
+feel that I have taken the great step, that I have opened the
+introductory chapter of the second volume of my life, a volume on the
+title-page of which is written "Artist." It seems to me that my
+wanderings began at _Bregenz_, and that in retracing, as I presently
+shall, my route until I got there, I am tearing open again leaves that
+were closed--to remain so. I seize the opportunity offered by this
+first day of repose to take breath, and, as I stand within the
+threshold, to look before me and reconnoitre. Italy rises before my
+mind. Sunny Italy! the land that I have so long yearned after with
+ardent longing, and that has dwelt in my memory since last I saw it as
+a never-fading, gentle-beckoning image of loveliness; I am about again
+to tread the soil of that beloved country, the day-dream of long years
+is to become a reality. I am enraptured!
+
+    [Sidenote: but don't feel quite _it_.]
+
+"And yet--how is it that my pleasure is not unalloyed? that I
+involuntarily shrink from grasping the height of my wishes? It is
+because I feel a kind of sacred awe at breaking through the charm
+that has been so long gathering around the image that I have carried
+in my inward heart, as one who loves, at touching with cold _reality_
+that which has so long been the far removed object of dreamy, sweetly
+melancholy longings!
+
+"I cannot help thinking that an imaginative man must feel something
+similar when on the point of changing courtship for marriage.
+
+    [Sidenote: Get better.]
+
+"Other thoughts, too, assail me, and sometimes make me uneasy. 'Do I
+fully feel....' No, 'Shall I _continue_ fully to feel the immense
+importance to me of the three or four years now before me? feel that
+they will be the corner-stone of my career, for good or for evil?
+Shall I have the energy to carry out all my resolutions? Shall I
+fulfil what I have promised?'... Then I think of Steinle, and I feel
+reassured.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble II.]
+
+"Let me come to the point, to the description of my journey; but
+before I begin, let me remember that, whilst of all my friends and
+companions only _three_ were present at my departure,--one of them was
+there in order to give me a commission, and another to acknowledge a
+service,--old General Bentinck did not think it too great an exertion
+to see off, at eight in the morning, one, three times younger than
+himself.
+
+    [Sidenote: Middelburgh, August 11.]
+
+"My first day's journey took me to Middelburgh, along the Bergstrasse,
+which we all know, and of which I therefore say nothing, and yet I
+enjoyed it more than I ever had done before; it was one of those cool,
+clear, _opalescent_ mornings, in which all nature looks as if it was
+teeming with health and freshness; there was something exhilarating,
+too, in the atmosphere, which very much increased my enjoyment; I
+looked upon familiar scenes, but I saw them in a new light; it seemed
+to me as if I was reading nature in a new book.
+
+    [Sidenote: Stift Neuburg.]
+
+"On arriving at Heidelberg, I hurried at once, by appointment with
+Steinle, to a place in the neighbourhood called 'Stift Neuburg,' the
+property and residence of Frau Rath Schlosser, the widow of his old
+and intimate friend, Rath Schlosser.
+
+    [Sidenote: I enjoy myself.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Heilbronn, August 12.]
+
+"Picture to yourself, just where the Neckar makes a graceful curve,
+about a mile above Heidelberg, half-way up a rich and sunny slope,
+chequered with clustering vineyards and luxuriant meadows, an old,
+picturesque convent, with its adjoining chapel and appurtenant dairies
+and farmhouses, the whole group raised up on a lofty, timeworn,
+weather-beaten terrace--and you will form some idea of _the Stift_.
+There I spent the afternoon in the most charming possible manner,
+whether in wandering with Steinle along the solitary, shady walks of
+the convent garden, or in snuffing about in the vaulted, mildew old
+library (which, by the by, contains six or seven thousand valuable and
+curious books), or the silent chapel, with its stained-glass windows,
+or in looking through Frau Rath's magnificent collection of drawings
+by German artists, or, finally, in enjoying the conversation of the
+Frau Rath herself, who is a most clever and amiable old lady. The next
+morning (for I spent the night there) after all breakfasting together,
+we went down by a postern gate to the river-side, and awaited the
+arrival of the Heilbronn steamer; general leave-taking, shaking of
+hands, gratitude and thanks on the one side, on the other reiterated
+invitations for the future, which I sincerely hope I may one day be
+able to meet. The valley of the Neckar as far as Heilbronn, where we
+arrived on the evening of the same day, is dull enough in all
+conscience; indeed, had it not been for the company and always
+interesting conversation of Steinle, I really do not know what I
+should have done with myself; such a contrast with the preceding day!
+
+"Between Heilbronn and the Lake of Constance, however, a new scene
+opens out; I see Germany under a totally new aspect, I understand at
+last what German poets mean when they rave about the lovely
+'Schwabenland' and call it the 'Perle deutscher Gauen'; I can now
+imagine the existence of _landed patriotism_ (if I may be allowed the
+expression) among the Germans coming from that part of the country. It
+is, indeed, an enchanting panorama; a never-ceasing variety of rich,
+profusely fertile valleys, studded with cheerful, bright-looking,
+home-inviting villages, and enclosed by chains of gently undulating
+hills. The corn was ripe, and waved in golden stripes across the
+variegated plains; the peasants, a picturesque, good-humoured set,
+were scattered over the fields, some mowing down the heavy laden
+wheat, others binding it into graceful sheaves; in one respect the
+scene reminded me of my own dear country: it looked as if a blessing
+were on it.
+
+    [Sidenote: Ulm: its cathedral]
+
+"On our road we passed through Ulm,[18] and visited the cathedral,
+some parts of which (especially the portico) are very beautiful and
+elegant; the interior contains a magnificent and highly elaborate
+tabernacle, and some wood-carving by Syrlin of exquisite workmanship;
+the whole, however, left a melancholy impression on both of us,
+especially on Steinle, who is an ardent Catholic. It stands neglected
+and half-finished, in the midst of a miserable, rambling town-village,
+a thing of olden times, for whose presence one can hardly account. It
+was built, or rather, begun, as a monument of Catholicism; the country
+round it has become Protestant; itself has been protestantized; it has
+been disfigured by an incongruous heap of business-like pews; it is no
+longer accessible at every hour of the day, from Sunday to Sunday its
+walls re-echo no sound but the occasional tread of the pew-opener, as
+he dusts the seats of those who pay him for it; the soul has left the
+grey old pile; it is a stately corpse. What artist, however uncatholic
+in his belief, can contemplate those old Gothic churches, with their
+glorious tabernacles and other ornaments equally beautiful and equally
+disused, without painfully feeling what an almost deadly blow the
+Reformation was to High Art, what a powerful incentive it removed,
+irrecoverably? Who, in his heart of hearts, can but dwell with
+melancholy regret on the times when art was coupled with belief, and
+so many divine works were virtually expressions of faith? What a
+purifying and ennobling influence was thus exercised over the taste of
+the artist! an influence which nothing can replace. This influence was
+incalculably great; no dwelling was so humble but it owned a crucifix;
+no artist so poor in capacity but endeavoured to produce something not
+unworthy of his subject; the general _tone_ of taste thus produced
+reacted on everything; witness the most insignificant doorlatch or
+ornament that remains to us from the Middle Ages. Is it not remarkable
+that the first artists of the modern day, in the higher walk of art, I
+mean, are _Catholics_? Cornelius and Steinle were born in the Church
+of Rome; Veit and Overbeck went over to it; Pugin, too, our great
+architect, was converted by his art to the Catholic faith.
+
+    [Sidenote: August 15, Sunday.]
+
+"From Friedrichshafen a delightful sail took us across the emerald
+coloured Lake of Constance to Bregenz, where I parted from Steinle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble III.]
+
+    [Sidenote: August 21, Saturday.]
+
+    [Sidenote: I make a reflection,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and feel grateful.]
+
+"I am sitting at my window in the inn (h�tel, I'll trouble you!) at
+Meran. For the first time since I left Innsbruck I have leisure again
+to take up my pen. As I look back on my journey through the Tyrol, so
+far as it goes, I am forcibly struck with the reflection that my
+enjoyment of it has been much keener this time than ever it was
+before; this increased enjoyment has not, I feel, arisen from any
+external or adventitious circumstances; last time that I was in this
+lovely country, I contemplated it with ease and comfort from the
+rumble of our own carriage; this time I have jolted through it under
+all the disadvantages attendant on an _Eilwagen_ and indifferent
+weather; it has arisen in the greater development of my artistic
+sensibilities, in my sharpened perception of the charms of nature,
+which discloses to me now a thousand beauties that found no echo in me
+when I saw them last. I congratulate myself on this reflection. If any
+man should be constantly penetrated with gratitude for a gift bestowed
+on him, it is the artist who has realised as his share a genuine love
+for nature; for his enjoyment, if he puts his gift to usury, increases
+with the days of his life.
+
+    [Sidenote: I get drunk with the
+    anticipation of Italy,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and spout a parable.]
+
+"Another circumstance, which has greatly augmented my relish of the
+Tyrol, is that, at every step, it assumes more and more the character
+of my darling Italy; I have watched with fond anxiety every little
+token that whispered of the south; the gently purpling tints that
+steal gradually over the distant hills, as one advances towards the
+land of the amaranthine Apennines, the slow but steadily progressive
+change of vegetation, the gaunt and ragged fir giving way by degrees
+to the encroachment of a richer and more gently rustling shade, the
+anxiously watched gradations, the climax at last; the walnut, first,
+'few and far between,' but warmly welcome, with its clustering leaves
+of juicy green; the chestnut, with its long, graceful, dark-hued
+foliage; the vine, again, no longer, as in the north, tied stiffly to
+a row of sticks (like a regiment of gooseberry bushes), but luxurious,
+wildly spreading, gracefully trained along rows of outward-slanting,
+basket-like trellis-work, and wreathed here and there by a pious hand
+up a roadside image of the Crucifixion in illustration of the words of
+Christ: '_I_ am the true vine.' Now, too, the dark striped, portly
+pumpkins, with their gorgeous flame-like flowers, begin to appear,
+sometimes drowsily lolling under the tremulous shade of the mantling
+vines, sometimes basking with half-closed eyes down the sunscorched
+lizard-haunted walls, sometimes trained across from house to house,
+hanging like Chinese lamps over the heads of the passers by.
+Presently, a _fig-tree_--two--three--more--plenty! A cypress--and, by
+Jove! look at that terrace of stately, heavy-laden citron and orange
+trees! Nothing is wanting now but the olive. How could I pass by such
+dear old friends without loitering a little among them? A faithful
+lover, I return, after six years of longing absence, to the home of
+her of my inward heart; I hurry along, I have already crossed the
+garden gate. I breathe the air she breathes, I see from afar the bower
+where she dwells; but as I hasten along the well-known path, a
+thousand reminiscences of her arise from every object around me, and
+cling to me, and throw a gentle net across my faltering step, and
+whisper softly to my dream-wrapt brain--I am spellbound--I linger,
+even in my impatience.
+
+"I must not forget the excessively picturesque appearance of all the
+towns and villages south of Innsbruck; long, narrow, tortuous streets,
+lined on each side with never-ceasing vistas of arcades, and enclosed
+by houses of most fancifully artistic irregularity; as one passes
+along the vaulted galleries the eye is constantly caught by some
+picturesque object; either the peasants, as they stroll along in their
+divers costumes, or the many-coloured, richly piled fruit stalls that
+every now and then fill the arches, or, through an open door, the
+endless depth of vaulted passages and fantastic staircases and
+irregular inward courts and yards, offering to the artist's eye a play
+of lights and shades and mysterious, dreamy half-tints that might
+shame even a Rembrandt or an Ostade. As the exterior of all the houses
+is (with the exception, of course, of the ornaments) scrupulously
+white, the streets, narrow as they are, reflecting, by the luminous
+nature of their local tint, the light of day into the remotest corner,
+have a most cheerful aspect.
+
+"Of the Tyrolese themselves, three qualities seem to me to
+characterise them, qualities which go well hand in hand with, and, I
+think it is not fanciful to say, are in great measure a key to, their
+well-known frankness and open-hearted honesty. I mean Piety, which
+shines out amongst them in many little things, a love for the art,
+which with them is, in fact, an outward manifestation of piety, and
+which is sufficiently displayed by the numberless scriptural subjects,
+painted or in relief, which adorn the cottages of the poorest
+peasants, and, last not least, a love for flowers (in other words, for
+nature), which is written in the lovely clusters of flowers which
+stand in many-hued array on the window-sills of every dwelling. The
+works of all the really great artists display that love for flowers.
+Raphael did not consider it 'niggling,' as some of our broad-handling
+moderns would call it, to group humble daisies round the feet of his
+divine representation of the Mother of Christ. I notice that _two
+plants_, especially, produce a beautiful effect, both of form and
+colour, against the cool grey walls: the spreading, dropping, graceful
+_carnation_, with its bluish leaves and crimson flowers, and the
+slender, anthered, thousand-blossomed _oleander_.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF A BRANCH OF FIG TREE, 1856
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF BRAMBLE, 1856
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble IV.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Statues in Innsbruck.]
+
+    [Sidenote: I take on,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and lay on,]
+
+    [Sidenote: but bottle it up again.]
+
+"One of the sights in Innsbruck has left on me a deep and, I hope, a
+lasting impression: the bronze statues in the Franciscan church; they
+are the finest specimens of German medi�val sculpture that I ever saw,
+and grew on me as I gazed at them in a manner which I hardly ever felt
+before; their great merit consists in combining in the most astounding
+manner the most consummate knowledge of the art with all the
+simplicity of nature and the most striking individuality (that first
+of artistic qualities), and exhibiting at the same time the most
+elaborate finish in the details, with greatest possible breadth and
+grandeur of general masses; this quality is particularly conspicuous
+amongst the women, three, especially, standing side by side, show, by
+three perfect examples, the whole secret of ornamental economy; the
+one, whose dress is ornamented with all the richness of which a
+luxurious imagination and an unparalleled power of execution were
+capable, recovers its simplicity of outline and mass by having a
+tightly fitting body and sleeve and a skirt of moderate amplitude;
+the second, whose ornaments, though richly, are more broadly disposed,
+retains its balance by a slightly increased amplitude of drapery;
+while the third, whose dress is altogether without embroidery,
+acquires a corresponding effect by large, loose sleeves and richly
+folded skirt, and two large plaits hanging down her back. What an
+opportunity this would be, backed by these giants of breathing bronze,
+to make an indignant descent on some paltry and muddle-headed moderns,
+who don't know how to discriminate between that kind of finish which
+proceeds from the love of a smooth surface, and makes the artist
+equally careful of his pumps and of his pictures, and that other kind
+of minuteness which is the beautiful fruit of a refined love for
+nature, and proceeds from a feeling of piety towards the mother of
+art, and who complacently call 'niggling,' a quality above the
+appreciation of their _breadth-mad_ brains; who, in their
+art-made-easy system of 'idealising' (forsooth), look for artistic
+'beauty' in a facial angle of so and so much. What with the _Greeks_
+was an _abstract of_ MAN, and very appropriately applicable in the
+cases of demi-gods (that the ancients _could_, and _did_, 'en tems et
+lieu,' individualise, may be sufficiently seen in their admirable
+portraits), becomes with _them_ an absurdly misapplied _average of
+mankind_, not _a_ man, or _men_. _The leading feature in Nature is a_
+MANIFOLD INDIVIDUALITY, AN ENDLESS VARIETY; _she is like a diamond,
+that glances with a thousand hues_. 'Indeed!' I hear them
+contemptuously sneering, 'you don't seem to be aware, sir, that ideal
+beauty is the great _centre_ of all these _extreme_ varieties, and the
+only thing worthy of a great artist's attention.' 'Well, gentlemen,'
+say _I_, 'without inconsistency, you can't get out of the way of the
+following mouthful: there are (perhaps you will allow) three
+elementary colours, which in different combinations produce every
+variety of hue; _but_, the great _centre_ of these three _extremely_
+various colours is _grey, non-colour ... the ideal of a bit of
+colouring, "the only thing worthy of the attention of a great
+colourist" is a picture with no colour in it at all_.' However,
+Messrs. the Generalisists and _Apollinisists_ 'have every reason to
+congratulate themselves on the extensive circulation of their views,
+for their _ideal_' is visible in every haircutter's window. Never
+mind, I must contain myself--but the rod is in pickle!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble V.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Meran.]
+
+"A glorious amphitheatre of lofty mountains! On one side rugged,
+sternly rising, crenelated, grey, snow-strewn; on the other, dreamy,
+far outspreading, gently vanishing, southward luring, softly glowing,
+wrapt in tints of loveliest azure, gradually blending with the
+silver-fretted sky. A spreading, fertile gushing valley. Down the
+sunny, swelling slopes, across the embosomed plain, an endless,
+curling, wreathing flood of gold-green vines, foaming and eddying with
+purple grapes. Through the verdant waves, like rushes in a stream, the
+Indian corn raises its slender form and feathered head in long array.
+Beneath, outstretched at ease, the pumpkin winks and yawns. At the
+foot of a steep-fronted, purpling rock, skirting the glowing
+vineyards, a foaming mountain stream, emerald and silver. Along the
+heights, nestling in verdure, rise thickly scattered, castellated
+villas, looking, with their bright, white walls, like smiles on the
+face of the earth. An epitome of what is rich and joyous and
+unfettered in landscape. The Alpha and Omega of all that is charming
+in the Tyrol. MERAN!
+
+"I can say no more for it.
+
+"To my mind, it is inferior to Italy only in one respect: it is
+wanting in that glowing, strongly marked individuality, that earnest
+beauty, that 'charm that is in melancholy,' which fascinates so
+powerfully in the land of wine and oil.
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble VI.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Italy!]
+
+    [Sidenote: I "realise," as the Americans say,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and find reason to think that
+    I am a queer party.]
+
+"To be able to say that, on returning after long years to a country
+whose image memory has, during the whole of that time, fondled with
+all the partiality of ardent attachment, one has found one's best
+expectations realised, is, in this world of disappointments and
+frustrated expectations, indeed a rare thing; but to find imagination
+_surpassed_ by reality is rarer still; yet it is my case now that I
+once more breathe the air and tread the soil of Italy. For this, I
+feel more grateful than I can say; for to have been disappointed in
+_these_ hopes would have been to me the greatest of miseries; as it
+is, my enjoyment is a double one: that which is occasioned by the
+positive, intrinsic beauty of what I see, and that, not less great, of
+recalling at the same time a happy, long-dwelt-on past. This I have
+more particularly experienced since my arrival in Verona; and here a
+queer feature in my queer idiosyncrasy obtrudes itself to notice,
+_i.e._ the extraordinary dominion exercised over me by the senses of
+smell and hearing! That I do labour under these peculiarities I always
+knew, but to what a ludicrous extent, I did not find out till, on
+arriving here (Verona), I was suddenly seized by a gust of a thousand
+smells and a din of a thousand sounds, some always remembered, others
+long-forgotten, suddenly rising up again to my memory. I was
+spellbound, the veil of the past was torn up, I was fairly carried
+back against the stream of time. Ridiculous as it may sound, my
+enjoyment of Italy, independently, of course, of the art (which is an
+extraordinary tissue of reality and illusion), would be very imperfect
+without this combination of trifles. One thing, I think, must affect
+every one agreeably; I mean the exquisitely humorous cries of the
+vendors in the thoroughfares and market-places; who could hear and not
+remember the loud, expostulatory shriek with which the one dwells on
+the excellencies of his handkerchiefs, the argumentative and facetious
+tone in which another infers that comfort is not possible without a
+supply of his matches, that urgent wail with which a third deplores
+that man should have so little appreciation of his baked apples, the
+muddy, half-suffocated tenor with which a fourth proclaims his
+water-melons, or the rabid, piercing soprano which seems to warn the
+public that 'if those violets are not bought pretty quick, there will
+soon be none to buy'?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble VII.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Verona.]
+
+"I do not think there exists anywhere a more powerfully and
+fantastically individual town than Verona; it is to Italy what
+Nuremburg is to Germany; but it is a transfiguration of Nuremburg; in
+point of wildly picturesque variety it defies description and
+surpasses expectation; it is saturated with art; wherever one turns,
+the eye is struck by some beautiful remnant of the taste--that was; of
+that glowing, sterling feeling for art, which spread itself over
+everything, and ennobled whatever it touched. Hardly a house that
+cannot boast of a sculptured archway, or some such token of ancient
+splendour; not a church, even the most insignificant, but is crowded
+with old paintings in oil and fresco, few of which are bad, some very
+good, a few excellent, but _all_ in a far higher _tone of feeling_
+than nine-tenths of the shallow, papery daubs with which the
+nineteenth century covers its carcase of steam engines. No
+wonder--they are all scriptural or apocryphal subjects, and were all
+painted with an ardent belief in the faith to which they all owe their
+existence; from thence arose, amongst other excellencies, a certain
+na�f, ingenuously childlike treatment of the miraculous, which,
+combined with the manly dignity of consummate art, gives them an
+indescribable charm, which nothing can replace. Now--with us, at
+least, of the cold belief--men throw really eminent talents--_to the
+dogs_. But, for us Protestant artists, things are made much worse than
+they in any way need be, by the total rejection of pictures and
+statuary in our churches. Now, three centuries back, in the first
+ebullition of reformatory fanaticism, such a practice was not only
+comprehensible, but even a natural and necessary consequence and token
+of their total disavowal of everything approaching to the Romish form
+of worship; but its continuance at present amongst us is, not only
+contrary to the spirit of the Anglican Church, which after all, when
+compared to Lutheranism and Calvinism, is a _conservative_ one, but is
+founded on arguments altogether untenable with any degree of
+consistency; for if, as we are told, pictures and statues distract the
+attention and produce a worldly frame of mind, if it be true indeed
+that works of _high art_ (for, of course, no others are here taken
+into consideration), than which surely nothing is more calculated to
+raise the tone of the mind and prepare it for the reception of
+elevated impressions, have indeed so pernicious an effect, then, it is
+evident, by the same argument, the beauties of architecture, the
+eldest of the sister arts, must be equally rejected; at the sight of a
+Gothic church, that offspring of Christianity, we must shrug our
+shoulders and say with pious aversion: 'Vanitas vanitatum!' But the
+Church of England has not gone as far as that; indeed, great attention
+is paid to our Church's architecture; is there no inconsistency here?
+Or does the Church, terrified by the example of Romish image-worship,
+fear a similar evil amongst us, whose belief is so infinitely more
+circumscribed than that of Rome? Or is she so tender of admitting
+symbols into her bosom, she, whose corner-stone is a symbol: the Last
+Supper?
+
+"To return to Verona.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble VIII.]
+
+    [Sidenote: The Veronese love flowers,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and have good legs.]
+
+"As Gamba, owing to the time which my letter took in reaching him, was
+not able to meet me at the time appointed, I remained two days at
+Verona, days to which I shall always look back with unmixed pleasure.
+I indulged, this time (the more that I knew the town already), in the
+luxury of _not_ 'sight-seeing,' but strolled about the whole town in
+every direction, dropping into churches, staring at tombs and palaces
+and piazzas and pictures, just as if rolled past me in the
+ever-varying panorama. I was struck, in the Tyrol, with the profusion
+of flowers everywhere displayed; but here I see far more, and those,
+too, more artistically distributed; they rise in double and treble
+tiers on, in, and about the gracefully curved balconies, and assert
+their sway wherever human ingenuity makes it possible to place a
+flower-pot, and in a great many other places besides; creepers wreathe
+from window to window, and vines actually springing from holes in the
+walls, with no visible root or origin at all, spread their graceful
+mantle over the walls of crumbling palaces. Of the Veronese
+themselves, I cannot say that they are a handsome race; the women
+especially, though they have a great deal of character in their
+features, are generally far from good-looking. Amongst the peasants I
+saw some very fine men; they have, some of them, very good legs,
+slender and well shaped as a Donatello or a Ghiberti.
+
+    [Sidenote: Thursday, August 26.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Gamba.]
+
+"On Thursday Gamba came, just as I was giving him up in a high state
+of despair and mystification. We hurried at once by Padua to Venice,
+where I found your letter.
+
+    [Sidenote: I look back and feel ashamed,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and make a clumsy excuse.]
+
+"As I look through what I have written, before sending it off to you,
+I feel, painfully, that my style is clumsy, stuttering, incoherent;
+that I am wordy, without saying enough; that I am overfree in my use
+of fanciful epithets, without giving an adequate idea of the
+suggestive beauty of what I see; that I am sometimes almost mawkish,
+without saying half I feel; that I am incorrigibly slovenly and
+forgetful; that I can't write, that I can't spell. In answer to all
+this, I can only answer by referring to a little premonitory
+observation at the foot of my first page, _i.e. Quality of Pebbles not
+warranted_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BATCH No. 2.
+
+(This blank represents three weeks.)
+
+    [Sidenote: Sept. 16.]
+
+"_September 16._--Many happy returns of the day, dear Gussy! The other
+day I took a pair of scales, and put into the one vessel the price you
+would have to pay for the postage of a congratulatory letter to be
+received by you on your birthday, and into the other a pleasure which
+a surprise might afford you; the postage outweighed its rival; so I
+wrote no letter. If my directions have been attended to, you will, no
+doubt, have received a far more satisfactory outward and visible sign
+of my good wishes.
+
+    [Sidenote: Sept. 18.]
+
+"_September 18._--The same to you, Papa!... _Can the river offer its
+fountain a drink?_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble I.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Sept. 19.]
+
+    [Sidenote: I lucubrate,]
+
+    [Sidenote: when I consider, &c. &c.,]
+
+    [Sidenote: whereas, &c. &c.,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and even then, &c. &c.,]
+
+"Three weeks (apparently months) have elapsed since I last soared on
+the descriptive pinion; now, and only now, on the eve of my departure
+from Venice, I find time and leisure again to pour on the past a
+libation of pen and ink. I resume the quill with a feeling of
+disheartenment. With what intentions did I begin to write this
+(journal)? Had I not hoped to note down, at once and in all their
+freshness, my emotions and impressions just as I should receive them?
+and to speak also sometimes of the thousand little incidents that fall
+in one's path, and which form the arabesque round the chapter of life?
+And how are my hopes fulfilled? Behold me, on the morning of the last
+day, the day of parting, packing, paying, and passports, forced to
+throw in a hurried and disconnected heap a few general remarks
+concerning what I have seen and heard and felt and found, and not
+found, during my stay in the home of Titian. And even that, how
+difficult! For in this short stay, sight has succeeded sight, emotion
+has followed emotion, in one continued merry-go-round; I have been
+alternately grave and gay, melancholy and jocose, dejected and
+enraptured; add to this that in my mind, as in the dissolving views,
+one picture always effaces its predecessor, and you will at once
+perceive that I am in the position of a man trying to see the pebbles
+at the bottom of a muddy brook, or his natural face in a basin of
+gruel.
+
+    [Sidenote: but you know, &c.]
+
+"Now, I again repeat what I made a preliminary condition: that I send
+you the pebbles, loose and disjointed, and that I don't undertake to
+make a necklace of them.
+
+"'But whose fault is all this?' (I hear you ask).
+
+    [Sidenote: besides, it's not my fault]
+
+"During my stay here (I continue, without attending to your question)
+I have been up nearly every day _before the sun_ (about five o'clock),
+and after working and tearing about the town all day, towards evening
+I was not sorry to....
+
+"Do you guess how it was I wrote so little?
+
+    [Sidenote: A little digression]
+
+"Here a little observation obtrudes itself to my notice. Man (for
+there is nothing like throwing your own frailties on mankind in
+general) is born with an irresistible tendency to talk _at something
+or somebody_; eighteen pages back I was talking to nobody; or, if I
+did address anything, it was that very vague personage, the future;
+now I find myself getting more and more personal; _you's_, I expect,
+will soon get up to fifty per cent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble II.]
+
+    [Sidenote: A picture.]
+
+    [Sidenote: (Parenthetic Pebble about Gondolas.)]
+
+"Venice! Mighty word, city of endless associations, image that fills
+the mind! What impressions has it left on me? I shrink from answering
+a question so difficult to answer _fairly_, and from dissecting a
+point of such intricate anatomy. Whilst I think it over, I will give
+you a picture or two to look at; you shall have a peep out of the
+window where I sit writing. It is early morning, everything is cool
+and calm, in silent, almost breathless expectation of the not yet
+risen sun. Before your eyes rises one of the most splendid views in
+Europe, that of the Grand Canal from the steps of the Academy; the
+stately, dark green street of waters reflects on its wide-spreading
+mirror the grey and crumbling palaces, and the lovely form of Sta.
+Maria della Salute, with her domes of dazzling white. Not a ripple
+mars its glossy surface, except where, at rare intervals, some silent
+gondola glides swiftly along, scattering the sparkling drops from its
+graceful oar, or where, here and there, the playful 'aura mattutina'
+has left too rough a kiss upon its slumbering cheek. No sound is
+heard, but the distant, even, measured chimes, that seem to be rocking
+on the silence of the morning. Along its marge, singly, or clustering
+in close array beneath roofs of vine-covered trellis, lie the
+far-famed, ebon-coloured, swiftly gliding gondolas of Venice.
+'Gondolas!' Whilst the sun is rising, let me say a word or two on
+gondolas. It has always excited my great surprise that these barks,
+which are graceful almost beyond imagination, are, in point of fact,
+in their present shape the offspring of a period, next to our own, the
+most execrable in point of taste which the world has produced. I mean
+the end of the seventeenth, or rather the beginning of the eighteenth
+century. Yet, so it is. In the time of Carpaccio and the Bellinis they
+were queer, tolerably uncouth contrivances, about two-thirds of their
+present length, pointed and equally curved at both ends, so as to
+resemble as nearly as possible a slice of melon, dead of the cholera.
+In Titian's day the shape began to taper out a little, and the iron
+points or knobs, _at both ends_, rose to a greater height, and were
+enriched with a serrated ornament; but they did not assume their
+present slender proportions and graceful ornament, _at the prow only_,
+till the eighteenth century; as also the mysterious and exquisitely
+comfortable little cabins or coffins, which now surmount them, and
+which formerly were open _behind and before_, forcing the passenger to
+sit upright! They contained then the rudiment of an idea of grace,
+which took its natural growth and development in spite of man.
+Meanwhile, for I have been watching him, the sun has appeared above
+the horizon; not that I see his own, real, glorious face, for he is
+hidden behind an ancient palace, but I see his reflection glowing in
+the eye of nature. First a gentle, tremulous, golden light began to
+steal along the dappled morning sky, warning all the little, distant,
+fleecy clouds to shake their plumes, for that it was going to begin;
+then, of course, the water took up the tune; and then (it was fit the
+biggest building should set the example) the 'Salute' assumed a
+saffron hue, and gradually one by one all the palaces on one side of
+the Canal, right up to our windows, and, did not you notice? your own
+face took quite a shine. For a while you yourself and everything round
+you seems wrapped in a trance; presently you begin to write. How is
+this? The whole picture begins to dance and quiver. Our Lady della
+Salute glows with a deeper blush, and trembles. Then, suddenly, her
+redness vanishes, her glorious countenance sparkles, and she raises
+her stately form in a garment of burnished silver; the gondolas that
+nestle round her feet, and hem in the whole length of the Canal, seem
+like a fillet of sparkling gems around a web of emerald and gold; the
+sky is a sea of light; the sun is in the wide heavens--it's time for
+breakfast. Waiter, coffee and rolls!
+
+    [Sidenote: I am reminded,]
+
+"'Do you mean,' I hear you urge, 'to come to the point, and tell us
+how you like Venice?'
+
+    [Sidenote: but take no notice.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble IV.]
+
+"Another picture! (pretending not to hear). The same scene, but under
+a different aspect. How different! Just now it was a scene of dawning
+life, a burst of gladness--now it is a mild, a gentle dream, an
+Italian moonlight night, a _Venetian_ moonlight night--calm, clear,
+soft, fancy stirring. You lean idly out of the window; there are two
+of you, or ought to be, but you don't say anything to one another; you
+are rocked in silence; you feel the sweet, warm breath of night pass
+over your cheek; you think of Shakespeare's exquisite verses on what
+he never saw but with the eye of his boundless fancy; you are sitting
+with Jessica and Lorenzo (that is his name, I think) on a bank of
+violets; you are anxiously waiting for Portia and her company; your
+ear is attentive to every sound; presently a sweet, half-heard strain,
+like a distant echo, dawns on your ear; then it is lost again; again
+it swells, and seems to glide gently along the shadowy waters towards
+you, nearer, still nearer. You see a track of gleaming light along the
+water, and at intervals a shower of tiny stars; it's no illusion; they
+glide along towards you, the voices that rose from the distant waters;
+they are almost beneath your window. Quick, quick, a gondola; a dozen
+or more musicians, with every kind of instrument, sit together in a
+bark, and alternately play and sing lovely melodies by the musicians
+of Italy. As long as the strain lasts the oar is suspended, and the
+floating orchestra drifts slowly along with the slowly ebbing tide;
+round it, a cluster of gondolas, full of breathless listeners whose
+very soul seems to melt with the delicious sounds, and combine with
+them--at least, you can answer for yourself, for you are one of them.
+Those are moments which you, I am sure, will never forget.
+
+    [Sidenote: You interrupt me, but I take no notice.]
+
+"'You are beating about the bush, we want an ans....'
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble V.]
+
+"Another picture! (taking no notice of you)--a bit of Giorgione,
+coloured by Veronese. You are in an _atelier_; pictures and sketches
+in different stages of advancement lie about the tables and cover the
+easels; at one end of the room you see a large cupboard; its open
+doors betray within layers of rich old silks and damasks, some made
+up, some in pieces, as they were found at the antiquary's; further, an
+old mandoline, that perhaps could tell of the days of Titian. Through
+the large, gaping window you look upon a group of the most picturesque
+Venetian houses, with their fanciful basket-shaped chimneys and
+irregular windows and thousand-fold tints; the foreground is
+gracefully supplied by a screen of slender, net-like trees, amongst
+which heavy-laden vines wreathe in fanciful festoons. But where is
+Werner? the amiable inmate of this charming snuggery; where his
+pupils? Ah, I hear them! Hark! in the garden, a merry laugh, a
+clattering of cups, a sound of several voices, a suggestion of
+enjoyment; you rush to the scene of action; on your road you nearly
+break your neck over a table covered with the remains of a hearty
+dinner. A few yards further, you see half-a-dozen young men (of course
+artists) stretched, in every variety of ingeniously comfortable
+attitude, on a temporary floor of Turkey carpets, in a cool, clear,
+shady spot beneath arches of roof-weaving vines; in the middle, at
+comfortable arm's length, coffee, and heaps of purple grapes, whilst
+the intervals of conversation are filled by affectionate and earnest
+appeals to long Turkish pipes. You approach; you are recognised;
+seized by the hand, thrown down on the carpet; and presently you
+perceive that an entire afternoon is gone by! But that afternoon
+becomes a landmark to you. May not such reminiscences well endear a
+place to one's memory?
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF BYZANTINE WELL HEAD. Venice, 1852
+    By permission of Mr. S. Pepys Cockerell]
+
+"'Well, then, I suppose....' (say you).
+
+"Never mind, let me continue.
+
+    [Sidenote: More where the rest came from.]
+
+"Another impression. You are sitting, early in the morning, in a
+spacious, picturesque court; you have got your sketch-book, and you
+are busily poring over a drawing of a beautiful old Saracenic well;
+you are intent on doing it well, on cutting out that friend you have
+got with you. Presently you are seized with a peculiar sensation; you
+have heard, all of a sudden, the voice of an old, old friend, who
+speaks to you of things you don't see round you; a veil falls from
+your eyes; you feel that you have missed something for some time past;
+a vision rises before your eyes--a sweet vision of wooded hills and
+grassy fields, teeming with a thousand wild flowers and sending forth
+a sweet smell, and of flowing streams, of _fresh_ waters, of birds
+singing merrily as they fly from tree to tree, and swing on the
+slender branches; and then you remember that you dwell in a
+mysterious city, closed in by the salty sea. Who was the friend that
+called up these lively images in your mind? It was a poor, solitary,
+wandering _Bee_. But he suggested something else to you, the roaming
+honey-gatherer--he reminded you of _freedom_; reminded you that
+Freedom had no home _there_; and he made you _feel_ how much you had
+felt it, how much you had been unconsciously haunted by the breath of
+oppression that hovers over poor, browbeaten Venice, and whose
+pestilence clings to its rocky shore, as the rankling seaweed to the
+skirts of its palaces. Poor Venice! once resounding with joyous
+voices, now its walls seem, as you pass them, to mutter mournfully of
+arrests, condemnations, executions! Its narrow streets re-echo with
+the heavy tread of exulting soldiers, with the watchword of a foreign
+tongue. Palaces and convents are become barracks and infirmaries, and
+Slavonian troopers loll and spit where the proudest lords and
+loveliest ladies of Venice used to assemble to the banquet or the
+ball. But I turn away from such sad reflections, lest they may seem to
+outweigh all the delight that I have spoken of before.
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble VI.]
+
+    [Sidenote: What I think about it.]
+
+"I have rehearsed to you a few of my impressions for good and for
+evil, and I think that was the only way of answering your (imaginary)
+questions. I need make no apologies for not _describing_ Venice to
+you, as you have all seen it, and it is a place the image of which
+does not easily fade. I might say a word or two about the Venetians.
+Whatever some people may say (and, if I am not mistaken, Byron amongst
+them), the female Venetian type, such as it is transmitted to us by
+Titian, Giorgione, Pordenone, &c. (_i.e._ stout, tall, round-faced,
+small-mouthed, _Roxolane-nosed_) has either totally disappeared, or
+only manifests itself to a chosen few; one feature only I recognise,
+and that is a profusion of fine hair, which they plait in the most
+elaborate manner. A thing that rather puzzles those who go to Venice
+with the idea of seeing _Titians_ and _Veroneses_ at the windows and
+in the streets, is that the women have altogether left off dyeing
+their hair auburn as they used in former times. To show you that
+vanity made the fair sex go through the greatest personal discomfort
+as far back as the sixteenth century, I will tell you what the process
+of dyeing was. On the top of nearly every house in Venice is a kind of
+terrace-like scaffold, or scaffold-like terrace ('you pays your money
+and takes your choice'), which has the noble vocation of drying linen;
+in former days, however, they were built for a different purpose. In
+the middle of the day, during the greatest heat of the sun, the party
+anxious to impart to her hair a tint between sugar-candy and radishes
+repaired to these _lofty_ spots, and there regularly bleached her hair
+in the following manner: she put on her head the _brim_ of a large
+straw hat, so that the top of the head was exposed to all the power of
+the sun, whilst the face and neck were kept in the shade. Through the
+hole thus left in the middle of this extraordinary headgear the whole
+of the hair was drawn, and spread out as much as possible; which done,
+different kinds of waters, made for the express purpose, were passed
+over it by means of a little sponge fastened to the top of a reed.
+History does not give the exact number of _coups-de-soleil_ caught in
+this manner; a few, I should imagine. However, I can warrant the
+accuracy of my statement, which is borrowed from a contemporary author
+of the highest standing. The men of Venice are neither handsome in the
+face nor well made in the body. The Venetian dialect is amusing; in
+the mouth of a woman, if well spoken, it is pretty, musical,
+childlike, lisping; but in the mouth of a man, for the most part,
+muddy, stammering, unintelligible.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   "There, much as still remains to say, and willingly as I dwell on
+   its memory, I must discard Venice, and turn to your kind letter,
+   for it is now, I am afraid, more than a month since I last wrote.
+   This delay has, however, been unavoidable, for when one is
+   travelling, or staying a short time in a place, one is always
+   hurried and flurried in the day-time, and in the evening tired or
+   excited--or both. Next time you hear from me (which will be when
+   I reach Rome) my communication will openly take the shape that
+   this has imperceptibly been attaining, that of a letter; when I
+   am once settled for the winter I shall, I hope, be better able to
+   write _au jour le jour_. Before entering into your letter, which
+   will be a longish job, I must acknowledge the receipt of one from
+   Papa, containing part of my remittance; it was written in most
+   kind terms (I tell you this because you can't have seen it, since
+   he wrote in London), and was, I think, the longest I ever got
+   from him, at all events it was the first in which he said
+   anything beyond what was necessary to business. It gave me
+   sincere pleasure. I was touched, it seemed to me that distance
+   had brought me nearer to him; pray thank him both for that and
+   for the consideration with which he has provided for an emergency
+   which will in fact arise--that of my not reaching Rome in
+   October; I do not expect to get there until the first week in
+   November. Of one thing I must remind Papa; he talks of sending to
+   Rome the _remaining eighty_ pounds of my second quarter; he has,
+   I am afraid, forgotten that he gave me sixty for my first; my
+   remittance this time is only _forty_ pounds, he therefore has
+   only twenty to send to Rome.
+
+   "I now turn to your letter, dear Mamma; I lay it by my side, and
+   as I read it slowly through, answer it systematically, head for
+   head, for in my present hurry I have indeed no time to pick and
+   choose, or to arrange my topics according to their importance and
+   interest, or even to consult as much as I wish the little
+   amusement that my letters give you. However, I console myself a
+   little with the reflection that it certainly is not the
+   composition of my letters which gratifies you much, for I am
+   painfully aware that my ideas are brought to paper with about as
+   much order as the footprints of a cock-sparrow show on a
+   gravel-walk.
+
+   "You say, dear Mamma, that you have a fear of not telling me all
+   that I wish to hear; and there, indeed, you are right, for if you
+   were to tell me _all_ that I wish to know about your doings, you
+   might write for a week; but you are equally right in supposing
+   that _whatever_ you write concerning yourself (and selves) is
+   full of interest to your distant Punch. About my health? Well, I
+   plead guilty, steaks _do_ still continue to be to me _physical
+   consciences_; this admonitory part they took more especially at
+   Venice, where the climate, I must confess, did not agree with me
+   particularly well. This is perhaps attributable to the water,
+   which was particularly bad there, for my diet was of the simplest
+   description. Judge for yourself: in the morning early, coffee and
+   dry bread (I have discarded butter to keep company with Gamba,
+   who is not in the habit of eating any); at eleven or so, fruit
+   and bread; at four or five, a simple dinner; and in the evening,
+   an ice or a cup of coffee. Here I live much in the same way.
+
+   "I am truly delighted to hear that you are accommodating yourself
+   a little to an English climate; if you once get over that one
+   great obstacle, nothing else need prevent your establishing
+   yourself in the country which, after all, is still the dearest to
+   you; with the prospect of pleasant and desirable society for
+   yourself and the girls, and of other resources for Papa, there is
+   every reason to hope that you will find in Bath what you have so
+   long wished for, a home in _England_."
+
+Speaking of his elder sister's suffering, he continues:--
+
+    "I feel, almost, a kind of shame that so much should have been
+    poured down on me, who have deserved it less. To become
+    deserving of it, must be my great, never-wavering endeavour;
+    I will put my talent to usury, and be no slothful steward of
+    what has been entrusted to me. Every man who has received a
+    gift, ought to feel and act as if he was a field in which a
+    seed was planted that others might gather the harvest.
+
+    "I am delighted to hear that Lady Leighton is getting on well,
+    and as much gratified at having made on her a favourable
+    impression; pray tell her that her presence and conversation
+    inspired me with a desire to please her, and that her
+    affectionate reception has still a lively hold on my memory.
+
+    "You tell me that you were touched at Steinle's kindness to
+    me, and indeed it was such as might well touch any one; this
+    time you will be touched at his affliction, poor man, he has
+    just had a heavy misfortune--the most affectionate of fathers
+    has lost another child, the second, in a year and a half; I
+    heard this from Andr�, who has just arrived from Frankfurt,
+    and who called on the unfortunate man before he started and
+    found him much dejected. He said in his melancholy but calm
+    tone of voice: 'Ich habe eine Tochter begraben.' You think it
+    improbable that I shall find a _second_ Steinle; I delight in
+    the belief that there _is none_.
+
+    "I am not surprised at your finding it impossible to imagine
+    an artist without a genuine love for nature. In any but an age
+    of perverted taste such a thing could not exist; but it is
+    only too true that that most essential of qualities has become
+    obsolete, and is hardly to be found at all. Artists now are
+    full of _breadth_ and _depth_; and, between us and the
+    doorpost, _flatness_. On this subject I mean to tell you more
+    in my next letter, when I speak more particularly of my
+    _artistic_ impressions and opinions, which I have not yet
+    done.
+
+    "I am glad to hear what you tell me about the comfort you
+    enjoy in Bath, from the superior cleanliness and decency of
+    behaviour of English servants over foreign ones; it is a
+    thing to which I am particularly alive, and which struck me
+    very much last time I was in England; Gussy too, I am sure,
+    appreciated it very much. I am sorry that I cannot participate
+    in your enthusiasm about the beauties of Bath (barring, of
+    course, the situation, which is charming), but I will say
+    nothing against it, as I am only too glad that you should be
+    pleased with it. I quite follow you in your admiration of the
+    edifices in Westminster; I think that, taking them altogether,
+    they form one of the finest groups of architecture that I ever
+    saw; but what particularly pleases me in the Houses of
+    Parliament is the example they set of building in that style
+    of architecture which is our own, the growth, as it were, of
+    our soil, and which therefore best befits our country. Such
+    feelings, I have reason to believe, are becoming prevalent in
+    England, and they may have great results; but I reserve all
+    this for another letter. I am glad to hear of the institution
+    you tell me of for the cultivation of good principles; I
+    believe that the greatness of England will not be as ephemeral
+    as that of the other nations that have had the lead in
+    succession, because so much is done to consolidate and
+    increase in strength the basis on which it stands, and which
+    is the best prop to the enduring prosperity of a nation,
+    uprightness and morality.
+
+    "I have now followed and answered your letter, from beginning
+    to end, from point to point, it is time I should close; next
+    time I write, I shall be in Rome, settled for the
+    winter.--Believe me, dear Mamma, with very best love to all,
+    your most affectionate and dutiful son,
+
+                                                 "FRED LEIGHTON."
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                           VENICE, _31st August_.
+
+    "HONOURED AND VERY DEAR HERR STEINLE,--If I did not, according
+    to our agreement, write to you directly Rico[19] arrived, it
+    was because I could not make up my mind to put you off with
+    two words, whereas I had neither time nor leisure to write you
+    anything detailed. Now, however, arrived and established in
+    Venice, I take up my pen to repair the neglect. It is a
+    lovely, cool, clear summer morning; I sit at my window on the
+    Grand Canal, and before my eyes rises in glorious beauty the
+    incomparable outline of Sta. Maria della Salute with the
+    adjoining Dogano. The newly risen sun (it is five o'clock in
+    the morning) throws a golden, enchanted light along one side
+    of the Canal; the gondolas and barges, which nestle in a
+    numerous array at the steps of the _Salute_, glitter in the
+    dusky distance like gleaming jewels on the borders of the
+    silver mirror of the water, whose clear bosom is gently
+    ruffled by the soft breath of dawn. All is still, except the
+    distant church bells. What words can give an idea of such a
+    sight? I gaze about me in a day-dream and think of you, the
+    dear friend, the honoured master; all that I owe you for
+    heartfelt sympathy and wise guidance, and cannot pay, rises
+    before my grateful soul, and reminds me that I have lost one
+    whom I shall miss many a time. I hope with all my heart that
+    your stay in the mountains of Appenzell will have given you
+    fresh strength, and that in all respects you are
+    re-established and invigorated according to your expectations.
+
+    "Now, however, as I am to speak of myself, and to give some
+    account of my impressions on my journey, I note that for me
+    the potent picture of Italy, of Venice, has pushed all that
+    went before into the background, almost blotted it out, so
+    that now it floats before me like a dim remembrance; but with
+    two exceptions: two pictures have impressed themselves deeply
+    on my memory, and will certainly not be easily erased--I mean
+    the _Franciscan church at Innsbruck_ and lovely _Meran_. You
+    were indeed right when you said that the cast giants in that
+    church are the grandest achievement of German sculpture; they
+    are colossal, a truly imposing spectacle, brilliant monuments
+    of an age of noble taste. What eternal truth! What an amazing
+    impress of individuality! Of marvellous execution that never
+    borders on the little, full of breadth and strength, and yet
+    nobly slender, they are the most perfect example of _economy
+    of detail_; what a sharp contrast to the superficial
+    stone-hammering (I might say) of to-day; what an everlasting
+    shaming to the nineteenth century! I could name many sculptors
+    who could not look at these things without profit.
+
+    "Meran! What an indelible, fascinating picture floats before
+    one's eyes at the name; this Alpha and Omega of all that is
+    lovely in Tyrol; this lovely amphitheatre of mountains, rugged
+    on one side, and steep and covered with snow on the other,
+    glowing in the purple gleam of the south--widely extended,
+    melting away, alluring; this fertile plain; this gold-green
+    flood of climbing vines, hanging down like waterfalls from the
+    espaliers on the mountain slopes, with the purple foam of the
+    vines; these thousand pleasure-houses and castles; the
+    picturesque costume!
+
+    "But why so many words? You have seen this beauty yourself,
+    and have no doubt a clearer picture of it than I can paint for
+    you.
+
+    "In Botzen, to my very great regret, I was unable to see Herr
+    von Hempel, since he was staying, not in his town house, but
+    in a castle at a distance of two hours; but I visited Becker's
+    brother. He received me in a most friendly manner, asked much
+    after his brother, of whom he had heard _nothing_ for more
+    than a _year_, and told me that his mother, who had recently
+    visited him in Feldkirch, had wept bitterly about it. I must
+    also inform you that he has recently _taken unto himself a
+    wife_--a fact of which our good Jacob (that is his name, is it
+    not?) also knew nothing.
+
+    "I could still, dear Herr Steinle, write much to you about
+    Tyrol and Italy (especially about _Verona_), for I know no one
+    with whom I so gladly share my artistic sensations as with
+    you, but lack of time obliges me to close quickly for the
+    present; I will only add that after I had been two days in
+    Verona the worthy Rico arrived, and we are now having a _feast
+    of art_ in Venice together.
+
+    "Should you be still at the Stift when you receive these
+    lines, I beg you to kiss the Frau Rath's hand for me, and to
+    tell her that I remember vividly the day I spent in her house.
+    Remember me most kindly to your wife--I congratulate her upon
+    her deliverance from the Cronberg martyrdom; kiss the little
+    children for me, and remember me to the elder ones; remember
+    me also to Frau Sch�ff & Co. and to all my other good friends;
+    this is perhaps rather a large request, but whom could I omit?
+    I rely upon your kindness. I close with a plea for forbearance
+    towards my incorrigible writing and my lame, headlong
+    style.--Heartfelt greetings from your devoted and grateful
+    pupil,
+
+                                                  "FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    "_P.S._--Should you have anything to say to me, or any
+    commission to give me, the address, Poste Restante, Florence,
+    will find me till the end of September.
+
+    "Gamba wishes to be cordially remembered to you, and promises
+    himself to be under your wing again in eighteen months.
+
+    "In my next letter I will tell you about Italy."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] In the winter of 1845 Leighton went to a children's costume ball
+in Florence as Punch, and for some time after the name clung to him in
+his family.
+
+[14] Literally, "devoured nature with a spoon."
+
+[15] A distinguished actress.
+
+[16] Probably "The Death of Brunelleschi."
+
+[17] See Appendix, In Memoriam.
+
+[18] See sketch, "A Monk Dividing Enemies," Leighton House Collection,
+"Ulm, 1852."
+
+[19] Count Gamba.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ROME
+
+1852-1855
+
+
+The first group of letters from Leighton to his family from Rome tells
+of his instalment, his projects, his disappointments, his indifferent
+health, and his eye-troubles. But more important are the views he
+expresses on his "_artistic_ impressions," and the ideas which force
+themselves on his mind, resulting from these impressions; the
+increased anxiety with which he regards the task he has set before
+him; the "paralysing diffidence" which he feels with regard to
+"composing." In the letter he wrote on January 5, 1853, he enters more
+intimately into his own feelings in addressing his father than in any
+previous letter I have seen. This letter is in answer to one from his
+father, which Leighton describes in writing to his mother[20] as "the
+longest I ever got from him, at all events it was the first in which
+he said anything beyond what was necessary to business; it gave me
+sincere pleasure. I was touched; it seemed to me that distance had
+brought me nearer to him." Leighton was evidently eager to respond to
+any advance from his father towards possible intimacy on the ground of
+his art-interests. In "Pebbles" he writes that he opens the
+"introductory chapter of the second volume" of his life, "a volume on
+the title-page of which is written 'artist'"; in these first letters
+from Rome he begins the second volume itself. The letter to his
+younger sister, on her "coming out," contains at its close memorable
+advice on the subject of the development of her musical taste.[21]
+"You must descend into yourself, and draw at the fountain of your own
+natural taste, but mind you go very deep, that you may really get at
+your _genuine, natural_ taste, and I think you won't go far wrong. He
+who knows how to hear the voice of nature has found the safest guide,
+and he only is a good master who opens the mind of his pupil to that
+voice." At the age of twenty-one, Leighton had realised, and was
+himself pursuing, the only right course in studying any art. By
+invariably drawing deeply from the fountain in his own nature, he ever
+remained true and sincere as an artist. It is evident that, if there
+is no fountain to draw from in a nature, any study of art becomes
+useless, and Leighton, when consulted in later years, never encouraged
+false hopes in those who possessed no natural endowments. When he
+wrote,[22] "being very receptive and prone to admire, I have learnt,
+and still do, from innumerable artists, big and small; Steinle's is,
+however, the indelible seal," he referred to the fact that in Steinle
+he had fortunately found the master who opened his mind to the voice
+of his own nature. Leighton felt a great necessity to sift the various
+influences which played upon his receptive nature, on account of his
+ready sympathy with all that was admirable. He had constantly to seek
+for that inner light, that "genuine, natural taste," which his revered
+master had led him to search for and find, and to act from the
+dictates of that light, and from no other.
+
+The commencement of the first letter from Rome to his mother is
+missing; the date of the post-mark is November 25, 1852, Rome.
+
+    "...unnoticed, and which now requires to be woven in with the
+    rest. I mean, of course, my more directly and practically
+    _artistic_ impressions, and their results. I take them up 'ab
+    ovo.' To an artist an occasional change of scene is of the
+    greatest advantage, if not importance; for, generally
+    speaking, when he has stayed long in one place, surrounded day
+    after day by the same objects, his eye becomes, by the
+    deadening effect of constant habit, indifferent to what he
+    sees around him, and often even inaccessible to the
+    impressions which a newcomer might receive from the same
+    natural beauties; most things that please the eye or the
+    imagination, do so (in my case, at least) by some peculiar
+    association; indeed I should imagine it must be so with all
+    things, for even when one cannot (as one often can) define
+    precisely the association which creates the echo within of the
+    impressions received, it seems to me that one is instinctively
+    aware of a kind of indefinable _innate relationship_ to the
+    beauties manifested in nature, to which, by-the-bye, I think,
+    all other associations might ultimately be traced through
+    different degrees of consanguinity. It is in being
+    unexpectedly reminded (however indirectly or unwittingly) of
+    this affinity, that lies all the pleasure that we experience
+    by the means of sight; indeed, it strikes me, although I am
+    too ignorant to explain why, that the 'feu sacr�' of the
+    artist is a kind of inward, spontaneous, ever active,
+    instinctive _impulse_, blind and involuntary, to manifest and
+    put forth this his pedigree--as it were a yearning of son to
+    father, an attraction of a part to the whole, which is, as it
+    were, the living _motive_ and condition of his existence, and
+    which sometimes infuses in his works 'un non so ch�' that is
+    felt by others, but for which he would be at a loss to
+    account, and of which he is perhaps barely aware; it is a
+    manifestation of a _truth_ which is felt to be _fit_, and
+    called _beautiful_. These reflections, which have often
+    involuntarily forced themselves on me, suddenly remind me of
+    an expression I once heard Papa quote from some German
+    philosopher, I think Hegel: 'Der Mensch ist das Werkzeug der
+    Natur.' Good gracious, where am I running to? and how far out
+    of my depth! and yet one feels the want to empty one's head a
+    little now and then; latterly, especially, these ideas have
+    been stirred up in me by the perusal of fragments on the
+    theory, philosophy, of Art, &c., by Eastlake, which gave rise
+    in me to some painful feelings. At the first onset I was
+    amazed and bewildered at the quantity and great versatility of
+    Eastlake's acquirements, a man who has yet found time to
+    cultivate his art with success. I was filled with regret and
+    mortification when I looked at myself and considered how
+    little I know, and how little, comparatively, my health and
+    eyes will allow me to add to my meagre store. As I got further
+    into the subject, my feelings altered; it seemed to me to grow
+    more and more vast and comprehensive, but not more
+    _intricate_, for it appeared by degrees to embrace and involve
+    in itself (and be involved in) all human knowledge, so that I
+    felt that there must be only one key to all mystery, the
+    _non_-possession of which key is the characteristic, the
+    condition _des Menschseins_. Then it struck me as utterly
+    absurd for anybody to pretend to know anything about anything;
+    but it also struck me that it is not given to man to be a
+    neutral spectator, that he must advance or recede; and that
+    beautiful saying of Lessing's, which Papa read to us, occurred
+    to my mind: 'Wenn der Allm�chtige' (I quote from memory, and
+    therefore probably not quite correctly) 'vor mich hin tr�te in
+    der Rechten die vollkommene Erkenntnis, in der Linken ein
+    ewiges Streben nach Wahrheit, ich w�rfe mich flehend in seine
+    Linke und sagte: Vater, gieb! die reine Wahrheit ist doch nur
+    Dir allein!'[23] I hardly meant to say all this, especially as
+    it must seem horridly weak to a philosopher of Papa's calibre,
+    but I really could not help it; I wish such thoughts would
+    never come into my head, for I am painfully aware that I have
+    not the grasp of mind to investigate any abstract subject
+    deeply, and I wish that I had a mind, simple and unconscious,
+    even as a child. I hurry back to the point with my tail
+    between my legs; I was saying, was not I? that habit deadens
+    us (read _me_) to the _suggestive_ qualities of nature, and
+    that change of scene is sometimes required to make us again
+    _aware_ of nature; after such change she speaks a more
+    eloquent language than ever; I have heard her voice, ever
+    since I left Frankfurt, ring more powerfully than ever before,
+    and it has been the key to all that I have done, and to all
+    that I have omitted. But there are some cases in which this
+    numbing effect of habit has more lasting, almost irrevocable
+    consequences; when one has been for a long space of time
+    _utterly_ familiarised with an object (a work of art in
+    particular) of which one did not, when the acquaintance or
+    _liaison_ was contracted, appreciate all the beauties, though
+    in process of time the _understanding_ may become fully aware
+    of these qualities, the _heart of the mind_--if I may use such
+    an expression--can never feel that ingenuous fulness of
+    admiration which would penetrate a sensitive and cultivated
+    spectator on seeing it _for the first time_. This I have felt
+    more particularly in the case of the 'Transfiguration' here in
+    the Vatican; I am so utterly familiar with it from a child,
+    when I could in no way understand it, that I find it
+    impossible to judge of it _objectively_; I see colossal merit
+    in it, and yet, when I have looked at it for a few minutes, I
+    turn away and walk on; I am deadened to it. Thank God, it is
+    not so with his (Raphael's) divine frescoes, which are so
+    maimed and profaned in the engravings that the originals were
+    _new_ to me. But I am at the end of my paper, and as you do
+    not wish me to cross, I must this time close by just telling
+    you what my disappointments have been, that you may not form
+    a false idea of them. First, I expected to find an
+    _atmosphere_ of high art, and every possible 'g�nstige
+    Anregung' for its cultivation; in this I have been completely
+    disappointed; of the numberless artists here, scarcely any can
+    call themselves historical painters, and Gamba and I, who
+    hoped for emulation, are thrown completely on ourselves;
+    Overbeck is the only remains of that much to be regretted
+    period when he and Cornelius and Veit and Steinle and others
+    were labouring together in friendly strife; he will, however,
+    never be to us what Steinle was. The next greatest sore point
+    was the difficulty of getting a studio. When we arrived in
+    Rome the first thing we heard was that all the _ateliers_ were
+    taken; and it was only after some days despondent search that
+    I got a little bit of one most skimpingly furnished, that I
+    should have sneered at when I first arrived. I have no
+    _s�cr�taire_; I am obliged to lock up my papers with my
+    shirts; I have been obliged to buy a lamp, for the one they
+    gave me tried my eyes; and if I want any article of furniture
+    I must buy it, because I understand that at the end of the
+    year hiring costs as much here as buying. My _atelier_ for
+    next winter I shall take in the spring, as a good many become
+    vacant at that time. Rome is twice, nearly three times, dearer
+    than Florence in some respects; I am in despair; Gamba, who
+    has just half what I have, absolutely starves himself in his
+    food, and can hardly keep himself cleanly dressed; yet he has
+    fewer expenses than I, who have calls to make now and then,
+    and must dress accordingly. Oakes, too, who had sent me a
+    charming letter to Florence, saying that he delighted in the
+    idea of coming to spend the winter with me in Rome, was
+    suddenly prevented; this was a bitter disappointment; I had
+    expected a great deal of improvement from his conversation. I
+    am in the bleak position of one who stands in immediate
+    contact with _no_ cultivated and superior mind. The Laings
+    have not come yet; I hope to goodness they won't disappoint
+    me also.--I remain, dearest Mamma, your dutiful and
+    affectionate son,
+
+                                                 "FRED LEIGHTON."
+
+                (_La suite � un prochain num�ro._)
+
+                                                           "1852.
+
+    "DEAREST GUSSY,--As a gallant brother, I can't well do less
+    than answer separately your postscript to Mamma's letter. I
+    shall make a point, if I meet with it, of reading Andersen's
+    'Dichterleben'; your recommendation is sufficient to
+    predispose me favourably. I perfectly understand what you say
+    about St. Paul's, and quite agree with you on that subject.
+    What suits a salmon-coloured ribbon? By George, that's a
+    weighty question, and requires mature reflection; it would
+    look _best_ on a white dress with blue flowers or spots; a
+    sea-green would not look bad, and on black silk it would be
+    _distingu�_; a bluish violet would not be bad either. I am
+    sincerely sorry that I am not able to 'assister' at your
+    triumphal entry into your eighteenth year; I am afraid the
+    spell is beginning to fall by degrees from the greatest of
+    days. If my directions have been attended to, I was present by
+    proxy on the memorable occasion. Do you fully appreciate the
+    immense importance of the epoch? Do you sufficiently feel that
+    you are on the brink of being _OUT_? You are very much
+    mistaken in supposing that I hear much good music here; there
+    is little or none to hear; the theatres, at least, are all
+    bad. I sincerely hope that you cultivate assiduously the
+    talent with which you are blessed; especially the vocal part I
+    am very anxious about; of course you will take lessons in
+    Bath. I sympathise very much with you on the want of
+    Rosenhain's guiding influence; I fully appreciate your
+    difficulty; you must descend into yourself, and draw at the
+    fountain of your own natural taste, but mind you go very deep,
+    that you may really get at your _genuine, natural_ taste, and
+    I think you won't go far wrong. He who knows how to hear the
+    voice of nature has found the safest guide, and he only is a
+    good master who opens the mind of his pupil to that
+    voice.--Believe me, with many kisses, your very affectionate
+    brother,
+
+                                                            "FRED.
+
+    "If Gussy _did_ want to be a charitable Christian, she would
+    copy in her pretty handwriting five lines a day of my horrid
+    scrawl, for I am ashamed that my Pebbles should remain in such
+    a state."
+
+                              "BATH, _Sunday, November 29, 1852_.
+
+    "MY BELOVED CHILD,--I need not tell you how close an account I
+    keep of the day of the month, nor how my heart beats as the
+    foreign post hour approaches, because you know how tenderly I
+    love you, and what it cost me to part from you, and
+    consequently how anxiously I look for the consolation for your
+    absence which your letters afford me, and I had hoped you
+    would supply this balm liberally. Of course while you were
+    actually travelling I made every allowance for weariness, &c.
+    &c., but if you have carried out your intentions, you must
+    have been in Rome quite ten days, and though I said in my last
+    I hoped for the future you would leave only three weeks
+    between each of your letters home, it is now more than a
+    calendar month since I had last the great happiness of seeing
+    your handwriting. I would not, my love, be unreasonable, but
+    you must remember that, in addition to the natural desire to
+    hear how you manage for yourself, my maternal anxieties have
+    been awakened by the indisposition you spoke of as not
+    serious, it is true, but which has started up before me,
+    explaining your delay in writing, and which, in spite of
+    reason's suggestion that a slight illness would not hinder
+    your work, whilst Gamba would prevent the addition of suspense
+    to the trouble a serious attack would cause us, has brought
+    the evil of separation very bitterly before me. The goodness
+    of your heart, my child, will teach you how you can soften
+    this to me; it is one of the few occasions remaining to you to
+    exercise self-denial, as you live alone and have no one to
+    please but yourself. I now and then wonder a little anxiously
+    whether you ever think of my exhortations, so much have I
+    wished that you should be in the retirement of your house as
+    gentlemanly as you are in company. But then I recollect
+    sentences in your letter, proving such right views in
+    important matters, such a clear understanding of your
+    responsibilities, that I resolve to believe that you will
+    strive to do right in small matters as well as in great ones;
+    indeed, my child, I have remarked with deep satisfaction your
+    appreciation of the blessings that are allotted to you, and
+    indeed you do right to enjoy them with all humility, for I
+    cannot flatter you in opposition to the dictates of my
+    conscience that you are _so_ well deserving of happiness as
+    your poor sister. She is deserving of the highest respect of
+    all, bearing all her trials with admirable patience. The
+    persevering rain, which has caused a great deal of illness in
+    Bath, has had a very bad effect on her, throwing her back just
+    as she was beginning to mend, so that she has a great deal of
+    rough ground to go over again. We revel in literary abundance,
+    even German and French books are in the circulating libraries,
+    and _I_ often wish the days longer to read and to work. Gussy
+    says she hopes you will not think her ill-natured if she
+    declines copying your letters, for, indeed, were she willing
+    to undertake this difficult task, I should forbid it, as her
+    eyes, always delicate, are unusually weak; whether this comes
+    from too long confinement to the house, or from crying, I
+    cannot say; the latter is produced by _Heimweh_! what do you
+    think of this for an English girl? Thank God, she employs the
+    best remedy against regretful feelings, as she is occupied
+    from morning till night. Are you equally industrious? I read
+    the other day the following assertion by Southey, which I copy
+    for you, in case you should _still_ have the habit, so common
+    amongst young people, of wasting during the day occasional
+    quarter-hours or ten minutes, because, they ask, only such a
+    few minutes, how often have I heard that excuse. This is the
+    portion: 'Ten minutes' daily study, for seven years, will give
+    the student sufficient knowledge of seven languages to read
+    them with ease, and even to travel without an interpreter in
+    the respective countries.' Is not this an encouragement to
+    industry? We imagine you by this time settled in your lodging
+    and beginning to feel at home. God grant that you may have
+    your health there and meet with kind friends; we are curious
+    to know what your letters will do for you. In the meantime you
+    will, I doubt not, have met some old acquaintances--the Henry
+    Walpoles, the Laings, Mr. Petre, the Isembourgs, and Princess
+    Hohenlohe; to what amount the latter will condescend, I know
+    not, but remember, I entreat you, my advice. The two former
+    families you will most likely have first met at church; let me
+    hope at least that you will not abandon the habit; it may at
+    last bring a blessing upon you. The intentions of your
+    Frankfurt acquaintances we learnt in a letter from Mme.
+    Beving; she had heard from M. Fenzi that he had given you a
+    general invitation to his villa, and that you had dined with
+    him, or been asked to do so; I do not know whether he made any
+    comment on you. Did your organ of _veneration_ do its duty?
+    Forgive my hints, dear son; all your good qualities are
+    pictured in lively colours before my eye, but I do not even
+    try to forget your faults, lest I should neglect my duty to
+    you; with the best resolutions we all occasionally require a
+    fillip to our conscience. Next Friday is your birthday. It
+    will be the first on which you have not received your parents'
+    blessing in person. We shall not forget you, my darling. God
+    bless you, my own dear Freddy; in this prayer your father
+    joins most fervently; think often of the advice and love of
+    your devoted mother,
+
+                                                    "A. LEIGHTON."
+
+    [Illustration: COSTUMI DI PROCIDA. Rome, 1853]
+
+                                            1 BROCK STREET, BATH,
+                                             _December 13, 1852_.
+
+    DEAR FREDERIC,--I need not say that we had all of us great
+    pleasure in receiving your letter from Rome, though not before
+    your dear mother had suffered great anxiety from the
+    delay--the greater, because your former letter did not give a
+    very encouraging account of your health. It gave us also great
+    pain to hear of the vexatious disappointments which have
+    attended your first entrance into the Eternal City, but this
+    was, perhaps, to be expected, as the sanguine expectations of
+    youth are seldom realised, and we may hope that by this time
+    you will have found in other advantages and opportunities for
+    improvement a sufficient compensation for the loss of those
+    you had expected. What you say about the weakness of your
+    eyesight is far more serious, and, indeed, would have
+    occasioned us alarm if we did not hope and believe that you
+    meant no more than we already knew at Frankfort, that your
+    eyes were weak, and not that they had continued to grow
+    weaker. But when I consider that your only means of acquiring
+    an honourable independence and gratifying your laudable
+    ambition depends upon your eyesight, I surely need no
+    arguments to urge you in the strongest manner to use all those
+    precautions for its preservation which your own good sense
+    must suggest--to throw aside your brush or pencil the first
+    moment that your eyes begin to smart or water, not to draw on
+    white paper or by candlelight (or lamp or any artificial
+    light), nor read except large print, nor small print even by
+    daylight, except for a few minutes occasionally in a book of
+    reference, and to acquire as much knowledge as you can,
+    independently of books, by conversation with well-informed
+    men, if you are so fortunate as to meet with them; when you
+    cannot paint, talk, or observe, exercise your memory, it will
+    store and cultivate your mind more and try your eyes less than
+    reading, which in your case cannot be systematically pursued.
+    You may perhaps meet some well-informed young men amongst the
+    German artists. Above all, draw your compositions as large as
+    possible (or rather as necessary for your eyes) and not such
+    as your architectural drawings, "Four Seasons," &c., which
+    contain so many objects minutely drawn. I suppose, likewise,
+    that chalk and charcoal must be better than pencil, and the
+    paint-brush better than either. You have no reason to complain
+    either of want of ideas or of power of expressing them (at all
+    events with your pen), however deficient you may think
+    yourself in a command of language for conversation; but the
+    fact is that, considering the distance that separates us, it
+    is of much more importance to us to know _how_ you are, what
+    you do, and what you observe, than what you think. Your
+    letters remind me of my friend, Dr. Simpson of York, who, when
+    we sat down for dinner, would enter into some abstract
+    discussion, say, of the nature and varieties of fish, or, _�
+    propos_ of the aitch-bone, on the homologies of the skeleton,
+    while in the meantime fish and beef were growing cold and my
+    appetite impatiently vivacious; so in your letters, while we
+    are burning with impatience to know how you are, what progress
+    you are making, or at all events what are your opportunities
+    of progress in the art, you indulge us with abstract
+    reflections on the theory of art in general. Your last letter,
+    it is true, begins and ends with interesting matter, but with
+    an interpolation of some three pages of disquisition on the
+    nature of genius in art, &c., &c., which, however well thought
+    or expressed, would be more in place in an essay than in your
+    letter to us who are so much more interested in what
+    immediately concerns yourself. The consequence is that,
+    although with a praiseworthy wish to please us you have tried
+    your eyes with a long letter, you have omitted much we were
+    anxious to know--whether, for instance, you were conscious of
+    having made any progress, or derived any advantage from the
+    many pictures both in art and nature you have had so many
+    opportunities of seeing; whether you had been making many, and
+    what sketches or copies, for we are quite convinced that you
+    have not been losing your time; whether you have been
+    comparing what you can do with what other artists of about
+    your age and standing in Italy can do, and whether the result
+    is satisfactory; whether there are any among them from whom
+    you can take any useful hints; whether Overbeck or any other
+    competent artist is willing to assist you; whether, above
+    all, you saw Power at Florence, and what he thought of your
+    compositions; whether you find in Rome the material advantages
+    you expected in the way of models, &c., and whether you will
+    think it advisable to draw from the antique--the Apollo,
+    Torso, &c.; in short, I cannot too strongly impress upon you
+    that one fact is of more value to us than a volume of
+    reflections. Of course, I would not have you infer that the
+    progress of your mind, your thoughts and feelings, are by any
+    means a matter of indifference to us, but after all they can
+    be only imperfectly shown in occasional letters, and must
+    necessarily exclude information of a more positive and, for
+    the present, of a more important nature. Let me caution you,
+    too, against reading any of the modern German works on
+    �sthetics; they can be only imperfectly understood without a
+    knowledge of the philosophies, of which they form a part, and
+    any advantage you may derive from them will not be at all
+    commensurate to the time and trouble, especially for you who
+    have so much positive knowledge to acquire. If, however, any
+    of your German friends can convey to you in conversation any
+    clear ideas on the subject (and if they have them themselves
+    there is no reason why they should not), well and good, but do
+    not let them impose upon you, as they so often do upon
+    themselves, with words either without any well-defined
+    meaning, or one different from, or even the direct contrary,
+    of the usual one. According to Hegel, for instance, 'das
+    Sch�ne, ist das _scheinen_' (Sch�ne from scheinen) 'der _Idee_
+    durch ein sinnliches Medium.' Now every artist knows without
+    Hegel that his idea, or, if he prefers to think so, nature's
+    idea within and through him, appears or manifests itself in
+    the sensuous material, in colours if he be a painter, or stone
+    if he be a sculptor, but this would be worse than trite, it
+    would be intelligible to a plain understanding. _Idee_ has a
+    far deeper meaning. If you hear a German flourishing away with
+    the magic word, ask him what he means. He will tell you,
+    perhaps, that it is das Absolute or der objective Geist as
+    distinguished from the Begriff or subjectiver Geist, or rather
+    the indifference of both, and that is neither one nor t'other,
+    but potentially either, or the _an sich_, or _an und f�r
+    sich_, or rather the _an, f�r, �ber sich_; at last after much
+    _hin und herreiten_ you get some faint glimmering of what is
+    meant; perhaps what some people call the soul in nature, or in
+    still plainer English, nature, or the unknown cause of all we
+    see, not an abstraction but a real entity, impersonal,
+    however, and therefore not a god, acting according to certain
+    laws, unconsciously in external nature (in ihrem Anders'sein)
+    coming to itself--acting consciously in man, but more
+    reflectively in science, more instructively in art. Well, you
+    have caught the _Idee_ at last (perhaps!) through its many
+    Proteus-like changes and recognise an old friend after
+    all--scratch your head, and ask whether you are any wiser than
+    before. 'Das scheinen der Idee durch ein sinnliches
+    Material'--in the Madonna of Raphael, for instance--'ist das
+    Sch�ne.' Why then, says Punch, not equally so in the pork-pie
+    and the mustard-pot, since the _Idee_ manifests itself equally
+    in both. The German solves the difficulty by "Sie sind ein
+    practischer Engl�nder, und haben keinen speculativen Geist."
+    In the meantime, let us hope that nature will use you as her
+    tool to carry out in colours and canvas some of her beautiful
+    ideas, and leave it to the German to find out how the
+    practical Englishman who has not read Hegel's "�sthetics" has
+    set about it. That you may accomplish this to the utmost
+    extent of your wishes is the sincere wish of, dear Fred, your
+    affectionate father,
+
+                                                 FREDC. LEIGHTON.
+
+    _P.S._--"Werkzeug der Natur" is an idea by no means peculiar
+    to Hegel.
+
+    "_Your_ birthday--
+
+    "Dearest Mamma, may it be a right happy one--one that may
+    serve, and be used, as a pattern to cut out others on. Judging
+    by your accounts, there is one among you who will contribute
+    mirth to your enjoyment--one who takes as many shapes as
+    Proteus, and is always the most welcome of guests; his name is
+    _Bettering_. In this world confident expectation is a greater
+    blessing, almost, than fruition. I too, if my directions have
+    been followed (as I confidingly hope), shall have appeared to
+    you on the great day _as good as gold_.
+
+    "How grieved I was, dearest Mother, to hear that I had given
+    so much pain to the kindest of hearts! My excuse, such as it
+    was, you got in my last letter, which reached probably the day
+    after you posted your epistle to me; I was sincerely sorry; I
+    had not, I must confess, any idea of anxious suspense on your
+    part, as you were not in expectation of any _particular_ news;
+    I shall in future try to be more deserving of your solicitude;
+    this time, you see, I am punctual.
+
+    "Health Report. Taking all in all, tol. sat., owing, no doubt,
+    to the unusually magnificent weather which we have had since I
+    arrived here; rheumatism, average; colds, not more than usual;
+    eyes?... hum ... might be better; I suppose macaroni 'al
+    burro' are not unwholesome--I and Gamba and several others eat
+    it nearly every day.
+
+    "I now turn to your letter. Little Gussy an authoress! dear
+    child, it gives one unfeigned pleasure to hear of her
+    successful _d�but_. I have myself had no opportunity of
+    judging of her talent for writing, but feel convinced that
+    with her warm heart, impressionable soul, sterling
+    understanding, and quick powers of observation, whatever she
+    writes will please a healthy taste. She has my very best
+    wishes. And yet, what slight cloud was that, I felt pass over
+    my pleasure, casting (I could not help it) an undefined shadow
+    on my heart? Did not I feel startled at being so palpably
+    reminded that the _child_ Gussy no longer exists? Did I not
+    seem to feel, disagreeably, that the bridge was cut down
+    behind us, that the last tie was broken that, in Gussy's
+    person, still linked us to childhood, the buoyantly confiding
+    age, the irresponsible age? Did not I become, through her,
+    painfully aware that when I took leave of you, you all sealed
+    with your kiss the first volume of my life, that I am indeed
+    launched into the second, that the rehearsal is indeed over
+    and the curtain drawn up?
+
+    "And do I not feel, even now, a _hypocrite_, _to know_ my
+    path, and yet so often to deviate from it? Write often, dear
+    Mother!
+
+    "The hint you gave me about husbanding my time, I shall take
+    to heart; it is a thing of which I myself full well feel the
+    necessity and know the unfailing benefit; but I confess that
+    when I read your quotation from 'Bob,' I felt irresistibly
+    reminded of the question once put to sage and wise courtiers
+    by the facetious monarch 'who never said a foolish thing, and
+    never did a wise one,' viz. Why is a tub of water with a goose
+    in it lighter than one without?
+
+        "'God help thee, Southey, and thy readers too!' (Byron).
+
+    "Your next question is: Am I comfortably _settled_ in Rome?
+    Well, I am happy to say that since the first week or fortnight
+    my prospects have been slowly but steadily brightening, one
+    cloud after another has passed away, and though I do not
+    expect to see the bright sky of fulfilled expectations quite
+    unveiled, yet I look forward to the enjoyment sooner or later
+    of contentment. I wrote my last letter in a tone of
+    considerable disheartenment, which I was indeed labouring
+    under; perhaps it was the triumph of a selfish feeling that
+    made me communicate my woes to you when it was not in your
+    power to mend them; but yet it is such a relief to feel that
+    there are those who are not indifferent to our grievances, who
+    rejoice when _we_ rejoice, and weep when _we_ weep; and then,
+    too, it seemed to me that perhaps a word from you might throw
+    a new light on my position and give me new reason to be
+    comforted. Meanwhile, altered circumstances have reassured me
+    on some points, and my own reason has pacified me on others
+    which I saw to be irremediable; the prospect of emulation of a
+    peculiar kind, such as I found in Steinle, and generally
+    speaking in the German school (I do not mean the emulation of
+    industry which I find amply in Gamba, or in the science of the
+    art which I have lately discovered amongst certain young
+    Frenchmen, but that which affects the animating _spirit_ of
+    the art, the _spiritual_ taste, the tendency of one's
+    thoughts), I have entirely renounced; the visions that I had
+    (God knows why, for I don't think I ever expected to grasp
+    them) of a time like that of Steinle's sojourn in Rome, when
+    so many master-minds were united together in friendly strife,
+    all inspired by the same spirit, all going hand in hand--have
+    all faded away, and only linger in my mind as a sweet
+    regretted image, like the gentle glow of twilight in the
+    western sky when the cold moon is already in the heavens. But
+    I have, on the other hand, seen reason to believe that this
+    will turn out for my good; that it is proper that I should,
+    once for all, and in all things, accustom myself to the idea
+    that I am, or should be, a _self-dependent_ and
+    _self-actuated_ being, accountable to myself for good and for
+    evil; that I must therefore learn to build and rely on my own
+    resources, and remember the most important of truths, that if
+    the growth of my art is to be healthy, lasting, fruit-bearing,
+    it must, though fostered from without, be rooted deeply in,
+    and receive its vital sap from the soil of my own mind. Still,
+    I have thought it good to hang up in my studio a work of
+    Cornelius and one or two of Steinle, to animate myself by
+    dwelling constantly on _an idea of excellence_ (not _ideal_, I
+    hate such stuff) irrespective of the _specific mode_ in which
+    it is manifested; and in this I think I have chosen the _juste
+    milieu_--so far my reason. Yet I do not deny that I every now
+    and then feel longings and regrets that make me feel the truth
+    of those lovely words--
+
+        "'We look before and after,
+            And pine for what is not;
+          Our sincerest laughter
+            With _some_ pain is fraught.'
+
+    "Among the irremediable disappointments on which I have to
+    put the best face, is that of not seeing Oakes here this
+    winter. From a man of warm feelings, of tastes congenial to my
+    own, of a cultivated and liberal mind, I had hoped to derive
+    much pleasure and especially advantage, and thus to have
+    supplied in some measure the void which must arise (and, alas!
+    remain) in my brain from want of time, want of robuster
+    health, want of eyes. A friendship, too, of mutual seeking is
+    so agreeable a thing. Matters stand so: when I was in Florence
+    I received from him a letter full of a kind and friendly
+    spirit, in which he seized with eagerness at the idea of
+    spending a winter with me in Rome; he was already in Paris,
+    where he was in treaty with a travelling servant in order to
+    continue his journey; he had written to you (did you get the
+    letter?) to know where he was most likely to catch me up; he
+    was anticipating the enjoyment we should find together in
+    Venice, or in Florence, or wherever we should meet; this
+    letter has been waiting for me a month at the post. I arrive
+    in Rome, and look anxiously about for Oakes, who, I suppose,
+    must already have arrived; no Oakes--no
+    news--suspense--despair; at last a letter: he has been
+    recalled from Paris; he is obliged, willy nilly, to stand for
+    his borough (Conservative, Ministerial); he is an M.P.
+
+    "Another disappointment, hitherto, is the non-arrival of the
+    Laings; I had promised myself great enjoyment in Isabel's
+    society; the footing on which we stand is such an agreeable
+    one: enough familiarity (for old friendship's sake) to make
+    our intercourse easy--a relaxation; enough restraint to refine
+    it and make it improving; she plays, too. Music! How I yearn
+    for music, which I never hear in the land best adapted to
+    foster it; music, that humanises the soul, that calls forth
+    all that is refined and elevated and glowing and impassioned
+    in one's breast, and without which the very lake of one's
+    heart ('il lago del cuore,' Dante) stagnates and is
+    congealed. I express myself extravagantly, but my words flow
+    from my heart.
+
+    "Again, the studio, which I at last found, though snug and
+    cheerful, very (let's give the devil his due), is, in its
+    professional capacity, bad beyond description; the light is
+    execrable; I could not dream of painting a picture in it
+    (thank God, I have only taken it till spring), scarcely even a
+    portrait, 'which is absurd,' Euclid, hem. What a list of
+    lucubrations! for goodness' sake, let me look at the gay side
+    of the picture. It has been a great comfort to me all through
+    that all the artists resident here, whom I have spoken to on
+    the subject, felt on first arriving the same kind of
+    disappointment that I did, and that all by degrees have
+    acquired the conviction that, after all, it's the best place
+    in the world for study. I have myself begun to feel what an
+    incalculable advantage it is always to have models at your
+    disposition whenever, and _however_, you want them; I look
+    forward, too, with the greatest delight to the studies that I
+    shall make this summer in the exquisitely beautiful spots to
+    which the artists always take refuge from the heat and malaria
+    of Rome. I long to find myself again face to face with Nature,
+    to follow it, to watch it, and to copy it, closely,
+    faithfully, ingenuously--as Ruskin suggests, 'choosing
+    nothing, and rejecting nothing.' I have come to the conviction
+    that the best way for an historical painter to bring himself
+    home to Nature, in his own branch of the art, is strenuously
+    to study _landscape_, in which he has not had the opportunity,
+    as in his own walk, of being crammed with prejudices,
+    conventional, flat--academical. But I am getting to the end of
+    my paper, and I have as yet said but little to the point; I
+    have not yet answered Papa's question about my sketching, and
+    therefore that I may not seem to be shirking the point, I
+    shall just tell you that amongst the sketches that I have made
+    (mostly architectural) are some by _far the best I ever
+    did_.[24] I have also to justify Marryat about not writing; I
+    got his letters the other day with a kind note to say that he
+    had been ill; that to the Princess Doria has availed me
+    nothing, as she is in mourning for her father, Lord
+    Shrewsbury; that to the Prince Massimo has opened to me at
+    once two of the first and most exclusive houses in Rome, those
+    of his two sisters, the Princess Lancelotti and the Duchess
+    del Drago. Enough for to-day. Good-bye, dearest Mother. Very
+    best love to all. Think often of your dutiful and affectionate
+    son,
+
+                                                  "FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    "I am ashamed to think of the time I have taken writing this
+    letter; not from want of ideas, not from any great difficulty
+    in expressing them, but from the great difficulty I have in
+    getting at them, controlling them, holding them fast.
+
+        "'A saucepan without a handle.
+          Soup without a spoon.'
+
+    "VIA DI PORTA PINCIANA, N. 8."
+
+                               "ROMA, VIA DI PORTA PINCIANA, N.V.
+                                      (_Postmark, Jan. 5, 1853._)
+
+    "DEAR PAPA,--When I received, the other day, your kind and
+    most interesting letter, and felt the appropriateness of your
+    admonitions--felt, too, how foolish it is for me, who am
+    ignorance personified (in certain matters, at least) to waste
+    _my_ time in speculations on subjects beyond my grasp, and to
+    exhaust _your_ patience by twaddling them out to you, whilst
+    your own penetrating and comprehensive mind takes, in
+    preference, a practical view of the subject--a question
+    suddenly presented itself to me: Bless my soul! what will he
+    say to the epistle I have just sent off? For, as you, by this
+    time, know yourself, it is, though perhaps less groggy than
+    the last, still insufficient in point of practical purport; a
+    _messed-up_ dish, not a joint. I hasten, if possible, to make
+    'amende honorable' by communicating to you in language as
+    concise as possible whatever information you either express or
+    hint a desire to have.
+
+    "One word only, a farewell one, on the subject of my
+    _ci-devant_ digressions; no, _three_ words; I must say in my
+    own justification. 1st. That when I sat down to write, it was
+    always with an idea of telling all (or nearly), and all in
+    detail, too, from which I was prevented by invariably getting
+    to the end of my paper, my time, and my eyes (as it would try
+    them to cross) before I had accomplished my object; 2nd. That
+    I have been discursive with an idea of entertaining for a time
+    the suffering members of the family; 3rd. That all my abstract
+    drawl, though it in some cases abutted in tenets that I had at
+    different times heard you let fall, was _altogether_ my own;
+    indeed it was, perhaps, the consciousness of the instinctive
+    _self-suggestedness_ of such thoughts that made me turn round
+    on myself and take an objective view of ditto. A philosopher
+    is very like a dog trying to catch his own tail.
+
+    "Now to business. You speak of my eyes; I cannot conceal from
+    you that they are worse than they were at Frankfurt, but I do
+    not know whether I can say that they are _getting gradually_
+    worse; everybody takes some time in getting _acclimatis�_ to
+    Rome; my sufferings may perhaps be ascribed to that. I intend
+    for some months to give up the nude in the evening. Your
+    advice about gathering information from the conversation of
+    men of cultivated mind I would most gladly follow, but, alas,
+    I only know _two_ really well-informed people here, and one is
+    an old man I hardly ever see. There is no fear of my drawing
+    my compositions too small, for (I shall tell you why
+    presently) I am drawing _none at all_, and probably shall draw
+    none for a considerable time; but close and minute study of
+    Nature in its details is, as I now see more plainly than ever,
+    of paramount importance. I come to another point which it is
+    difficult to touch with conciseness: have I made any progress?
+    Perhaps I am not entitled to answer positively in the
+    affirmative till I shall have painted some portrait or picture
+    better than anything I have yet produced; this I have not yet
+    had an opportunity of doing; but if, from superlative
+    confidence, having fallen to a more beseeming diffidence, if
+    having improved and chastened my taste, if having become more
+    anxiously aware of the extent of my task and more deeply
+    humbled by those who have fulfilled it, may be called
+    progress, then I can answer: Yes, I have made a step.
+
+    "I was deeply impressed with the glorious works of art I saw
+    in Venice and Florence, and was particularly struck with the
+    exquisitely _elaborate_ finish of most of the leading works by
+    _whatever_ master; the highest possible finish combined with
+    the greatest possible breadth and grandeur of disposition in
+    the principal masses; art with the old masters was full of
+    love, refined, utterly sterling. I had got during my journey
+    through the Tyrol into a frame of mind that rendered me
+    particularly accessible to such impressions; I had been
+    dwelling with unwearied admiration on the exquisite grace and
+    beauty of the details, as it were, of Nature; every little
+    flower of the field had become to me a new source of delight;
+    the very blades of grass appeared to me in a new light. You
+    will easily understand that, under the influence of such
+    feelings, I felt the greatest possible reluctance to _sketch_
+    in the hasty manner in which one does when travelling; I
+    shunned the idea of approaching Nature in a manner which
+    seemed to me disrespectful, and the consequence was that until
+    I got to Verona I did not touch a pencil. In Venice and
+    Florence, however, I made several drawings, some of which are
+    most highly finished, and afforded me, whilst I was occupied
+    on them, that most desirable kind of contentment, the
+    consciousness of endeavour. Of course I was obliged to conquer
+    to a certain extent my aversion to anything but finished
+    works, and accordingly I made a considerable number of
+    _sketches_ 'proprement dits.' With regard to composing,
+    however, I still feel the same paralysing diffidence, I cannot
+    make up my mind to draw compositions like those I have
+    hitherto produced, but, at the same time, I feel that I am as
+    yet incapable of drawing any in the manner I should wish, and
+    as I see no prospect of such a desirable state of things till
+    I have spent a summer in the mountains and drawn landscape,
+    men and animals for several months, it is very unlikely that I
+    shall put my hand to anything original till next winter; then
+    I shall pour myself out with a vengeance. When I left
+    Frankfurt I asked Steinle whether I should compose the first
+    winter; he answered: '_Oh, wenn Sie m�gen._' He foresaw how it
+    would be. It gives me great comfort to feel that I am quietly
+    settled to study for some years in one place, and that I am
+    able to make plans for the future without having to reckon on
+    removals and changes. Meanwhile, this winter I take models, I
+    have been studying the anatomy of the horse, I shall draw at
+    the Vatican from Raphael and Michael Angelo (_perhaps_, too,
+    from the antique), &c. &c. A digression, whilst I think of it:
+    I think that the pains in my eyes are in some measure nervous,
+    for mentioning them invariably brings them on, in broad
+    daylight. About the little emulation I find here I have spoken
+    in my last letter. The general tone here (of course with some
+    exceptions) is one of public toadying mediocrity. There is
+    here one young Frenchman, remarkable for correctness but
+    coldly scientific (only in his art), without that warmth and
+    spontaneity which give such a peculiar charm to works of
+    genius. Overbeck was endlessly courteous and praised me very
+    highly, talked of the artists in Rome acquiring in us 'einen
+    �chten Zuwachs' ('a real addition'), but the half century
+    between our respective ages and his pietistical manner make me
+    sure that we shall derive but little advantage from him; I
+    neither expected nor wished to find a second Steinle.
+
+    "As for Powers, though he was very polite to me in his own
+    sort of way, I am pretty certain that he had entirely
+    forgotten, nor did he ask me to show him anything. You may
+    console yourself on that score--a sculptor, especially one who
+    can do little but busts (however pre-eminently good they may
+    be, and _his_ are), can very seldom judge well of pictures.
+    Gibson, the great sculptor, whom I know very well, and who
+    shows me great kindness by-the-bye, has about as little
+    judgment in painting as a man well can. That I _do_ find
+    models here, and many other material advantages, I told you in
+    the letter that you lately received.
+
+    "I have now, dear Papa, answered all your questions; it only
+    remains for me to thank you for your poignant and admirably
+    practical remarks on the German philosophers--remarks, I
+    assure you, which have quite answered their purpose; both they
+    and the kind wishes you have expressed concerning my future
+    advancement shall not have been thrown away on your grateful
+    and affectionate son,
+
+                                                 "FRED LEIGHTON."
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF HEAD FOR "CIMABUE'S MADONNA." 1853
+    Erroneously supposed to be the Portrait of Lord Leighton
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+                                       (_Postmark, Jan. 5, '53._)
+
+    "DEAREST MAMMA,--To your appendix an appendix. Paper and time
+    force me to laconism.
+
+    "My personal discomforts, for which you show such kind
+    sympathy, are, I am happy to say, now only very slight; the
+    only thing I suffer annoyance from is my stove, which makes my
+    head ache; with regard, however, to beating a retreat, I must
+    candidly tell you that I see my only chance of coming to
+    anything is studying here steadily for _some three_ years;
+    the more so that it is by all accounts only at the end of the
+    first year that one feels all the advantages which Rome
+    affords. My plans seem to be these: this winter, studies; next
+    summer, ditto, in the mountains, or wherever it is coolest;
+    next winter, pictures, portraits, compositions; summer after,
+    Paris, see the large Veronese (which was invisible the last
+    time I was there); from Paris to Bath to see all you darlings
+    again, spend two or three weeks in England studying its
+    character under the ciceroneship of Oakes, that thorough
+    Briton, and collecting materials for some large (in meaning if
+    not in size) picture to be painted in Rome during the third
+    winter, and to be my firstling in an English exhibition; I
+    feel that one day my painting will have a strongly national
+    bias. That autumn I should probably return to Rome _vi�_ Spain
+    to see the Murillos, &c.
+
+    "When you next write to Lady Pollington, pray remember me very
+    kindly to her; her merry face and facetious ways are still
+    before me. Lord Walpole, whom you mention as coming to Rome,
+    and whom I shall know if he does, is indeed, I believe, a very
+    agreeable and clever man. The Henry Walpoles have been very
+    civil to me; Mrs. Walpole told me that if I wrote to you I was
+    to give her best--I think she said, _love_--for that you were
+    a great favourite of hers.
+
+    "Here I must absolutely close, though I have plenty more to
+    say. My very best thanks to Papa and you all for the kind
+    presents, but I don't see why you won't allow me the pleasure
+    of giving you anything. As I have written this letter
+    immediately after the other, I cannot promise to write again
+    soon. To yourselves, very best love from your dutiful and
+    affect.
+
+                                                  "FRED LEIGHTON."
+
+The following letters from Steinle are evidently the first Leighton
+received in Rome from his master. No comment on them is necessary.
+Every line is evidence of the affectionate quality and beauty of the
+nature that so permanently influenced Leighton's for good.
+
+  _Translation._]                             "FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
+                                               _January 6, 1853_.
+
+    "MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Although I do not know your address,
+    and am uncertain whether this will reach you, yet I can no
+    longer withstand the urging of my heart; I only know that you
+    and Gamba are in Rome, that you have visited Overbeck, as he
+    himself has written me; assuming, however, that you also visit
+    the Caf� Greco, I will risk that address. Your spirited lines
+    from Venice reached me safely, and I can truly say that since
+    then my thoughts and my good wishes for you and for Gamba have
+    daily accompanied you. A report which has been circulated
+    here, that you, Gamba, and Andr� had been attacked by robbers,
+    made me anxious for a time, and I expected from day to day
+    that you would yourself write me something about this
+    adventure--in vain. Overbeck writes me now that it would give
+    him particular satisfaction to be able to help or serve you in
+    any way during your stay in Rome, and cordially wishes that
+    you and Gamba would give him the opportunity to do so, but
+    unfortunately he knew nothing else about you to tell me. What
+    Sch�ffer writes me is also so extremely scanty, that for all
+    that concerns you and Rico I am thrown back on my own thoughts
+    and suppositions. That you are both absent from me is
+    unfortunately a painful truth; as to whether the ideal life
+    which from old and dear habit I still live with you, be also
+    true, the future, I hope, may show. I have an idea that you,
+    dear friend, and perhaps also your faithful comrade, already
+    suffer from the artistic fever of Rome, which every one feels
+    in the first year. It is that glorious old Rome, with her
+    wealth, and the multitude of her impressions, which works so
+    powerfully upon the receptive mind, that it can retain nothing
+    in contradiction, and cannot escape her influence; this period
+    is one of discomfort, because we feel ourselves oppressed; but
+    though it is of the greatest value, and no doubt bears rich
+    fruit, the work of artists of to-day is neither in a position
+    to offer you anything important, nor to deceive you in sight
+    of the old masters; if the multitude of impressions is first
+    gradually assimilated, if everything is assigned its place, if
+    we take a wide survey, and can stride forward freely in
+    pursuit of the goal set before us, then only does that
+    wonderful spirit which hovers over Rome rise up in us strong
+    and inspiring, and then we are able to recognise what we have
+    actually won in the fight with discomfort. Thus, and in
+    similar circumstances, I fancy that my dear friends are in the
+    same case as the bees, which swarm, and toil with all the load
+    they collect, but cannot make honey by perpetual sucking. That
+    is inconvenient and oppressive, but ah! when this time is
+    past, what wealth will they unfold, with what comfort will
+    they look upon the well-filled satchel, how quickly they will
+    recognise that such wealth pays interest for the whole life!
+    But if it is otherwise, dear friend, then laugh at the
+    all-wise Steinle, and resolve finally to free him from such
+    delusions, and to set the matter before his eyes as it really
+    is, and be you assured of one thing, that he always wishes
+    that everything may be good and prosperous for you, that all
+    that you are longing to attain you may attain, and that
+    Almighty God may guard you and Rico from all ill! You can have
+    had no idea with what feelings your friend would read your
+    vigorous, spirited lines from Venice. I received them, on my
+    return, from Gamba, a very dear lad, and could not help being
+    sorry that you, who have become so dear to me, should know
+    absolutely nothing of what distressed your friend. We are men;
+    hear, then, the news. Returning from Switzerland, I heard of
+    the illness of my daughter Anna, in Metz, and I and my wife
+    hurried to her, and spent six sorrowful days by the death-bed
+    of my little sixteen-year-old daughter. After the funeral, I
+    came back here, and finished 'The Raising of Jairus'
+    Daughter.' The real pleasure of my art I felt shrink from me
+    day by day in Metz; and now all my pleasure depends upon the
+    beloved art, for happiness is more and more confined within
+    the four walls of my _atelier_. Do not read any complaint in
+    this; I have learnt much sadness, but have also found rich
+    cause to thank God from my heart. What manner of children
+    should we be, if we would not kiss the rod when we are
+    chastised? And now, dear friend, with all my heart a greeting
+    to Rome, and to all who remember me kindly. All friends here
+    send greetings to you and Gamba, including Casella il
+    Professore; Senator Nay is in Rome. I hope with all my heart
+    that you have good news of your dear ones, and remain, always
+    and altogether yours,
+
+                                                        "STEINLE."
+
+    [Illustration: VIEW OF SUBIACO, NEAR ROME. 1853
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+  _Translation._]
+
+    "MOST ESTEEMED HERR STEINLE,--When you receive these lines I
+    shall have already been long in the lovely land wherein I lack
+    nothing but your presence; I beg you to accept from me the
+    accompanying translation of the first volume of the works of
+    the Father of English Poetry as a little remembrance; whether
+    it is a good rendering of the great master I cannot judge, as
+    at the moment of writing it has not arrived; but one thing I
+    can answer for: it is the only volume of the only translation
+    of Chaucer into the German language in existence; I only
+    regret that there is also no Italian version; may it serve you
+    as a souvenir of your devoted and grateful pupil,
+
+                                                  "FRED LEIGHTON."
+
+  "FRANKFURT A/M."
+
+  _Translation._]
+                           "ROME, VIA DELLA PURIFICAZIONE No. 11,
+                                                    _January 11_.
+
+    "MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--At last I am able to write you a few
+    words, and (although very late) to send you my very best good
+    wishes and congratulations for the New Year. I am sure that
+    you will be kind enough to forgive my long silence, and will
+    believe me when I tell you that I absolutely could not help
+    it. I hope with all my heart that in the meantime you have
+    been well and strong, and that your beautiful works have
+    progressed in accordance with your wishes. How has the
+    experiment with the new ground turned out? Have you already
+    started on the other cartoon? I, for my part, have experienced
+    the fact that to make plans and to carry them out are two
+    different things; for nothing has come of the pictures which I
+    set myself to paint. I have already told you in Frankfurt,
+    dear Master, how painfully my deficiency pressed upon me, and
+    how clearly I felt that my works lacked a highly genuine
+    finish in the form, an intimate knowledge of nature; this
+    consciousness had so increased when I arrived in Rome that
+    without more ado I determined to employ myself during the
+    whole winter exclusively upon school tasks, and by all means
+    to endeavour to rid my artistic capacity a little of this
+    defect; so now I continually paint study heads, which I try to
+    finish as much as possible, and in which I especially have
+    good modelling in view; that I have achieved this,
+    unfortunately I cannot yet assert, but I derive great
+    enjoyment from the attempt, and hope that my efforts will not
+    remain unrewarded; I shall then next year, if I come to the
+    painting of pictures again, go to work with greater knowledge
+    and clearness, and shall be able, I hope, to clothe my ideas
+    more suitably.
+
+    "I have nothing further to report of myself. I hope, my dear
+    Friend, to receive a few lines from you, telling me what you
+    are doing, for you know well how deeply interested I am.
+
+    "Will you be so kind as to tell Mr. Welsch that my trouble to
+    find the Palazzo Scheiderff was in vain, and I have also
+    unluckily not seen his brother? If I pass through Florence
+    again in spring, I will try my luck once more. And now, adieu,
+    dear Master. Kindest remembrances to your wife and children,
+    and to you the warmest greeting, from your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                      "LEIGHTON."
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                              "FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
+                                                _March 24, 1853_.
+
+    "MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--My desire for news of you and Gamba was
+    certainly great, but I possessed my soul in patience, for I
+    was convinced that it would come at last; you and Rico have
+    given me so many proofs of your love and friendship, that I
+    was able to face with perfect calm and confidence all the
+    numerous and impatient questions for news of you which came to
+    me. Now, however, I see by your welcome lines, to my inward
+    regret, that some restrained anxiety about you is justified,
+    and while on one hand I greatly regret the weakness of your
+    eyes and in a manner suffer with you, yet I have also my
+    consoling argument that the Roman climate, at a better time of
+    year, will certainly be good for your ailment, and that my
+    Leighton can rise up again, that he will not lose courage. But
+    whatever joy I had when you and your noble friends bore such
+    splendid witness of one another, I cannot express myself as
+    very easily satisfied; that you, in your efforts, would stand
+    alone in Rome, I knew well, I am sure you are cut out for it,
+    and it appears to me, even, as if every good heart that rises
+    to a happy independence nowadays, must feel his loneliness, I
+    might even say, that it must in order to give skill and power
+    of conviction. The better you get to know Rome, the more you
+    will learn to love her, and much will be freely given, when
+    once the year of struggle is past, that could never be seized
+    by force. How much I have rejoiced over all that you write of
+    your and Rico's studies, how I should like to see them! Cling
+    now to nature, you are quite right, you will not lose the art
+    of composition, for it is not a thing that can be acquired: it
+    is a gift, and one that you and Rico possess. Now, indeed, it
+    always seems to me, when I consider the highest aims of art,
+    and indeed the greatest capacities of man, that there should
+    be a certain equalisation of the various powers, and it
+    strikes me as indispensable, if we are not to become
+    one-sided, that we should by such equalisation balance these
+    various powers so as to achieve a _complete harmony_. Thus,
+    however great a delicacy goose-liver may be, it always
+    indicates a diseased goose, the monstrous enlargement of an
+    organ, &c.; I do not say this by way of blame, and am thinking
+    perhaps too much only of my own feeble powers, but merely as a
+    little warning that it may be well to keep in view. Do not
+    think that it is the Professor asserting himself, I say this
+    only as a matter of experience and because you and Rico lie
+    very close to my heart, and are associated with my own feeling
+    of the sacredness of art. I have, however, no anxiety; you
+    have good and noble natures, and will not lose the tracks of
+    truth. Spare and save your eyes, I hope that you will soon be
+    quite free from this ill, and then--forward! What you write me
+    of the friends is certainly quite correct, and I myself
+    thought no otherwise; Overbeck is the purest and noblest man
+    that I have ever met; moreover a genius--therefore I rejoice
+    that you and Rico know him; he speaks with feeling and
+    judgment of his art. Excuse, dear Leighton, my forgetfulness;
+    I have not thought of the dear and lovely present which with
+    your note surprised me so pleasantly on my return--I mean the
+    powerful and rich Chaucer; I find the prologue splendid,
+    rather knotty, but the Germans of that time are still
+    knottier. I thank you heartily. Of myself, I can inform you,
+    that I daily rejoice more over the grey canvas; I have worked
+    two months on my picture of the 'Whitsun-sermon,' and now in
+    three weeks have painted half the picture, and am, even though
+    somewhat exhausted, not altogether discontented with the
+    result. This picture, which grows daily more like a fresco, is
+    getting on fast, but much still remains to be done, and I have
+    the progress of the whole picture in hand. Of the friends
+    here, I can tell you that all speak of you and Gamba with love
+    and sympathy, and that you are kindly remembered by all. Thank
+    Rico cordially for his welcome note; if you and Rico always
+    call me 'master,' a title which abashes me, we shall be
+    friends, and I hope that as I grow old in years, at least I
+    shall remain young in art. Tell Rico that I had a visit from
+    his grandmother, who loves him dearly; with a few lines he
+    would give her extreme pleasure. Now, adio, dear friend; equip
+    yourself with patience and courage, and keep sad thoughts far
+    from you. Greet all friends from me most heartily, also I have
+    to send to you and Gamba warmest greetings from all here,
+    including my wife, Frau Ruth Schlosser, and Casella. Let me
+    hear sometimes how you get on. Always and altogether yours,
+
+                                                   "EDW. STEINLE."
+
+  (_Postmark, March 28, 1853.
+  Received April 6._)                 (_On cover_--Mrs. Leighton,
+                                  1 Brock Street, Bath, England.)
+                                  "ROME, VIA DE PORTA PINCIANA 8.
+
+    "DEAREST MAMMA,--If I did not, as was naturally my first
+    impulse, answer your letter directly I received it, it was
+    because Isabel's[25] portrait has of late taken up all the
+    time, or rather eyes, that I can dispose of; this being,
+    however, a _drying_ day, I seize the opportunity of making up
+    for lost time. As I have mentioned the portrait, I may as well
+    say _en passant_ that I expect it to be a very successful
+    likeness, and as decent a painting as a thing done in so
+    desultory a manner can be expected to be; Gamba admires it
+    very much, and intends to copy some parts. I was much touched
+    at the affectionate sympathy you show for me in my visitation,
+    and am as glad for you as for myself to say that there is a
+    decided improvement in the state of my eyes, so that, although
+    they are by no means _well_, it would hardly be worth while to
+    go to a doctor for a written account of my symptoms; the more
+    so as Dr. Small, who is a man very well thought of, thinks it
+    all depends on the weather, and will go away when fine weather
+    sets in, which God give! Add to this that several people of my
+    acquaintance, _i.e._ Mrs. Sartoris and Mrs. Walpole, who never
+    had anything the matter with their eyes, find them affected
+    now. About two months ago I went to consult Dr. Small, or
+    rather, on calling on him one day he _had me up_
+    professionally, for I felt a delicacy about going myself, as
+    he had told me that he would be very happy to be of service to
+    me _without_ any remuneration. Finding that Dr. Small's
+    prescription had done me no perceptible good, I determined at
+    last to go to a homoeopathic physician, of whom I heard great
+    things. He was originally the apothecary of Hahneman (do I
+    spell the name rightly?) the father of Homoeopathy. Under his
+    hands I certainly improved rapidly; but it so happened that,
+    just as I went to him, the rains, which had lasted without
+    interruption for six weeks, ceased, and we had some days of
+    glorious weather--now, who cured me, Jove or the apothecary?
+    The weather is now as bad again as ever; but though less well,
+    I have not _relapsed_ with it. Most days I can paint three or
+    four hours (I don't think I could draw), and the other
+    evening I even read half an hour with a lamp without feeling
+    pain; what a pass things have come to that that should be a
+    boast! I confess that the little I do, I do without energy or
+    great enjoyment. I have not yet given my eyes the fair trial
+    of complete rest which, when the Laings go, I shall be able,
+    through your kind promise of a piano and singing lessons, to
+    do for a fortnight or three weeks. My sincere thanks to Papa
+    for his kindness and liberality. I shall begin immediately
+    after the holy week, for until the _forestieri_, of which
+    there are a fabulous number, have gone to their respective
+    summer quarters, neither piano nor masters are in any way
+    come-at-able.
+
+    "Having now spoken of my health, I return to your letter, for
+    I find that the only way of writing at all to the point, is to
+    answer sentence for sentence the questions and remarks you ask
+    and make, and in the same order.
+
+    "I indeed count myself fortunate in having the acquaintance of
+    Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris; it is a source of the greatest
+    enjoyment to me; they show me the most marked kindness, which
+    I value all the more because it is for my own sake, and not
+    for that of a dinners-demanding letter of introduction. I am
+    never there less than three times a week, and often more; I
+    have dined with them _en famille_ four times, and it is only
+    seven weeks since I made their acquaintance. Although I have a
+    good many friends here, it is the only house which it is
+    improving to me to frequent; her conversation is most
+    agreeable to me, not from any knowledge she displays, but from
+    her great refinement of feeling and taste; her husband is an
+    enthusiastic amateur painter. I also meet there a young man of
+    the name of Cartwright, a very old friend of theirs, who seems
+    to me to possess an extraordinary amount of information, a
+    mine which I have already begun to 'exploiter' to my own
+    profit.
+
+    "I have made a considerable number of acquaintances, and have
+    had more than enough parties, for people have a habit here of
+    receiving once a week, so that, especially towards the end of
+    the season, there never was an evening when I could not have
+    gone somewhere, and often I had two or three places for one
+    night; I used often to stay away from them, till I was afraid
+    of offending people, which one does not wish to do when one
+    experiences kindness from them. Then came a long series of
+    arrears, which I found most monotonously tiring, for I am more
+    lazy about dressing for a party than ever; more than once,
+    when I have gone to my room to go through that hateful
+    operation, I have slipped into bed instead of into my glazed
+    boots; and yet, if I had taken the steps a great many young
+    men do take, I should have gone to twice the number of places.
+    Now all this was very well for this winter, as I could do
+    nothing else on account of my eyes, but next year I shall turn
+    over quite a new leaf; in the first place, give up dancing
+    altogether--it is too fatiguing; and in the next, go nowhere
+    but to my old acquaintances (of this winter, I mean).
+
+    "I have lionised Isabel all over Rome, and devoted to her
+    nearly all my afternoons since she came; it is the luckiest
+    thing in the world, her coming here at a time when I am not
+    able to paint; she is going in a few days; you may easily
+    imagine that I have not slept in the afternoons since she has
+    been here.
+
+    "Gamba is, as you rightly suggested, far too straitened to go
+    into society; however, he no way requires it, he has good
+    health and untiring industry, and requires no such relaxation.
+    As my paper is coming to an end, I must pass over the rest of
+    your letter more rapidly. I fully feel with you that it is
+    better in many respects that I should not go to Frankfurt, but
+    I confess that when I saw it was out of the question, I felt
+    painfully having to wait another year before seeing you;
+    however, it is for the best. I am interested in hearing that
+    you have bought a house in Bath; it looks as if you had at
+    last found an anchor in your own country; is the society of
+    Bath really agreeable? I always hear it spoken of in a jocular
+    tone. What becomes of the Frankfurt house? You won't sell it,
+    will you? Pray remember me most kindly to Kate Chamberlayne,
+    and thank her for giving such an unworthy a corner in her
+    memory.
+
+    "And now, dear Mamma, I must close. Pray write very soon, and
+    give me a quantity of news about all your doings; tell me how
+    dear Lina gets on and Gussy's Pegasus."
+
+The preceding letter contains the first mention that I have seen of
+Leighton's friends, Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris, who were to be so much to
+him during twenty-five years of his life. He had known them seven
+weeks when he wrote it, and already Rome had become a happier place.
+All that most interested him in social intercourse was satisfied in
+their companionship, and in that of the intimate circle of friends who
+frequented their house. It soon became a second home, a home doubly
+welcome, as Leighton felt keenly being separated from his family. Mr.
+Sartoris was a fairly good amateur artist, and was considered by his
+friends to be a first-rate critic of painting. To Leighton's reasoning
+mind, ever prone to analyse and to give expression to the results of
+his analysis, it must have been inspiringly interesting to discuss art
+in general and his own in particular with one who had a natural gift
+for criticism.
+
+Again, music was ever a joy to Leighton, a joy only equalled by that
+inspired by his own art. Mrs. Sartoris (Adelaide Kemble), imbued with
+the noble dramatic instincts and traditions of the Kembles, was not
+only a great singer, but a great musician, and had in all matters a
+fine taste, bred of true and deep feeling united with keen natural
+perceptions. In Miss Thackeray's "Preface to a Preface" to Mrs.
+Sartoris' delightful story, "A Week in a French Country House," she
+quotes the description of one who had known the two sisters, Fanny and
+Adelaide Kemble, from their youth: "Mrs. Kemble is essentially poetic
+and dramatic in her nature; Mrs. Sartoris, so much of an artist,
+musical, with a love for exquisite things and all that belongs to form
+and colour." (Some of us remember hearing Lord Leighton say that,
+though Mrs. Sartoris did not paint, she was a true painter in her
+sense of beauty of composition, in her great feeling for art.) Another
+old friend, referring to Mrs. Sartoris, with some show of reason
+deprecated any attempt to record at all that which was unrecordable:
+"Would you give a dried rose-leaf as a sample of a garden of roses to
+one who had never seen a rose?" she exclaims, recalling, not without
+emotion, the golden hours she had spent, the talks she had once
+enjoyed in the Warsash Pergola. "You have only to speak of things as
+they are," said a great critic who had known Mrs. Sartoris in her
+later years. "Use no conventional epithets: those sisters are beyond
+any banalities of praise." Again, take another verdict: "That fine and
+original being, so independent and full of tolerance for the young;
+sympathising even with _misplaced_ enthusiasm, entering so vividly
+into a girl's unformed longings. When I first knew her, she seemed to
+me to be a sort of revelation; it was some one taking life from an
+altogether new and different point of view from anything I had ever
+known before." Such are the descriptions given by those who knew her
+intimately of the lady who held out so kind a welcoming hand to
+Leighton when, as a youth of twenty-two, he started for the first time
+alone on the journey of life. I saw Mrs. Sartoris only two or three
+times at the house of our mutual friends, Mrs. Nassau Senior and Mrs.
+Brookfield. It was during the last years of Mrs. Sartoris' life, when
+illness and sorrow had marked her noble countenance with suffering. A
+friend of mine, however, who was greatly attached to Mrs. Sartoris,
+would often talk to me of her. My friend had had exceptional
+opportunities of coming in contact with the most distinguished minds
+in Europe. She told me she had never met with any personality who
+naturally, and apparently without effort, so completely dominated all
+others who were present. However distinguished the guests might be at
+a dinner, Mrs. Sartoris, she said, was invariably the centre of
+interest to all present.
+
+The Sartoris children were another source of delight to Leighton in
+this home. No greater child-lover ever existed. He writes, moreover,
+that all social pleasures which he enjoyed during the three years he
+lived in Rome he owed to these friends.
+
+With life brightened and inspired by their sympathy, and by all the
+sources of interest and culture which their society included, Leighton
+began brooding over the work which he meant should embody the best of
+his attainments so far as they were then developed. Florence and her
+art had cast a spell on his spirit very early in his existence. He had
+become especially enamoured of Giotto, the half-Catholic, the
+half-Greek Giotto. Pheidias had not yet touched him intimately; but
+his loving, spontaneous appreciation of this Florentine master, whose
+work in one sense echoes the secret of the noble, serene sense of
+beauty to be found in that of the Greeks, proves that in very early
+days Leighton's receptive powers were alive to it. The subject which
+inspired his first great effort appealed especially to Leighton from
+more than one point of view. In the historical incident which he chose
+was evinced the great reverence and appreciation with which the early
+Florentines regarded art, even when expressed in the archaic form of
+Cimabue's painting. The fact of his picture of the Madonna causing so
+much public enthusiasm was in itself a glorification of art; a witness
+that in the integral feelings of these Italians such enthusiasm for
+art could be excited in all classes of the people. One of the
+doctrines Leighton most firmly believed, and most often expressed, was
+that of the necessity of a desire for beauty among the various classes
+of a nation, poor and rich alike, before art of the best could become
+current coin.[26] In painting the scene of Cimabue's Madonna being
+carried in triumph through the streets to the Church of Sta. Maria
+Novella, Leighton felt he could record not only his own reverence for
+his vocation, but the fact that all who follow art with love and
+sincerity find a common ground, whatever the class may be to which
+they belong. To Steinle, religion and art were as one, and his pupil
+had so far been inoculated with his master's feeling that, as his
+friend and brother artist, Mr. Briton Rivi�re, writes: "Art was to
+Leighton almost a religion, and his own particular belief almost a
+creed." As no difference of class should be recognised in church, so
+neither should any be accentuated between artists, when such are
+worthy of their calling, a belief which Leighton carried into practice
+all his life in his relations with his brother artists. He makes
+Cimabue, the noble, lead by the hand the shepherd boy Giotto, who was
+destined to outstrip his patron in the race for fame, and to become so
+great an influence in the history of his country's art. The magnates
+of the city are represented in Leighton's procession as forming part
+of it, while Dante, standing in a shadowed corner, is watching it
+pass.
+
+Again, Leighton was afforded an opportunity, in the accessories of the
+design, of painting the things which had entranced him in those days
+when he first fell in love with Italy; the medi�val costumes in the
+old pictures, the background to the _Citt� dei Fiori_ of hills, spiked
+with cypresses pointing dark, black-green fingers upwards to the sky,
+and the beautiful San Miniato crowning one of their summits, the stone
+pines, the carnations, the _agaves_--all these things that had
+appealed to his native sense of beauty as such wonderful revelations,
+when, at the age of ten, he was transported to the sunlit land of art
+and beauty, after being accustomed to the sights and surroundings of a
+dingy region in fog-begrimed London.
+
+The subject of Leighton's early _opus magnum_ was indeed no bare
+historical fact to his mind; it was a symbol of everything to which,
+in his enthusiasm for his calling, he attached the most earnest
+meaning, and which was also steeped in the radiant glamour cast over
+his spirit from childhood by the land that inspires all that is most
+ardent in the �sthetic emotions of an artist.
+
+The subject decided on, in the spring-time of 1853 he began working,
+as hard as the trouble in his eyes would permit, at the cartoons for
+the design. His intention of remaining in Italy during the summer was
+frustrated, partly by the unsatisfactory state of his eyes and health
+generally, partly by the decision of his family to return to their
+home in Frankfort for the summer, before finally settling in Bath.
+This change of plans is first mentioned in a letter to Steinle
+received February 23, 1853:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                   ROME, VIA DI PORTA PINCIANO 8.
+
+    DEAR MASTER AND FRIEND,--How gladly I seize the opportunity to
+    answer your delightful letter, and to connect myself again
+    through the post with a man and a time round whom and which so
+    many dear remembrances cling; that I did not do this
+    immediately on receipt of your lines, I hope you have not set
+    down to a possible negligence or to any sort of cooling of my
+    grateful attachment to you, but that you have
+    thought,--something has happened, Leighton has not forgotten
+    me; and so it is; I suffer with my eyes. How sorry I am to
+    begin a letter by giving you such news, for you expected only
+    to hear from me of industrious making of progress; therefore
+    exculpation of my silence is my first duty. The disorder of my
+    eyes is not painful; I do not suffer with it; I am only
+    incapacitated. Oh, that I were again in Frankfurt, then I
+    should be well! Otherwise I am fairly well, and am intensely
+    eager to do a great deal--and dare not; I am not altogether
+    incapacitated, only my wings are clipped; I work for two or
+    three hours every day, but as I cannot accomplish all that I
+    desire, the little I can affords me the less pleasure; what,
+    however, particularly damps my ardour is the lack of
+    intellectual stimulus, because for _nearly six weeks_ I have
+    not _looked at a book_, for in the evening I simply dare not
+    do _anything_. I have driven myself out into society, till I
+    absolutely prefer going to bed. If I could only compose in my
+    head! but first this was always difficult for my unquiet head,
+    and secondly I have, in consequence of this moral _Sirocco_,
+    been blown upon by such a _svoglia-tezza_ that it is quite
+    impossible; it only remains for me to think sadly of my, and I
+    may say to you, most sympathetic friend, of our hopeful
+    expectation, and to vex myself with the recollection of the
+    zeal and joy with which I had commenced to put my plans into
+    execution in Venice and Florence. My optic ailment is partly
+    of the nerves, but principally rheumatic. You can imagine
+    whether it has been improved by four weeks of unbroken wet
+    weather! But enough of these complaints. I will now turn to
+    your letter and answer the points on which you touch. What a
+    refreshment your lines were to me! They are a mirror of your
+    warm, rich soul; I read with unfeigned emotion how
+    sympathetically you still think of your two pupils; you have
+    not been out of our minds for a moment; see how it is in my
+    atelier here: in your portrait you are bodily, in your
+    writings you are spiritually, present with me daily. That I
+    did not write to you immediately on my arrival was certainly
+    wrong of me, for then I had not begun to suffer with my eyes;
+    but my head was in such a maze that I always put off and
+    thought, I will wait till I hear if he has received my first
+    lines, quite forgetting that you did not know my address in
+    Rome. I am sure you will forgive me. What you imagined about
+    my impressions, agrees at the first blush with the facts, but
+    as regards the "gathered honey" it has unfortunately turned
+    out quite differently. I feel as if blighted, and until I have
+    the full use of my eyes it will not be otherwise. Of Rico I
+    will say nothing, for he will write himself either to-day or
+    to-morrow; I can only tell you that so far we have travelled
+    through Italy in perfect concord and friendship; but there is
+    one thing that he will not tell you himself, he is
+    indefatigably industrious, and has made marked progress in
+    both drawing and painting. One word about my own development.
+    Since I left Frankfurt, my observations on nature and art, in
+    all beyond what is technical, have produced in me a curious
+    shyness, a peculiar and uncomfortable distrust of myself. When
+    on my journey I saw Nature unfold before my eyes in her
+    teeming summer glory, and saw how each flower is like a
+    miracle on her richly worked garment, when I saw how golden
+    threads wound everywhere through the whole fabric of beauty,
+    then it seemed to me that the artist could not without
+    sacrilege pass over the least thing that is sealed with the
+    love of the Creator; when, later on, I noticed in Venice and
+    Florence with what love and truth the great Masters had
+    rendered the smallest, then my feelings arose; I knew only too
+    well that I, until I should have drawn a multitude of studies,
+    could not possibly complete a composition in the sense that I
+    should wish, and otherwise I would not; and the consequence of
+    this knowledge is that I have not attempted a stroke of
+    composition, and I often anxiously ask myself whether I could;
+    thus far it has worked to paralyse me, but on the other hand
+    it has led me to draw some very complete studies which would
+    certainly not displease you, dear Master. Finally, I touch
+    upon a point which, on account of its painfulness, I would
+    gladly pass over. I heard in Florence from Andr� of your
+    severe loss, and my first impulse was to write to you to
+    express my sympathy; but when I set about it, I found it so
+    infinitely difficult to say anything suitable without
+    irritating your wound, that in the end I forbore. Your
+    consolation you draw from a higher source than human
+    friendship.
+
+    We have visited Overbeck several times, and have found him a
+    dear and estimable old man, but naturally the difference of
+    age and of aims is too great between us for him to supply
+    your place with us; besides, I do not wish that he should in
+    any way supplant Steinle in my memory or affection.
+
+    Flatz and Rhoden have welcomed us both most cordially; your
+    name is a charm with them; as regards their art, both are
+    _thoroughly able_, but unfortunately such _literal copyists_
+    of Overbeck's style that absolutely no difference is
+    perceptible; consequently they are quite insipid to me, for I
+    consider a real independence indispensably necessary in an
+    artist. From all three I send you most cordial greetings.
+
+    Much as I could still tell you, my dear friend, I must hasten
+    to a close on account of my eyes. I beg you not to repay my
+    silence in kind, but when you have a moment, put a few lines
+    on paper for the encouragement of your distant pupil. I long
+    also to know how your works prosper, particularly the large
+    one on the grey canvas with the light from above.
+
+    Accept the assurance of the unalterable, devoted attachment of
+    your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    It is not impossible that I might come to Frankfurt for a
+    short time this summer.
+
+  A Monsieur Frederic Leighton,
+    Frankfort a/M. Poste Restante.          BATH, _May 15, 1853_.
+
+    MY BELOVED SON,--I have hardly the courage to tell you how
+    intense is our joy at the prospect of meeting you, so much
+    sooner than we had hoped, knowing that our pleasure is
+    obtained, or will be, at the expense of a grievous
+    disappointment to your long cherished and quite reasonable
+    hopes. Your father was quite depressed the whole evening after
+    the receipt of your last letter. I am sure I need not tell you
+    how willingly I would relinquish my expected happiness to
+    promote yours. I shall write but a short letter, as we hope to
+    be in Frankfort soon after this reaches its destination.
+    Surely I told you in my last epistle we mean to spend the
+    summer at home, for the last time to bear that name, alas! I
+    fear I shall never, in England, feel as I do in Germany when
+    tolerably well. The climate makes it impossible for me to feel
+    that springiness of spirit so nearly allied to youthful
+    feelings which I have often enjoyed at Frankfort and for no
+    particular reason. It was in the air, but never notice these
+    observations in your father's presence. He is sufficiently
+    troubled at the thoughts of depriving me of my beloved house
+    and garden, which, after all, is done by my own desire. I have
+    just been reading an extract from a letter to Miss Pakenham
+    from Mrs. Maquay, partly at that lady's request, that we might
+    know the agreeable impression you made on her and your
+    acquaintances at Rome. I will not gratify your vanity by
+    repeating words of praise that have sunk deep into my mother's
+    heart; "for the matter of that," I think your father and
+    sisters are equally pleased at the tribute to your attractive
+    qualities.
+
+    I will no farther fatigue your eyes as we hope so soon to
+    embrace you. We fervently hope your eyes will be obedient to
+    the treatment, which shall enable you to return to Rome for
+    the winter. You cannot doubt that your father desires as much
+    as you that you may be in a fit state to return.
+
+    God bless you, my dearest, all unite in this wish, if
+    possible, more than the others.--Your tenderly attached
+    Mother,
+
+                                                     A. LEIGHTON.
+
+Leighton went for medical treatment to Bad Gleisweiler, bei Landau,
+and writes to Steinle from there on July 25, 1853:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+
+    HONOURED AND DEAR FRIEND,--What can you think of me for
+    leaving you so long without news of me! It certainly did not
+    occur through forgetfulness, but because I always deferred in
+    the hope of being able to announce some marked improvement in
+    my condition, but that is still impossible, although my
+    general health (particularly in respect of the hardening
+    against cold-catching) is much stronger, though unfortunately
+    the improvement in my eyes is not great; this, however,
+    requires time, and especially patience. I shall be here
+    another fortnight, then my medical treatment will proceed in a
+    so-called after-cure (Nachkur); I shall be dieted, take many
+    baths, work in moderation--ouf! But I will conform to it all
+    willingly, if only I may very soon return to my adored Italy.
+    How I cherish the beloved image in my heart! how it comforts
+    me! how many idle hours it beautifies for me! how mightily it
+    draws me! The remembrance of the beautiful time spent there
+    will be riches to me throughout all my life; whatever may
+    later befall me, however darkly the sky may cloud above me,
+    there will remain on the horizon of the past the beautiful
+    golden stripe, glowing, indelible, it will smile on me like
+    the soft blush of even. In the meantime, I impatiently await
+    the moment when I shall see you again, my dear friend, and
+    when I shall be permitted to set before your eyes the work
+    which we have already discussed together; I shall seek so to
+    deal with my affairs that you shall not be ashamed of your
+    grateful and devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    _P.S._--I beg to be remembered most kindly to your wife, and
+    to all my friends.
+
+  (_On envelope_--A. Madame Leighton,
+  50 Frankfurt a/M.)
+                                     BAD GLEISWEILER, BEI LANDAU.
+                                     (_Postmark, July 30, 1853._)
+
+    I had the first quarter last year; so that I shall still be
+    where I started; however, I can say nothing more myself to
+    Papa, since he has given me to understand that his reason is
+    want of confidence in me, for, having rejected the obstacle
+    which I myself suggested--that he could not afford it--he
+    leaves no other reason possible. I confess I do not feel much
+    flattered that this feeling should have so penetrated him as
+    to make him fall back from me on an occasion so momentous as
+    the painting of my first exhibiting picture, a moment critical
+    in my career, and on the immense importance of which nobody
+    can, at other times, dwell with more disheartening eloquence
+    than himself; how, he says, do I know that your picture will
+    succeed? Is it this doubt that makes him throw obstacles in my
+    way? Nobody is better persuaded than myself of the kindness of
+    Papa's heart, and of the sincerity of his desire for my
+    welfare, but he does not seem in any way to realise the
+    importance of the occasion. Now, if I, like so many other
+    young men, had gone into the army, he would not--for what
+    father does?--have hesitated for a moment to provide me with
+    my complete outfit as required by the rules of the regiment,
+    for he would have felt that I could not canter about on parade
+    without a coat; but now that I am girding myself for a far
+    greater struggle, now that I am about, single-handed, to face
+    the bitter weapons of public criticism, does he withhold the
+    sword with which he might arm me, for fear I should waste my
+    blows on the butterflies that pass me as I march into the
+    field? At two and twenty I am still in his eyes a schoolboy
+    whose great aim is to squeeze as much "tin out of the
+    governor" as he can by any ingenuity contrive.
+
+    Will you remember me most kindly to my uncle, aunt, and
+    cousins, and take for all yourselves the best love of your
+    dutiful and affectionate son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+Leighton took the cartoons for his picture of Cimabue's Madonna to
+Frankfort to discuss the designs with Steinle and obtain from him his
+criticism and advice. In the autumn of 1853, the home in Frankfort was
+finally given up, and the family returned to Bath. Leighton, on his
+journey back to Rome, stopped some weeks at Florence, to steep himself
+afresh in her medi�val art, and to gather fresh material for the
+details of his picture. During this visit, he drew the group of
+figures painted _al fresco_ by Taddeo Gaddi on the walls of the
+Capella Spagnola of Sta. Maria Novella, which included the portraits
+painted from life of Cimabue and Giotto. In this portrait Leighton
+found the costume for the hero of his picture. He also repeated the
+dress in painting the cartoon for Cimabue's portrait executed in
+mosaic in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The pencil sketch (see List
+of Illustrations) is wonderful as a drawing, considering the
+conditions under which it was made. It was secured for the Leighton
+House Collection, and in the preface for the catalogue it is
+described (see Appendix). While at Florence he wrote the following
+letter:--
+
+                                     FLORENCE, 386 VIA DEL FASSO,
+                                             _November 13, 1853_.
+
+    [MY VERY DEAR MAMMA],--How could you for one instant suppose
+    that I could suspect you of coldness towards me? I was quite
+    distressed that you should have entertained such an idea, and
+    had I followed my first impulse should have written at once to
+    tell you so; but, as it so easily happens when one is newly
+    arrived in a strange place, first one thing and then another
+    made me defer writing, till at last I made up my mind to stay
+    at home all this morning, and not to get up till the letter
+    should be finished; I am, however, still several days within
+    my month. With regard to my health, I made no especial mention
+    of it, probably because, as I have a treatment before me when
+    I get to Rome, I attached little importance to my feelings in
+    this state of interim; however, as you mention it, I am happy
+    to say that my faceache makes its appearance decidedly less
+    often than it did in Frankfurt, and that my eyes seem to me,
+    if anything, better since I have got to Italy. One thing is
+    certain, and that is that my spirits are very much improved
+    since I have got back to the dear land of my predilection; I
+    felt it as soon as ever I arrived in Venice; I felt a heavy
+    cloud roll away from over me, the sun burst forth and shone on
+    my path, and a thousand little springs, stifled and
+    half-forgotten fountains of youth and joyousness, gurgled up
+    in my bosom and buoyed up my heart, and my heart bathed in
+    them and was glad--happy Fred! that he has such sources of joy
+    and happiness! Unlucky Fred! for he will never be able to live
+    but where the heavens always smile--and where he can economise
+    on umbrellas!
+
+    I have had many happy hours within the last three weeks, but I
+    think that the happiest time of all was the afternoon of our
+    descent on to Florence from the mountains of the Romagna; even
+    the morning of that day was very enjoyable, for although the
+    sky was murky and cross, and it rained as far as you could
+    see, yet I knew that that very evening, in that very coach, I
+    should be rattling along the streets of dear, dear Florence,
+    and that bore me up, and I made light of the rain, and
+    whistled out of tune in order to take off the wind, who, in
+    spite of his fine voice, has certainly no ear for music. Then,
+    too, we had a most amusing coachman, who did nothing but tell
+    stories and crack jokes the whole time. One episode is worth
+    transcribing: "Seen to-day's paper, sir?" (turning sharply
+    round). "Well, no" (says I); "anything in it?" "Ah!" (says
+    he), "very interesting correspondence from the moon." The
+    article seems to have been as follows: "Our correspondent in
+    the moon tells us of rather a discreditable affair which has
+    just taken place in a high quarter. It seems that the other
+    night St. Peter, having spent the evening with a few friends,
+    by whom he was entertained with the distinguished hospitality
+    which his high position entitled him to expect, left them in
+    such a state of excitement and, in short, intoxication, that
+    he lost his way, and was missing at his post till ten o'clock
+    the next morning. Unfortunately, too, he had taken the keys
+    with him. About two o'clock in the morning a batch of souls,
+    with passports for heaven, came up to the gates and requested
+    admittance, but finding all knocking in vain, they were
+    obliged to spend the night behind a cloud in a very exposed
+    situation, which was made doubly disagreeable by their having
+    put on in anticipation the very slight costume habitually worn
+    in the abode of eternal happiness; several severe colds were
+    caught." "But all this," he added (mysteriously producing a
+    key from his waistcoat pocket), "does not affect me--letters,
+    you know, despatches." I have myself subsequently consulted
+    the papers in question, and find that St. Peter, in the
+    confusion of his ideas, had taken up his seat at the other
+    Sublime Porte, and had inadvertently let a lot more Russians
+    into the Danubian Principalities. So the papers say. However,
+    I confess that I rather question the whole affair.
+
+    I close with the old, yet ever new refrain. Pray, write very
+    soon! if at once, to Florence, Poste Restante; if not, to
+    Rome, Poste Restante.--With very best love to all, I remain,
+    dearest Mamma, your dutiful and affectionate son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    [Illustration: Portraits of Cimabue, Giotto, Simone Memmi, and
+    Taddeo Gaddi, from Fresco in Capella Spagnola, by Taddeo Gaddi.
+    Santa Maria Novella, Florence, 1853.]
+
+                                         BATH, _August 13, 1854_.
+
+    MY DEAREST FREDDY,--We are delighted to know you are out of
+    Rome, for it is possible to have too much of a good thing; and
+    much as you delight in "seeing the streets flooded with light
+    and glittering under a metallic sky" (how beautiful it must
+    be!), the pure air of the country, a less fierce heat, and a
+    total change of scene, will, I trust, make a new man of you.
+    How long a holiday shall you take, and did you mean that you
+    are staying with the Sartoris family as a visitor? under all
+    circumstances you will be a great deal with them, and as for
+    the happiness you would so affectionately share with me, I
+    would not, if I could, deprive you of a morsel of it; you are
+    enjoying such unusual social advantages that it is a solace to
+    me to know that you are capable of appreciating them. Thank
+    God, you have no taste for what so many men of your age call
+    pleasure, and that in spite of your sociable disposition, you
+    always show good taste in the choice of your companions. I
+    wish we could have a little of your society. The ---- are
+    still familiar and dear friends, but their minds are so
+    different, so conventional, that many sides of your sisters'
+    minds are closed, even to them.
+
+The next letter from Leighton to his mother was written after he
+returned to Rome:--
+
+  (_On cover_--Mrs. Leighton,               ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+    No. 9 Circus, Bath, England.)             _January 19, 1854_.
+                               (_On cover--Arrived Jan. 6, '54._)
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--When I received your long expected letter,
+    which, by-the-bye, took sixteen days reaching me, I was just
+    winding myself up to write and tell you that I was sorely
+    afraid some letter of yours must have been lost; I need hardly
+    tell you that I was relieved of a considerable anxiety when I
+    found that all was right, and that your letter, not mine, had
+    been detained in that most slovenly of all institutions, the
+    Roman post.
+
+    And now that I have taken up my pen, what a quantity I have to
+    make up for in the way of congratulations, and greetings, and
+    good wishes relative to days often and felicitously to recur!
+    what jolly birthdays loom in the imagination, what Christmas
+    Eves and Christmas Days, and old years going out and new ones
+    coming, with a punctuality never known to fail! Alas! that I
+    cannot send you some outward and visible sign of my inward
+    sympathies and hearty yearnings; here would be a fine
+    opportunity of enumerating an extensive catalogue of blessings
+    which I sincerely wish to see showered down upon you, but that
+    they can all be returned in one compendious, all-embracing
+    word--Health! I therefore laconically but heartily wish you
+    all _that_, positive or relative; and this leads me to _mine_.
+    Well, let me confess it (unromantic as it undoubtedly is); I
+    feel there is no shirking the avowal that, stamping all things
+    down into an average, and squinting at little annoyances,
+    I--must I say it?--_am about as happy as the day is long_: may
+    my happiness reflect a little of its light on your days,
+    dearest and best of mothers! I have begun my report of health
+    by an average of my spirits; I think there is more _� propos_
+    in this than one might at first sight imagine. I proceed to
+    the other details which differ widely from your probable
+    expectations; you ask me whether I leech myself with
+    conscientious regularity. Now I don't leech myself at all! My
+    reason for abstaining when I first came was that I feared so
+    strong a measure till my spectacles should arrive that I might
+    therewithal screen and protect my exhausted blinkers. It is
+    only the other day that the said barnacles arrived, and as I
+    have meanwhile gone on working day after day without great
+    inconvenience to my eyes, I really think I might do myself
+    more harm than good by drawing blood, the more so that I am by
+    no means a person of full habit that I could spare much of
+    that article.
+
+    On turning to your letter, I find the next point you touch is
+    my music. I did indeed try my voice at the Hodnett's as you
+    anticipated, but unfortunately I never by any chance had
+    anything like a decent note in my voice during the whole time
+    that I was in Florence; indeed at the very best of times it is
+    the merest "fil de voix" that I have, which, however, would
+    not prevent my cultivating it for my own private enjoyment,
+    but for a circumstance which will astound you perhaps, but is
+    nevertheless a great fact--to wit, that I can't afford it! The
+    expenses of my pictures are far too considerable to allow of
+    it this winter; next winter I hope to make up for lost time
+    and still to be able to chirp some little ditty when I once
+    more skim by the paternal nest. A piano I have, such a
+    hurdy-gurdy! I fear, alas! I am an inveterate blockhead; I
+    daily lament that you did not _drub_ music into me when I was
+    a child; I should then have broken my fingers in time; my
+    youngsters shall most assuredly learn it with a stick in their
+    minds' eye. As we were just talking of the ----s, I must
+    mention that I founded my opinion less on what they say than
+    on what _I_ think and see; they could not either of them be
+    happy if they could not have their bonnets and dresses from
+    the most fashionable _modiste_, turn out drag of their own,
+    and in every way be "the thing"; that they like me, I know,
+    but I believe they would not have me if they liked me twice as
+    much; I am not exactly poor, I admit, but I seem something
+    like it in Florence, where it is the custom for young men to
+    drive to the Cascine in elegant broughams or phaetons, to find
+    their riding-horses at the round piazza, to prance and amble
+    round the ladies, and then to drive home again in the style
+    they went. But let me speak of more important things; you will
+    be pleased to hear that my compositions have been highly
+    approved of by all those whose opinion has weight with me.
+    Cornelius said, the first time he saw them, "Ich sehe Sie sind
+    weiter als alle Engl�nder ausgenommen _Dyce_;" that is a great
+    compliment from such a man. I have made one alteration in my
+    plans, of which Papa, I think, will not disapprove; I found,
+    on more accurate calculation, that, in order to paint my
+    Cimabue of such a size as to be admissible to the London
+    Exhibition, the figures would be far smaller than my eyes
+    would tolerate; I have therefore reversed the order of things,
+    and am painting it on a large scale for the great Exhibition
+    in Paris (spring, '55), in which all nations are to be
+    represented, and where size is rather a recommendation than an
+    obstacle. My "Romeo" I shall send to London in the same year;
+    it will be a foot each way smaller than Lady Cowley's
+    portrait; thus I also have the advantage of giving the
+    Florentine picture a size more commensurate to the
+    art-historical importance of the event it represents. With
+    regard to the sale of it, I hug myself with no vain delusions.
+    I paint it for a name; I could not have a finer field than is
+    offered by the great International Exhibition in question. I
+    must come to a close, for I expect a model immediately, and do
+    not wish to miss to-morrow morning's post. _La suite au
+    prochain num�ro._
+
+    Pray write soon, dearest mother, and tell me all I long to
+    know about yourselves, the house, the furniture, your friends,
+    and your dinner-party; meanwhile, having first largely helped
+    yourself, pass up to all the dear ones very best love and
+    kisses from your dutiful and affectionate boy,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+  (_On cover_--Mrs. Leighton,               ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+    9 Circus, Bath, England.)                   _March 22, 1854_.
+                                           (_Received March 31._)
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--As I see no chance of finding time to write to
+    you in the ordinary course of things by merely waiting for it,
+    I lay down my brush for this afternoon, and "set to" regularly
+    pen in hand to answer your last, dated the fifth (let us be
+    business-like), but which did not reach me till a few days
+    ago. According to the egotistical practice which you have
+    wished me to adopt, I begin with an account of myself: I am
+    very much at a loss to tell you anything of my eyes that shall
+    convey to you a correct idea of their state; one thing is
+    certain, which is that their weakness bears no regular
+    proportion to the work done; sometimes when I do little or
+    nothing my eyes feel uncomfortable, and at others, when I do a
+    great deal, I suffer nothing. For instance, yesterday, having
+    a great deal of work cut out for the day, I worked eleven
+    hours, with barely half an hour's respite at twelve, and,
+    _pour comble de m�faits_, I did what I rarely venture on--I
+    read at night; and yet I feel little or no inconvenience. The
+    fact is, my eyes are the humble servants of my head, which is
+    particularly sensitive; at the same time I hesitate to adopt
+    leeches (unless, of course, Papa adheres to his opinion),
+    because I don't feel as if I were over-troubled with blood;
+    what do you think? My _otherwise_ health is, thank God, very
+    decent. I am not a robust man, but I jog on very comfortably,
+    and feel very jolly, and I am sure I have a good many reasons
+    to be so. About the hours I spend inactive, I don't feel that
+    so severely as I did last winter, by any means; in the first
+    place, I work till five or so (from seven or eight in the
+    morning), then, you know, I dine at six, which I make rather a
+    long job; then, in the evening, instead of tiring my eyes as I
+    did last winter with dancing, _which_ I have totally forsworn
+    (there are more "whiches" in my letter than in the whole
+    tea-party on the Blocksberg in "Faust"), I spend nearly all my
+    time at the house of my dear friends, the Sartoris, where, I
+    assure you, to pass to another point in your letter, I neglect
+    no opportunity to cultivate my poor unlettered mind. It is
+    indeed my _only_ opportunity, for to study, alas, I have
+    neither time, health, nor eyes, and the hopes to which you
+    allude, and which I myself once entertained, must, I fear, be
+    given up. The worst feature in my mental organisation is my
+    utter want of memory for certain things, a deficiency of which
+    I am daily and painfully reminded by the mention in my
+    presence of books which I have read and enjoyed, and which I
+    have _utterly_ forgotten. My only consolation I find in the
+    hope that I shall be able to devote myself with double energy
+    to the art "proprement dit," and in the reflection that hardly
+    any of the modern artists (alas, what a standard!), that have
+    possessed extensive knowledge and varied accomplishments, have
+    had them as a super-addition to the gift of art, but _at the
+    expense_ of their properly pictorial faculties; to every man
+    is dealt a certain amount of _calibre_--in one man's brain it
+    breaks out in a cauliflower of variegated bumps, in another's
+    it flows into one channel and irrigates one mental tree, and
+    "sends forth fruit in due season"--hem! Thus, whilst _I_
+    paint, _others_ shall know all about it; _I_ shall be an
+    artist, let _them_ be connoisseurs. What did poor Haydon (for
+    I _have_ read the book) get by his mordant gift of satire and
+    his devouring thirst for ink? He embittered old enemies, made
+    new ones, estranged his friends, encouraged the fierce
+    irascibility of his own temperament, allowed himself to cuddle
+    the phantoms of undeserved neglect which always haunted him,
+    distorted his own perceptions, and cut his throat! Without
+    that pernicious gift, Haydon would not have written, the
+    Academy would have hung his pictures as they deserved, for his
+    early works were full of promise, they would have stood by him
+    in the hour of need; had everything that he saw and heard not
+    fallen in distorted images on the troubled mirror of his mind,
+    he would, no doubt, have produced better works. Haydon might
+    have been a happy man! With regard to the practical lesson to
+    be drawn by myself, this painful book undoubtedly shows in a
+    strong light the absurdity of _always_ painting large
+    pictures--a practice in which, I assure you, I have not the
+    remotest idea of indulging. To one thing, however, which you
+    observe, dear Mamma, I must beg to take exception, as
+    involving a very important question: you say Haydon persisted
+    in following the historic style, to the exclusion of pictures
+    of a saleable size; now this would only avail as precedent
+    against historical art on the supposition that that walk
+    necessarily implies colossal proportions, than which idea
+    (though Haydon seems to have entertained it) nothing can be
+    more false. Is it necessary to mention Raphael's "Vision of
+    Ezekiel," "Madonna della Seggiola," or a thousand other
+    pictures, by him and others, which utterly confute any such
+    notion? But even were it so, we must also not overlook the
+    fact that the unsaleability of Haydon's pictures had its cause
+    as much in their quality as in their quantity, and I will hold
+    up to you, in contrast to his sad story, the case of Mr.
+    Watts, who gives a sketch of the artistical character at the
+    end of the autobiography, and who has as many orders for
+    _fresco_ as he can execute for a considerable number of years.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF HEAD OF WOMAN AT WINDOW IN "CIMABUE'S
+    MADONNA"
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+                                              BATH, _April 17th_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRED,--I have left a longer interval than usual
+    between this letter and my last, for your convenience and my
+    advantage; that is to say, that by arriving close on the time
+    for your writing to me, the contents of this sheet, or
+    anything in it needing comment, may not have escaped your
+    memory till no longer wanted, for, with the best possible wish
+    to be contented with the epistles for which I look forward so
+    anxiously, I cannot help feeling a little disappointed when
+    you do not answer inquiries. I do not wish to be unreasonable,
+    my darling, in my demands on your time, but I cannot bear that
+    your letters should be mere unavoidable monthly reports, and
+    not what mine are to you, that is, in intention; though I make
+    every allowance for natural infirmity. Could we but have
+    foreseen your weakness of sight, I should have felt a great
+    inclination to thrash you into exercising your memory more
+    than you did, though I am not at all sure that the result
+    would have been satisfactory; and with respect to music, I am
+    convinced you would not have made a satisfactory return for
+    any knowledge acquired by dint of birch, but--if it were not
+    useless--I would enlarge upon the imprudence of having
+    neglected your father's admonitions at a more recent period to
+    store your memory; remember it for the sake of your own young
+    people when you are the venerable papa of an obstreperous
+    youth like yourself. I think upon the whole it is satisfactory
+    that the uneasiness in your eyes depends on your general
+    health. Papa thinks the sensation you describe when drinking
+    must be nervous, and connected with the narrow swallow you
+    inherit from me, a peculiarity which has shown itself in four
+    generations. We do not feel so certain as it would be
+    comfortable to do that the climate of Rome is the one best
+    suited to a nervous person; but of course you will seek a
+    healthy change of place as soon as the heat makes it
+    desirable. I must remind you of the unpleasant fact that your
+    constitution very much resembles mine; remember what I have
+    come to, and do not trifle with yourself; do not say to
+    yourself: What a bore Mamma is! I am constantly thinking of my
+    precious absent son, and long, as only a mother can, to see
+    you; when I look at your picture, I feel quite wretched
+    sometimes that I cannot, though you seem alive before me,
+    stroke your cheek and lean my head on your chest. The other
+    day we were startled by the appearance in the drawing-room of
+    Andrew, Lizzy, and the girls; and the first greeting over,
+    "That's my saucy Fred," burst out of your aunt's mouth; "dear
+    fellow, what a likeness;" and Lina was equally admired, and we
+    all agreed in deploring Gussy's absence from the wall. I wish
+    I could see your studies, for I suppose you have a great many
+    for your great undertaking. Models are probably cheaper than
+    in Germany--are you conscious of improvement? This seems an
+    odd question, but it is suggested by the fact that while Gussy
+    practises most diligently, she seldom seems conscious of the
+    improvement I perceive distinctly. Do you see Cornelius from
+    time to time, and gain anything from him? You never mention if
+    you have any friends amongst the artists distinguished in any
+    way.
+
+                                          ROME, _April 29, 1854_.
+
+    I have of late, since the underpainting of my large picture
+    (at which I worked like a horse) given myself rest and
+    recreation in the way of several picnics in the _Campagna_
+    under the auspices of Mesdames Sartoris and Kemble. We are a
+    most jovial crew; the following are the _dramatis person�_:
+    first, the two above-mentioned ladies; then Mr. Lyons, the
+    English diplomatist here (whom your friend probably meant); he
+    is not ambassador, nor is he in any way supposed to represent
+    the English people here, he is only a sort of negotiator;
+    however, a most charming man he assuredly is, funny, dry,
+    jolly, imperturbably good-tempered; then Mr. Amp�re, a French
+    savant, a genial, witty, amusing old gentleman as ever was;
+    then Browning, the poet, a never-failing fountain of quaint
+    stories and funny sayings; next Harriet Hosmer, a little
+    American sculptress of great talent, the queerest,
+    best-natured little chap possible; another girl, nothing
+    particular, and your humble servant who, except when art is
+    touched, plays the part of humble listener, in which capacity
+    he makes amends for the vehemence with which he starts up when
+    certain subjects are touched which relate to his own trade; in
+    other things, silence, alas! becomes him, ignorant as he is,
+    and having clean forgotten all he ever knew![27] I shall not
+    be able to leave Rome more than a month in the summer, as the
+    work which I have carved out for myself makes it utterly
+    impossible. You must know, however, that the hot months (July
+    and August) are not the dangerous ones, but September, when
+    the rains set in. During that month I shall give myself a
+    complete rest from work, and shall go to the baths of Lucca,
+    the healthiest spot in Italy, where I shall enjoy cool air,
+    country scenery, and, better than all, the society of the
+    Sartoris, who are going to spend the summer there; meanwhile,
+    I shall take what precautions I can; I shall live as the
+    Italians do, getting up early, and sleeping in the middle of
+    the day, and shall resume flannel, if you do not advise the
+    contrary, as I see reason to believe that it is a great
+    preservative against fever. As for the general climate of
+    Rome, I don't give it much consideration, as there is not the
+    least probability of my ever _residing_ here; I think there is
+    not a worse place for a rising artist to set up his abode in
+    than Rome, on account of the want of emulation as compared,
+    for instance, to a place like Paris, where there are hundreds
+    of clever men, all hard at work, and where an artist is always
+    exposed to comparisons. It is impossible for me to give you
+    any decisive answer about my progress, for you know I have
+    been busy all the winter drawing studies; I shall see when I
+    come to the picture itself what steps I have made forwards; I
+    reckon on its being the best thing I shall have done, I can
+    say no more. I believe Sartoris, whose judgment in all the
+    arts is excellent, considers me the most promising young man
+    in Rome; but that does not mean much--we shall see!
+
+    Of my daily life and occupations, I have little or nothing to
+    say, as they are monotonous to a degree; parties, of course,
+    have ceased, and I am just about to leave p.p.c.'s everywhere,
+    as I don't mean to go into the world at all next year. I don't
+    remember whether I told you that some little time back Mrs.
+    Sartoris gave some tableaux and charades in which your humble
+    servant co-operated; the whole thing was, I believe, very
+    successful. The greatest treat I have had lately has been
+    hearing Mrs. Kemble read on different occasions Julius C�sar,
+    Hamlet, and part of Midsummer Night's Dream; I need not tell
+    you how delighted I was.
+
+  (_Cover_--Mrs. Leighton,                  ROME, _May 25, 1854_.
+    Circus, Bath, England.)                  (_Received June 5._)
+
+    VERY DEAREST MAMMA,--Your letter (which I received the day
+    before yesterday, and should have answered the next day but
+    for an engagement I had made to go into the country) caused me
+    great pain; if you have known me hitherto for a dutiful and
+    loving son, believe that in this case nothing has been further
+    from me than the least umbrage at the advice and suggestions
+    that you always offer me with kindness and delicacy, and that
+    I am much distressed at the idea of having in any way
+    aggravated the discomforts which an English winter make you
+    suffer; let me rather attribute, and beg yourself to refer, to
+    the depressed state of your spirits any misconstruction you
+    have laid upon a letter in which, if there was any constraint,
+    it arose only from a desire to answer satisfactorily and
+    systematically such questions as you asked me; I will
+    endeavour in future to present my report in a more ornamental
+    form. The delay, too, of my last letter arose from a
+    misconception on my part of your expectations, for I was
+    waiting and eagerly waiting for _your_ answer to intervene,
+    and, considering the irregularity of Roman posts, you can
+    hardly have a day on which you particularly expect to receive
+    news of me. Let me hope, dear Mamma, that on these points, as
+    on the others that I am going to touch, you will be able in
+    future to think more cheerfully, in spite of the distorting
+    medium of British fogs. I fear from the tone of alarm I detect
+    in your letter that I (myself perhaps, at the time, under the
+    influence of the _scirocco_) must have conveyed to you an idea
+    of greater ill-health than I labour under: my eyes, certainly,
+    are not strong, so that I avoid using them at nights, and I
+    am, as I ever was, incorrigibly bed-loving, but this is "the
+    whole front" of my ailments; meanwhile I work all day with
+    little or no annoyance. I am of good cheer and contented, and
+    altogether more free from rheumatism than I have been for a
+    long time; that, thus deprived of the means of reading, such
+    little information as I ever had should have effectually made
+    its escape from a noddle that never had the capacity of fixing
+    itself on any _one_ thing at a time, is deplorable, but not to
+    be wondered at; let us hope for a better day. Nor is spending
+    the hot months of the summer here in Rome so dreadful a thing
+    as it appears to your tender anxiety; with proper precautions
+    and a regular life I shall no doubt go through it as well as
+    so many of my friends that have tried the experiment; the more
+    so that the worst part of the summer is in September and early
+    October, at which period I shall be enjoying the particularly
+    cool and healthy air of Bagni di Lucca. How could you be
+    surprised, dear Mamma, at my having begun the pictures? did I
+    not tell you the size of them? do you not know the quantity of
+    figures in the composition? do you not know that it will be
+    considered a piece of extraordinary rapidity if I finished
+    them in time for the Exhibitions, _i.e._ by the beginning of
+    next February? You perceive the necessity of my staying here,
+    willy nilly. The Sartoris seem to you too prominent a motive
+    in my desire to stay; alas! and again alas! they are off to
+    Lucca in a few days, and I shall be left alone. Judge whether
+    I am eager to get off, and whether anything but necessity of
+    the most urgent kind will keep me here, for I am warmly
+    attached to both, and her I dearly love. Be quite at ease
+    about the amount of advice I can get here, I do not lack that
+    if I want it; but as it is, the compositions were so
+    completely sifted by Steinle before I left Frankfurt, that I
+    have nothing left but the material execution, in which you
+    know every artist must fumble about for himself. Cornelius
+    _is_ very kind and amiable to me, has been to see me twice,
+    and speaks well of me behind my back; he told Mrs. Kemble
+    (Fanny) that there was not another man in England that could
+    paint such a picture as my "Cimabue" threatens to be, and the
+    same was unhesitatingly asserted by Browning, the poet, who is
+    also a connoisseur. Such details as these from my mouth savour
+    of intolerable vanity; they are not meant so, and I give you
+    them simply because I think they will fall pleasantly on the
+    ear of the mother of the daubster. To show you the _revers de
+    la m�daille_ about advice from influential men, I will just
+    tell you that I received the other day from Cornelius some
+    advice which was diametrically opposed to that of Steinle,
+    _arrangez vous!_ Gamba and I are still capital friends, and he
+    is making great progress, which is the well-earned fruit of
+    his talent and assiduity.
+
+    Now, dear Mamma, you see how letters come to be dry; by the
+    time you have shaken off the responsibility of question
+    answering, and begin to breathe a little, you have got to the
+    end of time and paper, and have no margin left for a little
+    dessert; the fact is, _your_ only chance is this: next time
+    you write, ask me no questions, and then I'll devote my
+    epistle to telling you a most thrilling story which, though it
+    far surpasses in strangeness the common run of works of
+    fiction, is _perfectly and literally true_, as I have it
+    almost from headquarters; them's your prospects!--Meanwhile,
+    with very best love to all, I remain, your affectionate and
+    dutiful son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    [Illustration: ORIGINAL SKETCH OF COMPLETE DESIGN FOR "CIMABUE'S
+    MADONNA"
+    Drawn in 1853
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+  _Translation._]                           ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                                  _May 29, 1854_.
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--Delightful as it always is to me to receive
+    any news of you, yet your last letter, along with pleasure,
+    caused me some pain, for I could not help fearing that my long
+    silence had annoyed you a little; if this should be indeed the
+    case I must express my extreme regret, and beg you to believe
+    that my gratitude and love can only cease when my memory
+    ceases; how could it possibly be otherwise?
+
+    You paint me a very melancholy picture of the situation in
+    Frankfurt; it is certainly a most unpleasant state of things,
+    all this quarrelling and dissension! When I, at this distance,
+    think of such a regular hermit-like way of going on, I feel
+    quite disgusted; it is fortunate that you, dear Friend, have
+    in the ecstasy of creation a resource that can never fail you.
+    But how comes it that Hommel and Hendschel, formerly your
+    enthusiastic pupils, have now cooled down? That is very
+    incomprehensible; they do not know their own interests. I
+    congratulate you most heartily on the completion of your large
+    picture, which I am very sorry not to have seen finished, and
+    I am especially glad to hear what you tell me about the
+    shield-bearer, for that breathes to me of _industrious study
+    of nature_! Believe me, that you, the mature master, who still
+    consents to play the part of a student, will not be without
+    your reward.
+
+    What you have written me about my work has put me into a most
+    terrible dilemma, a dilemma which I am still very deep in. It
+    is a presumption that I should set up _my_ ideas, and a
+    disobedience that I should take the advice of other friends,
+    against your judgment; but I have gone so carefully into this
+    manner of representation, that I beg you, dear Friend, to
+    reconsider the matter, and see whether I am not right. These
+    are my reasons: it seems to me that the action in my pictures,
+    if ostensibly a triumph of the artist, yet, at the same time,
+    as an historical event, is just as much the consecration of a
+    Madonna, for which reason I (as you know) have placed the
+    masterpiece which is being carried upon a small decorated
+    altar; that such a solemn event probably took place on a
+    church festival (as was the case with the consecration of the
+    Chapel) may very well be assumed; would not such a festival in
+    the _thirteenth century_ be important enough to justify the
+    presence of the bishop? But much more important than this
+    question of historical probability, appears to me the
+    consideration that the conception of a bishop is only made
+    tangible to the general mass of spectators by certain symbolic
+    articles of apparel, which are in some degree inseparable from
+    it; a bishop's presence in the procession is most probable.
+    Why should I not put him there? Amongst others, this opinion
+    was also held by Cornelius, to whom, as an experienced
+    Catholic, I naturally applied at the outset, and who told me
+    candidly that he would leave it. I hope you will not accuse me
+    of being too stiffnecked; in other respects I am certainly
+    docile.
+
+    Since I last wrote to you I have been fairly industrious on an
+    average. I have now under-painted "Romeo and Juliet" in grey
+    (grau untermalt), made both the colour sketches, and have now
+    fairly got into the over-painting, or rather second
+    under-painting, of "Cimabue"; but I have not been always
+    within four walls; on the contrary I have profited by the
+    beautiful spring weather, and have often gone out into the
+    divine Campagna with a party of dear friends, male and female,
+    and I need not tell you that we have enjoyed it. I wish with
+    all my heart you could be with us, my dear Master. Rico, the
+    ever-industrious, for he does twice as much as I, sends you
+    warm greetings. I must now close. I wish I could tell rather
+    than write to you how you are loved and esteemed by your
+    devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife.
+
+  _Translation._]                              FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
+                                                _August 6, 1854_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--You have heaped coals of fire upon my
+    head, for I have not answered your last dear note, brought me
+    by Andr�, and now I have received by Miss Farquhar the lovely
+    study of Vincenzo's head, which you so kindly wish to present
+    to me. I am almost dumfounded to find that you could believe I
+    was angry with you because you have not written me for so
+    long, and that you believe that the indignation had been
+    ignored in my last note. That, dear friend, was a complete
+    delusion, for there is nothing to which I am more partial than
+    to artists' letters, and nothing to which I am more
+    insensible than to such flattering praise as you lavish upon
+    me, while I know only too well how unfortunately little I have
+    deserved it. In earnest, dear friend, call me no more master,
+    but rather regard me as your true and sincere friend, who only
+    out of friendship for you and love of art, far removed from
+    despicable dissimulation, faithfully shares with you his
+    opinions and experience, and never regards them as the
+    pronouncements of an oracle. I know very well what a
+    difference there is between the description of a work of art
+    and the sight of it; the first, at best, only gives one side,
+    one part, whilst seeing places before our eyes the whole soul
+    of the artist, from all sides, and then much is made mutually
+    clear which in the former case appeared either not understood
+    or misunderstood. Miss Farquhar could not tell me enough about
+    you and your work, and greatly kindled my curiosity and desire
+    to be in your _atelier_ for once; I was only sorry that she
+    had nothing to tell me about Gamba; indeed, on the whole, she
+    knew nothing about him. If I am to express my thoughts of the
+    very beautiful head of Vincenzo, it seems to me that Leighton
+    ought to guard against striving for excessive fineness, for
+    works of art can only be produced by quite the contrary
+    method. A certain roughness must bring out fineness, but if
+    everything is fine, nothing remains fine, &c. But believe,
+    though this head half displeases me, especially on account of
+    these theories, I think it beautiful and masterly in drawing,
+    and am consequently proud to possess it, as I am of all that I
+    have from your hand. I thank you a thousand times for this
+    fresh proof of your friendship. About this place, let me be
+    silent; you are right to say that art is my refuge, and that I
+    find in it my compensation for much that goes ill here and
+    everywhere; I must also not allow this asylum to be profaned
+    by the trifles of the very human things that surround us in
+    this world.
+
+    Greet from me Rome, Gamba, Cornelius, and all the friends who
+    remember me; and to yourself, dear friend, heartfelt greetings
+    from your true and unchanging friend,
+
+                                                    EDW. STEINLE.
+
+    [Illustration: "VINCENZO, THE PRETTIEST AND WICKEDEST BOY IN
+    ROME." 1854
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+Before leaving Rome Leighton received the following characteristic
+letter from Mr. Cartwright, one of his truest life-long friends:--
+
+                                       CARLSBAD, _July 11, 1854_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--You will be astonished to see a letter from
+    me. I can assure you that I have often thought of you, and
+    meant to indite you an epistle in the hope of eliciting a
+    reply full of Roman tale from you, and lately, when through
+    Papeleu I heard of your great canvass labors, my yearning got
+    a new twinge which at last has been pinched into expression by
+    the start at Pollock's resuscitation. I had heard of his death
+    in Paris and had mourned his fate most sincerely, when the
+    first man whom I met tramping health out of the hot water of
+    Carlsbad was Pollock himself. He is himself again every inch
+    of him; indeed a most wonderful recovery; and, after deep and
+    valorous potations of hot water, we take long walks in the
+    hills. He goes from here to Marienbad and Prague, and means to
+    be back in Rome by the end of October. And I also mean to
+    return there. Like a true drunkard, I can't forswear my
+    bottle, and I must have another pull at it. We shall be there,
+    I hope, in the beginning of October, and I hope, my dear
+    Leighton, that you will not grudge me the pleasure of letting
+    me have a few lines, so that I may know whether you will be
+    there in the winter and what are the changes in Rome since my
+    time. Are the Sartorises to be there next winter, and where
+    are they now? Pray answer me this, as I particularly wish to
+    know where they are. I have heard that there were such crowds
+    of strangers at Rome last winter that quarters were not to be
+    had; and for this reason I wish to be there early. Do you
+    happen to know what is the price of the floors in the house on
+    the Pincio which was built by Bystr�m the sculptor? Next to
+    the Trinit�, immediately after the sculptor's studio, there is
+    a small house inhabited when I was last in Rome by some French
+    officers (at least a sentinel was at the door) and years ago
+    by Mrs. Sartoris. Pollock tells me it is now to be let. Would
+    you be kind enough to give me any information you can about
+    it. It is a house I have often coveted on account of the view.
+    I beg your pardon for my coolness; I hope you will bear kindly
+    with it; if I can do anything for you in Paris, command me:
+    but anyhow pray write to me, if only a few lines, for in my
+    heart I wish to have some news about you and old Rome. The
+    other day I saw at the Louvre our old friend the very
+    questionable _Vittoria Colonna_ which was at Minardis. It was
+    for Exhibition there in the Gallerie d'Apollon: what the
+    picture is I cannot pretend to pronounce, but I do not like
+    it: it is a picture in which I have no confidence. I think
+    that if not a made picture, it is at all events a tame one.
+    This year there was no Salon as it has been put off till next
+    year's great Exhibition. Robert Fleury has sold a picture to
+    the Luxembourg which is not so good as his former ones; but
+    the man who I think is the most _marked_ one of the day is
+    Conture. Excuse my scrap, and pray take pity on my longing and
+    write me, were it only _a line_. I should be grievously
+    disappointed were you to refuse me the pleasure. I shall be
+    _here till the 7th August_; until the _25th August_, after
+    that date letters will find me Frankfurt Poste Restante; and
+    after that in Paris Poste Restante. If you write here, put
+    Carlsbad--B�hmen--and in a corner, _Austria_. And now
+    farewell; with a real ... I am longing for a letter. The
+    kindest regards to my Caff� Greco and other friends.--Yours
+    most sincerely,
+
+                                             W.C. CARTWRIGHT.[28]
+
+After his stay at the Bagni di Lucca, in the summer of 1854, Leighton
+went to Frankfort, Venice, and to Florence, returning to Rome in
+October.
+
+In the following letter to Steinle are sentences it might be well to
+print in finest gold, for the benefit of students who try to run
+before they walk, who aim at the freedom and glorious inevitability of
+a Velasquez touch without taking the pains to equip themselves
+worthily to enter the lists with the giants; not realising that
+skipping over the underpinning, necessary in creating any work of art,
+must result in the shakiest of edifices. The sentence refers to the
+criticism in Steinle's letter of August 6, 1854, on the drawing of
+"Vincenzo" (called by Leighton "the prettiest and wickedest boy in
+Rome") which Leighton had sent him.
+
+  _Translation._]                           ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                              _October 22, 1854_.
+
+    As I am making a short pause to-day in my work, I cannot
+    employ it better than in writing a letter to you, my very dear
+    Friend. It was a very great comfort to me to see by your last
+    lines that you had not construed my former long silence as a
+    cooling of my friendship and gratitude, and I therefore hope
+    that you will also this time meet me with the same
+    forbearance. You will certainly be interested to hear, my dear
+    Friend, that both my pictures are by this time fairly forward,
+    and I expect to finish them within three months. How much I
+    wish that you could see them here, and that I could put in the
+    finishing touches under your supervision! I would give you an
+    account of my work, but, bless me, what is there to _tell_
+    about my picture, except that it has given me a fearful amount
+    of trouble, and that in the end one perceives how
+    circumstantially one has gone to work on the whole matter; the
+    "Cimabue" goes to London and the "Romeo" to Paris. While I am
+    speaking of my works, I take this opportunity to touch
+    gratefully upon your kind remarks about the study head of
+    Vincenzo, and to inform you, however, that my opinion of it
+    takes rather more the form of a question than that of an
+    objection. I have often considered the question of the
+    self-guidance of an artist who is left to his own devices, and
+    it has often struck me how many wander in evil by-paths
+    through an unorganised, may I say _unprogressive_, development
+    of their gifts; and now it seems to me that most of them are
+    wrecked because they maturely study _the object to be
+    attained_, while the _means_ are not considered which should
+    lead to such results. For example, a young man sees a Raphael,
+    a Titian, a Rembrandt, all in their latest manner, and hears
+    people say: See how broad, how full, how round, how masterly!
+    And the student naturally conceives the wish that he also
+    might produce broad and masterly works, and _so far_ he is
+    right; but from that point he goes aside. He goes home and
+    _strives_ and _strains_ after masterly breadth; he succeeds
+    (apparently), and he is lost. The soap-bubble is quickly
+    blown; he rejoices in its gay colours; it flies up and breaks
+    in the air. And the cause is simple; the true, genuine
+    mastership is not an _acquired quality_ but an _organised
+    result_. As with art itself, so is it also with the individual
+    artist. If we cast an eye over the progress of art-history, we
+    see how the full, conscious, free, has developed itself out of
+    the meagre, timorous, scrupulous, dry. Similarly if we compare
+    the first efforts of the individual with his last, we perceive
+    the same thing: place M. Angelo's "Pinta" beside the
+    decorations of the Sixtine, one of Raphael's works at Perugia
+    beside the "Stanzen," Rembrandt's "Le�on d'anatomie" beside
+    the "Nightwatch," and it will be evident in the most striking
+    manner that not one of these men had risen by means of his
+    talent to full breadth in his youth, or had been in any way
+    studious to do so, but on the contrary that they have attained
+    mastery by natural growth. In order, therefore, to reach the
+    same altitude, the young artist must proceed in the same
+    manner as his exemplars, and must endeavour so to direct his
+    studies that he, according to his gifts, may achieve a similar
+    result. He who would fill his threshing-floor must not
+    _glean_, but rather he must _sow_ that he may richly harvest;
+    he who would have rare fruits all his life must plant and
+    cherish the tree; even so should the young artist seek to
+    plant a tree the normal fruit of which is called "artistic
+    perfection." You will easily understand how by the application
+    of these maxims my preliminary works go forward rather
+    _timorously_. Entire conscientiousness is now the chief thing
+    to me. I _am laying_ the foundation on which I hope to rely
+    firmly later on; I am amassing capital and am not yet in
+    enjoyment of the interest. "How many objections to a couple of
+    words?" you will laughingly remark; dear Friend, I must feel
+    myself indeed well equipped before I permit myself to oppose
+    anything against your judgment.
+
+    Of Gamba I will say nothing, for he is going to enclose a few
+    lines in this.
+
+    I have made a trip to Florence this summer, and again
+    thoroughly enjoyed the art-treasures. I think I have spoken to
+    you of the wall-paintings by Giotto which were discovered two
+    years ago in Santa Croce; one of them, which represents the
+    death of St. Francis, is the literal prototype of the
+    celebrated fresco by Ghirlandajo (on the same subject) in the
+    Sta. Trinita, and I really prefer it.
+
+    Time, eyes, paper fail me, and I must close. I hope that, if
+    you write to me again, you will tell me exactly what you are
+    doing.--Meantime, dear Master, accept the heartfelt greeting
+    of your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife and to all my
+    friends.
+
+Leighton's eye trouble having become a constant anxiety and hindrance
+to him, he resolved to consult Graefe, the great German oculist. From
+Florence, on his return journey, he writes his impressions of Berlin
+to Steinle. In this letter he repeats again the sense of happiness
+which he always experienced in Italy.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                     FLORENCE, 386 VIA DEL POSSO,
+                                                   _November 13_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--At last I am able to write to
+    you. In the hurry and bustle of travelling, and even in the
+    short sojourns that I have made here and there, it has been
+    impossible for me to sit quietly down and compose a letter.
+    Even to my parents I have written this morning for the first
+    time since I left Vienna. But you will readily believe that
+    during this time I have often travelled in thought to
+    Frankfurt in loving remembrance of you, my dear Friend.
+
+    Strange things have happened to me since I saw you. I had not
+    even reached Berlin when I was informed by a "jebildeten"
+    (cultivated) Prussian that Graefe, on whose account
+    exclusively I was travelling to the "geistreichen" (clever)
+    capital, had gone away for an indefinite period; imagine my
+    dismay! Luckily on my arrival I found an old friend who was
+    acquainted with the family of Geheimerath von Graefe, and who
+    found out through them that Graefe must arrive at the Golden
+    Lamb (Leopoldostadt) in Vienna on such and such a day. I met
+    him, and had a consultation at which he examined my eyes with
+    the ophthalmoscope, and told me to be of good cheer, my
+    trouble was certainly obstinate but in no way dangerous, and I
+    might hope for a complete cure. He prescribed me a course for
+    Rome, which consists principally of local blood-letting and
+    wearing spectacles, and will be very tedious; but I will
+    gladly conform to anything in order to get my eyes back again.
+    One thing is certain, since I have been in Italy they have
+    been quite markedly better, which I attribute for the most
+    part to the diminution of my hypochondria. Yes, since I have
+    been in Italy I have become a new man; I breathe, my breast
+    throbs higher; heavy clouds have rolled away from me; the sun
+    shines again on my path, and my heart is once more full of
+    youth and love of life; if only you were also here, dear
+    Friend!
+
+    But I must tell you something about my German travels, and I
+    will begin with Berlin. There is certainly something special
+    about that town. At the first glance it is somewhat imposing,
+    and the prodigious quantity of new buildings, which evidently
+    aim at architecture, gives (one may hold one's own opinion as
+    to the taste of the buildings) the appearance of great
+    artistic activity and of a widespread taste for art; but I
+    have since found reason to regard this apparent love of art as
+    something feigned or forced. One gets quite sick of
+    _education_ in Berlin; would you believe that now _every girl_
+    has to pass an _examination as governess_?[29] Kaulbach
+    understands the Berliners well; in Raeginski's house a study
+    of a Roman piper hangs in great honour, which he has purchased
+    from the _great master_ on account of a doggerel verse which
+    is written on it in large letters, and runs thus:--
+
+    "Upon my travels in Italy,
+    This little boy I found, but he,
+    Although my brush may his form repeat,
+    Remains to my sorrow incomplete."[30]
+                 --W. KAULBACH.
+
+    Divine! eh? I knew a counterpart in the Belgian art-world.
+    When I visited Gallait in Brussels some years ago, before the
+    door stood a ragged, most picturesque Hungarian rat-catcher,
+    who asked me if an artist did not live there. Recently I saw
+    my Slav again, with a violin under his arm, in a window, very
+    finely lithographed, I believe even an "artistes
+    contemporains"; in the corner was "Louis Gallait pinx";
+    underneath, "Art et Libert�"! Thus do pictures originate!
+
+    In Berlin everything is valued extrinsically. One sees that
+    most strikingly in the new Museum. When it is finished, it
+    will be, in proportion to the means of the town in which it
+    stands, the most splendid that I know; moreover, it cannot be
+    denied (unsuitable as a three-quarters Greek building may be
+    on the banks of the Spree) that much in the architecture is
+    even very beautiful. But what is the good of it all? With the
+    exception of some Egyptian antiquities, in all these lavishly
+    gilded and painted rooms there are only _plaster casts_! Yes,
+    and, I must not forget it, the great tea-service of Kaulbach.
+    A wretched thing, made, moreover, with superfluous
+    productiveness; simple allegory carried out without any fine
+    sense of form, with utter denial of all individuality, and
+    painted--well, of that one would rather say _nothing_; and yet
+    "Kaulbach has the Hellenic art," &c. &c., and all the rest
+    that is in the papers. One would like to exclaim with Cassius:
+    "Has it come to this, ye gods!"
+
+    Unfortunately I cannot praise the Cornelian things in the
+    _old_ Museum much either. I must confess they displeased me
+    greatly; when I consider them from a distance in their
+    connection with the building, I find them disproportioned; in
+    a long, very simple colonnade, built on a large scale, I
+    require of a fresco painting that it shall show in form and
+    colour large, quiet, plastic masses; instead of that I see
+    here a gay, unquiet, confused _fricass�e_ of thought and
+    allegory that makes one dizzy; ideas in such profusion that
+    nothing remains with the spectator; he goes away without
+    having received anything; nor is the mental impression
+    plastic. If, however, one goes nearer to see the execution,
+    again one finds nothing pleasing--a constrained, unlovely
+    drawing--positions that could only be attained by complete
+    breaking on the wheel--a general appearance as if the figures
+    had no bones, but muscles made of brick instead. The colour is
+    not much better than Kaulbach's. The end-piece on the right,
+    an allegorical representation of the death of man (or
+    something of the kind), gives the most ordinary and at the
+    same time most awkward sudden impression that I have yet seen.
+    Cornelius may look at the Vatican in Rome and see if he can
+    find anything like it there. Altogether the once certainly
+    great artist seems to have somewhat deteriorated; the Cartoons
+    at the Campo Santo are not by a long way so good as the design
+    (which I find charming in parts); they are here and there,
+    which greatly surprised me, disgracefully _out of drawing_;
+    and then the theatrical attitudes, conventional clothes, &c.
+    &c. In the Museum itself there are few pictures of the first
+    rank, but so much the more beautiful are those by masters of
+    the second rank. What a Lippi! what a Basaiti! what a Cos
+    Rosetti! I was entranced; that is art, character, form,
+    colour, all in beautiful harmony. The "Daughter of Titian"
+    does not deserve its celebrity; it is weak and dull.
+
+    But my paper is exhausted, as are also my eyes; I will
+    therefore defer the rest to another letter, and only mention
+    that in Vienna Kuppelwieser, F�hrich, and Roesner received me
+    like a son of the house, and all sent hearty greetings to you.
+    Do write to me very soon, dear Friend, and keep in kind
+    remembrance your grateful, devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    My address is, Poste Restante, Rome.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife, and generally to
+    all friends.
+
+When tracing the ever-swaying ebb and flow in the tides of joy and
+sorrow in a life, we come to times which seem to accumulate in their
+days the whole strength of feeling and vitality of which a nature is
+capable; prominent summits that rise triumphant out of the troublous
+waves, up to which the past existence has seemed to climb, and the
+memory of which retains a dominating influence in the descent of the
+future.
+
+"I--h'm--must I say it?--am just as happy as the day is long." So
+wrote Leighton to his mother when at the age of twenty-three he was
+spending his days in and about Rome--that wonderful Rome with her
+world of ghosts, her solemn eventful past skimmed over and made faint
+by her actual sunlit present. To Leighton that sunlit present became
+vividly, excitingly alive. Fountains of joy were springing up in the
+artist-nature, catching as they sprang golden rays from all that is
+most beautiful in youth's dominions. Leighton writes to Steinle (July
+25, 1853): "The remembrance of the beautiful time spent there (Rome)
+will be riches to me throughout my life; whatever may later befall me,
+however darkly the sky may cloud over me, there will remain on the
+horizon of the past the beautiful golden stripe, glowing, indelible;
+it will smile on me like the soft blush of even."
+
+When, in the late autumn of 1852, he first arrived in Rome, he had just
+stepped from the position of being one in a family to that of being an
+independent unit; and, though accompanied by his brother artist, Count
+Gamba, he felt greatly the loss of what he had left behind--the
+inspiring companionship of Steinle, compared to which nothing in Rome
+was worthy to count as an art influence. Obliged to work in a small,
+inconvenient studio, the only one obtainable--expected friends, whose
+society he valued, failing him--he felt the want of so much that he
+could hardly enjoy what he had. In those first days (as we gather from
+his letters) the Eternal City cast no fresh glamour over his spirit.
+
+Spring came, and the tune changed with the entrancement of
+Persephone's release in the balmy warmth of the South. The spring air
+twinkles with sunshine, and the fruit-trees are again alive with gay
+blossom, of fluttering petal, frail as the soft moth wing; the villa
+gardens are again bedecked with grand, more solid petalled
+flowers--brilliant-hued camellias--and later,--the noble magnolia's
+ivory white goblets; while the ground is carpeted with violets and
+varied-hued anemones. All over the wild spaces of the Campagna spring
+up grasses and lovely unchequered growth, spreading a green and golden
+fur, bristling in the bright light for miles and miles under a
+cloudless sky away to the faint blue line of mountains on the horizon.
+On one summit--golden in the sunlight--the old town of Subiaco is
+poised; on nearer slopes--summer haunts of the ancient Roman world,
+Tivoli, Frascati, Albano: the wastes of budding herbage between
+checked only here and there by some spectre of old days, some skeleton
+of a broken archway, some remnant of a ruined wall.
+
+It was on these strange wilds of the Roman Campagna that the life-long
+friends, Giovanni Costa and Leighton, first met. Here is the
+description of the delightful scene of their meeting, and of
+Leighton's previous introduction to Costa's work at the famous Caf�
+Greco, written by Costa after his friend's death:--
+
+"In the year 1853, the Caf� Greco at Rome was a world-renowned centre
+of art, a rendezvous for artists of all nationalities, who had flocked
+to Rome to study the history of art as well as the beauties of nature
+surrounding the sacred walls of the Eternal City.
+
+"At the Caf� Greco[31] there was a certain waiter, Rafaello, a
+favourite with all, who had collected an album of sketches and
+water-colours by the most distinguished artists, such as Cornelius,
+Overbeck, Fran�ais, B�nonville, Brouloff, B�cklin, and others, and I
+felt much flattered when I too was asked to contribute, with the
+result that I gave him the only water-colour I have ever done in my
+life. Leighton was also begged by Rafaello to do something for the
+album, and having it in his hands, he saw my work, and asked whose it
+was. On being told, he advised Rafaello to keep it safely, saying
+that one day it would be very valuable. When I came later to the Caf�,
+Rafaello told me how a most accomplished young Englishman, who spoke
+every language, had seen my water-colour, and all he had said about
+it. I was very proud of his criticism, and it gave me courage for the
+rest of my life.
+
+"That same year, in the month of May, the usual artists' picnic took
+place at Cervara, a farm in the Roman Campagna. There used to be
+donkey races, and the winner of these was always the hero of the day.
+We had halted at Tor d� Schiavi, three miles out of Rome, and half the
+distance to Cervara,[32] for breakfast. Every one had dismounted and
+tied his beast to a paling, and all were eating merrily.
+
+"Suddenly one of the donkeys kicked over a beehive, and out flew the
+bees to revenge themselves on the donkeys. There were about a hundred
+of the poor beasts, but they all unloosed themselves and took to
+flight, kicking up their heels in the air--all but one little donkey,
+who was unable to free himself, and so the whole swarm fell upon him.
+
+"The picnic party also broke up and fled, with the exception of one
+young man, with fair, curly hair, dressed in velvet, who, slipping on
+gloves and tying a handkerchief over his face, ran to liberate the
+poor little beast. I had started to do the same, but less resolutely,
+having no gloves; so I met him as he came back, and congratulated him,
+asking him his name. And in this way I first made the acquaintance of
+Frederic Leighton, who was then about twenty-two years old; but I was
+not then aware that he was the unknown admirer of my drawing in
+Rafaello's album. I remember that day I had the great honour of
+winning the donkey race, and Leighton won the tilting at the ring with
+a flexible cane; therefore we met again when sharing the honour of
+drinking wine from the President's cup, and again we shook hands.
+When I heard from Count Gamba, who was a friend and fellow-student of
+Leighton's, what great talent he had, I tried to see his work and to
+improve our acquaintance; for as I felt I must be somewhat of a donkey
+myself, because of the Franciscan education I had received, and
+because I was the fourteenth in our family, I thought the
+companionship of the spirited youth would give me courage."
+
+And again it was on the Campagna that that choice and delightful
+company picnicked in the spring-time of the year, of which company
+Leighton wrote on April 29, 1854 (see p. 146).
+
+Who knows but that it was at one of these notable picnics that
+Browning was inspired to write his wonderful little poem on the
+Campagna?
+
+    "The Champaign, with its endless fleece
+      Of feathery grasses everywhere,
+    Silence and passion, joy and peace,
+      An everlasting wash of air--
+    Rome's ghost since her decease.
+
+    Such life there, through such lengths of hours,
+      Such miracles performed in play,
+      Such letting nature have her way,
+    While Heaven looks from its towers."
+
+Life was full to overflowing in those inspiring days, and Leighton was
+indeed "as happy as the day was long." Friendships grew apace. Many
+were made which were lasting, notably that with Mr. Henry Greville,
+the most intimate man-friend of Leighton's life. His friendships with
+Sir John Leslie, Mr. Cartwright, George Mason, Mr. Aitchison, Sir
+Edward Poynter, all began in those early happy days in Rome. Artists
+living there, who included this gifted brother-painter in their
+comradeship, showed more and more sympathy towards his work as they
+became more intimate with the delightful nature. Leighton had arrived
+so far forward on the threshold of his success that anxiety about his
+pictures was outweighed by hopeful expectancy; but it was while still
+standing on the threshold--that really most inspiring of all stages in
+the journey, during the two years from 1853 to 1855, before the great
+triumph of signal success crowned him--that we catch the happiest
+picture in Leighton's life. To use his own words, "In this world
+confident expectation is a greater blessing, almost, than fruition."
+
+In a letter he wrote to Fanny Kemble on February 1, 1880, Leighton
+refers to a conversation he had with her at this "outset of his
+career"--a conversation which recurred to him, he tells her, when he
+first addressed the Royal Academy students from the presidential chair
+in 1879. He offers a copy of his discourse for her acceptance, ending
+his letter by the words: "If you remember that conversation, you may
+perhaps feel some interest in reading the Lecture, of which I ask you
+to accept a copy. If you do not remember it, nevertheless accept the
+little paper for the sake of old days which were not as to-day."[33]
+How much can a few words say! If gratified ambition could ever make an
+artist-nature happy, how transcendently happy Leighton ought to have
+been in 1880! But the fibre which strung the highest note in his
+nature never vibrated to worldly success. Though his ambition may have
+sought success, and his passion for fulfilling to the utmost his duty
+towards his fellow-creatures may have greatly welcomed it, he
+remained to the end of his life ever on the threshold of that kingdom,
+the possession of which could alone have satisfied what he "_cared for
+most_."
+
+The following letters mention the progress of the _opus magnum_ to its
+completion, also of the "Romeo" picture, and his visits to Florence
+and the Bagni di Lucca. The first begins by his expressing his
+ever-growing dislike of general society.
+
+  [_Commencement missing._]
+
+    Miss ---- is no less than ever, and no less agreeable, as far
+    as I can judge; I have only called once as yet, I have an
+    ungovernable horror of being asked to tea; my aversion to
+    tea-fights, muffin-scrambles, and crumpet-conflicts, which has
+    been gathering and festering for a long time, has now become
+    an open wound. The more I enjoy and appreciate the society and
+    intercourse of the dozen people that I care to know, the more
+    tiresome I find the commerce of the others, _braves et
+    excellentes gens du reste_; the Lord be merciful to the
+    overwhelming insipidity of that individual whose name is
+    Legion--the _unexceptionable_--the _highly respectable!_ My
+    great resource is, of course, Mrs. Sartoris, whom I see at
+    some time or other every day, for it would be a blank day to
+    me in which I did not see her; God bless her! for my dearest
+    friend. I warm my very soul in the glow of her sisterly
+    affection and kindness. Little baby is the same sunbeam that
+    he always was; did I tell you I painted his likeness in oils
+    as a surprise for his father? as a picture it is not
+    unsuccessful, but any attempt at a portrait of that child is a
+    profanation, and will be till we paint with the down of
+    peaches and the blood of cherries, and mix our tints with
+    golden sunlight; still, it pleased _them_, and that ought to
+    be enough; but I am an artist as well as a friend. A very
+    interesting acquaintance I have here in the shape of Rossini,
+    the great Rossini! Poor Rossini, what a sad fate is his, to
+    have lived to see the people on whom the glory of his splendid
+    genius has shone turn away from him in forgetfulness,
+    neglecting his classical beauties to listen to the noisy
+    trivialities of a ----, who has made the Italian name in music
+    a by-word of ridicule; with the music of course, the singers
+    have degenerated also; a singer no longer requires to be an
+    _artist_, it is no longer necessary that he or she should
+    study his or her part till every note has a meaning and a
+    character expressive of the words of the libretto, and
+    accompanied by musical and impassioned _mimica_; no, let the
+    _prima donna_ only squall out her never-ending _fioriture_
+    with sufficient disregard for the safety of her lungs, or the
+    _primo tenore_ shake the stage with a _la di petto_, and all
+    is right. This is a digression, but as an artist I can't help
+    taking it to heart, and wanted to have it out. Amongst Mrs.
+    Sartoris' few "intimes" at this moment is a Neapolitan lady,
+    la Duchessa Ravaschieri, daughter of Filangi�ri the minister,
+    who has given her himself an education almost unique amongst
+    Italian noblewomen, who are insipid and ignorant beyond
+    anything.
+
+                                         FLORENCE, H�TEL DU NORD,
+                                            _September 20, 1854_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I was much surprised, as we very naturally
+    measure time past by the number of events that have taken
+    place in it, the interval between this your last letter and
+    the previous one seemed to me doubly long, for I have changed
+    scene so often during these last four or five weeks, and have
+    moved so much from place to place, that it seems to me an age
+    since I last despatched a letter to England; from which you
+    will naturally and correctly infer that it was a very great
+    pleasure to me once more to see your handwriting. Your kind
+    anxiety and advice about the cholera I shall remember when I
+    get to Rome (which will be in a week or ten days), where that
+    disease prevails, although mildly, for what are thirty cases a
+    day in a town of that size? In the meantime, both at the baths
+    where I have been, and at Florence, where I am, the cholera
+    has not dared to show its face; indeed, such a prestige of
+    salubrity attaches to the name of the baths of Lucca that
+    eight days' sojourn at that place is considered tantamount to
+    a "_quarantaine_!" It is a very strange thing, this exemption
+    from disease, for in a number of the surrounding villages the
+    number of people carried off has been frightful. As for that
+    after apprehension of yours, dearest Mamma, about my being
+    alone and uncared for in case of illness, I am happy to say
+    that nothing can be more unfounded; I have in Mrs. Sartoris
+    that genuine friend, and, especially, genuine _woman friend_
+    that in such a case would leave nothing undone that you, the
+    best of mothers, and my own dear sisters, would do for me. It
+    is her habit, when any of her bachelor and homeless friends
+    are poorly, to go and sit with them and nurse them, and do you
+    think that I, who have become one of her most intimate circle,
+    should need to fear neglect? In the friendship of that
+    admirable woman I am rich for life. Poor thing, she has lately
+    received a great blow in her own family from the sudden
+    calamity which has befallen her. This shocking news reached me
+    here, at Florence, where I had come on from the baths, and
+    ascertaining that her husband was gone off to England to
+    inquire into the matter, and that by a chance her boy's tutor
+    was absent at the same time, I instantaneously went off to
+    Lucca, where I stayed a week (till the return of the tutor),
+    taking care of her boy, hearing him his lessons, and
+    especially keeping him out of the way; in the evening I used
+    to walk or drive with her, and to my infinite gratification
+    was able to be some little comfort and distraction to her; my
+    only regret in the whole business was that I was making no
+    material sacrifice of my own time and pleasure, so that I had
+    not the satisfaction of comforting her at my own expense. In
+    adopting the resolution, which I have communicated to you, of
+    retiring from society, I have taken into consideration all
+    that you say, dear Mamma, and more too, for I feel I have of
+    my nature a very fair share of the hateful worldly weakness of
+    my country-people; still, I have found no sufficiently great
+    advantage or compensation for the tedium of going out; the
+    Roman _grand monde_, a small part of which I know, and which,
+    had I chosen to push a little, I might have known all, is of
+    no _use_ whatever in reference to my future career; added to
+    which I believe I told you that I never by any chance got
+    introduced to anybody, so that whomever I know, I know by
+    chance, or by their own wish. For instance, last winter I met
+    the Duke of Wellington constantly, both at the Sartoris' (he
+    is a very old friend of hers) and at the Farquhars', and
+    though he is the most accessible of men, I made no attempt to
+    make his acquaintance, and so it is with everybody. But for
+    the _tableaux charades_ which Mrs. S. gave last winter, in
+    which I was joint-manager with herself, and was therefore
+    brought into contact with her numerous co-operating friends, I
+    should probably have known few or none of those who were at
+    her house every week; always excepting our own intimate
+    circle, to wit, Browning, Amp�re, Dr. Pantaleone, Lyons, Count
+    Gozze, Duke Sermoneta, &c. You know, when I say I shan't go
+    out, it is in so far a _fa�on de parler_, that, as I shall be
+    at least every other day at Mrs. Sartoris', I shall not be at
+    home, trying my eyes. I quite agree with you in thinking this
+    business of ----'s a most awkward thing; I cannot understand a
+    man having once gone into the army and made his profession to
+    be honourably killed for his country, should not jump at the
+    idea of going to the scene of war; I have felt a very strong
+    desire to lend a hand myself, but one cannot drive two trades.
+    My singing (in particular, and music in general) I have
+    avoided mentioning, because, dear Mamma, it is a subject on
+    which I have _no_ reason to dwell very complacently; my first
+    disappointment was finding my voice, instead of strengthening
+    in an Italian climate, getting if possible weaker than it was.
+    It is the merest "fil de voix." I have therefore as the onset
+    very insufficient "moyens"; this is owing, not only to the
+    insufficiency of my "organe," but also to an unpleasant
+    visitation in the shape of swollen and irritated tonsils, the
+    very ailment, I believe, under which Gussy labours. This
+    symptom, which I have carried about some time, is, I fancy,
+    not likely ever to leave me permanently; add to this that as
+    soon as I sit down to thump with elephantine touch a most
+    ordinary accompaniment, the little voice I have vanishes; thus
+    between two stools ... you know the rest. Still, I am bound to
+    add that Mrs. Sartoris (who could not flatter) has great
+    pleasure in hearing me coo a little song or two that I know,
+    and says I have what is better than voice, which is a musical
+    "accent," and that (she is pleased to add) to a rather
+    remarkable degree; my voice is weak and powerless, but true
+    and facile. I will tell you exactly what to expect when you
+    see me again. I shall be able to sit down to the piano and
+    whine some half-dozen pretty little ballads, with a
+    rum-tum-tum accompaniment of affecting simplicity. Gussy
+    dreams of me as "very handsome" and "are my whiskers growing?"
+    I am _not_ very handsome, none of my features are really
+    _good_. My whiskers _have_ grown, they are undeniable, there
+    is no shirking them, or getting out of the way of them; _I
+    wear whiskers_ though you were short-sighted; _but_ they are
+    modest ones; as for moustaches, the seven hairs which I have
+    (and wear) are not worth mentioning, but still I have none of
+    that delicacy which you profess on the subject. In my opinion,
+    _if_ gentlemanhood is a thing dependent on the scraping of
+    four square inches of your face, and residing only in the
+    well-shaved purlieus of a (probably) ugly mouth, I feel equal
+    to going without it, in that shape at all events. A moustache,
+    and even a beard, if kept short enough to be in keeping with a
+    not very flowing costume, is both becoming and convenient, and
+    I fear that the whole prestige of respectability hovering
+    around Mr. and Mrs. ----, or the withering contempt of the
+    irreproachable Sir John and Lady ----, would not make me
+    shave, unless, indeed, I felt too hot about the chin. I have
+    gone through your letter, and shall wind up with a few words
+    about my doings, which, by-the-bye, might be compendiously
+    characterised by one word: _nothing_. My holidays are drawing
+    to a close, and I shall be in Rome, working very hard to get
+    my pictures done for the Exhibitions. Meanwhile I am enjoying
+    Florentine sunsets, the gorgeousness of which defies
+    description. The other day, in particular, I was on the
+    heights near the Miniato, I thought I had never seen anything
+    like it. I remembered Papa's fondness for that spot, and
+    wished he had been there to share my enjoyment; the lanes were
+    cool and pearly grey; over them hung in every fantastic shape
+    the rich growth of the orchards and gardens that crowned the
+    lengthened walls; the olives, strangely twisted, flaming with
+    a thousand tongues of fire; the wreathing vine flinging its
+    emerald skirts from tree to tree; the purple wine flashing in
+    the fiery grape; the stately _ma�s_ flapping its arms in the
+    breath of the evening; the solemn cypress; the poetic laurel;
+    the joyous oleander--all glorified in the ardour of the
+    setting sun, that flung its rays obliquely along the earth;
+    you would have been enchanted.
+
+                                            ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                             _February 10, 1855_.
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--I hasten to answer your kind letter and to thank
+    you for the willingness you express to advance such a sum of
+    money as I shall require to cover the heavy expenses I am
+    incurring. I forgot to mention in my last letter that my
+    picture will be directed straight to the frame-maker's who
+    undertakes the exhibiting of it.
+
+    In approaching the other points which you touch in your
+    letter, I feel that my letter will unavoidably have a
+    combative colouring, which I sincerely hope you will not
+    misconstrue, and beg that you will consider whether the
+    reasons I advance for not conforming to your suggestions are
+    not sound ones. If I particularly object to accompanying my
+    picture, it is because I think that the small advantages that
+    might accrue from so doing would in no way make up for all I
+    should lose; whatever can be done to my picture on its arrival
+    in England will be kindly done for me by my friend, Mr. T.
+    Gooderson, who is in the habit of receiving and varnishing
+    Buckner's works on similar occasions; with respect to the
+    interest to be made amongst the Academicians in behalf of my
+    op. magn., I have neglected _that_ on the _express advice_ of
+    Buckner, who has great experience in those matters and is a
+    most kind and honest man; he says, such is the party spirit of
+    R.A.'s, that the best chance of securing impartial treatment
+    (in the case of a work of merit) is to be _completely unknown_
+    to all of them, a condition which I am admirably calculated to
+    fulfil. You are also perhaps not aware that my picture will
+    reach England _five weeks_ before the opening of the
+    Exhibition, so that by accompanying it I should completely
+    lose all the best part of the year here in Rome. There are a
+    great number of things which I propose doing now that my
+    pictures are about to be off my hands. There are here several
+    very remarkable heads of which I wish to make finished
+    studies, and especially also I am loth to go without having
+    drawn anything from Michael Angelo and Raphael, which is one
+    of the chief objects for which one comes to this city of the
+    past; but, I do not hesitate to say, the principal task which
+    I propose to myself is a half-length portrait of Mrs.
+    Sartoris, to which I wish to devote my every energy that it
+    may be worthy of perpetuating the features of the last Kemble;
+    irrespective of the enormous artistic advantage to be derived
+    from the study of so exceptional a head, you will easily
+    understand my eagerness to give some tangible form to my
+    gratitude towards those whose fireside has been my fireside
+    for so long a time; nothing would grieve me more than missing
+    so good an opportunity. I confess, too, that I wished to see a
+    little more leisurely the glorious scenery that lies all round
+    Rome, and which I have hitherto hardly glanced at, and partly
+    indeed not seen at all. I had indeed contemplated before
+    leaving Italy, making a trip to Naples, Capri, Oschia, Amalfi,
+    and all the spots about which artists rave. This, however,
+    will I fear be under all circumstances a financial _ch�teau en
+    Espagne_.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                            ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                                   _February 12_.
+
+    HONOURED AND DEAR FRIEND,--That you, who know me so well and
+    are so well aware of how I carry your image in my heart, could
+    misinterpret my silence I did not fear for a moment, for
+    rather will you have thought to yourself that the stress of my
+    occupations in the course of the day, and my incapacity to do
+    anything at night, have hitherto prevented me from writing;
+    and so it is; for, be you assured, dear Friend, that, as long
+    as I pursue art, you will be ever present with me in the
+    spirit, and that I shall always ascribe every success which I
+    may possibly attain in the future to your wise counsel and
+    your inspiriting example, for "as the twig is bent the tree's
+    inclined."
+
+    First I will tell you about my health; thank Heaven, as
+    regards my general health, I have nothing to complain of; if
+    not exactly strong, still I am lively and in good spirits, and
+    look out upon the world quite contentedly. My eyes--well, yes,
+    they might be better; otherwise I am always in a condition to
+    work my seven or eight hours a day without over-exertion, in
+    return for which I dare not do anything in the evenings. To
+    tell the truth, my position is not an agreeable one; I am not
+    bad enough to follow the course prescribed for me by Graefe,
+    but on the other hand not well enough to be able to feel quite
+    tranquil....
+
+    Time has slipped away in stress of work since I commenced this
+    letter. I throw myself again upon your goodness, dear Master,
+    and beg you will not measure my love by my readiness in
+    writing, for then I should certainly come off a loser. I told
+    you that my affairs have pressed upon me; I have finished my
+    "Cimabue." I am dreadfully disappointed, dear Friend, that I
+    cannot, as I hoped, send you a photograph, but it has been
+    impossible for me to have one taken, since the picture is so
+    large that it could not be transported to a photographic
+    loggia without fearful ado and unnecessary risk to the canvas;
+    I will therefore exert myself to write you what it looks like.
+    First you must know that I changed my intention as to the
+    respective sizes of the two pictures, for I perceived that my
+    eyes could not possibly permit the Florentine composition to
+    be carried out on the proposed scale. I therefore took a
+    canvas of 17-� feet (English measure), in consequence of which
+    my figures have become half life size (like Raphael's "Madonna
+    del Cardellino"), and do not look at all ill. The other
+    picture (which I shall send to London) will be something over
+    7 feet long by 5 feet. If I am to get them both finished by
+    next January, I must set to work in earnest. I have made the
+    following alterations: first, those prescribed by you, viz. I
+    have made the picture which is being carried larger, the
+    chapel smaller, and have suppressed the flower-pots on the
+    walls. A further alteration I have made by the advice of
+    Cornelius; he said to me that the foremost group (the women
+    strewing flowers with children) seemed to him somewhat to
+    disturb the simplicity of the rest of the composition, and
+    suggested that I should put in a couple of priests, especially
+    as the portrait is of a Madonna and is being taken to a
+    church; he further advised me, in order to prevent the picture
+    from being too frieze-like, to allow this foremost group to
+    walk up to the spectator. It now looks something like this:
+
+    (Slight sketch of the design for "Cimabue's Madonna.")
+
+    I hope with all my heart that you will approve these
+    alterations. I have drawn a quantity of heads and hands, which
+    are all finished, like the "Chiaruccia" which I gave you;
+    drapery is not lacking. How I regret, dear Friend, that I
+    cannot show them to you. Gamba also is very industrious; he
+    has made endless studies, and has also got his record ready.
+    He sends you most hearty greetings. Of his diligence there is
+    always plenty to tell, and you will not be surprised when I
+    tell you that he has made very gratifying progress.
+
+    I could still tell you a great deal, my dear Master, of what I
+    have seen and experienced! but time and, alas! especially eyes
+    compel me to be laconic, or this oft-begun letter will never
+    be finished. Therefore I will only briefly narrate what
+    happened to me in the imperial city; my goodness! how long ago
+    that seems. My first impression, as I alighted from the train,
+    was very pleasant. A lovely autumn morning, the Prater with
+    its beautiful trees, the J�gerheil in the sunshine, all
+    together welcomed me gaily. I alighted in the Leopold suburb,
+    and set off on foot the same morning in quest of Kuppelwieser,
+    a cordial, charming man. Through him I became acquainted with
+    F�hrich and Roesner, who both received me no less kindly. They
+    all remembered with warm affection their dear comrade,
+    Steinle, and sent most hearty messages to him. Of their works
+    (for to you, best of friends, I write frankly) I cannot,
+    candidly, speak very highly, but perhaps I might of the
+    tenacious maintenance of their opinion in spite of the
+    boundless, oppressive indifference of the Viennese towards
+    high art. Now, the dear friends are somewhat ascetic
+    representatives of their mode of thought--a mode of thought
+    which can be combined, as we have seen in the great days of
+    art, with the greatest charm of representation; but this
+    quality is unfortunately too often absent from our friends. Of
+    the two, Kuppelwieser is the less offensive; he is perhaps
+    rather antiquated, but not without cleverness; F�hrich is far
+    too ornamental for me, and as a painter, God save the mark!
+    Good gracious! what is nature there for? What can the people
+    make of all this! how is it possible that one can get so far
+    in spite of a perverted training! that people do not perceive
+    their fearful arrogance! They plume themselves upon piety and
+    humility, and in God's beautiful creation nothing is right for
+    them; do they then ever admit, these gentlemen, that they do
+    not want nature any more because they are aware that they no
+    longer know how to use her? Would they feel happy if they saw
+    a Masaccio, a Ghirlandajo, a Carpaccio? But they in their
+    drawings are pretentious and puffed up, but there is no
+    learnedness in them, and that which God has made so lovely
+    with all the brilliancy of colour, they daub with any dirt,
+    and call it a picture; some even (that was still lacking)
+    shrug their shoulders spitefully and mock--at the
+    unattainable. And whence does all that arise? How is it that
+    even sensible, clever men are so ill equipped? It is due
+    solely and alone to the topsy-turvy, involved principle of
+    education, to the fact that the people, while they are still
+    young, labour and worry day and night at the representation of
+    unrepresentable ideas, instead of drawing from nature and from
+    nothing else for ever and ever amen, till they are in close
+    harmony with her; that would be a soil from which the tree of
+    their art could grow upwards, fresh, powerful,
+    ever-herbescent; that they might not stand there in their old
+    age as high, proud, upward-aspiring trunks without leaves,
+    without sap. Naturally all this is not aimed at the good
+    F�hrich, but in general against all those who in their
+    infatuation allow themselves, behind the shield of severe
+    sentiments and high efforts, to throw overboard all the
+    difficulties of art. How gladly my thoughts turn away from
+    such unpleasing reflections to you, dearest Friend, who take
+    nature for your model in every part of your pictures, and with
+    your high degree of ability are always the devoted pupil of
+    _nature_! Keep, I beg you, _your_ grateful pupil in
+    sympathetic remembrance, and never doubt the devotion of your
+    loving friend,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife; also to my other
+    friends. If you see Schalck, will you kindly say to him that I
+    have received his letter, and will answer it when my eyes
+    permit. I am longing to hear what pictures and drawings you
+    are making! Will you forgive my silence, and write to me?
+
+    My picture is under-painted grey-in-grey (_grau in grau_); I
+    finished it in a week; it was a great effort.
+
+                                                ROME, VIA FELICE,
+                                             _February 19, 1855_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--As the body of the letter I have just received
+    is written by Papa, I have thought well to address to _him_
+    the important part of mine; you will therein see all the
+    business news that I have to give, and will, I know, be much
+    pleased to hear that my picture has had great success here; I
+    hope it may not have less in London. As the picture is of a
+    jovial aspect and contains pretty faces, male and female, I
+    think the public will find _leur affaire_; the "Romeo and
+    Juliet" (also nearly finished) will, though perhaps a better
+    picture, probably be less popular from its necessarily serious
+    and dingy aspect. Dear Mamma, I am much tickled at your
+    comparison between the Campagna and the environs of Bath; it
+    is like saying that strawberries and cream are equal and
+    perhaps superior to a haunch of wild boar! _l'un n'empeche pas
+    l'autre_, but they can never be compared, nor can they answer
+    the same purpose. The Sartoris are well; I am there every
+    evening of my life.
+
+    The next page is Papa's. Good-bye, dear Mamma. Best love from
+    your affectionate and dutiful son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    _P.S._--My resolution not to dance I have kept (excepting in
+    the case of quadrilles), and have avoided making new
+    acquaintances, as I intend next winter not to go out at all;
+    but if I have no longer agitated the fantastic toe, and have
+    acquired a cordial dislike to balls, I have been all the
+    oftener to my dearest and best friends, the Sartoris, to whom
+    I go about four times a week, and of whose sterling worth it
+    is impossible to speak too warmly; at their house also I have
+    made several interesting acquaintances; Fanny Kemble (as you
+    know), Thackeray, Lockhart, Browning, the authors; Marochetti,
+    the sculptor, and so on; as for Mrs. Sartoris, I look upon her
+    as an angel, _ni plus ni moins_, and I feel terrified at the
+    idea of how much more exacting she has made me for the future
+    choice of a wife, by showing one what opposite excellencies a
+    woman may unite in herself.
+
+  _To his Father--Part of letter missing._]
+                                                            1855.
+
+    It is with very great pleasure that I announce to you the
+    completion of my large picture, which I have exhibited
+    privately to my English friends and a crowd of artists of all
+    nations. You will, I am sure, be gratified to hear that it had
+    a remarkable "succ�s"; artists of whatever school seem equally
+    pleased, some admiring the drawing, others the colouring. I
+    hope that what I say does not savour of vanity; I simply tell
+    it you from a conviction that it is agreeable to you to hear
+    what people say of your son, and to anticipate in some measure
+    the verdict of a larger public. As for the positive _value_ of
+    it, we all know what to think about _that_. It amused me to
+    hear that several people compared my picture to the works of
+    Maclise, and came to conclusions considerably in my favour.
+    Swinton paid me the compliment of requesting to be introduced
+    to me, and seemed very sincerely to admire my picture, as also
+    a portfolio of leads which I have drawn at different times,
+    and which are much admired by everybody.
+
+    Of course you did perfectly right in not dreaming of
+    exhibiting Isabel's likeness. Pray do not think from what I
+    said about my lengthened stay in Rome, that I undervalue the
+    delight of seeing you all again, but still I think that if by
+    a little postponement I can have that pleasure without losing
+    my spring, it would be better. My idea is to remain in Italy
+    till the end of May, and then visiting Paris (to see the great
+    Exhibition) on my road to get home by the middle or end of
+    June, which will still leave me a long summer's holiday.
+
+This letter from his mother contains the news of Leighton's father's
+joy at the success of the picture in Rome:--
+
+                                             _February 18, 1855._
+
+    Now I think of it, you have probably some signs of spring
+    about you--how enviable! My dear Fred, I did not compare the
+    artistic resources of Bath with those of Rome, well knowing
+    that the transparent atmosphere there imparts beauty to the
+    country which, without it, might not be remarked; equally
+    bright and clear the sky is not in England, but I assure you
+    that many parts of the country near us and in Devonshire, and
+    doubtless in many other counties, may for beauty challenge a
+    comparison with many most admired spots in Italy and
+    elsewhere, though the character of the landscape is different.
+    Nevertheless, I shall be very glad to see again Switzerland,
+    Southern Germany, &c. &c. Pray, dear Fred, if you do go to
+    sketch in the Campagna, take care not to expose yourself to
+    any disagreeable adventures with Brigands; I _entreat_ you, be
+    prudent. Not to tire you with repetition, I have not alluded
+    to the success of your picture, but I must tell you that your
+    father was radiant with joy as he read your letter and gave it
+    into my hands with the words, "That _is_ a satisfactory
+    letter." I am curious to know _when_ we shall see your Paris
+    picture, and whether we shall winter in that delightful town;
+    Papa and I have always wished it. I must just mention, what I
+    had nearly forgotten, that a great treat is in store for the
+    inhabitants of Bath, as next week Mrs. Fanny Kemble is to read
+    some of Shakespeare's plays in public, with appropriate music.
+    A great treat is expected. God bless you, love, I can no more.
+    Our united affectionate greetings.--Your attached Mother,
+
+                                                     A. LEIGHTON.
+
+                                         ROME, _January 3, 1855_.
+                                            (_Recd. January 12._)
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--Let me hasten to reassure my poor dear
+    progenitor on the subject of his anxieties; if I spoke
+    doubtfully and despondently of my performances, it was owing
+    to the lively feeling that every artist, whose ideal is beyond
+    the applause of the many, must entertain of his own
+    shortcomings; once and for all let me beg him never to feel
+    any uneasiness on the score of mechanical processes, as in
+    such cases one always has the resource of cutting the Gordian
+    knot by painting over again the unsuccessful portions, an
+    expedient indeed to which I have many a time been forced to
+    resort; the result of such failures is called experience;
+    through such failures alone one arrives at success. Nor am I
+    wanting in the applause of my friends, who all speak in praise
+    and encouragement of my works, and it is not a little
+    gratifying to me to find that those whose opinions I most
+    value are the first to speak favourably of my endeavours; as
+    agreeable as is to me this testimony on their part, so
+    indifferent am I, and must I beg you to be (for better and for
+    worse) to the scribbling of pamphleteers; the self-complacent
+    oracularity of these _pachidermata_ is rivalled only by their
+    gross ignorance of the subjects they bemaul, and the
+    conventional flatness of all their views; I speak without fear
+    of being considered partial, as the article which you
+    communicate to me contains more of praise than of blame; it
+    is, however, my practice never to accept (inwardly) the praise
+    of those whose blame I don't acknowledge. I happen to have
+    seen other articles from the pen of this same Mister ----, and
+    know _� quoi m'en tenir_. The notice on myself I had heard of,
+    but not seen. It may amuse you to hear that my draperies have
+    been considered (alas!) the most successful part of my
+    picture, and I am at present labouring hard to bring the
+    heads, &c., _up to them_! In about a fortnight, the large work
+    ("Cimabue," the "canvas of many feet") will be, D.V.,
+    finished, with the exception of the ultimate glazes and
+    retouches; by the end of February, both pictures will start
+    for their respective destinations. One thing has caused me
+    some annoyance and anxiety; I wrote a month ago (or more) to
+    one Mr. Allen, carver and gilder, 31 Ebury Street, Pimlico,
+    sending a design of my frame, and requesting him to let me
+    know at once what would be the cost of such a frame, whether
+    he would undertake it, and asking many questions important to
+    me to know; I have received no answer; I therefore must take
+    for granted that either he has not received my letter, or his
+    answer to me has been lost; now, as there is no longer any
+    time to correspond on the subject, I must, on the supposition
+    that my letter has gone astray, send another design together
+    with an unconditional order to begin at once at whatever cost;
+    now I grudge the time of writing a duplicate of my old letter,
+    and especially that of drawing a new diagram for his guidance.
+    With regard to the price, Fripp, who recommended him to me,
+    says Allen is a very respectable man, and will no way take
+    advantage of my awkward position; I calculate the frame can
+    hardly exceed five and twenty pounds; then there will be the
+    bill for exhibiting the picture of which he will take charge;
+    I expect that the framing, packing, sending, &c., of the two
+    canvases together will cost about fifty pounds "tant pis pour
+    moi!"
+
+(Here the letter breaks off.)
+
+  (_Cover_--Madame Leighton,
+  9 Circus, Bath, England.)
+
+                                            ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                                 _March 2, 1855_.
+                                    (_On cover--Recd. April 12._)
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--I received a day or two ago the kind letter in
+    which you inform me of the disposition you have made to enable
+    me to get the money I want, and for which I sincerely thank
+    you; your letter reached me just as I was driving the last
+    nail into the coffin of my large picture; the small had been
+    disposed of in like manner the day before. Delighted as I am
+    to have got them at last off my hands, yet I felt a kind of
+    strange sorrow at seeing them nailed up in their narrow boxes;
+    it was so painfully like shrouding and stowing away a corpse,
+    with the exception, by-the-bye, that my pictures may possibly
+    return to my bosom long before the Last Judgment. With regard
+    to the success of my picture with its little Roman public,
+    nearly all the praise that reached my ears was bestowed
+    _behind my back_, so that whether intelligent or no, I have
+    good reason to believe it was sincere; indeed, I should not
+    else have said anything about it; Cornelius, I am sincerely
+    sorry to say, did not see my daubs in their finished state; he
+    was prevented by ill-health; however, all the advice he could
+    give me I got out of him in the beginning, and indeed, as you
+    know, altered about a dozen figures at his request; in points
+    of material execution he is utterly incompetent; I am happy to
+    say that he feels very kindly towards me, as indeed he told me
+    in plain words, and added on one occasion, "Sie k�nnen f�r
+    England etwas bedeutendes werden;" I need not tell you that as
+    he is altogether without apprehension of the peculiar and very
+    great merits of some of our artists, he considerably
+    overvalues my (relative) value. You ask for _my_ opinion of my
+    pictures; you couldn't ask a more embarrassing and
+    unsatisfactory question; I think, indeed, that they are very
+    creditable works for my age, but I am anything but satisfied
+    with them, and believe that I could paint both of them better
+    now; I am particularly anxious that persons whom I love or
+    esteem should think neither more nor less of my artistic
+    capacity than I deserve; the plain truth; I am therefore very
+    circumspect in passing a verdict on myself in addressing
+    myself to such persons; I think, however, you may expect me to
+    become eventually the best draughtsman in my country; Gibson
+    and Miss Hosmer are, as you expect, amongst those who praise
+    me, but I warn you that they are both utterly without an
+    opinion in matters pictorial. Who is ----? He is, _entre
+    nous_, the worst painter I ever saw, but also the greatest
+    toady, in virtue of which quality he makes �5000 a year by
+    portraying the nobility of Great Britain and Ireland; however,
+    towards me he has been very pleasant and nice, and so long as
+    there is no lord in the way he is a sufficiently companionable
+    person. I certainly feel very little desire to have my
+    "Cimabue" hung in the little room you speak of, but I fear
+    that I must take my chance with the rest; the fact is that
+    although I personally have taken no steps in the matter, still
+    "ces messieurs" will not be unprepared for my picture, because
+    I know that old Leitch for one will speak to them about it and
+    will do everything that is friendly; he even offered to
+    varnish it, but _that_ another friend of mine has already
+    undertaken. One thing is certain, they can't hang it out of
+    sight--it's too large for that. I must leave myself room to
+    write afterwards to Mamma....
+
+    ...I am glad that you have made up your mind to not seeing me
+    as soon as you expected; indeed I felt sure that when I told
+    you all the reasons which concurred to make me prolong my
+    stay, you would feel the force of them; I willingly confess,
+    too, that I was most strongly biassed on the matter by my
+    reluctance to part from my friends, but particularly _her_. I
+    am horrified at the use you make of the words "indefinite
+    time"; I shall certainly never live long anywhere without
+    going to see them, and I trust that our "intimes relations"
+    will not cease as long as I live. How sorry I am that I should
+    not have known in time that Mrs. Kemble was to read in Bath; I
+    should have liked so to introduce you to her; you no doubt
+    found her reading a rare treat. How beautiful is the
+    "Midsummer Night's Dream" with Mendelssohn's music! This
+    reminds me of dear Gussy and _her_ music; I suppose her new
+    master is a good one, or she would not have taken him;
+    generally speaking I have a sovereign dislike for the
+    _engeance_ of _pianistes_ with their eternal jingle-tingles at
+    the top of the piano, their drops of dew, their sources, their
+    fairies, their bells, and the vapid runs and futile conceits
+    with which they sentimentalise and torture the motive of other
+    men; we have a specimen here in the shape of the
+    all-fashionable ----....
+
+Referring to a lady of his acquaintance, he continues:--
+
+    She has acquired by her melancholy and sometimes haughty moods
+    a character for misanthropy which she has not cared to refute;
+    but, my good sir, she is DIVORCED! Poor cowards! should they
+    not rather gather her to them, and "weep with her that weeps,"
+    Bible-wise Pharisees! Your letter is full of thrilling events:
+    children born among the Australian flocks of Mr. Donaldson;
+    little ----, too, taking to herself a husband--alas for the
+    Laird of (probably) Ballyshallynachurighawalymoroo! I must
+    think of answering dear Gussy's note, and close with a hearty
+    kiss, from your dutiful and affectionate son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    DEAREST GUSSY,--Many thanks to you for your kind note and for
+    the sympathy and interest which you both offer and ask. How
+    heartily sorry I am that you should still be persecuted by the
+    soreness in your throat, and should be prevented, poor dear,
+    from singing; you who have the rare gift of that which is
+    unteachable and without which the most brilliant execution is
+    dumb to the heart; I mean musical accent. I had hoped that we
+    should sing together, but I fear that if the air of Bath has
+    such a bad effect on the throat, I shall be invalided as well
+    as yourself. What is about the compass of your voice? or
+    (which is more important) in what _tessitura_ do you sing with
+    least discomfort? that I may see whether anything I sing will
+    suit us; unfortunately most part of my limited _r�pertoire_
+    consists of the first tenor part in quintettes and quartettes,
+    which are not available for us two. I don't know whether I
+    told you that I take a part in Mrs. Sartoris' musical
+    evenings, in which I officiate as _primo tenore_; you may
+    imagine how great an enjoyment this is to me. Dear Gussy, how
+    I wish you could hear _her_ sing! it would enlarge your ideas
+    and open out your heart; I am sadly afraid however, that she
+    won't winter in Paris, so that if you go there you must make
+    up your mind to not meeting her; but if you are in England in
+    October she may possibly be there by that time, and you might
+    make her acquaintance; if I sell either of my pictures, and am
+    "sur les lieux" at the time, I will take you and Lina to town
+    at my own expense and introduce you to the dearest friend I
+    have in the world; I long for you to know and love one
+    another. You ask me whether she is like her sister; in
+    _expression_, sometimes, strikingly like; in _feature_, not in
+    the least. She is the image of John Kemble, with large
+    aquiline nose and the most beautiful mouth in the world, a
+    most harmonious head, and, like Fanny, the hair low down on
+    her forehead; artistically speaking, her head and shoulders
+    are the finest I ever saw with the exception only of Dante's;
+    in spite of all this, many people think her barely
+    good-looking, because she has no complexion, very little hair,
+    and is excessively stout; _you_ will be more discriminating. I
+    am amused at Mamma's asking me in her letter whether I know
+    why ---- did not know the Sartoris! Pardi! I did not introduce
+    them,--in the first place I have been obliged to make a rule
+    to introduce nobody to that house, as I should otherwise
+    become a nuisance; people have constantly fished for
+    introductions knowing my intimacy; but the chief reason is
+    that Mrs. Sartoris has the judgment and courage to ask to her
+    house nobody but those she _likes_ for some reason or other,
+    for which reason her house is the most sociable in the world;
+    her "intimes" are a complete medley, from the Duke of
+    Wellington down to a poor artist with one change of boots, but
+    _all_ agreeable for some reason; I know that she would be kind
+    to _any one I_ brought to her, but I also know that the ----s
+    would have been in the way and a _corv�e_ to her, which fully
+    accounts, &c. &c.
+
+    I am delighted, dear Guss, that you have a music master to
+    your heart, and that you have been considered worthy to play
+    Bach's Fugues, which are indeed monstrous difficult. With
+    regard to the pianistic style and the dewdrop-warbling school,
+    you need not fear that _I_ should throw sour grapes in your
+    teeth about _that_; _franchement_, the ---- after all is
+    commonplace enough, and the ----, though pretty, hardly
+    deserves such an epithet as beautiful; as for the ----, it's
+    just ludicrous. Did you ever hear ---- piano-doodle himself?
+
+    I was rather surprised at the judgment you pass on Fanny
+    Kemble's reading; if _anything_ seems at all coarse in it, it
+    is occasional bits in the _male_ part, and that only, after
+    all, because it is _too_ good and it seems discrepant to hear
+    male harsh sounds proceeding from the mouth of a woman. With
+    regard to her women, nothing can be more pathetic and touching
+    than her Juliet, or indeed all the women I have heard her do;
+    there is altogether in her style a certain amount of mannerism
+    belonging to the Kemble school, but in spite of all that, it
+    is quite unapproachable now and is grand in the extreme; the
+    Ghost in "Hamlet" is quite a creation. You seem, like Mamma,
+    to apologise almost for expressing an admiration for my
+    photograph; do you think, dear, that I don't value your
+    sympathy irrespectively of your art judgment? I shall send you
+    soon two photographs of portraits that I am now painting; one
+    of Mrs. Sartoris, the other of her little daughter May. I must
+    close.--With very best love to all, I remain, your very
+    affectionate brother,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+The change Leighton made in his picture at the request of Cornelius,
+mentioned in his letter to his father, dated March 2, 1855, can be
+seen by comparing the pencil sketch of the complete design with the
+finished painting (see List of Illustrations). It consisted in his
+making the Procession turn at the left-hand corner to face spectator,
+instead of filling in this space and giving the required grouping of
+lines partly by the foreshortened horse and its rider which we find in
+the first sketch. In the Leighton House Collection there is a fine
+study in pencil of the undraped figure of the man riding which is not
+included in the final design. There are those who remembered the
+picture when first painted in Rome, also at the Exhibitions in
+Trafalgar Square and Burlington House, who were of opinion that it was
+never seen so advantageously as on the occasion when the King lent it
+for exhibition in the artist's own studio in Leighton House in the
+year 1900, and many seeing it there exclaimed, "Leighton never did a
+finer thing;" and, truly, seen, as it was then, placed across the end
+of the glass studio under perfect conditions of lighting and
+surroundings, the power and originality both in the colouring and
+design of the work were very striking and impressive. Leighton's
+friends felt specially grateful to the King, for an opportunity having
+been afforded for the public to see this early work under such
+favourable and appropriate circumstances. During those months when the
+picture was shown at Leighton House, it felt as if the very spirit of
+the young artist, at the time when he was starting on his notable
+career, had returned and was haunting the home of his later years.
+From the end of the large studio, looking through the darkened passage
+connecting the two rooms, the procession verily looked alive, a
+_tableau vivant_--no mere painting.
+
+One of the salient virtues in the composition lies in the happy way in
+which the two central figures take a separate important position,
+without the moving on of the procession being interrupted nor their
+attitudes being in any sense forced. On the contrary, it is by their
+absorbed, modest demeanour, which contrasts with the rest of the gay
+crowd, talking, singing, and playing musical instruments as it moves
+along, that the sense of awe and reverence felt by the two artist
+spirits becomes accentuated. These recognise in this public ovation
+bestowed on the picture of their beloved "Madonna and Child" the union
+of a service offered both to Art and to Religion.
+
+The happiness Leighton enjoyed during the two years when this subject
+occupied his thoughts seems to have been reflected in the vigour of
+the actual painting. It was evidently finally executed with an
+exuberant feeling of satisfaction. Careful studies having been
+previously made for every portion, the under-painting itself was, as
+he writes to Steinle, completed in one week, and the canvas once
+attacked, there appears to have been no hitch in the process of
+completion. The happy balancing of masses, the grouping of the
+figures, the beauty of the lines throughout the crowded procession are
+admirable. The picture was admitted by competent judges to be a work
+marked by a distinct individuality, yet possessing "style," a word
+which in recent years had been associated in England with art that
+lacked vigour and originality, and which flavoured solely of obsolete
+grooves and theories. The colour is richer and purer than in
+Leighton's earliest pictures, and arranged cleverly so as to give full
+importance and value to the beautiful white costume worn by
+Cimabue.[34] Sir William Richmond, R.A., writes: "Impressions of early
+years are not easily removed. As a boy at school I went to the R.A.
+Exhibition, and saw for the first time a work of Leighton's, the
+procession in honour of the picture by Cimabue in Florence, 1855. It
+stood out among the other pictures to my young eye as a work so
+complete, so noble in design, so serious in sentiment and of such
+achievement, that perforce it took me by the throat."
+
+Leighton sent a photograph of the picture to Steinle with a letter
+dated March 1.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                            ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                                 _March 1, 1855_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Although since my last letter I have had
+    no news of you, I cannot pass by this moment, so important to
+    me, without giving you intelligence of it. Yesterday I at last
+    sent off both my pictures, the large one to London, the small
+    one to Paris, with the consignment of the Roman Committee.
+    Thank goodness, at last I have got them off my mind! And how
+    sorry I am, dear Friend, that I could not put the finishing
+    touches to them in your presence! Of the "Cimabue," I send
+    you, in two pieces, a very bad photograph, but it is the best
+    that could be made within four walls; from it you will only be
+    able to judge generally of the grouping, for as regards the
+    colour, which comes out so black in the photograph, in the
+    picture it is altogether clear and light. You will certainly
+    be glad to hear that this work has earned much praise here; I
+    promised that you should not have to be ashamed of your pupil.
+    The small picture is so dark in effect, that it would be
+    impossible to photograph it; but as I suppose you, like all
+    the rest of the world, will visit the great exhibition in
+    Paris, you can avail yourself of the same opportunity to see
+    my daub.
+
+    Gamba is, now as ever, industrious, tireless, conscientious;
+    his picture _also_ will be finished in a few weeks, and will
+    be a great credit to him; I only wish he had a prospect of
+    selling it, but at present the sale of pictures is stagnant,
+    especially in Piedmont, where the art-loving Queen-Mother has
+    died. He will have to fight hard against the gigantic pedantry
+    of the Turin Academy and College of Painters (_Malfacult�t_),
+    for he paints things exactly as he sees them in nature; God be
+    with him! Of course, he sends you heartfelt greetings. Of
+    other artistic doings in Rome I cannot tell you much; I think
+    I have already told you that I look upon Rome as the grave of
+    art; for a young artist, I mean, for whom actively suggestive
+    surroundings are necessary. As regards the so-called German
+    historical art, that is not much of a joke to me; when men,
+    out of pure impotence, throw themselves under the shield of
+    noble tendencies, in order to make mistaken efforts to imitate
+    the work of other painters, they are simply ridiculous; but
+    when men are endowed with fine natural gifts, and nevertheless
+    out of sheer queerness and pedantry go altogether astray, then
+    I only feel angry. God forgive me if I am intolerant, but
+    according to my view an artist must produce his art out of his
+    own heart; or he is none.
+
+    Dear Master, I may perhaps pass through Frankfurt on my way
+    back (in June); I should like beyond all things to see you
+    again, you and your works that are so dear to me. Have you
+    painted the "Death of Christ" which pleased me so much? Write
+    to me if you have time, and tell me how things go with you.
+    Keep a friendly recollection of your grateful, affectionate
+    pupil,
+
+                                                  FRED. LEIGHTON.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                               FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
+                                                _March 20, 1855_.
+
+    DEAR FRIEND,--My best thanks for your dear lines of the 1st
+    and for the photographs, with which you afforded me the
+    greatest pleasure. I had an idea that I should receive this
+    friendly remembrance, and I hope that you have meanwhile
+    received my letter of the 3rd March. I know the difference in
+    a photograph of a painting, and the often quite contrary
+    effect of the yellow and red, too well to be deceived by a
+    dark impression; the masses, their distribution, alike in the
+    groups and in the light and shade, the outline of the
+    background, most of the single figures, all please me very
+    well, and you could not believe how much I rejoice in every
+    detail in which I recognise my Leighton, and when I see how
+    all these have been achieved so thoroughly by industrious
+    study and artistic culture. You have indeed prepared a real
+    feast for me, my good wishes in my last letter were quite the
+    right ones, and the recognition which you have obtained in
+    Rome was certainly well earned. I am convinced that Overbeck
+    was heartily pleased with your pictures. It was perhaps my
+    imagination, dear friend, when I thought from your letter that
+    there was a slight cloud between us, but I think it will be
+    torn away when these lines reach you. The fond idea of being
+    again able to share your life and artistic work, I must
+    relinquish, for I am an exile, and besides cannot make myself
+    familiar with your progress as an artist in the Fatherland.
+    Shall, then, your stay in Italy be ended by the journey which
+    you led me to hope would bring you to see me again? But I
+    forget so easily that we live in a world of renunciations, and
+    that often when we believe we are disposing, we are disposed.
+    My spirit and my love will always, wherever you may be, be
+    with you. It occurred to me that probably our excellent Gamba
+    would not send his great picture to Paris, and yet I seem to
+    have heard that he intended doing so; it appears to me that
+    exhibition in Paris would give the picture more importance
+    than in Turin; that Gamba would triumph over the academic
+    formalities in Turin, I do not doubt in the least. His
+    grandmother and all his friends await him here; on a journey
+    to Paris?--Now, dear friend, one more request. Ihl�e brought
+    from Rome some photographic views, with which I and the
+    friends who know Rome are truly delighted; the worthy Frau
+    Rath Schlosser wishes very much to possess a selection of
+    twelve, I myself would like to have at least three, will you
+    be so good as to bring them with you in June, and also
+    yourself take the trouble to make a really beautiful
+    selection? You will oblige me thereby very greatly. I shall
+    rejoice excessively to see you again, and wish much that your
+    stay in Frankfurt need not be so short. Remember me cordially
+    to Gamba, and give my kindest regards to Altmeister Cornelius.
+    My wife thanks you for your kind remembrance, and sends many
+    greetings. All friends here have bidden me send their best
+    wishes to you and Gamba. Adieu, dear friend, always and
+    altogether yours,
+
+                                                    EDW. STEINLE.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                          ROME, _April 15, 1855_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Only a day or two after I sent off my
+    letter with the photograph, I received your dear lines, and
+    now I have also the letter in which you acknowledge receipt of
+    mine, so that I am well off for news of you. All the affection
+    and kind sympathy which you express for me has affected me
+    deeply, and I look forward with sincere pleasure to the moment
+    when I shall be able personally to express my gratitude to
+    you; I am also most eager to see the drawings of the
+    completion of which you tell me; judging by the sketches, I
+    expect great things from this composition, so rich in
+    imagination; I saw the first beginnings of it. That you are
+    pleased with my photograph rejoices me extremely, but I am
+    sorry that you have not mingled some blame with the praise;
+    you say that _most_ of my figures please you well; ergo, some
+    of them do not; which are they? why not tell me all? do you no
+    longer regard me as your pupil? From one part of your letter I
+    understand that you think I have had a great deal of
+    intercourse with good old Overbeck; that is not so; he and his
+    followers one does not see at all unless one belongs to their
+    clique; Overbeck has never been within my four walls.
+    Cornelius I see less seldom, but not very often; he is a very
+    charming old man, so cheerful and friendly, and is of great
+    strength; for the rest, he has some little queernesses; he
+    said to me once, "Yes, Nature has also her style" (!). Does
+    that not bespeak a curious mental development?
+
+    Gamba will not, as it happens, send his picture to Paris, it
+    was not ready in time; meantime, it is being exhibited here in
+    the Piazza del Popolo, and receives the applause it merits; he
+    sends you most cordial greeting.
+
+    Yes, indeed, the years of my "Italian Journey" are now ended!
+    It seems but yesterday that we first took leave of one
+    another, and you encouraged me upon my setting forth; the
+    remembrance makes me sad at heart; I cannot help asking myself
+    whether my expectations for these three years have been
+    fulfilled: and the question remains unanswered.
+
+    My stay in Italy will always remain a charming memory to me; a
+    beautiful, irrecoverable time; the young, careless,
+    independent time! I have also made some friends here who will
+    always be dear to me, and to whom I particularly attribute my
+    attachment to Rome.
+
+    From an artistic point of view I am quite glad to leave Rome,
+    which I, _for a beginner_, regard as the grave of art. A young
+    man needs before all things the emulation of his
+    contemporaries; this I lack here in the highest degree; also
+    here I cannot learn my _trade_, and, notwithstanding
+    Cornelius, I am of opinion that the spirit cannot work
+    effectively until the hand has attained complete pliancy, and
+    I cannot see what right a painter has to evade the
+    difficulties of painting; Cornelius always says, "Take care
+    that the hand does not become master of the spirit," and that
+    sounds well enough; however, I see that, in consequence of his
+    scheme of development, he has not once succeeded in painting a
+    head reasonably, not once in modelling as the _form_ requires;
+    and that, with all his magnificent talent! Judge the tree by
+    the fruit. How are the frescoes of Raphael painted and
+    modelled? and the Sixtine Chapel! the lower part of the "Day
+    of Judgment" is in a high degree _colouristic_
+    (_Koloristisch_). _Those_ people took nature straight from
+    God, and were not ashamed; therefore their art was no
+    galvanised mummy.
+
+    I must close. Please remember me most kindly to your wife, and
+    to my other friends. For yourself, keep in remembrance, your
+    grateful and affectionate pupil,
+
+                                                  FRED. LEIGHTON.
+
+Steinle answers:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                FRANKFURT AM MAIN, _May 6, 1855_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Hearty thanks for your friendly note of
+    April. The photograph of your picture quite pleases me as it
+    is, and if I am particularly pleased with the details, that is
+    to cast no discredit on the whole; for a general criticism the
+    photograph does not give me sufficient certainty, and I must
+    content myself, this time, with expressing the pleasure your
+    always well-composed pictures give me. You know your picture,
+    and can see more in the photograph than I. What you say about
+    Overbeck, Cornelius, and Rome, I understand well, and I am in
+    sympathy with much of it; but I am almost beginning to fear
+    you, especially as I particularly feel how much I myself am
+    wanting in ground-work, how much I myself belong to the same
+    evolution as these two men. Custom, circumstances, and the
+    tendencies of the times, are often mitigating facts in our
+    judgment of these painters; they have fought against things of
+    which we no longer know anything, and, as participators in
+    their art, we stand, to a certain extent, shoulder to shoulder
+    with them; their delicacies are proofs of their struggle, and
+    the characteristic of youth becomes in old age principally a
+    sign of weakness. Also experience has taught me not to let
+    myself be deceived by what is called "cliquiness," I grant you
+    that this is not an infallible judgment, which is often to be
+    regretted, but people nowadays are weak, and I have found that
+    cliques often have a greater tendency for good than those
+    judgments which make more noise, a greater outcry than the
+    fact warrants. Overbeck has always withdrawn himself too much;
+    but now, dear friend, you must attack him on the subject
+    before you leave Rome. Kindest regards to Gamba, to whom I
+    wish a happy completion of his picture. My wife sends best
+    greetings. Always and altogether yours,
+
+                                                    EDW. STEINLE.
+
+We have read in Leighton's letters the effect the "Cimabue's Madonna"
+produced on his friends in Rome, and how it was nailed up as "in a
+coffin" and despatched from the Eternal City, where it was destined
+never to return.
+
+    [Illustration: "CIMABUE'S 'MADONNA' CARRIED IN PROCESSION
+    THROUGH THE STREETS OF FLORENCE." 1855
+    By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+There exists a small long envelope edged with black, stained horny
+yellow by time, the head of Queen Victoria on the postage stamp. It
+was despatched from England to Rome over fifty years ago. In the
+ardent spirit of the young artist who had been eagerly awaiting
+tidings of his first great venture, what a tumult of excitement must
+the contents of that small envelope have aroused! They brought with
+them a conclusive and triumphal end to all arguments with his father
+concerning the career Leighton had chosen; they realised the sanguine
+hopes of his beloved master, Steinle, and of his other friends; last
+not least, they gave him the means and the great happiness of helping
+his fellow-artists. To quote again from the record of one who was with
+him in Rome at the time: "My husband[35] remembers the departure of
+his picture 'The Triumph of Cimabue,' sent with diffidence, and so,
+proportionate was the joy when news came of its success, and that the
+Queen had bought it. It was the month of May. Rome was at its
+loveliest, and Leighton's friends and brother-artists gave him a
+festal dinner to celebrate his honours. On receiving the news,
+Leighton's first act was to fly to three less successful artists and
+buy a picture from each of them. (George Mason, then still unknown,
+was one.) And so Leighton reflected his own happiness at once on
+others."
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                            ROME, 123 VIA FELICE,
+                                                  _May 18, 1855_.
+
+    DEAR AND HONOURED FRIEND,--As with everything that I receive
+    from you, I was delighted to get your dear lines of the 6th;
+    one thing only in them grieved me a little, _i.e._ that what I
+    said about the German historical painters here seems to have
+    rather jarred upon you. Was I then so intolerant in my
+    expressions? I hope not. You say that you are almost afraid of
+    me. When I spoke to you so freely of the others, was that not
+    a plain proof of how completely I except you? You assuredly
+    know, dear Master, how and what I think of you, and that I
+    ascribe entirely to you my whole �sthetic culture in art. Your
+    commission to good old Overbeck I have executed as well as I
+    could. I found him much more cheerful and less ailing than
+    before. He received me with the greatest amiability; we spoke,
+    amongst other things, of you, and I perceived that he had it
+    in his mind to go soon to Germany and to spend a couple of
+    weeks in Mainz; I should like to be the first to give you this
+    good news.
+
+    As for myself, dear Friend, my plans are once more quite
+    upset. My father has hastily recalled me to England, and I am
+    sorry to say that I must consequently give up going to
+    Frankfurt. However, I have not neglected your commission. I
+    have chosen the photographs, and you will receive them in the
+    beginning of next month, and that by a friend of mine who will
+    be passing through Frankfurt, and whom I hereby introduce to
+    you. Mrs. Sartoris is my dearest friend, and the noblest,
+    cleverest woman I have ever met; I need not say more to secure
+    her a cordial welcome from you. She is one of the celebrated
+    theatrical family of Kemble. It is now ten or eleven years
+    since she left the stage, but she is still the greatest living
+    cantatrice.[36]
+
+    You will certainly be glad to hear that on the first day of
+    the Exhibition my picture was bought by the Queen.
+
+    I am at this moment in the thick of packing; you must excuse,
+    dear Friend, my ending so abruptly. I will write again from
+    England.--Your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    [Illustration: Reproduction of Letter written by Sir Charles
+    Eastlake, P.R.A., to Lord Leighton, announcing the fact that
+    Queen Victoria had purchased his picture, "Cimabue's Madonna."
+    1855.]
+
+So ended the first page of Leighton's life as an artist in the Rome of
+the fifties--a very different Rome to that of the present. The
+atmosphere was still steeped in those days with a flavour belonging to
+the Papal temporal dominion, and the visible life still picturesque
+with the costumes and grandeur of medi�val customs.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[20] See page 83.
+
+[21] Page 97.
+
+[22] Page 26, "Introduction."
+
+[23] "If the Almighty were to come before me, with absolute knowledge
+in his right hand, and perpetual striving after truth in his left, I
+would fling myself to his left, praying: Father, give! pure truth is
+thine alone."
+
+[24] "The Well-Head" (see List of Illustrations), drawn during
+Leighton's visit to Venice, and described in "Pebbles," more than
+justifies this opinion, for it may be questioned whether any other
+drawing he ever made of the kind is as perfectly beautiful.
+
+[25] Miss Laing, afterwards Lady Nias.
+
+[26] See Appendix. Presidential Address delivered by Sir F. Leighton,
+Bart., P.R.A., at the Art Congress, held at Liverpool, December 3,
+1888.
+
+[27] This modest attitude Leighton took as listener reminds me of the
+last time he saw Browning. One afternoon in the autumn of 1888, we were
+sitting with Leighton and Browning in the Kensington studio. Browning
+showed us photographs of the Palazzo Rezzonico which he had lately
+given to his son. The subject turned to a discussion on Byron and
+Shelley. Often as I had heard Browning talk well, I never heard him
+converse so well as he did on that afternoon. It was no monologue. It
+was real conversation, and of the kind that inspires others to do also
+their best; but Leighton never uttered, till--when, after an hour or
+so, we rose to leave--he exclaimed, "Oh, don't! _do_ go on," and we had
+to sit down again. When at last the good thing came to an end, Leighton
+conducted us downstairs to his door, where we parted. Browning waved a
+farewell from across the road, where he stood for a moment in front of
+the little cottages, while Leighton stood in the porch-way of his
+house. The next day Browning started on his last journey to Italy--to
+die in the Palazzo Rezzonico.
+
+[28] Another old friend of Leighton's, Mr. Hamilton A�d�, writes: "My
+journal 1854-55-56 contains frequent notices of our excursions and long
+days spent on the Campagna, and on the hill-sides near the Bagni di
+Lucca, where we took out food for mind and will as well as for the
+body, and sketched while one of our party read aloud--and also of many
+Tableaux at Rome, devised by him (Leighton) to suit the colouring,
+character, and grace of certain noble ladies."
+
+[29] It appears that Leighton had been misinformed as to "every girl"
+having to pass such an examination.
+
+[30] In Italien auf meiner Wanderschaft
+     Hab' ich dies B�blein aufgerafft
+     Hab's mit dem Pinsel so hingeschrieben
+     Ist mir leider unvollendet geblieben.
+
+[31] The Caf� Greco still exists, unaltered since the days when
+Leighton and Gamba lunched there every day on _macaroni al burro_. I
+visited it last May (1906), and heard from the present proprietor that
+it continues to be frequented by artists of all countries. He had heard
+of the book of sketches, and also that Rafaello had sold it before his
+death, but to whom the _Padrone_ could not say.
+
+[32] Of Cervara there is a pencil drawing by Leighton in the Leighton
+House Collection, in his earliest style, dated 1856.
+
+[33] Fanny Kemble's answer to these words of Leighton's were:--"Thank
+you, my dear Sir Frederic, for the address you have been so good as to
+give me. You honour me by remembering any conversation you ever had
+with me. I remember one I had with you many years ago, but do not think
+you refer to that. You say no word, and you do well, upon the subject
+that must be uppermost in both our minds when we meet or hold any
+intercourse with each other--our thoughts must be of the same
+complexion and could hardly find any expression. Thank you again for
+your kindness.--I am affectionately, your obliged,
+
+                                                   FANNY KEMBLE."
+
+[34] Ruskin wrote the following criticism of the picture when it was
+first exhibited: "This is a very important and very beautiful picture.
+It has both sincerity and grace, and is painted on the purest
+principles of Venetian art--that is to say, on the calm acceptance of
+the whole of nature, small and great, as, in its place, deserving of
+faithful rendering. The great secret of the Venetians was their
+simplicity. They were great colourists, not because they had peculiar
+secrets about oil and colour, but because when they saw a thing red
+they painted it red, and ... when they saw it distinctly they painted
+it distinctly. In all Paul Veronese's pictures the lace borders of the
+tablecloths or fringes of the dresses are painted with just as much
+care as the faces of the principal figures; and the reader may rest
+assured that in all great Art it is so. Everything in it is done as
+well as it can be done. Thus, in the picture before us, in the
+background is the Church of San Miniato, strictly accurate in every
+detail; on top of the wall are oleanders and pinks, as carefully
+painted as the church; the architecture of the shrine on the wall is
+studied from thirteenth-century Gothic, and painted with as much care
+as the pinks; the dresses of the figures, very beautifully designed,
+are painted with as much care as the faces; that is to say, all things
+throughout with as much care as the painter could bestow. It
+necessarily follows that what is most difficult (_i.e._ the faces)
+should be comparatively the worst done. But if they are done as well as
+the painter could do them, it is all we have to ask, and modern artists
+are under a wonderful mistake in thinking that when they have painted
+faces ill, they make their pictures more valuable by painting the
+dresses worse.
+
+"The painting before us has been objected to because it seems broken up
+in bits. Precisely the same objection would hold, and in very nearly
+the same degree, against the best works of the Venetians. All faithful
+colourists' work, in figure-painting, has a look of sharp separation
+between part and part.... Although, however, in common with all other
+work of its class, it is marked by these sharp divisions, there is no
+confusion in its arrangement. The principal figure is nobly principal,
+not by extraordinary light, but by its own pure whiteness; and both the
+master and the young Giotto attract full regard by distinction of form
+and face. The features of the boy are carefully studied, and are indeed
+what, from the existing portraits of him, we know those of Giotto must
+have been in his youth. The head of the young girl who wears the
+garland of blue flowers is also very sweetly conceived."
+
+D.G. Rossetti wrote to his friend, William Allingham, May 11, 1855:
+"There is a big picture of Cimabue, one of his works in procession, by
+a new man, living abroad, named Leighton--a huge thing, which the Queen
+has bought; which every one talks of. The R.A.'s have been gasping for
+years for some one to back against Hunt and Millais, and here they have
+him, a fact that makes some people do the picture injustice in return.
+It was very interesting to me at first sight; but on looking more at
+it, I think there is great richness of arrangement, a quality which,
+when really existing, as it does in the best old masters, and perhaps
+hitherto in no living man--at any rate English--ranks among the great
+qualities."
+
+[35] Sir John Leslie.
+
+[36] Mrs. Richmond Ritchie gives a very charming account of her first
+introduction in the Rome of those days to Leighton's friend, the great
+_cantatrice_, Mrs. Sartoris, in the preface to the edition of "A Week
+in a French Country House," published in 1902. Thackeray, Mrs.
+Ritchie's father, and Charles Kemble, Mrs. Sartoris' father, had been
+old friends. Mrs. Ritchie says: "The writer's first definite picture of
+her old friend (Mrs. Sartoris) remains as a sort of frontispiece to
+many aspects and remembrances. We were all standing in a big Roman
+drawing-room with a great window to the west, and the colours of the
+room were not unlike sunset colours. There was a long piano with a bowl
+of flowers on it in the centre of the room; there were soft carpets to
+tread upon; a beautiful little boy in a white dress, with yellow locks
+all a-shine from the light of the window, was perched upon a low chair
+looking up at his mother, who with her arm round him stood by the
+chair, so that their two heads were on a level. She was dressed (I can
+see her still) in a sort of grey satin robe, and her beautiful proud
+head was turned towards the child. She seemed pleased to see my father,
+who had brought us to be introduced to her, and she made us welcome,
+then, and all that winter, to her home. In that distant, vivid hour
+(there may be others as vivid now for a new generation) Rome was still
+a medi�val city--monks in every shade of black and grey and brown were
+in the streets outside with their sandalled feet flapping on the
+pavement; cardinals passed in their great pantomime coaches, rolling on
+with accompaniment of shabby cocked-hats and liveries to clear a way;
+Americans were rare and much made of; English were paramount; at night
+oil-lamps swung in the darkness. Many of the ruins of the present were
+still in their graves peacefully hidden away for another generation to
+unearth; the new buildings, the streets, the gas lamps, the tramways
+were not. The Sartorises had fireplaces with huge logs burning; Mrs.
+Browning sat by her smouldering wood fire; but we in our lodging still
+had to light brazen pans of charcoal to warm ourselves if we shivered.
+At my request an old friend, who for our good fortune has kept a diary,
+opens one of his pretty vellum-bound note-books, and evokes an hour of
+those old Italian times from the summer following that Roman winter. He
+tells of a peaceful Sunday at Lucca, a place of which I have often
+heard Mrs. Sartoris speak with pleasure; Leighton and Hatty Hosmer and
+Hamilton Aid� himself are there; they are all sitting peacefully
+together on some high terrace with a distant view of the spreading
+plains, while Mrs. Sartoris reads to them out of one of her favourite
+Dr. Channing's sermons. Another page tells of a party at Ostia. 'Very
+pleasant we made ourselves in a pine wood,' says the diarist; 'I walked
+by A.S.'s _chaise-�-porteur_ up the hills later in the evening. She
+talked of her past life and all its trials, and of her early youth.'
+Mrs. Ritchie in her preface also tells of this 'past life.'
+
+"The Rue de Clichy of which he (Thackeray) speaks was the street in
+which Miss Foster lived, under whose care both Fanny and Adelaide
+Kemble were placed, when they successively went to Paris. Then each in
+turn came out and made her mark, and each in turn married and left the
+stage for that world in which real tragedies and real comedies are
+still happening, and where men and women play their own parts
+instinctively and sing their own songs. Adelaide's short artistic
+career lasted from 1835 to 1842, long enough to impress all the
+subsequent years of her life. With all the welcoming success which was
+hers, there must have been many a moment of disillusion,
+discouragement, and suffering for a girl so original, so aristocratic
+in instinct, so quick of perception, so individual, '_De la boh�me
+exquise_,' as some great lady once described her. The following page
+out of one of her early diaries gives a vivid picture of one side of
+her artistic life: '...Received an intimation that the company who are
+to act with me had arrived at Trieste, and would be here at eleven to
+rehearse the music. At twelve came Signor Carcano (the director of the
+music), and a dirty-looking little object, who turned out to be the
+prompter. After they had sat some time wondering what detained the
+rest, a little fusty woman, with a grey-coloured white petticoat
+dangling three inches below her gown, holding a thin shivering dog by a
+dirty pocket-handkerchief, and followed by a tall slip of a man, with
+his hair all down his back, and decorated with whiskers, beard, and
+mustachios, made her appearance. I advanced to welcome my Adalgisa, but
+without making any attempt at a return of my salutation, she glanced
+all round the room and merely said, "Come fa caldo qui! Non c'� nessuno
+ancora? Andiamo a prendere un caff�," and taking the arm of the hairy
+man retreated forthwith. Then came Signor Gallo, leader of the band,
+then the tenor, who could have gained the prize for unwashedness
+against 'em all--and after half-an-hour more waiting, Adalgisa and the
+hairy one returned, and after about half-an-hour more arrived my bass,
+and, God bless him, he came clean!
+
+"'We then went to work. Adalgisa could think of nothing but her dog, who
+kept up a continuous plaintive howl all the time we sang, which she
+assured me was because it liked the band accompaniment better than the
+piano, as it never made signs of disapprobation when she took it to
+rehearsals with the orchestra. She also informed me that it had five
+puppies, all of which it had nursed itself, as if Italian dogs were in
+the habit of hiring out wet nurses....'" And again--
+
+"I can remember her describing to us one of these performances, and her
+enjoyment of the long folds of drapery as she flew across the stage as
+Norma and how she added with a sudden flash, half humour, half
+enthusiasm: 'I have everything a woman could wish for, my friends and
+my home, my husband and my children, and yet sometimes a wild longing
+comes over me to be back, if only for one hour, on the stage again, and
+living once more as I did in those early adventurous times.' She was
+standing in a beautiful room in Park Place when she said this. There
+were high carved cabinets, and worked silken tapestries on the walls,
+and a great golden carved glass over her head--she herself in some
+velvet brocaded dress stood looking not unlike a picture by Tintoret."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+PENCIL DRAWINGS OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS
+
+1850-1860
+
+
+No attempt at an appreciation of Leighton's art would be complete were
+it not to include, and even accentuate, the distinct value of the
+exquisite drawings of flowers and leaves which he made in pencil and
+silver point between the years 1852 and 1860.[37] As regards certain
+all-important qualities these studies are unrivalled. I was well
+acquainted with the drawings Leighton made for his pictures during the
+last twenty-five years of his life, and I had oftentimes heard Watts
+express an unbounded admiration for these; but when, looking through
+the portfolios of early drawings after Leighton's death, I came upon
+these exquisite fragments in pencil, it seemed that I had found for
+the first time the real key to the inner chamber of his genius. As
+reproductions of the beauty in line, form, and structure--the
+architecture, so to speak, of vegetation--nothing ever came closer to
+Nature revealed by a human touch through a treatment on a flat
+surface.
+
+On December 22, 1852, Leighton writes to his mother from Rome: "I long
+to find myself again face to face with Nature, to follow it, to watch
+it, and to copy it, closely, faithfully, ingenuously--as Ruskin
+suggests, 'choosing nothing and rejecting nothing,'" and it is in this
+spirit that he set to work when he filled sketch-books with exquisite
+studies of the flowers and plants he loved best. These records of the
+joy with which Nature filled his artistic temperament are to some more
+truly sympathetic than his elaborate work, for the reason that, while
+enjoying their beauty, we come in contact with the pure spirit of
+Leighton's genius unalloyed by any sense of intellectual effort. In
+his diary, "Pebbles," on August 21, 1852, Leighton writes: "Of the
+Tyrolese themselves, three qualities seem to me to characterise them,
+qualities which go well hand in hand with, and, I think it is not
+fanciful to say, are in great measure a key to, their well-known
+frankness and open-hearted honesty. I mean Piety, which shines out
+amongst them in many true things, a love for the art, which with them
+is, in fact, an outward manifestation of piety, and which is
+sufficiently displayed by the numberless scriptural subjects, painted
+or in relief, which adorn the cottages of the poorest peasants ... and
+last, not least, a love for flowers (in other words, for Nature),
+which is written in the lovely clusters of flowers which stand in
+many-hued array on the window-sills of every dwelling. The works of
+all the really great artists display that love for flowers. Raphael
+did not consider it "niggling," as some of our broad-handling moderns
+would call it, to group humble daisies round the feet of his divine
+representation of the Mother of Christ. I notice that _two plants_,
+especially, produce a beautiful effect, both of form and colour,
+against the cool grey walls; the spreading, dropping, graceful
+_carnation_, with its bluish leaves and crimson flowers, and the
+slender, anthered, thousand-blossomed _oleander_." No exact name has
+ever been given to the special creed of the artist's religion; to that
+condition of the soul which Socrates in Plato's _Ph�drus_ declares has
+come to the birth as having seen most of truth together with that of
+the Philosopher, the Musician, and the Lover. The artist penetrates
+further than others can, into the mysteries of Nature's marvels as
+revealed through the eye, and he therefore comes in closer union
+through the sense of sight with the spirit of the artist of the
+infinite, and can gauge better the immeasurable distance which exists
+between Divine and human creation, and this is felt more distinctly,
+more reverently, when the artist simply copies Nature than when his
+own d�mon is taking a part in the inspiring of his inventions.
+
+Leighton writes to his mother when he first reaches Rome in 1852: "I
+wish that I had a mind, simple and unconscious, even as a child"; and
+we find the evidence in these studies by Leighton of plants and
+flowers that his wish, for the time when he was drawing them, was
+granted; no intellectual choice nor assumption of scholarly theories
+have taken part in their achievement; they are spontaneous echoes of
+Divine creations when he was "face to face with Nature," and there is
+no reflection of any teaching but hers. Nature and her child have been
+alone together. The results are unalloyed expressions of the joy he
+felt in pure impersonal revelations of beauty. They are distinguished
+because elemental, recording the birth of the ingenuous response of a
+human spirit to a superhuman perfection of workmanship. When in such
+union of spirit with Nature, the artist-soul enters his most sacred
+shrine. An ecstatic joy is kindled by wonder, admiration, adoration,
+from which joy is inspired a peremptory impulse to endeavour to
+reproduce in his human handicraft the marvels of creation. Such
+experiences result from instinctive inevitable conditions, and, coming
+from the illumination of genius, belong to a higher level than that on
+which the intellect works;[38] no temptations of the personal d�mon
+simmer behind and distort the pure vision of Nature, provoking
+suggestions which are human of the human--the desire to excel, the
+ambition to be first, the love to display individuality. That inner
+life, the very core and most vital meaning of Leighton's being, the
+life that held revelry with all Nature's beauty, had been enraptured
+through the pure innocent loveliness in the flowers. Take, for
+instance, the page where he has _explained_ the cyclamen he found at
+Tivoli in October 1856, and take a cyclamen, the real flower, and
+dissect it. What precious work we find: the ribbed calyx spreading out
+from the satin sheen of the stalk to clasp the bulbous swelling at the
+root of the petals--brilliant like finest blown glass, each calyx
+fringed round with emerald green flutings--inside straw colour dashed
+with brown speckles, all this triumph of minute finish just to start
+the sail-like petals of the flower itself. What reverence and
+enthusiasm was excited in Leighton as he pored over such things is
+vouched for by this page (and others similar of different flowers),
+exquisite portraits of every view of the cyclamen; faint notes in
+writing recording the colours which his pencil failed to do.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDIES OF CYCLAMEN. Tivoli, October 1856
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: WREATH OF BAY LEAVES.
+    Drawn at the Bagni di Lucca, 1854. Leighton House Collection]
+
+Referring to his journey through the Tyrol, in 1852, Leighton writes:
+"I had been dwelling with unwearied admiration on the exquisite grace
+and beauty of the details, as it were, of Nature; every little flower
+of the field had become to me a new source of delight; the very blades
+of grass appeared to me in a new light."
+
+Not only his artistic temperament, but also circumstances, had guided
+Leighton's instincts into the worship of beauty--beauty such as can be
+conceived alone by the artistic temperament--as the divinest element
+in creation and one to be reverenced beyond all others; and when "face
+to face" with Nature, having no desire but to record that reverence
+and worship "ingenuously," he made these incomparable drawings. They
+were done solely for the sake of the joy he felt in doing them, and
+Leighton certainly never expected any recognition of their beauty by a
+future generation. Stray leaves from a sketch-book have been collected
+and preserved in the Leighton House Collection, having been extracted
+from a mass of old dusty papers. On these pages are exquisite
+pencilled outlines of cyclamen, of a crocus, of oleander flowers, of a
+bramble branch, of sprays of bay and of plants of the agaves. They are
+dated the year after Leighton's great success, 1856, the year of his
+failure. In 1854, when he spent the summer at the Bagni di Lucca, he
+drew studies of bay-leaves twined into a wreath and festoons of the
+vine (see List of Illustrations and design on cover). Three days after
+Leighton's death, in a letter to _The Times_ from one who knew him, a
+reference was made to this visit to Lucca.[39] This old acquaintance,
+who was then seeing him daily for three months, writes, "He was the
+most brilliant man I ever met." It was this brilliant entity, this
+attractive personality, who spent hours over drawing the flower of a
+pumpkin and of a "_faded pumpkin_." Professor Aitchison records how he
+found Leighton at work over this drawing.[40] The celebrated "Lemon
+Tree," to which Professor Aitchison refers, and of which Ruskin also
+writes,[41] though the most renowned of Leighton's drawings of plants,
+and doubtless a _tour de force_,--a wonderful achievement,--has not, I
+think, the same perfection of charm which many of the earlier, less
+complete studies possess.[42] The sketch of a portion of a deciduous
+tree[43] is perhaps a greater triumph in draughtsmanship than even the
+"Lemon Tree," because the foliage has a frailer and less definite
+aspect, and is yet reproduced with an absolute certainty of outline.
+The "Lemon Tree," drawn at Capri in 1859, was done for a purpose.
+Leighton had a feeling that the pre-Raphaelites ought not to have it
+all their own way on the score of elaborate finish and perfection in
+the drawing of detail. My first introduction to the "Lemon Tree" was
+on an occasion when Leighton and I had had an argument respecting the
+principles of the pre-Raphaelite school. He fetched the drawing from a
+corner in his studio, and, while showing it to me, said words to the
+effect that it was not only the pre-Raphaelites who reverenced the
+detail in Nature, and who thought it worth the time and labour it took
+to record the beauty in the wonderful minuti� of her structure. If
+sufficient pains were taken, any one, he maintained, who could draw at
+all ought to be able to draw the complete detail of every object set
+before him. But, for the very reason that the "Lemon Tree" was done
+with a further purpose than the mere joy the beauty of Nature excited
+in Leighton's �sthetic senses, there is not, I think, quite the same
+convincing charm in this drawing as in some other more fragmentary
+studies.
+
+In considering this early work by Leighton, it should be borne in
+mind, that in those years when it was executed, photography had not
+yet given the standard of a finish and perfection in actual
+delineation which outrivals every record made by human hand and eye.
+Photography has, in these later years, given the proportion and detail
+in beautiful architecture, the form of trees, plants, and flowers,
+their exquisite delicacy of structure, their grace and intricacy of
+line: all this has been secured and pictured for us by the camera;
+and, up to a certain point, very precious and truthful are these
+memoranda of the aspects of nature and art. Many of us remember the
+days when enthusiastic disciples of the wonderful new art of
+photography prophesied that no other would soon be needed, and that
+the draughtsman's craft would before long cease to exist. And further,
+they maintained it only required the discovery of a means to
+photograph colour for the painter's art also to be demolished.
+Artists, however, knew better. What was valuable in the records of
+photography, and what was of most intrinsic worth in the records
+created through means of the human hand and eye, were absolutely
+incomparable quantities. The treatment of nature in a photographic
+picture, however admirable and complete, must always be lacking in the
+evidence of any preference, reverence, or enthusiasm--in the sacred
+fire, in fact, which inspires the draughtsman's pencil and the
+painter's brush. Photography is indiscriminate; human art is
+selective, and is precious as it evinces and secures a choiceness in
+selection. However truthfully a photograph may record beauty of line
+and form in nature, it inevitably also records in its want of
+discrimination any facts which may exist in the view photographed;
+these counter-balance the effect of such beauty, and mar the subtle
+impression of charm which scenes in nature produce on a mind sensitive
+to beauty.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF LEMON TREE. Capri, 1859
+    By permission of Mr. S. Pepys Cockerell]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF DECIDUOUS TREE.
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+As the vision of the artist which attracts this feeling for beauty
+focalises itself in the sight, he naturally perceives but vaguely any
+other objects before him; therefore, the facts inspired by such
+preference become accentuated, and all their surroundings subordinated
+to it. For this reason, also, what is called, somewhat erroneously,
+the sculptor's sense of line and form--the sense applying equally to
+the treatment of line and form on a flat surface as in the round--is
+not so obvious in a photograph as in a good drawing. The eye of one
+possessing a gift for drawing transmits to the brain the structure of
+an object, not only as it is outlined against other objects, but also
+as the different planes of which it is formed recede or advance, slant
+one way or another, curve or straighten. To a truly gifted
+draughtsman, such as Leighton, there is an absorbing interest in
+working out the forms of the objects he sees which delight his sense
+of beauty,--of guiding his pencil so that it echoes on the paper the
+gratification with which his senses are inspired through his artistic
+perceptions. The result will be--that the drawing he produces almost
+unconsciously accentuates what has delighted him most in the objects
+he is depicting, and, explaining further than does even an actual copy
+by photography the element of beauty which has inspired him, carries
+with it also an inspiring effect on the spectator: the drawing will
+have something in it which affects us as a living influence, an
+influence which the most perfect of photographs can never possess. The
+actual perspective may be absolutely correct in the photograph--so may
+be the placing on the paper of every turn and twist in a bough or a
+leaf as regards their outlines; but compared to a beautiful drawing we
+feel the want of mind behind it: no human sense has revelled in the
+intricacies of growth and foreshortening, no human eye has traced the
+exquisite grace and sweep of the curve and the happy spring of the
+shoot alive with uprising sap. Just that accentuation which
+unwittingly creeps into the human touch, denoting that the
+construction of the form has been perceived and appreciated with
+delight, is lacking. The line of a pathway rising up on the sweep of
+an upland, a line which is always so fascinatingly suggestive, does
+not lead you farther over the hill in a photograph as it does in a
+little woodcut by William Blake. Just that push and movement is
+wanting in the sense of the line which in a really fine drawing gives
+it a living quality. Another shortcoming is caused by the inevitable
+flattening of tone in a photograph. The brightest light does not
+detach itself, the darkest spot, to some degree always, even in the
+best print, is merged in the general shadow.
+
+    [Illustration: EARLY STUDIES OF KALMIA, OLEANDER, AND
+    RHODODENDRON FLOWERS
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+The idea that photography could supersede the art of the draughtsman
+soon exploded. Artists have used photography--some intelligently, as
+did Watts--many unintelligently. The illegitimate use of photography,
+the endeavour to make the lens do the work which alone the human eye
+and hand can effect, was seen in lifeless portraits, painted partly
+from the sitter, partly from a photograph. It is natural that any
+genuine artist should rebel against such cheapening of his art; and
+the deadening effects of relying on photography "to help you out" have
+brought about the result that the qualities in art which are furthest
+removed from those which it has in common with photography have been
+forced to the front, and the grammar of drawing, the groundwork of
+nature's structures which the human hand and the photographic lens can
+both record, has ceased to be considered as all-important. In
+Leighton's work this grammar was in itself developed into a fine art.
+By comparing any sketch he made of a leaf or of a flower with a
+photograph of the same, this will be evident to any eye that can
+appreciate grace and quality in drawing.
+
+The latest phase of using photography to help out the drawing is found
+in some modern illustrations where the lens has found the outline, the
+right placing of the scene on the paper, the right proportion and
+perspective in buildings, and the general light and shade of the scene
+for the illustrator--the human hand only coming in to give breadth of
+effect, to undo the tell-tale finish of the photograph, and to make it
+into what is called "a picture" on the lines of a Turner or a
+Whistler.
+
+All these were unknown ways in Leighton's youth, and to the end of his
+life he could make no use whatever of photography in his work. He took
+a kodak with him once on his travels, but the results were amusingly
+negative. "From the moment an artist relies on photography he does no
+good," was a statement I heard him make. Leighton believed in no short
+cuts. Enthusiasm, labour, sacrifice, renouncement,--these, and these
+alone, he maintained, can secure for the artist a worthy success.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF A FADED FLOWER OF PUMPKIN. Rome, 1854
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF FLOWER OF A PUMPKIN. Meran, 1856
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDIES OF BRANCHES OF VINE. Bagni di Lucca, 1854
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: BRANCH OF VINE. Bellosquardo, Florence, 1856
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+There are those who would define genius by describing it as the
+faculty for taking infinite pains. But obviously genius is in itself a
+power, born of inspiration, which so completely overmasters all other
+conditions in a nature, that no labour nor time is taken into account
+so long as the impelling force obtains utterance. The inborn
+conviction in a nature that it has the power to create, demolishes all
+impediments which come in the way to hinder this power from stamping
+itself into a form. The necessity of taking infinite pains is but the
+natural and inevitable consequence of the burning desire born, who
+knows how? in the spirit of those who are blessed with genius, and the
+faculty to discern how best to develop it. Leighton, by reason,
+perhaps, of the very spontaneity of his own gifts, and also of his
+extreme natural modesty, allied to the conscientiousness with which he
+carried out his feeling of duty towards his vocation, was apt to lay
+more stress on the necessity for taking pains than on the necessity of
+possessing the real source of his power of industry. He saw too often
+the fatal results of artists depending on talent to achieve what only
+talent allied to industry can perform, for him not to accentuate the
+all-importance of unceasing labour. He wrote to his elder sister with
+reference to one of these fatal results: "I have not seen that young
+man's recent work, neither do I hunger and thirst thereafter;
+twenty-one years ago, or more, his parents brought me a composition of
+his--it justified the highest hopes--it was very ambitious in its
+scope (though the work of a child), and the ambition was justified
+in the ability it displayed. Nothing that I could have done at his age
+approached it. I told his parents so. He ought now to have been a very
+considerable artist, to say the least--he no longer even _aims_! He
+told me a year or two ago that he had _ceased to design_! He paints
+portraits, and twists a little moustache under an eyeglass. He is
+_nothing_, as far as the world knows, and I doubt whether he is hiding
+himself under a bushel. I fear vanity and idleness have rotted out his
+talents. It is a strange and a sad case. I often quote it (without
+names) to those who show precocious gifts." His attached friend and
+fellow-Academician, Mr. Briton Rivi�re, writes of Leighton:--
+
+"I have always believed that his ruling passion was Duty--the keenest
+possible sense of it; to do anything he had to do as perfectly as
+possible, and to be always at his best. He was evidently a believer in
+Goethe's maxim that 'an artist who does anything, does all.' In his
+own work, in what concerned his colleagues and the outside body of
+artists, in fact in everything he did. Nothing easily or passively
+done satisfied him; but in every case the decision and action were
+brought by care and work--if possible, executed by himself; and no
+pressure of time or labour ever made him escape such personal trouble,
+or caused him to transfer it to the shoulders of another. This temper
+of mind was shown even in small matters, which so busy a man might
+well have left for others to do. I think it sometimes injured his own
+work as an artist, because, though a great artist can never be evolved
+except by years of patient work and strenuous effort to do his very
+best always, yet, on the other hand, it is often the happy, easy work
+and absolutely spontaneous effort at the moment by such a hand which
+is his very best. Such happy, easy work probably Leighton would seldom
+allow himself to do, and never would leave at the right moment, but
+would still strive to make better and more complete. He must still
+elaborate it and try to make it more perfect; and this it was which
+made his old friend and enthusiastic admirer, Watts, sometimes say
+"how much finer Leighton's work would be if he would admit the
+accidental into it."
+
+I remember once casually remarking to Leighton how much easier writing
+was than painting. He answered quickly but seriously--quite
+impressively: "Believe me, nothing is easy if it is done as well as
+you can possibly do it." This was Leighton's creed of creeds. Whatever
+genius or facilities an artist may possess, he must ignore them as
+factors in the fight. He must possess them unconsciously--the whole
+conscious effort being concentrated on surmounting difficulties, not
+on encouraging facilities.
+
+To return to the subject of this chapter. It would be obviously
+unreasonable to attempt to compare slight studies of plants and
+flowers, however precious, with finished important works of art such
+as "Cimabue's Madonna," "A Syracusan Bride," "Daphnephoria," "Captive
+Andromache," "The Return of Persephone," or, in fact, with any of
+Leighton's well-known paintings--or indeed with those masterly studies
+of the figure and draperies in black and white chalk, drawn for his
+pictures, or when he was seized with the beauty of an attitude while
+his model was resting. These, though executed in a few seconds, are
+true and subtle records of the perfection in the form and structure of
+the human figure, proving the existence of a knowledge and of a sense
+of beauty which Watts declared were unrivalled since the days of
+Pheidias. The later masterly studies of landscape in oil-colour which
+formerly lined the walls of his Kensington studio, in which can be so
+truly discerned the distinctive colouring and atmosphere of the
+various countries where they were painted, also are greater as
+achievements than the pencil drawings. Nevertheless, when studying
+Leighton's genius with a view to gauge rightly its power and also its
+limitations, it is, I maintain, essential to take into account these
+direct studies from Nature, made with the object solely of following,
+watching, and copying her faithfully, ingenuously, "choosing nothing
+and rejecting nothing," but into which crept unconsciously the
+undeniable evidence of his native gifts. As proofs of spontaneous
+power in the quality of his genius, they refute much unjust criticism
+which has been hurled at Leighton's art since his death. Sir William
+Richmond wrote[44]:--
+
+"That term of abuse and of contempt, trite now, on account of the
+mannerism of its constant adoption by ephemeral critics, and sometimes
+adopted by poorly equipped artists, 'academic,' has been most
+unjustly, in its derogatory sense, applied to Leighton's art.
+
+"In point of fact, it is academic, but only in the good sense of being
+highly educated, very scientific, and restrained. And in that sense it
+is a pity that there is not more of such academic art. The bad sense,
+wherein such criticism is applicable, being justly advanced towards
+work that displays no inspiration, no originality, that is correct and
+commonplace, balanced without enthusiasm, adequate without reason, and
+accurate without good taste in the choice of beautiful and expressive
+gestures, forms, and colours, and is preoccupied and narrow."
+
+It is probably the restraint, the science, the high education in
+Leighton's finished pictures which have provoked unsympathetic critics
+to endeavour to demolish Leighton's reputation as a great artist. To
+these, such qualities would seem to deny the existence of any
+sensitiveness, any spontaneity in his art. They have asserted that it
+is cold, dry--academic. For the reason that science, calculated
+effects, style, and high education--qualities rarely found in modern
+English art--are evident in Leighton's pictures, they conclude that
+the painter is possessed of no intuitive genius. They take essentially
+a British, a non-cosmopolitan standpoint from which to preach. They do
+not take into account the standard towards which Leighton was ever
+aiming. He may not have attained the goal towards which he worked, but
+the nature of that goal should be understood and recognised before any
+criticism on his work can pass as intelligent and just; and these
+exquisite drawings of flowers and plants come to our aid in confuting
+sterile estimates of Leighton's art, which deny any other elements but
+those which can be acquired by painstaking and teachable qualities.
+Here are records of Nature complicated by no intellectual choice, no
+academic learning, no results of high education; and what is the
+result? an undeniable evidence of the finest, most tender
+sensitiveness for beauty, resulting in a complete and perfect
+rendering of the subtlest forms of growth. When "face to face" with
+Nature, Leighton's �sthetic emotions were keen enough and
+all-sufficient to create these perfect records, as later in his life
+he created unrivalled drawings of the human figure in even more
+spontaneous and certainly more rapid strokes of his pencil, and
+landscape sketches which prove undeniably his gifts as a colourist;
+but it may be questioned whether his �sthetic emotions had as great a
+_staying_ power as those qualities of heart and brain which made
+Leighton a great man, independent of the position he held as a great
+artist. His sensibilities were of the keenest; the agility and
+vitality of his brain power were quite abnormal. As Watts wrote, a
+"magnificent intellectual capacity, and an unerring and instantaneous
+spring upon the point to unravel." It seemed, however, that this
+vitality and agility did at times run away with that more abiding
+strength of �sthetic emotion which impregnates the very greatest art
+with a serenity, a sublime atmosphere,--an emotion which denotes a
+mood in which the artist has been steeped throughout the creation of a
+work, from the first moment he conceives it to the moment when he puts
+the last touch to the canvas, and affects the actual manipulation of
+the pigment. The above criticism applies only justly to certain of
+Leighton's works. In many of his paintings the poetic motive which
+inspired their invention,--their mental atmosphere,--governs the
+achievements throughout, though doubtless these works also would have
+had a more convincing effect as art had the surface possessed a more
+vibrating quality. Among those pictures in which form, colour, tone,
+and expression are completely dominated by their poetic meaning are
+"Lieder ohne Worte," a lovely, though youthful, work; "David;"
+"Ariadne," a picture little known, but in some respects perhaps the
+most poetic Leighton ever painted; "Summer Moon" (Watts' favourite
+Leighton), "Elisha Raising the Son of the Shunammite," "Winding the
+Skein," "Music Lesson," "Antique Juggling Girl," "D�dalus and Icarus,"
+"Helios and Rhodos," "Golden Hours," "Cymon and Iphigenia," "The
+Spirit of the Summit," "Flaming June," "Clytie" (unfinished).
+
+    [Illustration: "ARIADNE ABANDONED BY THESEUS; WATCHES FOR HIS
+    RETURN. ARTEMIS RELEASES HER BY DEATH." 1868
+    By permission of Lord Pirrie]
+
+    [Illustration: "ELISHA RAISING THE SON OF THE SHUNAMMITE." 1881]
+
+    [Illustration: "D�DALUS AND ICARUS." 1869
+    By permission of Sir Alexander Henderson]
+
+No aspect of his own work was a secret from Leighton. No one knew
+better than he did his own limitations, or why it was necessary to
+keep himself in hand by methods of procedure in his painting which he
+could guide by his ever present intellectual acumen. He wrote to his
+father on March 2, 1855, having just completed the two pictures,
+"Cimabue's Madonna" and "Romeo": "You ask for _my_ opinion of my
+pictures; you couldn't ask a more embarrassing and unsatisfactory
+question; I think, indeed, that they are very creditable works for my
+age, but I am anything but satisfied with them, and believe that I
+could paint both of them better now. I am particularly anxious that
+persons whom I love or esteem should think neither more nor less of
+my artistic capacity than I deserve--_the plain truth_; I am therefore
+very circumspect in passing a verdict on myself in addressing myself
+to such persons; I think, however, you may expect me to become
+eventually the best draughtsman in my country."
+
+A biographer's obvious moral duty is to aim at presenting impartially
+"the plain truth," following Leighton's lead in not desiring to give
+either a more or less favourable view of his capacities as an artist
+than they deserve. On May 7, 1864, Leighton writes in a letter to his
+father and 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.'" Leighton remained ever far from being contented with his own
+work. "I alone know how far I have fallen short of my ideal," he says,
+many years later, to the old acquaintance of the Lucca days. He had
+studied under the shadow of the great masters; and though never an
+imitator even of the greatest,[45] he had set himself a standard of
+supreme excellence, more easily approached under the conditions in
+which artists worked in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
+centuries than it possibly could be in those of the nineteenth. With
+respect to his power of draughtsmanship and his natural sense of
+beauty, Leighton knew his place was among the greatest. His
+appreciation and love of colour were also far keener than those
+possessed by the average artist. He felt nevertheless that he lacked
+the inevitable and continuous force which alone gives "_enormous
+power_" and ease to the craftsman, when he deals with work on a large
+scale, and which carries with it the absolutely convincing effect of
+the world-renowned art of the past. Realising that the "enormous
+power" was not there because the ever conclusively propelling force
+was lacking, perhaps owing partly to the want of robust health, and
+also doubtless from the scattering of his powers in many directions to
+which he was drawn by a sense of duty, Leighton, in working out the
+designs of his large pictures, clung all the more resolutely to the
+exercise of that system which he had adopted, and which many of his
+friends--Watts and Briton Rivi�re among the number--thought tended to
+cramp his genius. He was not sufficiently sure of himself to admit the
+"accidental" into his work.
+
+    [Illustration: "CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE." 1888
+    The Corporation of Manchester]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE." 1888
+    By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson]
+
+    [Illustration: "WEAVING THE WREATH." 1873]
+
+    [Illustration: "WINDING THE SKEIN." 1880
+    By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+    [Illustration: "MUSIC LESSON." 1877
+    By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+Some critics have, however, gone beyond the mark in emphasising this
+characteristic of Leighton's methods. One writes: "Deliberateness of
+workmanship and calculation of effect, into which inspiration of the
+moment is never allowed to enter, are the chief characteristics of the
+painter's craftsmanship. The inspiration stage was practically passed
+when he took the crayon in his hand; and to this circumstance probably
+is to be assigned the absence of realism which arrests the attention."
+This statement is contrary to many which I have heard fall from
+Leighton's own lips. He constantly drew my attention to the fact--a
+fact on which he laid great stress, and of which many models were
+witnesses--that he _invariably_ recurred to Nature in the later stages
+of his pictures, in order to imbibe renewed inspiration from the source
+of all his �sthetic emotions--Nature. Any one who carefully studies
+Leighton's pictures will find evidence of this in the works themselves,
+in the accessories no less than in the principal figures. During the
+exhibition of some thirty of Leighton's finest paintings at Leighton
+House in 1900, I was daily more and more impressed by the fact that
+the final touches in those pictures had been inspired by the actual
+subtlety of Nature's aspects, and transmitted to the canvas by the
+artist direct from the objects before him without conscious
+calculation. Very obviously was this the case not only in the principal
+features of the design--the countenances and the hands and feet of the
+figures--but in such details as the flowers, fabrics of draperies,
+carpets, mother-of-pearl inlaying, found (for instance) in "A Noble
+Venetian Lady," "Summer Moon," "Sister's Kiss," "Weaving the Wreath,"
+"Winding the Skein," "The Music Lesson," "Atalanta." In all these
+pictures exists the internal convincing evidence contradicting the
+statement that "the inspiration stage was practically past when he took
+the crayon in his hand." This, however, did not obscure in some of
+Leighton's large finished pictures undoubted evidences of arrangements
+and calculated effects, which are not over-ruled by an art which
+conceals them, by the art which disguises art,--the clenching force of
+the inevitable. The beauty of line, the grouping of masses, the
+"composition" evident in the posing of the figures--admirable and
+unlaboured as all these arrangements are--not infrequently lack this
+convincing sign of the inevitable. It is too obvious that they have
+been chosen by the intellectual taste of their maker. When Goethe was
+expatiating on Shakespeare and comparing his genius with his own, he
+said, as a proof of his own inferiority, that he knew well how every
+word was made to come in its place, but with Shakespeare they came
+without Shakespeare knowing.[46] Leighton, like Goethe, was conscious
+that his genius could not vie with the greatest in the world--the
+genius he was able to appreciate as Goethe did Shakespeare's; but he
+also knew, as did Goethe, exactly the place his own art ought to take;
+he knew that in his sense of style--which, in its true meaning, is the
+echo of Nature in her choicest, noblest moods,--in his sense of the
+beauty of the human structure, in his power of draughtsmanship, his
+work was superior to that of any of his contemporaries in England. The
+fact of the greatness of Leighton's powers in some directions
+challenges a comparison between his work and that of the giants of old
+who possess enormous power in all directions. No one knew so well as
+did Leighton the place he must take when he entered the lists with the
+giants: "I have _not_ and _never shall have_ 'enormous power.'" He
+writes in 1856 from Paris to his Master, Steinle:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                           PARIS, RUE PIGALLE 21.
+
+    MY GOOD AND DEAR FRIEND,--Accidentally I had an idle morning
+    when I received your dear letter, and therefore answer it
+    immediately. With your usual modesty you put aside all that I
+    say of goodness and love, but I repeat it unweariedly.
+    Steinle, my good Master, if in this insincere world I have an
+    unfeigned, pure feeling, it is my warm gratitude and love for
+    you; and the time when I bloomed, gay and full of hope, in
+    your garden will light me through life like a sunny spot in
+    the past; and I yield myself to this feeling the more
+    confidently, since I _know_ that I am under no delusion in it.
+    I have fairly strong insight, and know exactly what I owe to
+    you, and for what I have to thank nature; I can already
+    appraise my moderate natural gifts; but I know also that these
+    gifts received _through you alone_ the impression of _taste_
+    that can alone make them effective, and that in your hands
+    they were refined as in a furnace. An English painter seldom
+    lacks fancy and invention, but _taste_, that which forms and
+    embellishes the raw material, _that_ is almost always wanting
+    with us--and it is you I must thank for the _little_ I
+    possess.
+
+To flatter was an impossibility with Leighton. He paid every artist
+the respect of believing he desired the same sincerity shown in the
+criticism of his work that he,--Leighton,--wished when his own was
+judged, and with which he judged it himself. A remarkable feature in
+his character was the power he had of retaining so secure a hold on
+his own standards of excellence without for a moment losing his
+individual self-centre, yet at the same time possessing that of
+entering sympathetically into the view of other artists--a view often
+quite contrary to his own--and generously acknowledging every merit
+that could by any possibility be extracted from their work. Mr. Briton
+Rivi�re writes: "The intensity of his own personal belief was well
+known to himself. He once said to me, in reference to a clever picture
+which he greatly admired for some of its qualities, that he could not
+really enjoy it, owing to its careless drawing. On another occasion,
+when at Mr. Russell's sale I had bought a very vigorous study by Etty,
+and Leighton was quite enthusiastic about its colour and painting, he
+said, 'But I could not bear it on my wall, with that drawing,' and he
+laughed at himself for this strictness, and said, 'I know that I am a
+prig about drawing.' However, not only did this never blind him to the
+claims of another kind of art, but I think he was even more keen to
+recommend for approval the work of any school of painting for which,
+personally, he had no particular liking or sympathy. 'It is not
+whether you or I like it, but what it is on its own merits,' was a
+favourite warning of his to any rapid opinion expressed on a picture.
+To any one intimately acquainted with his own real views and opinions
+it was sometimes surprising to find how well he realised the
+intentions, and put himself in the place, of some artist who had
+produced something very foreign to his own point of view, and quite
+repugnant to his beliefs. This is not a common quality among artists,
+whose critical tolerance is often in an inverse ratio to the firmness
+of their own particular creed of art faith; and it was one of the many
+qualities which marked Leighton out as so admirably fitted for the
+Presidency."
+
+Leighton was, undoubtedly, an absolutely competent critic of his own
+art; and the fact that his principles had been inspired by a
+spontaneous and sincere reverence and admiration for the creations of
+artists whom time has crowned as the greatest in the world, and that
+with his critical faculty he perceived in what measure he had
+succeeded in following in their steps, enabled him to gauge with
+absolute justice the merits and shortcomings of his own work, compared
+with that of his contemporaries. Whatever those shortcomings were,
+certain it is that they did not arise from an absence of those natural
+gifts which are the outcome of emotional sensitiveness, nor from a
+want of intense feeling for the beauty of Nature, nor from a poverty
+of invention. The theory that his art was solely the result of his
+having an abnormal power of industry and of taking pains--a theory
+which has been advanced many times since Leighton's death--cannot hold
+good for a moment with those who impartially study his work from the
+beginning of his career. The spontaneity of the impulse to produce in
+every born artist is described in the following passage from
+Leighton's first discourse, when President, to the students of the
+Royal Academy, December 10, 1879, and the description is obviously
+drawn from his own personal experience: "The gift of artistic
+production manifests itself in the young in an impulse so spontaneous
+and so imperative, and is in its origin so wholly emotional and
+independent of the action of the intellect, that it at first and for
+some time entirely absorbs their energies. The student's first steps
+on the bright paths of his working life are obscured by no shadows
+save those cast by the difficulties of a technical nature which lie
+before him, and these difficulties, which indeed he only half
+discerns, serve rather to whet his appetite than to hamper or
+discourage him; for his heart whispers that, when he shall have
+brushed them aside, the road will be clear before him, and the
+utterance of what he feels stirring within him will be from
+thenceforward one long unchecked delight. This spirit of spontaneous,
+unquestioning rejoicing in production, which is still the privilege of
+youth, and which, even now, the very strong sometimes carry with them
+through their lives, was indeed, when Art herself was in her prime,
+the normal and constant condition of the artistic temper, and shone
+out in all artistic work. It is this spirit which gave a perennial
+freshness to Athenian Art--the serenest and most spontaneous men have
+ever seen. And when again, after many centuries, another Art was born
+out of the night of the Dark Ages, and shed its gentle light over the
+chaos of society, this spirit once more burst through it into flame.
+All forms of Art are alike fired with it. Architecture first, exulting
+in new flights of vigorous and bold creation; then Sculpture; last,
+Painting, virtually a new Art, looked out on to the world with the
+wondering delight of a child, timidly at first, but soon to fill it
+with the bright expression of its joy. Those were halcyon days; the
+questions, 'Why do I paint?' 'Why do I model?' 'Why should I build
+beautifully?' 'What--how--shall I build, model, paint?' had no
+existence in the mind of the artist. 'Why,' he might have answered,
+'does the lark soar and sing?'"
+
+Though his direct study from Nature mostly took the form, in later
+years, of sketching in oil colour views in the different countries in
+which he travelled, Leighton showed to the end of his life his great
+delight in flowers by continuing to make sketches from them. In 1895,
+at Malinmore, he was fascinated by the sea-thistle, and there are four
+pages in a sketch-book devoted to rapid sketches of the plant,
+_callantra_, which he made there. Notes are written on the first
+sketch indicating the colours. It is interesting to compare the early
+pencil work executed between 1850 and 1860 with that of forty years
+later. Though the handling may be different, there is the same
+complete sense and enjoyment of the wonderful architecture of plants
+and flowers obvious in both.[47]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF SEA THISTLE. Malinmore, Ireland, 1895
+    From Sketch-book]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF SEA THISTLE. Malinmore, Ireland, 1895
+    From Sketch-book]
+
+    [Illustration: "RETURN OF PERSEPHONE." 1891]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "RETURN OF PERSEPHONE." 1891
+    By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[37] See Appendix, Vol. II., description in Preface to "Catalogue of
+the Leighton House Collection."
+
+[38] An artist who was a great flower lover, when relating her
+experiences, maintained that it was in the revelation, to her
+perceptions, of the infinite perfection of the structure and form of
+one flower, that she had realised in her own nature a more intimate
+recognition and response to that of the Creator of the Infinite than
+had ever been elicited by any church services or creeds, or even, in
+fact, by the most sublime scenery. In one small flower she had found an
+epitome of the wonders and beauties of all creation, so focussed as to
+be grasped closely, and responded to, from the innermost intimate
+recesses of her nature with a joy unspeakable.
+
+[39] See Appendix, Vol. II., Preface to "Catalogue of the Leighton House
+Collection."
+
+[40] See Appendix, Vol. II., "Lord Leighton, P.R.A., Some
+Reminiscences."
+
+[41] Appendix, Vol. II.
+
+[42] Ruskin was mistaken in thinking that the "Lemon Tree" and the
+"Byzantine Well" are of the same date. The former drawing was made in
+1859, the latter seven years earlier in 1852 (reproduced facing page
+80), and is referred to in his diary, "Pebbles." I think this is the
+most beautiful drawing of the kind I have ever seen.
+
+[43] See List of Illustrations.
+
+[44] See Appendix, Vol. II.
+
+[45] See letter to Steinle, page 188: "...God forgive me if I am
+intolerant; but according to my view an artist must produce his art out
+of his own heart, or he is none."
+
+[46] "I remember hearing him (Wordsworth) say that 'Goethe's poetry was
+not inevitable enough.' The remark is striking and true; no line in
+Goethe, as Goethe said himself, but its maker knew well how it came
+there. Wordsworth is right; Goethe's poetry is not inevitable; not
+inevitable enough."--Preface to "Poems of Wordsworth," chosen and
+edited by Matthew Arnold.
+
+[47] Knowing that Leighton was a frequenter of the Kew Gardens, I asked
+Sir W. Thiselton Dyer to write me his recollections of him, which he
+most kindly did in the following letter:--
+
+                                         KEW, _January 11, 1906_.
+
+    DEAR MRS. BARRINGTON,--My acquaintance with Lord Leighton was
+    only beginning to ripen into intimacy when he unhappily died.
+    His somewhat grand seigneur manner at first a little alarmed
+    me; but when I had broken through his reserve, I became, like
+    every one else, much attached to him.
+
+    He used often to dine in evening dress at a small table behind
+    a screen at the door of the coffee-room at the Athen�um. In the
+    corner adjoining this is a round table known as Abraham's
+    Bosom, as it was once frequented by Abraham Hayward. Here, on
+    Royal Society days, we often had a lively scientific party.
+    Leighton often found it impossible to keep aloof, and joined in
+    the fun.
+
+    I found Sir Frederic, as he was called, was well known to our
+    men as a visitor to Kew. He used to drive down in his victoria
+    in the afternoon and take a solitary walk. I only myself came
+    across him once. I had taken some trouble to get a fine show of
+    the old-fashioned Dutch tulips known as Bizards and Byblomen. I
+    found Leighton one day absorbed in the enthusiastic
+    contemplation of them. There were certain combinations of
+    colour which completely fascinated him. I remember that he
+    particularly admired a purplish brown with yellow and a reddish
+    purple with cream-colour. Both were, I think, in the "key" that
+    particularly appealed to him. He was very anxious to have them
+    in his garden in London, and we gave him a little collection,
+    with directions how to grow them. What was the result I never
+    heard.
+
+    I then suggested that, as it was a lovely spring day, I should
+    take him a walk. He assented, and we sent his carriage round to
+    the Lion Gate, nearest to Richmond. I took him through the
+    Queen's Cottage grounds to show him the sheets of wild
+    hyacinth. He admitted their beauty, but remarked that the
+    effect was not pictorial.
+
+    That, I think, was Leighton's point of view. With an intense
+    feeling for beauty, he had little or none for Nature pure and
+    simple. His art was essentially selective, and I think he took
+    most pleasure at Kew in the more or less artificial products of
+    the gardener's art. What he sought was subtle effects of form
+    and colour. Personally, I appreciate both ways of treating
+    plants. I am always at war with artists for their undisciplined
+    and mostly incompetent treatment of vegetation: drawing and
+    anatomy are usually defective to an instructed eye, such faults
+    would be intolerable in the figure. Their presence robs me of
+    much pleasure in looking at Burne-Jones' pictures. I imagine he
+    mostly made his plants up out of his head. Ruskin, with all his
+    talk, was both unobservant and careless. Millais, on the other
+    hand, though I am not aware that he ever had any botanical
+    training, by sheer force of insight paints plants in a way to
+    which the most fastidious botanist can take no exception. One
+    can actually botanise in his foreground of "Over the Hills and
+    Far Away," yet there is no loss of general pictorial effect.
+    The plant drawing of Albert D�rer, Holman Hunt, and Alma
+    Tadema, though more studied, is absolutely satisfying to the
+    botanist. Sir Joseph Hooker has always complained that the
+    Royal Academy has never given any encouragement to accurate
+    plant drawing. Yet I have heard Sir William Richmond say that,
+    as a student, he made hundreds of careful studies of
+    plant-form, and that he knew no discipline more profitable. I
+    remember remarking to an Academician that I thought that in
+    this respect the competition pictures of the students reached a
+    higher standard than that of the average May Exhibition, and he
+    admitted that that was a possible criticism.
+
+    Leighton aimed at beauty by selection and discipline. Millais
+    in his later work looked only to general effect and balance,
+    but as to detail was content to faithfully reproduce, and did
+    not select at all. This explains the admiration which I believe
+    Millais had for Miss North's work. Both produced admirable
+    results, but they were of an essentially different kind, though
+    equally admirable.
+
+    But whenever Leighton introduced plant-forms, it was penetrated
+    by his characteristic thoroughness and perfect mastery of what
+    he was about. I am myself a passionate admirer of the
+    Gloire-de-Dijon rose. I remember telling Leighton that I did
+    not think that any one had ever painted it with such consummate
+    skill as he had. I am told, and quite believe it, that his
+    pencil studies from plants are as fine as anything that has
+    ever been done.
+
+    Leighton rendered us a very great service on one occasion. Miss
+    North's pictures were painted on paper, roughly framed, and
+    simply hung by her on the brick walls of her gallery. They soon
+    began to rapidly deteriorate. I appealed to L. for advice. I
+    was, I confess, astonished to receive from him a full, precise,
+    and business-like report, pointing out exactly what should be
+    done, and who was the proper person to do it. The gallery was
+    to be lined with boarding, the pictures were to be properly
+    framed, cleaned, lightly varnished, and glazed. The report was
+    at once accepted by the office of works, the work was
+    successfully carried out, and no trouble has been experienced
+    since.
+
+    In his turn, Leighton sometimes appealed to me. This was
+    notably the case when he was painting his "Persephone," which I
+    frankly told him I thought was the most beautiful picture he
+    had ever painted. He had been in Capri, and had seen on the
+    rocks a blue flower which he wished to introduce into the
+    foreground. We made out what it was, and sent him tracings from
+    plates and sketches from herbarium specimens. These did not
+    satisfy him, and he ultimately sent to Capri for the living
+    plant. He worked hard at it, and, I do not doubt, produced a
+    very beautiful piece of colour.
+
+    That year I dined at the Academy. "Persephone" hung over
+    Leighton's chair, and was the subject of one of the few really
+    witty remarks I ever heard in an after-dinner speech. But then
+    the speaker was Lord Justice Bowen.
+
+    But his beautiful foreground was all gone. Leighton, and I
+    think he was right, thought it destroyed the balance of his
+    colour scheme, and painted it out. But I have always felt sad
+    to think of the beautiful work that lay buried there.
+
+    When he died, we felt very sad at Kew. He had always been so
+    lovable and disinterested. We decided to send some tribute to
+    his funeral, but to avoid what was commonplace. So we sent a
+    large wreath of bay, introducing, in the place of the
+    conventional berries, single snowdrop flowers. The result was
+    dignified and, I think, adequate. At any rate, the Academicians
+    thought so, if, as I have been told, they placed the wreath by
+    the coffin on the hearse on its way to St. Paul's.
+
+    I walked back with Lord Redesdale, one of Leighton's most
+    intimate friends, who had come up from Batsford to attend.
+    There was a great gathering at the Athen�um. I sat next
+    Millais, already himself stricken with death, and whom I never
+    saw again.
+
+    I am afraid all this will not be very helpful to you, but my
+    pen ran on to tell you all I could of a good, great, and brave
+    man, whom it was an honour to have known.--Yours always
+    sincerely,
+
+                                             W.C. THISELTON DYER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+WATTS--SUCCESS--FAILURE
+
+1855-1856
+
+
+It was in the summer of 1855, in consequence of his father having
+summoned him suddenly back to England, that Leighton first became
+known as a notable person to the London world. His picture of
+"Cimabue's Madonna" had preceded him, and gave him an introduction to
+the art magnates; while the fact that the Queen had bought it of the
+young and, till then, unknown artist, raised the curiosity of those to
+whom the intrinsic value of the work was insignificant, compared to
+its having received this mark of Royal approval. Hanging on the walls
+of the Academy throughout the season and being much talked about, the
+picture, combined with the painter's charming personality, won for him
+at once a prominent position. His friends of the happy Roman days,
+however, remained the nucleus of his real intimacies. As can be
+gathered from his letters, he had already in Rome felt general society
+to be fatiguing and unremunerative, the interest in it never having
+compensated him for the physical exertion and weariness it entailed.
+Health--and a more or less stolid temperament--are requisite in order
+to combat, with any satisfaction, the wear and tear of late hours, and
+contact with mere acquaintances and strangers whose personalities
+carry with them no special interest. Leighton found no pleasure in
+such intercourse sufficient to overbalance its sterility, for he
+possessed neither robust health nor much equanimity of temperament.
+He could enjoy with ecstasy those things which delighted him, but
+had little of that even current of patient contentment, the normal
+condition of those who can tolerate cheerfully--and even with
+pleasure--the herding in crowds with mere acquaintances. Circumstances
+combined in making Leighton's disinclination to indiscriminate
+visiting often misunderstood. His extreme vitality when in company,
+his notable gifts as a talker and as a linguist, the high social
+standing of many of his most intimate friends, naturally gave the
+impression that he was made for the sort of success which is the aim
+of many living in the London world. That he never availed himself of
+all the opportunities that offered themselves was considered by many
+as a sign of conceit and superciliousness. Nothing could have been
+farther from the truth. That he was ambitious for Art to take her
+legitimate position on the platform of the world's highest interests
+is certain, and that he resented the position which was but too often
+accorded in England to her earnest votaries, and had a keen
+discernment in tracing evidences of self-interest and snobbish
+proclivities in those who would have patronised him, is no less
+certain; but that Leighton himself was ever personally otherwise than
+the most modest of men, all who really knew him can attest. To
+whatever class in society a man or woman might belong, whether a Royal
+or a quite humble friend--once a friend, Leighton gave of his very
+best and worthiest. No time or trouble would he spare in such service;
+though he was too eager a worker, and felt too keenly a responsibility
+towards his calling for him to allow any moment of his life to be
+frittered away by claims which were not in his eyes real or of any
+serious advantage to others.
+
+    [Illustration: "CUPID WITH DOVES"
+    Decorative work with gold background. About 1880]
+
+It was during this summer that he made the personal acquaintance of
+Ruskin, Holman Hunt, Millais, and Watts. While in London he found a
+home with his mother's relations, Mr. and Mrs. Nash, in Montagu
+Square, for whose affectionate kindness he was ever grateful. It was
+while staying there that Watts and he first met, or rather on the
+pavement outside the house. Watts recounted how he had ridden one
+afternoon to Montagu Square, and having asked for Leighton, the artist
+himself came out to greet him. Watts was much impressed at the time,
+he said, by the extraordinary amount of vitality and nervous energy
+which Leighton seemed to possess. This acquaintance thus begun was
+continued for forty years.[48]
+
+As regarded Art, the supreme interest in the lives of these two famous
+painters, their relations remained intimate to the end of Leighton's
+life. Before Leighton definitely settled in London, Watts invited him
+to show his work in the studios of Little Holland House, which
+invitation he gratefully accepted. In a letter to his mother Leighton
+writes: "Watts has been exceedingly amiable to me; the studio is at my
+disposal if I want to paint there. I am still of opinion that Watts is
+a most marvellous fellow, and if he had but decent health would whip
+us all, if he does not already."
+
+It is interesting to trace the influences which developed alike in
+Leighton and Watts, the feeling for form which in both artists is
+analogous to that of the Greek. Before going to Italy, Watts had
+studied the perfection in the work of Pheidias in the Elgin Marbles, a
+perfection rediscovered by Haydon; and a visit to Greece later only
+confirmed his conviction that the Pheidian school of sculpture made a
+higher appeal to his artistic sense than did any other. That was "_the
+indelible seal_" which, in the case of his brother artist, had been
+stamped on Leighton's artistic nature through the guidance of his
+master, Steinle. When Watts lived in Italy, from the year 1843 to
+1847, he found that it was the work of Orcagna and Titian that
+appealed most to his imagination, and to his sense of form and
+colour--Orcagna's great conceptions, which struck notes stranger and
+more widely suggestive than those dictated and restricted by special
+religious creeds; Titian, the glorious Titian of the Renaissance,
+whose sense and modelling had the breadth and bloom of Pheidian art,
+and whose colour was triumphant in qualities of richness and subtlety
+combined. The pure beauty in the early religious painters made a much
+slighter and less personal appeal to Watts during those four years he
+lived in Italy.
+
+It was in Italy, when a child of twelve, that Leighton drank a deep
+draught from the fountain-head of medi�val and modern art; and this
+established once and for all the high standard towards which he ever
+aimed. But though his true artistic preferences were aroused at this
+early age, the full and complete passion for his calling was not
+developed till he met his master some years later in Frankfort.
+Belonging to the brotherhood of Nazarenes, the early religious Italian
+art appealed more strongly than any other to Steinle; and, doubtless,
+the earnest study Leighton devoted to Duccio, Cimabue, Giotto,
+Buonfigli, Perugino, and Pinturicchio, and the delight he took in
+their work, was originally started by Steinle. The following list,
+which exists in Steinle's handwriting, of the paintings which he
+wished Leighton specially to study in Florence is evidence of this.
+
+  _Translation._]
+
+FLORENCE
+
+  _St. Croce._--The choir by Angiolo Gaddi, pupil of Giotto. The
+      chapel on the right by his uncle, Taddeo Gaddi. The altar
+      by Giotto himself, in the sacristy the Taddeo Gaddi, in the
+      refectory the Last Supper, all by Giotto.
+
+  _St. Marco._--Outside Fiesole, where particularly should be seen
+      in the cloister-cell and choir-stalls a Last Supper by
+      Ghirlandajo.
+
+  _St. Maria Novella._--The choir by Domenico Ghirlandajo, chapel
+      by Giovanni and Filippo Lippi, a Madonna in marble by
+      Benedetto da Majano, the great Madonna of Cimabue. The Hell
+      and Paradise of Andreas Orcagna. Opposite the court of this
+      chapel grey in grey by Dello and Paul Ucello; from the court
+      into the Capello dei Spagnola, to the left the picture by
+      Taddeo Gaddi; all the rest by Simon Memmi.
+
+  _Capella di St. Francesco_, by Dom. Ghirlandajo.
+
+  _St. Ambrogio._--Fresco by Cosimo Rosetti.
+
+  _St. Spirito._--Built by Brunelleschi; altar-pieces by Filippo
+      Lippi and Botticelli.
+
+  _Al Carmine_, dei Massacio's.
+
+  _St. Miniato._--Chapel by Aretino Spinello.
+
+  _Palazzo Riccardi._--The lovely chapel by Benozzo Gozzoli.
+
+  _In the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital._--Beautiful
+      altar-piece by Ghirlandajo.
+
+After visiting Padua, Siena, Perugia, Assisi, however, the pupil
+became a keen admirer of this early art, independently of any
+influence other than the inherent beauty, dignity, and purity of the
+feeling in the works themselves.[49] Moreover, the natural sympathy
+which Leighton felt for the art of Greece, discovered in this early
+Italian work records of her influence, and that, in a very striking
+manner, it was allied to that of the great ancients. In his Academy
+address of 1887 we find this alluded to in the following passage:--
+
+    "The production, both in sculpture and painting, of the middle
+    period of the thirteenth century has a character of
+    transition. In painting, the works, for instance, of Cimabue
+    and of Duccio are still impregnated with the Byzantine spirit,
+    and occasionally reveal startling reminiscences of classic
+    dignity and power, to which justice is not, I think,
+    sufficiently rendered. In sculpture, the handiwork of Nicolo
+    Pisano is full of the amplitude, the rhythm, and virility of
+    classic Art. I see in it, indeed, the tokens of a new life in
+    Art, but little sign of a new artistic form--it is not a dawn;
+    it is an after-glow, strange, belated, and solemn. In the Art
+    of Giotto and the Giottosques, the transformation is
+    fulfilled. It is an art lit up with the spirit of St. Francis,
+    warm with Christian love, pure with Christian purity, simple
+    with Christian humility; it is the fit language of a pious
+    race endowed with an exquisite instinct of the expressiveness
+    of form, as form, but untrained as yet in the knowledge of the
+    concrete facts of the outer world; an art fresh with the dew
+    and tenderness of youth, and yet showing, together with this
+    virginal quality of young life, a simple forcefulness
+    prophetic of the power of its riper day. Within the outline of
+    these general characteristics individuality found sufficient
+    scope."
+
+Even when this transformation is fulfilled in the frescoes of Giotto,
+any intelligent study of his art at Padua and Assisi, while keeping in
+mind the manner in which Pheidias felt and treated the human form in
+his sculpture, would prove to the student how distinctly visible is
+the link between the ancient and this medi�val art; though the fact of
+the latter being fired with an ecstasy of spiritual emotion of which
+the Greek had no experience, may disguise the link where feeling in
+art is of more interest than form. There is the same detachment of one
+form from another, each being given its full expression and
+intention--which induces a feeling of simplicity and serenity in the
+greatest work. The form of the head is not smudged into the throat,
+nor the throat into the chest, nor the chest into the arms. Even in
+the smallest Greek coin or _intaglio_ of the best period this separate
+individuality of form in each part of the human frame is accentuated,
+and with it a sense of size and breadth. The same fundamental
+principles also, adhered to by the great Greek workmen in their
+treatment of drapery, is to be traced in the work of Giotto.
+
+    [Illustration: "IDYLL." 1881]
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MISS MABEL MILLS (THE HON. MRS.
+    GRENFELL). 1877]
+
+But the great Greeks did not invent the beauty they immortalised, any
+more than did Leighton and Watts; the Pheidian school intuitively
+chose the noblest form it found in nature.[50] The notable gift
+with which nature endowed the artists of the Periclean epoch consisted
+of eyes to perceive, and taste to _prefer_, the form which,
+intrinsically and most convincingly, inspires admiration in those
+imbued with the finest sense of beauty--not a gift to invent something
+new and different from nature. In like manner the gift nature bestowed
+on Leighton and Watts was the same, a perception and a preference for
+noble form; and in this choice they had been educated by legacies from
+Pheidias and his school, but only so far as these legacies induced
+them to seek and perceive in nature herself the elements of such
+nobility. In painting the magnificent head and shoulders entitled
+"Atalanta,"[51] or the reclining figures in "Idyll,"[52] Leighton
+copied as directly from nature as when he painted the portrait of
+"Miss Mabel Mills,"[53] where a similar beauty of form in the throat
+existed as in Miss Jones, who sat for "Atalanta" and "Idyll." When
+Watts painted his superb "Lady with the Mirror," one of his really
+great achievements, it was the model before him whose beauty he was
+recording, though his own sense in recognising it had been further
+inspired by his study of Pheidias. We need not go out of England to
+find types which are as completely noble as are those in the most
+inspiring art ever created, but the sense as a rule is wanting in
+English artists to select and to prefer such nobility.
+
+Leighton writes to a friend in 1879:--
+
+    "I have just remembered a circumstance which might be worth
+    mentioning: I painted pictures in _an out-of-door top light_
+    and with realistic aims (of course, subordinate to style) in
+    the old Frankfurt days before I came over here, and long
+    before I heard of 'modern' ideas in painting. In this,
+    perhaps, more than in anything, the boy was the father of the
+    man, for it is still the corner-stone of my faith that Art is
+    not a corpse, but a living thing, and that the highest respect
+    for the old masters, who are and will remain supreme, does not
+    lie in doing as they did, but as men of their strength would
+    do if they were now (oh, _derisim_!) amongst us."
+
+Leighton taught Watts to appreciate the Greek inheritance to be found
+in early Italian art; and I have frequently heard Watts comment on the
+evidence of this legacy in Giotto's work. Watts, by ventilating the
+results of his studies of Pheidian art with Leighton, and analysing
+the elemental principles on which it was grounded, aided his brother
+artist in securing a faster hold on the sources of his individual
+preferences.
+
+No two characters could have been more dissimilar than those of Watts
+and Leighton, no two men could have led more different external lives;
+Leighton's great and varied gifts requiring for their full exercise
+the whole area of life's stage, Watts' genius demanding seclusion, and
+days undisturbed by friction with the outer world. Watts' first and
+great object in life was to preserve his work, and to bequeath it to
+his country, which he, happily for his country, was enabled to do;
+Leighton's object was to complete a work as far as industry and his
+gifts would enable him to complete it, then--as he would say--"to get
+rid of it and never see it again; but try to do better next time"! The
+one was frank, free, courageous; the other almost morbidly
+self-depreciative, sensitive, and timid. All the same, no two workmen
+could have had more sympathy with one another in their true aims and
+aspirations, or more mutual admiration for each other's artistic
+gifts.
+
+    [Illustration: "VENUS DISROBING FOR THE BATH." 1867
+    By permission of Sir A. Henderson, Bart.]
+
+    [Illustration: "PHRYNE AT ELEUSIS." 1882]
+
+Watts, to his credit, had from his first acquaintance with Leighton
+discerned that "the unusual position" which Leighton undoubtedly held
+from his first appearance in the London world to the day of his death,
+was due to the possession of unusual gifts, exercised in a very
+unusually generous and public-spirited manner, and not to reasons
+invented by those who were envious of this prominent position.
+
+Watts wrote to Leighton after they became neighbours in Kensington:--
+
+    "I have been worrying myself by fancying you rather
+    misunderstood the drift of my observations respecting the
+    value of social consideration to a professional man, that I
+    meant to imply you sold your pictures in consequence of the
+    unusual position you undoubtedly hold; knowing me and my
+    opinions as you do, you could hardly think so, yet poets and
+    artists are proverbially sensitive beings. I know I am myself
+    to a degree that could hardly be imagined, though not with
+    regard to opinion of my work; I am resigned, if not contented,
+    to preserve what I can do for posterity, conscious that no
+    other judgment can really be worth anything; I am very often
+    unhappy, thinking that after all the best I can do may not be
+    worthy of being brought before the great tribunal at all; but
+    I do not allow myself to brood over the subject more than I
+    can help. However, I do not attempt to deaden the keen dread I
+    have of giving pain or offence, and am really miserable when I
+    think I have done so, or been unjust; I don't think I am often
+    the latter, but I may by clumsiness fall into the former
+    regrettable position. I should grieve indeed if any word or
+    deed of mine should ever be offensive to you, for you know me
+    to be always yours most sincerely,
+
+                                                         "SIGNOR."
+
+Immediately on his arrival from Italy Leighton paid a visit to his
+family at Bath, arriving on May 24. He returned to London shortly
+after, where his family joined him on June 15, and the introduction so
+long desired by Leighton took place between his parents and sisters
+and his great friends, Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris. In December 1854
+Leighton's mother had written: "How delightful to see you again, and
+perhaps we may spend the next winter together, but of that I am
+uncertain. In England we shall not be, and both Papa and I incline to
+Paris, but Gussy has an anxious desire to go to Berlin. The Sartoris'
+being in Paris would be a strong inducement to us to go there, as we
+very much wish to make your friends' acquaintance, and we should most
+likely meet at their house agreeable people. I am exceedingly sorry I
+overlooked Mrs. Sartoris' friendly message, which I have since
+discovered in your former letter. Pray offer her my best compliments,
+and assure her I consider her great kindness to you gives her a claim
+upon my sympathy, and I shall rejoice to have an opportunity of giving
+her this assurance in person."
+
+In February his mother wrote: "I hope you will not long be separated
+from your friends the Sartoris when you leave Rome. We all sincerely
+desire to become acquainted with the valued friends of whom we hear so
+much."
+
+Later his father wrote: "With regard to your reasons for remaining at
+Rome during the spring, you have this time at least the best of the
+argument. If there were no other than your wish to give more tangible
+form to your gratitude to your kind friends, the Sartoris, it would be
+sufficient, to say nothing of the drawings from M. Angelo and
+Raphael."
+
+And in the same cover his mother says: "I feel, with your father,
+great satisfaction at your undertaking a likeness of Mrs. Sartoris--I
+hope it may prove a satisfactory one. Give our love to Mrs.
+Sartoris." Leighton's younger sister kept a diary in those days.
+Written in this are notes which describe the keen appreciation which
+she and her family felt for her brother's friends. "In fact she is, as
+Fred says, an angel. She seems very fond of him, as she might be of a
+younger brother.... She is very stout, high coloured, and has little
+hair. But the shape of her mouth is very fine, the modulations of her
+voice in speaking are exquisite. She is a creature who can never age,
+and before whose attractions those of younger and prettier women must
+always pale." "August 1855.--Fred returned to Bath to stay with us a
+little while. Beautiful drives together. So generous in giving me
+several volumes of poetry." "Sept.--Left us to go to Paris."
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MRS. ADELAIDE SARTORIS
+    Drawn by Lord Leighton for her friend Lady Bloomfield, 1867
+    By permission of the Hon. Mrs. Sartoris]
+
+While in London Leighton wrote the following to his master, Steinle:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                   10 MADDOX STREET, BOND STREET,
+                                                    LONDON, 1855.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--At last I am able to write to you again.
+    When I sent off my last letter to you I was busily packing for
+    my journey; now I have been already six weeks in England, and
+    it seems a year since I left Rome. I scarcely need tell you,
+    dearest Friend, that at first, in this London hurly-burly, I
+    hardly knew whether I was standing on my head or my heels: I
+    will not say that this condition has not had a certain charm.
+    I have made several acquaintances, have been cordially
+    received, and have had considerably more praise for my picture
+    than it deserves. However, I have already set seriously to
+    work again, and expect shortly to commence upon a new
+    composition. It is a real grief to me, dear Master, to have to
+    work without your guidance.
+
+    My _succ�s_, here in London, which, for a beginner, has been
+    extraordinarily great, fills me with anxiety and apprehension;
+    I am always thinking, "What can you exhibit next year that
+    will fulfil the expectations of the public?" When I have
+    settled anything definitely, I shall report to my master in
+    Frankfurt.
+
+    Now, however, as regards the photographs. Owing to unforeseen
+    circumstances, Mrs. Sartoris (whom I introduced to you in my
+    last letter) was obliged to alter the plans of her journey,
+    and will not leave this for Germany until the middle of
+    September. What now? Will you wait so long, or shall I seek an
+    opportunity to send you your seven things?
+
+    And now, my Friend, how are you occupied? Do you still sparkle
+    with beautiful inventions? Tell me all that you are doing. I
+    had a delightful surprise recently when I saw your long
+    expected "Court Scene" in Paris; it is a charming composition.
+    I tell you nothing of the great Paris Exhibition, for you
+    naturally will not neglect to see a thing so excessively
+    interesting; it throws light upon a great many things. If only
+    you could come in September! then we could meet again and
+    renew old times a little; it would be very delightful. I
+    should like extremely to arrange something of the kind with
+    you; we should certainly agree very well.
+
+    Remember me most kindly to your wife and my old friends in
+    Frankfurt, and keep in mind your loving pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+In a letter to his mother, before she arrived in London, Leighton
+refers to Ruskin's criticism when comparing his "Cimabue's Madonna" to
+Millais' "Rescue":--
+
+                                                          LONDON.
+
+    I do wonder at the critics: will they never let "the cat die"?
+    What Ruskin means by Millais' picture being "greater" than
+    mine, is that the joy of a mother over her rescued children is
+    a higher order of emotion than any expressed in my picture. I
+    wish people would remember St. Paul on the subject of hateful
+    comparisons: "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory
+    of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star
+    differeth from another star in glory."
+
+    I spent last night an evening that Gussy would have envied me.
+    We (I and the Sartoris and one or two others) were at Hall�'s,
+    who is the most charming fellow in the world.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR PORTION OF FRIEZE, "MUSIC" (not carried
+    out in final design). 1883
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+Having sent his "Romeo" picture to Paris, Leighton was not quite
+unknown to the art world when he arrived there in September 1855. The
+"Cimabue's Madonna," hanging on the walls of the Royal Academy in
+London, and this picture being shown at the great International
+Exhibition in France, he can fairly be said to have entered at the age
+of twenty-four the arena where he competed with the first artists in
+Europe. By a mistake the "Romeo" picture was hung in the Roman instead
+of the English section in the International Exhibition. The following
+extract appeared in a publication at the time, and gives the unbiassed
+criticism of one who was unknown to Leighton:--
+
+    "Strange it may seem, but such is the fact, that of the
+    thirteen canvasses she (Rome) has sent on this occasion to
+    sustain her credit, that which for intrinsic merit takes the
+    lead--in which soul for expression and true artistic feeling
+    are conspicuous, is due to the pencil of an
+    Englishman--Frederic Leighton, _n� � Scarborough, �l�ve de
+    Mons. Edouard Steinle de Frankfort_. The subject of this
+    picture--and it is a fine one--is the reconciliation of the
+    Houses of Montagu and Capulet over the bodies of Romeo and
+    Juliet. Let us hope that his native country may hear and see
+    more of so promising an artist as Mr. Leighton."
+
+And again:--
+
+    "When these lines were written on the other side of the
+    Channel, Mr. Leighton had already sent his 'pencil's' first
+    representation to the Royal Academy, causing therein not a
+    little surprise, fluttering the dovecots in Corioli. We beg he
+    will construe our sincere anticipations into a hearty
+    welcome."
+
+In the early days of September 1855, Leighton was in Paris preparing
+to settle in for a winter's hard work. The following letters to his
+mother and father and to Steinle were written soon after his arrival.
+In that to Steinle, Leighton alludes to the serious work he has
+before him, in painting "The Triumph of Music":--
+
+                                H�TEL CANTERBURY, RUE DE LA PAIX,
+                                                  _Sunday, 1855_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--Though I have, of course, nothing to tell you
+    yet, still, as it is Sunday morning, I send you a few lines as
+    a token of continued vegetation. Paris is bright and warm and
+    sunny, and contrasts incredibly with the murkiness of London.
+    I have already set to work to look for a studio, but shall
+    have great difficulty in finding one, and shall have to pay
+    about 1500 francs per annum _unfurnished_; my furniture I
+    shall of course hire, not buy--_ci vuol pazienza_.
+
+                                                H�TEL CANTERBURY,
+                                                _Saturday, 1855_.
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--When one has bad news to swallow, there is nothing
+    like taking the bull by the horns and engulphing the dose at
+    once: this is the bull to be swallowed, horns and all. I have,
+    after great trouble and manifold inquiries, taken _the only_
+    studio that at all suited me, and for that I give
+    _unfurnished_ 150 francs a month. It is enormous, but
+    unavoidable; nor have I been at a disadvantage from being an
+    Englishman, for two artists of my acquaintance, one a
+    _Parisian_ just returning from Rome, the other a Frankfurter,
+    have seen precisely the _same_, and only the same, studios as
+    I did. It is the dearth of studios and the great demand for
+    them that makes the price so high. Those who have had studios
+    some time of course pay very much less, others put up with
+    little holes far too small to paint a picture of any size.
+    Carlo Perugini is painting in the studio of a friend, and that
+    is a strip not large enough for one person. There was only
+    _one_ studio which I could for a moment think of besides this
+    one I have taken, and that costs infinitely less; but not only
+    was it too small--it had been built _this_ summer, and is not
+    yet finished painting, feels cold and damp, and would no doubt
+    have laid me up with the rheumatism.
+
+    I have been advised and actually assisted in everything by
+    H�bert, who is a friend as well as an old acquaintance, and
+    than whom nobody knows the resources of Paris better. He took
+    me about to get my furniture, &c., and I am happy to say that
+    I have bought everything, including ample bedroom and table
+    linen, crockery, and knives, spoons, &c., all under �30. I
+    have quite a little _fond de m�nage_; this is the only cheap
+    thing I have done in Paris, everything is exactly as dear as
+    London. It certainly _is_ lucky I sold my picture.
+
+    My frame cost, with time and trouble of exhibition, 320
+    francs.
+
+[Portion of letter to his father.]
+
+                                       21 RUE PIGALLE, _Tuesday_.
+
+    I have nothing whatever to tell you, except that I have just
+    finished a head of Carlo Perugini (for myself), which is the
+    best thing of the kind I ever did. It has not interfered with
+    my picture, but has stopped up unavoidable gaps. I have got H.
+    Wilson[54] to teach me the Conture Method--_� fin d'avoir tat�
+    � tout_. Conture paints well in spite of his method, which
+    might easily lead to superficial mannerism. The best _dodge_
+    is to be a devil of a clever fellow.
+
+    Will you do me a _great_ favour--for my friend H�bert, to whom
+    I am under great obligations? If you can get me for him _any_
+    Greek classic (if Homer, all the better) in the _same edition_
+    as my _Brumek's Anacreon_ with _Latin notes_, I shall be much
+    obliged. H�bert wants very much to have any such work.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                           21 RUE PIGALLE, PARIS,
+                                  _Saturday, September 29, 1855_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--At last I find the long-desired
+    opportunity to send you the photographs; our old Gamba has
+    undertaken to convey them to you. How I envy him the pleasure
+    of seeing you again, dear Master! You, on your side, will
+    certainly have great pleasure in seeing your old pupil again.
+    He is just the same as ever; rather more of a beard, and
+    broader shouldered, but still quite the old Gamba. He will be
+    able to tell you that we have cherished your memory with love
+    and reverence, and are always proud to call ourselves your
+    pupils.
+
+    I should like to describe to you what I am painting now, but
+    the subject I have chosen is such an absolute matter of
+    sentiment, that your imagination might well paint something
+    quite different, in comparison with which my picture might
+    subsequently suffer; I would rather wait until I can send you
+    a photograph. It is a picture with only four figures, but
+    life-size. I stand in alarm before the blank canvas. One
+    learns gradually to understand that one really can do nothing.
+
+    The photographs in the portofolio with my writing on them are
+    yours; I hope they will please you. You must accept them as a
+    little memento of my Italian hobbledehoy-hood.
+
+    Remember me respectfully to Madame Steinle, to my other
+    friends "tante cose."
+
+    Keep me in remembrance.--Your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+Again to Steinle he writes:--
+
+                                           PARIS, RUE PIGALLE 21.
+
+    No one could sympathise better than I with your melancholy
+    loneliness in the hermitage of Frankfurt; in that air an
+    artist breathes with difficulty; I confess I should be
+    entirely paralysed by the lack of models and other resources
+    in Frankfurt; one all too easily loses sight of the infinite
+    importance of a complete material representation, which is
+    always the special mark of the _artist_; I often see with
+    amazement how even quite clever people behave in this respect.
+    It has quite a plausible sound if one says (such a fellow as
+    Strauch, for example), "Away with materialism! Pfui! The great
+    artist is he who has the most ideas!" Stop, my little man! do
+    you not feel what a store of artistic cowardice lies behind
+    your words? Ah, behind so broad a shield you can elude all the
+    difficulties of your work! He who has the most _ideas_ is
+    first only as the greatest _poet_ or even _philosopher_! He
+    only is an _artist_ who can _set_ his ideas _forth_. _Art_
+    means the power to do; undoubtedly the idea is the source, the
+    achieved is art; but an _idea_ completely _embodied_ can no
+    more exist without the _artist_ power than a thousand ideas
+    that are only muddled away by agitated incapacity!
+
+    I gladly let myself go on such matters to you, for I know that
+    we are of one mind regarding them, and it does one good to
+    pour out one's heart a little for once.
+
+    I hear, with particular interest, that you are painting the
+    little picture of the Madonna that you composed twenty-three
+    years ago in the diligence when you were travelling to Italy;
+    it is a very good thing. I imagine a lovely landscape in the
+    background; an oleander, rich in starry bloom; grey olives and
+    stately cypresses wave in the distance; soft violets nestle on
+    the bank of the cool water, and gaze with earnest eyes out of
+    the whispering grass. On the still bosom of the stream sleep
+    white blossoms, which have flown down when the winds breathed
+    on the limes, and see, in a secret nook in the shade of the
+    lovely _Himmelsglocken_, the strawberry bed from which the
+    black-eyed John will peep at the treasures. Above, in the
+    branches, many-coloured birds frolic, and chase one another,
+    and flit through the grove, in harmonious, song-rich flight.
+    And the Madonna! how tenderly and lovingly she looks down upon
+    the two playing children! Have I described your picture?
+
+    In order to send it to England (and how delighted I should be
+    to see it) you should, so much I know from personal
+    experience, cause your picture to reach the Royal Academy
+    (without fail) on the first of April; I believe that influence
+    is no use at all, for the Academicians are very autocratic; I
+    will, however, obtain all the information in good time. I, who
+    was even more totally unknown in England than you, have
+    refrained, by the advice of my friends, from applying to _any_
+    person, and have left my pictures entirely to themselves.
+
+    Now I must close this immoderately long letter. It seems not
+    impossible to me that I may pass through Frankfurt next
+    spring, then we will have a good long gossip together, won't
+    we?
+
+    Till then, keep in warm remembrance your English pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+It is clear that Paris lacked the charm which Italy had for Leighton.
+Parisians have been compared to the Greeks with respect to the
+peculiarly _fin_ and agile manner in which they can exercise their
+intellects; and so far Leighton might have been expected to fit in
+happily and with enjoyment to himself into their life. But though he
+felt a great respect and admiration for the genuine artistic sense
+which the French undoubtedly possess as a nation, Leighton, no less as
+a man than as an artist, was more Greek than is any typical Parisian.
+He viewed the beauty of nature from a less circumscribed standpoint,
+his emotions were excited with a more ingenuous spontaneity and less
+from a _parti-pris_ attitude than, as a rule, are those of the French
+artist. Paris was too artificial to appeal strongly to Leighton's
+taste. As with the Greeks, grace and charm in the form of living as in
+Art was a necessity to his well-being; but he found more natural
+expression of such grace and charm in the unsophisticated Italian than
+among the artificial and more highly finished manners of the
+Parisians. We never read of the eager longing to be in France that
+Leighton's letters show when it was a question of a return to Italy.
+Also Paris does not appear to have suited his health. He writes to his
+mother after living there some weeks:--
+
+                                    21 RUE PIGALLE, _Sunday, 21_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I observe in a general way that the climate of
+    Paris is very exciting to my nerves--infinitely more than
+    Rome. The life I lead is one of unprecedented regularity and
+    absence of any kind of excess, yet sometimes in the evening,
+    when I have lit my lamp and my fire and sit down to work, I
+    can neither play, nor read, nor draw, nor do anything for five
+    minutes together for sheer restlessness and fidgets. That
+    sleep, too, that used to be the corner-stone of my
+    accomplishments and the pillar of my strength, is not by any
+    means what it was--_non sum qualis eram!_
+
+    The Sartoris have not changed their plans more than five or
+    six dozen times since you saw them. They are now staying in
+    the country with the Marquise de l'Aigle, Edward's sister.
+    They will be here at the beginning of November and stay
+    _three_ months--ooray! Lady Cowley is, I believe, not yet come
+    back. I see a great deal of Herbert Wilson here. He has with
+    him, too, an arch-brick of a friend, a naval captain whom I
+    like most particularly. I am painting his head for practice
+    and for him--he is a fine specimen of an English sailor.
+    About learning by heart, don't you think it will be a great
+    waste of my very little eyesight to read the same thing over
+    and over again until I know it?
+
+                                    21 RUE PIGALLE, _October 26_.
+
+    My health, to return to the eternal refrain, is just what it
+    was. I shall find very little difficulty in giving up coffee
+    or tea after dinner, as I never take either; indeed, of late I
+    have given up wine, beer, gin, and other spirituous liquors as
+    utterly exciting and damnable. Nothing makes me sleep as I
+    used except going to bed late, and as I am always either
+    sleepy, tired, or fidgety in the evening, I very seldom get
+    beyond ten o'clock.
+
+    Carlo Perugini, whom I saw to-day, sends "tante cose" to his
+    cousin. He is a charming boy, most gentlemanlike, and has that
+    peculiar childlike simplicity which belongs to none but
+    Italians.
+
+    [Illustration: SKETCH IN WATER COLOUR FOR TABLEAUX VIVANTS,
+    "THE ECHOES OF HELLAS."
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+Leighton's friendship with Brock and the French sculptor Dalou began
+in these autumn days of 1855. He also made the acquaintance of
+Whistler, whose etchings he admired greatly. The work of Jean Fran�ois
+Millet also delighted him no less than that of Corot.
+
+His sister's diary contains the following notes: "November 25.--We
+arrived at Paris. Our dear, handsome Fred was here to meet us.
+December 1.--Fred comes to see us daily, though sometimes only for
+five minutes. He is pale and coughs a good deal; it makes us uneasy.
+He often comes to dinner. Presents to us on New Year's day. Took me to
+the Conservatoire. Always generous. We went often to Mrs. Sartoris in
+the evening."
+
+It was in Paris that Leighton probably first enjoyed to the full the
+culture of his instincts for the drama. Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris remained
+in Paris during the winter and spring, and Mr. Henry Greville arrived
+there on February 28th, 1856.
+
+Extracts from his published diaries give a picture of the _milieu_ in
+which Leighton's hours of relaxation from work were spent:--
+
+                                   27 RUE DU FAUBOURG ST. HONOR�,
+                                       _Saturday, March 1, 1856_.
+
+    I left London on Thursday with Flahault and Charles, and after
+    a smooth passage slept at Boulogne and came on here yesterday.
+    After dining _t�te-�-t�te_ with the excellent doctor (the
+    Hollands dined out), I went to Adelaide Sartoris', where I
+    found Herbert Wilson, Leighton, and other young and
+    good-looking artists, and some ladies whom I did not know, and
+    amongst them Madame Kalergi, a niece of Nesselrode, a tall,
+    large, white-looking woman, who has a reputation for
+    cleverness and a great talent on the pianoforte. This morning
+    I went to Leighton's studio, and saw his drawings, which are
+    full of genius.
+
+                                             _Thursday, March 6._
+
+    Heard in the morning that Covent Garden theatre was burnt at
+    seven yesterday morning, and went to announce the event to
+    Mario. In the evening, with Adelaide Sartoris and Leighton, to
+    Ristori's rentr�e in "Mirrha." She acted more finely than
+    ever, and I was enchanted with her wonderful beauty and
+    classic grace: her tenderness, in this part especially, is
+    indescribable. Adelaide Sartoris had never seen her before,
+    and was as much delighted as astonished at the performance.
+    The audience was in a frenzy of enthusiasm, and yet I do not
+    believe half the people present understood Italian.
+
+                                              _Friday, March 20._
+
+    I went last night with Adelaide Sartoris and Leighton to see
+    Ristori in Alfieri's play of "Rosmunda."
+
+    In reading it I was convinced I should be bored by so inflated
+    a rhodomontade, and that the part of Rosmunda, being one of
+    unmitigated fury and violence, was unsuited to an actress
+    whose chief merit seemed to consist in her power of
+    delineating the gentler passions. I was therefore but little
+    prepared for the wonderful effect she produced upon me and on
+    the audience. The play is horrible and offensive, but her
+    manner of rendering this odious part is nothing short of
+    sublime. Her beauty in the costume of the sixth century is
+    beyond all description, and the manner in which she varies
+    the phases of the same passions of hatred and vengeance, and
+    the prodigious power of the whole impersonation, are
+    marvellous. Her acting of the scene in the third act, when she
+    tells Ildevaldo that Amalchilde loves Romalda, is about the
+    best thing I have seen her do; and the last act, in which she
+    murders her rival, and the way in which she seizes her and
+    drags her up the steps, is like a whirlwind sweeping
+    everything before it; too terrible almost to witness, and
+    prevented my sleeping all night.
+
+                                              _Monday, March 24._
+
+    In the evening I went (as I generally do) to Adelaide
+    Sartoris', where I found Bickerton Lyons, French, and
+    Leighton. This latter is a singularly gifted youth. Besides
+    his talent for painting and drawing, which is already at
+    twenty-five very remarkable, and likely, if he lives, to place
+    him in the highest rank of modern artists, he appears endowed
+    with an extraordinary facility for anything he attempts to do.
+    He speaks many foreign languages with remarkable fluency, and
+    almost without accent; he is possessed of much musical
+    intelligence, and on matters connected with the art which he
+    has made his particular study and profession his information
+    is very extensive--and, I am told by others, better able to
+    judge than myself, that this is the case. With all these
+    qualities, natural and acquired, I never saw a more amiable or
+    single-hearted youth.
+
+                                           _Wednesday, March 26._
+
+    Went with the Sartoris's, Montfort, and Leighton to the Palais
+    Bourbon to see Morny's pictures--a charming collection. The
+    Emperor had just sent him two beautiful pieces of Beauvais
+    tapestry--marvellous specimens of that manufacture; in return,
+    I suppose, for his speech of the other day, with which his
+    Majesty was highly pleased.
+
+                                      _Wednesday, April 2, 1856._
+
+    In the morning, with Adelaide Sartoris, Browning the poet,
+    Cartwright, and Leighton, to the Pourtal�s Gallery--a charming
+    collection. The pictures that most pleased me were a Paul
+    Veronese, a Rembrandt, and a Greuze. There is also a fine
+    collection of Raphael ware--glass and bronzes. Pourtal�s has
+    ordered by will that this collection should remain intact for
+    ten years, and then to be sold to the highest bidder.
+
+                                      _Wednesday, April 9, 1856._
+
+    Last night, after a dinner given by a Lady Monson to Adelaide
+    Sartoris, Leighton, and myself, at Philippe's, we adjourned to
+    the first representation of the Italian translation of
+    Legouv�'s play of "Medea"--that in which Rachel refused, after
+    attending rehearsals, to act the principal part, and about
+    which there was a trial. Great curiosity was shown about this
+    performance, and there was a great scramble for places; and,
+    although inserts for nearly three weeks, we were fobbed off
+    with very bad seats in the orchestra. The play had great
+    success, and that of Ristori was prodigious, but not greater
+    than she deserved. The part is most arduous, full of
+    transitions, and almost always on the full stretch. Her
+    costume was most picturesque, having been designed by
+    Sch�ffer, and she looked like a figure on an Etruscan vase;
+    and in no play that I have yet seen her in does she produce
+    more effect than in certain passages of "Medea." The audience
+    was wound up to a pitch of frantic enthusiasm. I am always
+    astonished at the effect she produces on the mass of the
+    audience, when I know how few there are who really can follow
+    the play. But, whether by means of her countenance, voice, or
+    gestures, she contrives to make all the nuances of her acting
+    felt by the public. I expect when she comes to London she will
+    find a vast difference between this excitable and sympathetic
+    audience and that stupid, flat collection of would-be
+    fashionables who will _promener leurs ennuis_ at her
+    performances.
+
+Before his family had arrived in Paris the subject of the Orpheus
+entitled "The Triumph of Music," to which Leighton was devoting
+himself, was criticised by his father, which criticism Leighton
+answered in the following letter:--
+
+    I do not think honestly that the choice of a mythological
+    subject like Orpheus shows the least poverty of invention, a
+    quality, I take it, much more manifested in the manner of
+    treatment than in the choice of a moment.
+
+    About fiddles, I _know_ that the ancients had _none_; it is an
+    anachronism which I commit with my eyes open, because I
+    believe that the picture will go home to the spectator much
+    more forcibly in that shape.
+
+To his mother he writes:--
+
+                                                     RUE PIGALLE.
+
+    I have seen Scheffer,[55] who is cordiality itself to me;
+    Robert Fleury, ditto, and I have further made the acquaintance
+    of Ingres, who, though sometimes bearish beyond measure, was
+    by a piece of luck exceedingly courteous the day I was
+    presented to him. He has just finished a beautiful figure of
+    Nymph, which I was able to admire loudly and sincerely. I have
+    also been to Troyon, who was polite.
+
+    I am fiddling away at the preliminaries of my pictures, a
+    disjointed and desultory period through which one has to wade
+    to get at one's large canvas.
+
+    The Sartoris are of course, as ever, my stronghold and
+    comfort.
+
+    Your loving boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+    I have sent the sketch of my "Orpheus" to Ruskin, and don't
+    yet know his opinion of that particular thing, but I feel
+    about that, that as a _now_ responsible artist, it is my
+    _duty_ to do things exactly as I feel them and to abide by
+    them, risking criticisms and cavillings of every kind. I must
+    be _myself_ for better and for worse; this truth, which I feel
+    strongly myself, has been corroborated by the opinions of
+    Fanny Kemble, Mr. Sartoris and Mrs. Sartoris, all at different
+    times, and quite spontaneously expressed. In haste.--Your
+    dutiful and affectionate son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+The question naturally arises, considering the sequence of the history
+of the Orpheus picture, _was_ Leighton _himself_ when he painted "The
+Triumph of Music"? I have studied his work from the commencement to
+the close of his artistic career, and this picture remains the unique
+example, in my opinion, when he was _not_ himself; the only picture
+which does not carry out the principle he thought of all importance.
+It does not evince "sincerity of emotion." The feeling and intention
+of the work when first conceived had been absolutely sincere; but,
+when it came to the performance, spontaneity had failed. It seems to
+have been painted when he was overshadowed by an influence which was
+alien to his real artistic sense, and is a further proof that Paris
+was an entirely unsympathetic atmosphere to him. The picture appears
+to me to be in feeling unreal, stagey--not to say, ridiculous. That
+Leighton, after the first bitterness of his failure was over, shared
+somewhat the same view of it is certain; for shortly after the Academy
+Exhibition of 1856 was over he took it off the stretcher, rolled it
+up, and consigned it to oblivion during his lifetime in the dark
+recess of a cellar.
+
+Notes in Mr. Henry Greville's Diary, dated April 24th and Tuesday, May
+6th, run as follows:--
+
+                                              LONDON, _April 24_.
+
+    Went yesterday to Colnaghi's to see Leighton's picture of
+    "Romeo and Juliet," with which I was much pleased. Colnaghi
+    tells me it is much admired, and said, "Young Leighton will,
+    one day, be a very great man."
+
+                                                _Tuesday, May 6._
+
+    A letter from Leighton, in answer to mine preparing him for
+    the failure of his picture in the Exhibition, says: "Whatever
+    I may have felt about my little bankruptcy, there is no fear
+    of its disabling me for work, for if I am impressionable I am
+    also obstinate; and, with God's will, I will one day stride
+    over the necks of the penny-a-liners, that they may not have
+    the triumph of having bawled me down before I have had time to
+    be heard."
+
+In April Leighton's family left Paris to travel in Switzerland. The
+following letters to his mother show the spirit in which Leighton met
+his artistic disaster.
+
+                                                         _May 7._
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I received your two kind letters in due time,
+    and answer them on the second day you fixed, having in the
+    interval had time to hear about the fate of my picture; but
+    first let me say, dear mamma, that you need never fear my
+    misinterpreting or taking awry any kind advice that your love
+    and solicitude may dictate to you. I am reading as much as
+    ever my eyes will allow--indeed, you are strangely mistaken in
+    thinking I don't see the necessity of reading. I assure you
+    that it is a perpetual mortification to me to feel how little
+    I know, but I stand unfortunately at such a disadvantage owing
+    to the weakness of my eyes and my unprecedented absence of
+    mind; however, I shall do what I can, and hope for the best.
+
+    Dearest Mamma, I did not expect to write a _consolatory_ note
+    to you to inaugurate your journey, but I am sorry to say that
+    I am in that painful position. My picture, which has been
+    exceedingly badly hung, so that one can scarcely see half of
+    it (indeed I believe only the figure of Orpheus), is an
+    _entire failure_; the papers have abused, the public does not
+    care for it, in fact it is a "fiasco." Ruskin (who likes the
+    "Romeo" very much) is disappointed with "Orpheus," tho' he
+    says of course a man like me can't do anything that has not
+    great merits, and that I am to attach no importance to the
+    malicious articles written by venal critics. Now, dearest
+    Mother, look upon this--you and Papa, who takes so
+    affectionate an interest in my welfare--look upon this, as I
+    do, as a fortunate occurrence; consider what an edge and a
+    zest I get for my future efforts, and what an incentive I have
+    to exert myself to put down the venomous jargon of envious
+    people--next year, tho' the Academicians may think that they
+    have cowed me, I shall very probably not exhibit; but the year
+    after, God willing, they shall feel the weight of my hand in a
+    way that will surprise them. The more they abuse, the better
+    I'll paint--industry against spite--I will have a pull for it.
+    Dear Henry Greville behaves to me like an angel; he writes
+    _every day_, and sends me the _Times_ regularly. Mrs.
+    Sartoris, too, writes very often. You will be glad to hear
+    that my prospects about models are rather brighter than they
+    were; I have found two or three that will be useful.
+
+                                                 PARIS, _Sunday_.
+
+    Although my letter (and I am afraid a very unpleasant one)
+    must have reached you as soon as the other was fairly out of
+    the house, yet I write a line in answer to all the kind and
+    considerate things you wrote in the idea I might be ill or
+    irritable. I value your kind solicitude, dear Mamma, as much
+    as you can wish, I assure you, and should indeed be heartily
+    sorry in any way to give you pain or make you in any way
+    unhappy--and talking of that, dear Mamma, I sincerely hope you
+    have completely got over your first annoyance about my fiasco,
+    which, except of course in a pecuniary point of view, is in
+    point of fact a fortunate event for my future progress, in the
+    _�lan_ it gives to my application and particularly to my
+    obstinacy. I am very busy now at "Pan" and "Venus," but have
+    not decided what I shall do next year. I think it is very
+    characteristic of the critics that they _none_ of them mention
+    "Romeo and Juliet," which is, I know, universally liked. Dear
+    Mamma, never fear, your boy will walk over all that--depend
+    upon it. How does Papa take it? How the girls?--Give to all my
+    best love, and believe me, your very devoted son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+                                                 _Tuesday, 1856._
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--In the hope that I should receive to-day Ruskin's
+    pamphlet on the Institution, I delayed until now answering
+    your kind letter. It has, however, not arrived, and as there
+    is great uncertainty whether it really is already published or
+    no, I think it better not to keep you longer without news from
+    me. The criticisms in the papers are, as far as I can judge,
+    partly from the little I have read and partly from what my
+    friends tell me, singularly injudicious, leaving almost
+    entirely untouched the really vulnerable parts of the picture,
+    and attacking almost exclusively that which is least
+    objectionable--the execution.
+
+    Ruskin does not much like the picture, and prefers the "Romeo"
+    considerably, but he will write of course in a serious spirit
+    and like an intelligent man. I have just made the acquaintance
+    of Robert Fleury--the best French colourist, in my
+    opinion--and he received me with the greatest kindness and
+    simplicity, showing all that he had, and explaining anything
+    that I wished to know; this is a valuable acquaintance which
+    I owe to Montfort. I have made the acquaintance of a highly
+    talented young German genre painter of whom I had heard in
+    Frankfurt; he is my age, and paints with greater facility, but
+    my talent is of a higher order I think. Ary Scheffer has been
+    very amiable and pleasant to me about my fiasco, telling me
+    what he went through himself, and telling me to think nothing
+    of it. I sent to Wild shortly after you left, and was able to
+    render him a little service in the way of some Venetian
+    costumes, still I hesitate to ask him to introduce me to Paul
+    Delaroche. We shall see about all that next autumn when I come
+    back from Italy, when the Viardots will also introduce me to
+    Delacroix.
+
+    Pan and Venus are progressing _tout doucement_.
+
+    I have written to Watts to ask his leave to put my pictures in
+    his studio (Pan and Venus) in Little Holland House. I read
+    carefully all you said, dear Mamma, about the critics, &c. &c.
+    I honestly think that my ill-luck is in no way attributable to
+    over-hurrying. Those things in my picture which were really
+    most open to discussion, I did all with my eyes open and
+    deliberately, and they were the only ones that the discerning
+    scribblers seem not to have noticed. Again, with regard to the
+    said critics, I think, dear Mamma, you see things "en noir."
+    _Who reports_ me to have sneered at ----? I did internally, as
+    I do at all snobs. However, I have long since banished the
+    whole subject. If ever I attain real excellence, the public
+    will in the long run find it out; and if they don't pay me
+    they will at least acknowledge me, especially when the
+    pre-Raphaelite "engouement" has calmed a little. In a
+    fortnight I shall go to England; by that time Pan and Venus
+    will be done, and I think they promise well. I am very anxious
+    to get to London. I mean to enjoy it very much--take my fill,
+    and then go for a short time to Italy to renew my profession
+    of faith before Raphael and Michael Angelo. I am very glad to
+    hear that you are enjoying yourselves, and that you remember
+    me in the midst of your jonquils and anemones.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[48] Watts wrote at the time Leighton died that he had enjoyed an
+uninterrupted friendship with him of forty-five years. This was
+evidently a slight miscalculation. We read in one of Leighton's letters
+to his mother from Rome that Watts had called on him, but that he had
+missed seeing him, and Watts certainly spoke to me of this interview on
+the pavement of Montagu Square in 1855 as the first he had had with
+Leighton.
+
+[49] In a letter from his mother, December 22, 1854, she quotes an
+extract from the _Morning Post_, written by a critic who had been
+visiting the studios in Rome, and who alludes to Leighton's sympathy
+with Giotto. It reads to-day as quaint and curiously antiquated as do
+Knight's scornful criticisms on the Elgin Marbles. Mrs. Leighton
+writes: "One sentence in your letter has set your dear father on the
+horns of anxiety. You tell us we are not to expect too much from your
+pictures, and remind us 'that the path which leads to success, &c. &c.'
+Now, Papa fancies that you had underpainted your canvas and were not
+satisfied with the result, and that was the cause of your writing less
+hopefully than usual. We have been wishing much to hear what your
+progress was; knowing the subject of each picture, we should have
+understood if you had reported progress. In case you are in want of a
+little encouragement, I must tell you the other day Papa enters the
+drawing-room with a radiant face. He held in his hand a piece of paper,
+and requesting my attention, he read me its contents, which I copy for
+you, and which I found were taken from a column in the _Morning Post_
+devoted to criticisms on artists and their works chiefly, I believe, on
+the Continent, but of that I am not quite sure. 'I next called on Mr.
+Leighton, who is employed on a canvas of many feet. His subject
+is'--then follows the description, after which he adds: 'Mr. Leighton
+will become a great artist if he advances as he has begun. His drawing
+is admirable, much better than that of English artists generally. Some
+of the figures are Giottoish in the treatment of the drapery, which is
+scarcely pardonable, because drapery fell flowingly about the human
+body in Giotto's time as well as now. Why imitate the uncomfortable
+line of that conventional rag? It is, however, unfair to judge of
+anything beyond drawing and composition in the present state of this
+picture, which is an extraordinary work for so young a man.' Remarks
+more or less favourable were made on several other artists, but nothing
+like what you have just read. Do you know this critic? I need not tell
+you how highly we appreciate this gentleman's sagacity; but jokes
+apart, Papa was rather puzzled at such a criticism about the drapery of
+some of the figures, because you excel in such folds, so it seems to us
+odd that you should skimp any of your figures. The same column contains
+observations on the subject of 'High Art' and large historical
+pictures, or rather comments on those made by young students, such
+indeed as I have heard you make, that I could almost have fancied the
+author was answering your remarks. We were rather startled to read in
+your letter that you find you had better not use the interests of a
+professional man to facilitate the admission of your picture into the
+Exhibition of the Royal Academy, but trust to its merits for that
+result, as we are told the Exhibition in question is, strictly
+speaking, a private affair for the works of the members only and such
+as they choose to admit, which explains perhaps the complaints of
+rejection one has read of from time to time. I hope your picture may be
+kindly judged and well hung."
+
+[50] On a first visit to Athens I was struck by the extraordinary
+insignificance and want of beauty in the Levantines of mixed race who
+crowded the streets; nowhere seemed there a trace left among the
+inhabitants of the town of the type of Greek beauty. When travelling a
+few days later to Colonna, while the train stopped at a station on the
+lower slopes of Hymettus, I saw two men hurrying through the adjacent
+olive groves to catch it. They were dressed in the Greek costume of the
+provinces--an embroidered waistcoat cut low leaving the throat bare,
+the short white plaited skirt, and the heavy cloak falling from one
+shoulder. Either of these men might have sat to Pheidias for the
+Theseus. Both were more magnificent in form than any statue ever made.
+Doubtless, in the days of her ancient glory, Greece contained a far
+larger proportion of inhabitants who were beautiful than are to be
+found now; nevertheless Pheidias without a doubt had to exercise his
+gift of selecting the best, no less than did Leighton and Watts.
+
+[51] See List of Illustrations.
+
+[52] Ibid.
+
+[53] Ibid.
+
+[54] Mr. Herbert Wilson.
+
+[55] The story is that on Leighton's expressing his gratitude at
+receiving a visit from him (Ary Scheffer), he replied, "If I did not
+attach considerable importance to your talent, I should not have
+mounted three flights of stairs to see you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+FRIENDS
+
+
+Leighton's friendships were very salient, vivid interests to him among
+the varied occupations of his life. In any complete picture of his
+personality these must take a prominence only secondary to his passion
+for Art and Beauty,--and for "his second home,"--the land that had
+cast such a strange spell and charm over him from the early days of
+childhood,--to his love for his family, and his reverent devotion to
+his master, Steinle, and to Mrs. Sartoris. To these two inspiring
+friends and teachers he declared he owed what he prized most in life,
+namely, a development of those gifts and qualities which enabled him
+to be of service to his generation.
+
+"I have always believed that his ruling passion was _Duty_--the
+keenest possible sense of it," Mr. Briton Rivi�re writes. The
+influences which were the most precious to Leighton were assuredly
+those which enabled him to extend his own influence in the highest and
+widest direction, and fulfil exhaustively his duty to his
+fellow-creatures. Every moment of his life was real and earnest to
+him. Every moment had a purpose--ever before him was the urgent
+imperative necessity he felt of being _faithful_: faithful in every
+detail as in decisive final aims. If an epithet had to be attached to
+his name, epitomising Leighton's salient characteristics, the most
+appropriate would surely be "Leighton the faithful."
+
+Many among those who are dead,--also among the now living, found in
+him their best friend. The letters written to him by Mr. Henry
+Greville, and those that Leighton wrote to Mr. Hanson Walker are good
+examples, among the many that have been preserved, showing the very
+prominent place his friends took in Leighton's life. In the first we
+trace the tender affection he inspired in the hearts of his
+intimates,[56] and in the second the ardent manner in which Leighton
+would help artists younger than himself, and how with a parental
+solicitude he would do his best to forward their true interests.[57]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF HEAD FOR "LIEDER OHNE WORTE." 1860
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+The following letters from Mr. Henry Greville were written on
+Leighton's return to Paris, after he had run over to London to place
+the "Romeo" picture which had been in the Paris International
+Exhibition with Colnaghi, and after "The Triumph of Music" had been
+sent in to the Academy.
+
+                                              LONDON, _April 25_.
+
+    DEAR FAY,--You are rather a bad boy not to have given either
+    Ad. or me a _signe de vie_, but as I have not seen her to-day,
+    she may have heard from you. We both want to do so _very_
+    much, so pray write ME a line directly. I only do so to-day to
+    say that at my suggestion Ad. and I rushed off yesterday again
+    to Colnaghi to find out if the Queen or Albert knew of your
+    picture being at his shop; and if not, to ask him to let them
+    know it, if he could do so with propriety. He said he would at
+    once send the picture to B. Palace, as he was in the habit of
+    doing other works; though he did not think that it was likely
+    they would buy another picture of yours, he admitted that it
+    might be advantageous to you that they should see it. He again
+    praised the picture greatly, and told us that it was
+    universally admired. My sister prefers it infinitely to
+    "Cimabue" in all respects, but the fact is, the subject is
+    more attractive to English people than the other. I have
+    nothing else to tell you. I am _very_ seedy with an affection
+    of the bronchial tubes, and very low, and would give anything
+    to see you, my dear boy, but must have patience till the
+    pleasant moment of having you under my roof arrives. You will
+    be glad to hear that my mother is better. I have not seen
+    Ellesmere, as he was at the Review, but you may depend on my
+    not forgetting your interests. The said Review was a most
+    glorious spectacle, and they had a splendid day for it. I am
+    starved to death here, and Ad. and I do nothing but grumble.
+    She and I dined _t�te-�-t�te_ last night, and slept and
+    coughed through the evening with the occasional intermission
+    of talking of you--you old Fay! To-night I am going with her
+    to Eli, though I ought to be in my bed. Theo is ill and can't
+    come, and Fanny reads. Oh! that you were to be with us! Tell
+    me if you would object to a VERY slight gold frame to the
+    drawings--merely a _line_, because, as my rooms are all white,
+    and that everything in them has gilt, the drawings want a sort
+    of background--which this slight frame would give them. Tell
+    me what you think. I don't mean to hang up my Vintage, but
+    keep it near me on an _easle_ (how do you spell it?). Charley,
+    being highly coloured, looks lovely, and don't want any
+    frame--nasty Charley! Now pray write and tell me all about
+    yourself--and the _moddles_--and how you _are_--and how you
+    get on--and what you do. Don't drag off to dull parties, but
+    go to bed early.
+
+    God bless you. Amami, ne ho gran bisogno. Colnaghi said he had
+    heard from one Cooper a very good report of "Orpheus."
+
+                                                               H.
+
+    How have the photographs turned out? I like your portrait less
+    now that you are away--but it can't be helped, it is better
+    than none, but it looks so sad. I have hung you and Ad. up
+    side by side in sweet companionship in my dressing-room, so
+    that I may see you both the first thing on waking.
+
+                                            LONDON, _April 26th_.
+
+    DEAREST BIMBO,--You have made us pass some very anxious hours,
+    as the telegraph which I sent off at seven this morning will
+    have testified, though it will also have surprised and perhaps
+    alarmed you until you read its contents. The fact is, _I_
+    thought it odd that we did not hear from you, yesterday at all
+    events, as I felt sure you would have written immediately on
+    getting our joint note from Boulogne, Wednesday, and certainly
+    on the following day. However, I felt sanguine that on going
+    to dine at 79, I should find that Ad. had heard from you, but,
+    on the contrary, I found her full of anxiety at no letter,
+    imagining every species of cause for your silence, which she
+    said was so very unlike you, that I directly caught the same
+    state of worry, and we determined that I should telegraph the
+    first thing this morning to know if you were ill, or if
+    anything had happened. I never slept all night, and of course
+    had worked myself, with her assistance, into a wretched state
+    of anxiety about you--when at nine your letter arrived, and a
+    blessed relief it was. I should not probably have been in such
+    a state, had Adelaide not been convinced that illness or some
+    catastrophe had prevented your writing, because, she said,
+    your _wont_ was to do so immediately on parting with her, and
+    she could account for it in no other way. In short, dear Fay,
+    we were very foolish; but I assure you our folly met its own
+    punishment by the anxiety, and which spoilt our "Eli"
+    entirely. Poor Fay! I daresay you little thought that we were
+    tormenting ourselves about you, and I, for one, shall try and
+    not do so any more. Your letter is like yourself--dear and
+    kind. With regard to the enclosure, my opinion is that you
+    would not do wisely or handsomely by Colnaghi to withdraw your
+    picture from his keeping, unless he _wished_ to get rid of it
+    to make room for the supposed exhibition of drawings;
+    moreover, my own opinion is that you would not do well to
+    exhibit at the Crystal Palace. I have no faith in that
+    institution, and I think it will be a pity to rob your studio
+    of the "Pan" and "Venus" for that purpose; but as I do not
+    consider myself a good judge of these matters or competent to
+    advise you, I think I should be very much guided by what other
+    artists of the same standing as yourself think and do in the
+    matter, and before deciding or answering Mr. Magwood, I should
+    write to Buckner or any one else competent to advise you and
+    ask their opinion. I don't know what Sister Adelaide will say,
+    but I have sent her your letter and the enclosure, and she
+    will probably write to you on the subject. You are _too_ dear
+    and nice about my mother. I fear that before you come she will
+    have left London, and I don't think you would like to paint
+    her, because her sweet face is entirely hidden by the shade
+    she is obliged to wear over her poor eyes; but _you_ know
+    whether I should like her portrait painted by you! But, dear
+    Fay, you are too lavish of your time on others, and do not
+    think enough of yourself. Here I was interrupted by a visit
+    from Adelaide, overjoyed at hearing all is well with you, and
+    agreeing entirely with me _in re_ C. Palace, Colnaghi, &c. She
+    says if C. wishes the picture to be removed, it is for him to
+    express that wish and not you, that a better order of people
+    go to him than those who frequent the C.P., that he is
+    well-disposed towards you, and that it is advisable you should
+    keep him as your friend.
+
+    We think Mogford's reference useless, being a foreigner, and
+    we are certain that unless _Millais_ and others of the same
+    class exhibit at the C.P., you had best have nothing to do
+    with it. I took Ad. up to your room, and she says you will be
+    _comfy_ in it; and she saw your nice face, patted it, and
+    said, "Dear Fay, but it looks so sad!" She thinks both
+    drawings will be better for a slight gilt _rim_, but I won't
+    put it on without your leave. I am so glad you are leading a
+    wholesome life, and getting the b. who planted you, rather
+    than dawdle proudly, and be without a good _moddle_. I have
+    nothing to say, dear Bimbo, and you will have had enough of
+    me. I am very bad with an ulcerated throat, cough, and
+    inflamed bronchia, and altogether below par. I have seen
+    hardly anybody since I came. Adelaide would have been pleased
+    with "Eli," had she been in a vein where pleasure was
+    possible. Pauline sang to perfection the lovely music allotted
+    to her. And now, dearest Bimbo, God bless you. Write very
+    often, if only a _line_, as it is comfortable to hear that all
+    is well with you--that is always the news I most wish to get;
+    and tell me how the pictures progress, and your real state of
+    mind about them.--Your old and loving Babbo,
+
+                                                               H.
+
+    I send back Mogford. Penelope B. (Bentinck) tells me that the
+    great judge, George, condescends to approve "Romeo" mightily!!
+
+                                    LONDON, _Monday, April 28th_.
+
+    DEAR GOOD FAY,--Cartwright was wrong about the telegraph, but
+    as our anxiety was removed by your letter, I did not expect
+    you to send me one. Knowing how likely you were to write,
+    supposing you to be well, you may imagine that we were not a
+    little anxious at getting no sign of life from you, in return
+    for our daily letters, and I never could have guessed that the
+    Boulogne letter would only have reached you on Saturday!
+    However, all is well that ends well, but we passed a very
+    disagreeable day and night, and it was _because_ we did _not_
+    think you capable of putting off writing that we fussed and
+    worried ourselves about you--foolishly, dear Fay, no doubt. I
+    am very seedy and confined to the house by throat, bronchia,
+    unceasing cough, swelled glands, bad eyes--and should not
+    inflict myself and ailments upon you, but that it is a solace
+    and a comfort to _causer avec "mon petit dernier"_--a
+    cognomen which smiles UPON me--and made _me_ smile. Sister
+    Adelaide tea'd with me last night _en t�te � t�te_. Fanny was
+    grand, and would not come in, though she dropped her sister at
+    my door, because (she said) I had not said _to_ her that I
+    wished _for_ her! I was so little _en train_ that I was not
+    sorry to have only Adelaide, and we _did_ more than once say
+    how we wished Fay was eating the muffin destined for the proud
+    Fanny. Adelaide has just been here, and brought me your dear
+    letter. I don't see any _present_ prospect of the fire of my
+    affliction being extinguished or allowed to grow dim, so you
+    may make your mind easy on that score, excellent Fay. I feel
+    for your loneliness, and know what a contrast it must present
+    with the sweet fellowship we have held together so unceasingly
+    for those last two months. The only thing you gain by the loss
+    of your people is more time, and a later repast. I don't doubt
+    poor Mamma being unhappy at leaving you, her true and only
+    Benjamin, and for an indefinite time. I can judge by what I
+    felt at parting with _mon petit dernier_, and _with_ the hope
+    of so soon greeting him again. No, Fay, I won't have the
+    Charley drawing, and I won't have you do anything more for any
+    one but yourself, knowing as I do all the things you have on
+    hand--and _� propos_ of _that_, I must tell you that I have
+    endeavoured to put another iron in the fire _in re_ fresco. I
+    asked Lady Abercorn, who is my dearest friend, to speak to
+    Lord Aberdeen (her father-in-law) who is on the Committee of
+    Taste, or whatever it is called, first about your picture at
+    Colnaghi's and then of you generally as desirous of painting
+    in fresco, and as of one whose studies have been that way
+    directed, in whom I take a great interest; but I made her
+    understand that it was no _job_ I wanted done, or that I asked
+    any favour, but merely I wished it to be known that Leighton,
+    a very rising artist, would like to be employed in that line,
+    if an occasion presented itself. Lady A. understood me exactly
+    and being very sympathetic immediately conceived an interest
+    for my _petit dernier_ (I wish you were my son, Fay!) and said
+    if she did not see Lord Aberdeen very soon she would write to
+    him. Neither I nor Adelaide know where Windsor and Newton
+    live, so you had best write straight to him to send the
+    colours you want. I think I _must_ put just a _baguette d'or_
+    on the drawings, and when you see them on my walls I don't
+    think you will disapprove. With regard to Cartwright, Adelaide
+    says Jules Sartoris has got a place called Tusmore. I should
+    advise him to lose no time in advertising it both in the
+    newspaper and by different agents in town and country. I
+    should think it was a place _sure_ to be let, from its
+    convenient distance from London and other advantages. There is
+    no news here.
+
+                                               LONDON, _May 6th_.
+
+    DEAREST FAY,--Your letter is a relief and a comfort. It is
+    both to me to see you take this disagreeable business so
+    manfully, so wisely, and to think that instead of being cast
+    down, your energies will only be aroused by this stupid and
+    unjust criticism. In this case it may, then, well be said,
+    "Sweet are the uses of adversity." As to all the other papers,
+    I can't pretend to say what they may have written, but the
+    _Leader_ is one of no repute, and, as Ruskin said to Adelaide
+    this morning, it don't REALLY signify _what_ they write; in
+    the long run talent and genius must prevail, as yours will,
+    dear Fay, if it please God to grant you, as I fervently pray,
+    health and strength. She is going to write to you, and will
+    tell you all Ruskin said, and also what she thinks of the
+    Exhibition in general and your picture in particular, which, I
+    hear, is infamously placed--that is, in so bad a light that
+    only _Orpheus_ is visible. Passing, I must tell you that
+    Edward (Sartoris) came to see me yesterday, and the _first_
+    thing he said on entering the room was, "Well, I don't think
+    Leighton's picture looks bad. Orpheus's drapery is too yellow,
+    but it don't look amiss at all." This was rather much for him,
+    eh? He likes "Autumn Leaves," and he praised the "Leslie"
+    (which Adelaide says is all very well, but "slaty"). Landseer
+    is beautiful--but E. (Edward Sartoris) was _sous le charme_,
+    having sat next him at dinner at Marochetti's, when he told me
+    L. was as much _aux petits soins_ for him as if he had been
+    the loveliest of females. I am so glad about the models, and
+    if I don't hear from you as often shall know why. I am also
+    glad you dine with Cartwright and Co., but _how_ you _can_
+    dandle a nasty, doughy, puffy, bread-and-butter smelling thing
+    called a baby! Pah! a baby is my horror and aversion. Never do
+    it again--not even by your own. I could not have dandled even
+    my Bimbo without a grimace. Well done! old hideous ----; if
+    she promise not to act herself, I'll take a box for her next
+    benefit. She is the _�me damn�e_ of Macready, so that her
+    verdict surprises me. I expect she will begin imitating her,
+    and have Medea translated--horrible idea! Read Ellesmere's
+    speech; it is very pretty, and the whole debate is
+    interesting, but Derby and Co. don't cut a good figure at all.
+    I am getting better now, and dined with my parent yesterday,
+    but can't go out in daytime for fear of eyes and throat, the
+    wind is so cold. Of course I read your letter to Ad. (Adelaide
+    Sartoris). (I think you had best now write straight to her,
+    because as I am soon hoping to be out, and have no one to send
+    so far, your letters will get to her quicker and more surely
+    by post.)
+
+    You must be very careful, and take time to weigh well and
+    consider the subjects of your future pictures. I think the
+    Mermaid might be both interesting and effective well carried
+    out, and you might also perhaps paint some subject from some
+    one of the Italian poets--Tasso, Ariosto, Boccaccio--for your
+    own satisfaction. God bless you! my dear boy. I am longing to
+    see you again already. Tell me how the models answer and how
+    you get on. _Don't_ call Brackley _de_. They are removed to
+    the Meurice. If you don't find them, write to her and offer to
+    go with her (saying at my suggestion) to the Louvre.--Love
+    your old Babbo,
+
+                                                               H.
+
+Later in the summer Mr. Greville wrote:--
+
+                                     1856, HATCHFORD, _Thursday_.
+
+    MY DEAR BOY,--I do sympathise with your disgust at the same
+    time that I think you have acted very _l�g�rement_ about your
+    pictures, and, in fact, taken no trouble or heed about them.
+    _You should have seen to it all yourself before you left
+    London_, or have given directions to Watts, to which he would
+    have attended, instead of leaving him in total ignorance as to
+    what you meant or wished, and which picture or if both were to
+    go. I kept perpetually telling you to see after this business
+    and to be more _exact_ in it, but you see now the consequence
+    of not attending to things more carefully. You had better
+    write a curt letter to Greene, reminding him that you _had_
+    given written directions (as you say) that it was your "_Pan_"
+    that was to be removed, and that you made no mention of the
+    "Venus" (what has he done with her?), and again asking him
+    (since he had not replied to the query) whether he had got the
+    "Romeo." I shan't be in London until to-morrow night late, and
+    as you are to be there on Monday there will be no use in my
+    going to Greene, but I can do so on Saturday if you wish it.
+    I have had an answer from Ellesmere's secretary, to whom I
+    wrote to go and see if your pictures were well hung, to say
+    that the Exhibition only opens in first week of September,[58]
+    but that he has a friend who is an influential member of the
+    hanging committee, and that he will speak to him in favour of
+    yours being put into a good light. I heard from Adelaide
+    yesterday that she will be in town on Monday and will dine us.
+    I hoped you would have stayed (and she too) all Tuesday and
+    gone away on Wednesday morning, so that we might have spent
+    two evenings together, and I am disappointed. I shall go to
+    Scotland on Wednesday, and am sorry to have settled to do so.
+    I suppose you know Alfred Sartoris marries Miss Barrington--an
+    alliance which will enchant Aunt ----, as the young lady is
+    "The Honourable," and allied to several marquesses and
+    earls.--Addio, caro, your ever affectionate H.
+
+    _P.S._--Write again by all means to Greene asking _what has
+    become of the "Venus,"_ and also whether the "Romeo" has or
+    _not_ been sent to Manchester--whether you employ him or not,
+    you have a right to know what he has done with your property.
+    Write a line to Queen Street to-morrow to say at what time you
+    will be there on Monday that I may not be out of the way.
+
+    Rain has come, but it is still deliciously warm and fine in
+    the intervals.
+
+Later in the same year Mr. Greville wrote:--
+
+                                       LONDON, _August 26, 1856_.
+
+    MY DEAREST FAY,--I have just got your letter of Saturday 23rd
+    from Frankfort, and as you state therein that you were to
+    leave that place on Monday, and that the letters which I sent
+    to Malet for you could only reach him on that morning, it is
+    next to certain that they will not have reached you. I
+    requested him, in the event of your having left Frankfort, or
+    in his failing to find you out, to send them on to the _p.
+    restante_ at Venice, and you will probably find them there
+    together with this letter, but I think it best also to send
+    you the originals for fear of accident, as it is desirable
+    that you should write to Mr. Harrison yourself.[59] In the
+    meanwhile, I have told him that when I knew your address I
+    would apprize him of it, and in a few days I shall write and
+    say that you are at Venice; but I don't think he will write to
+    you any more, but that he will expect to know _when you are
+    likely to return_. Having got so far, it of course is out of
+    the question that you should think of, or for a moment be
+    expected to return on purpose, and I think it most likely you
+    will be able to get Watts to go and look at the picture, in
+    case the matter should be pressing; but I think it will be
+    best that you offer to return to England before you settle at
+    Paris, and whenever your present tour (which I told Mr.
+    Harrison was one for artistic purposes) shall be ended. It
+    will be a great bore having to come back even then, on
+    purpose. I am sorry you did not get the letters at Frankfort;
+    on the whole though, perhaps they would only have worried you
+    and have made you _hesitate_ as to _returning_, and which
+    perhaps you might have thought _shorter_ and less troublesome
+    than having to come back by-and-bye. However, it is very
+    probable you may get Watts to do what is necessary, and that
+    you may be saved the expense and bore of another journey here
+    in the autumn. Adelaide and I contemplated the possibility of
+    your coming over at once from Frankfort, and we both
+    deprecated the idea, though we privately said how intensely
+    glad we should be to see you--selfish as it might be; and it
+    was arranged that I was to telegraph to her to Tunbridge where
+    she is gone to-day. Thanks, you dear boy, for your letter just
+    received. I can understand your pleasure at finding yourself
+    in your old haunts again, with your old friend and master to
+    whom you owe so much. It is a great comfort to me to find that
+    he likes your drawings, though I never doubted his doing so. I
+    was amused by your account of the Pimp and Ballerina, whose
+    modesty seems to have attracted you more than that of the
+    Russian Princess. Since writing to you last I have done but
+    little. I am come into town this morning expecting to find
+    Ffrench, but he has not turned up. I saw Sister A.[60]
+    yesterday on her way through, but my visit was spoilt by the
+    ---- Girls and Cigala, who (as he never made love to me)
+    appears to me merely a _bon sabreur_ and horse fancier. You
+    know my opinion of the young ladies, who, _par parenth�se_,
+    adore you. I am still at H. (Holland) House, and shall remain
+    there until Friday, when I come to dine with Adelaide, and
+    shall then go to Hatchford until I repair to Worsley--my
+    sister will be established there before long. Yesterday,
+    Ellesmere's secretary sent me a letter to say that the gent.
+    of the hanging committee "would take care that Mr. Leighton's
+    pictures were placed in the most favourable position."[61] So
+    let us hope for the best. I must tell you that Vic. is come
+    home, and is now opposite to me, and that she looks admirably
+    well. We have had heaps of people at H. House at dinner almost
+    every day. Marochetti came yesterday. He is full of the
+    subject of colouring statues, and has just taken to Osborne
+    two busts which the Queen was to present to-day to P. Albert
+    for his birthday. Marochetti _traite d'imb�ciles_ all the
+    English sculptors who cannot yet take in this "undoubted
+    fact." He says Gibson is the only one who admits it, but even
+    he will not go Marochetti's lengths. Watts is (you know) at
+    Malvern, and the doctor thought him decidedly better before he
+    went, and that he may get into tolerable health. I think he is
+    to be at Malvern three weeks. John Leslie's wedding is at this
+    moment proceeding; he has almost settled to buy Lady C.
+    Lascelles' house at Campden Hill, which will be a capital
+    position for his studio, and another Sunday lounge for you
+    next year. Next year! (_eheu fugaces!_) a long time to wait to
+    see you again under my roof, you very dear boy. I always think
+    this dispersing time so melancholy. I wonder if I shall hear
+    from you before Venice. Oh yes, of course, you will write
+    wherever you stop. Mind and tell me about your studies, and
+    what you see and do--above all things take care of your
+    health, and don't catch fever by working in the sun, &c.
+    Charles says he can't think where your hat box can be--he is
+    in ecstasies with your old trousers, which have come out
+    brand new and a capital fit! You would be quite envious if
+    you could see them.
+
+    Good-bye, best of Fays. I shall send this letter off and write
+    another in a few days. I will mark _outside_ the dates of my
+    letters (and PRAY, mind and always date yours--you never do)
+    so that you will know which to open first. God bless you, you
+    dear _good_ fellow.--Love your fond old,
+
+                                                           BABBO.
+
+                                   LONDON, _Thursday, August 28_.
+
+    DEAREST FAY,--One line to say that this afternoon your letter
+    of Sunday with the enclosed for Harrison reached me. It is a
+    relief to me that you _got_ the letters, and I think your
+    answer does very well, but as it had no cover, and that I was
+    obliged to send it in my own name to Harrison, I added, what
+    _you_ had better have done, that if necessary you could easily
+    come over the beginning of November, and I rather hope they
+    will accept that offer, as by that time the Court will have
+    returned from Scotland (perhaps to Windsor though), and you
+    might have a chance of being brought into contact with Albert,
+    and you would jabber good German to him and win his heart,
+    which _may_ be valuable to you. With regard to Watts, he said
+    he should be too happy to do _anything_ for you, but he wished
+    you to be thrown with Albert. He (Watts) is better and has
+    left Malvern. I got yesterday the _Manchester Guardian_, with
+    a sort of preliminary list of the pictures which are to be
+    opened to the private view to-morrow. They were not then all
+    hung, but they mention the "Romeo" as in a conspicuous
+    place--a sombre picture, but the Romeo and Juliet finely
+    conceived--or something to that effect. You shall hear all
+    about it. I have got little Ffrench till Saturday, when I go
+    to Hatchford and he home. I expect Adelaide to-morrow--we dine
+    with her, and I _fear_ shall have ----, which will be a potent
+    bore. There is of course no other news. Penelope Bentinck has
+    produced a huge boy, and is quite well. John Leslie's marriage
+    went off without any tears, and he made a very good "neat and
+    appropriate."
+
+    God bless you, my very dear boy--you are not so fond of me as
+    I am of you--be sure of it. Take care of yourself, and write
+    to and love your old
+
+                                                         BABBINO.
+
+    Tell me all about your studies, as they interest me, and don't
+    forget to put me up to some pretty cheap gilt-moulding for my
+    frame.
+
+    Adelaide was pleased and touched at your seeing about her
+    pictures. Fay, she is devotedly attached to you--you may be
+    sure of it.
+
+                                        HATCHFORD, _September 9_.
+
+    MY DEAREST FAY,--I am going to begin a letter to you which I
+    can only send when I know where to direct to you, for after
+    Venice (from whence I have not heard from you yet) you have
+    given me no address. I hope to hear that you got all mine sent
+    to that place, and particularly the one enclosing a copy of
+    Phipps' letter to me in which he tells me it is the Queen's
+    wish that you come over here on your return to Paris. I got
+    your letter from Meran on Thursday last, and I sent it off to
+    Adelaide by that post, enjoining her to let me have it back by
+    the next, since which I have never had a line from her, and at
+    last grew so alarmed that I wrote to Anne to ask what had
+    happened, and that I could not but fear Ad. had been sent for
+    to Edward[62] in Ireland. To this letter I got _no_ reply, and
+    I have been in great suspense and anxiety till this morning,
+    when sure enough my surmise proved correct, and I got a few
+    lines from Adelaide herself from Muckross, whither she arrived
+    on Saturday, having left Warnford the day before, they having
+    sent for her. She has, I do not doubt, written to you and told
+    you that she found him neither dead or dying, but in a low,
+    bilious fever, having been in bed a week, and the doctor not
+    giving much hope of a speedy recovery. She, however, intends
+    to move him as soon as it is possible, but it may be some time
+    first, and of course their plans are more or less uncertain,
+    and mine of meeting them in London at an end, as I shall be
+    gone to Worsley before they can be in town. It is, however, a
+    mercy that this illness is not even more serious than it is.
+    When I heard his account of himself as I passed through
+    London, I wondered that she was not more alarmed, but I did
+    not tell her how serious the case appeared to me, and as it
+    has proved; and when I did not hear from her, I immediately
+    guessed what had occurred. She found Fordwich there, and says
+    the place appeared a Paradise, and now that she is easy about
+    Edward, perhaps she won't mind spending the time there instead
+    of Warnford. Only, the boy was to go to Eton on the 11th, and
+    I don't know how they will manage that. I have written to Ad.
+    to-day, and have sent her a volume I received this morning
+    from Fanny Kemble. The letter would interest you, but is too
+    bulky to send. She speaks of you in a way that pleases me and
+    would gratify your vanity in every respect, and describes you
+    as one of the most interesting people she ever met, and hopes
+    that your art may be an unceasing source of fame, profit, and
+    delight to you. I will keep the letter and show it to you when
+    I have the happiness of seeing you, my dear Fay. When Sarah
+    leaves her she is to begin reading in the West, and I suspect
+    that will answer better to her than the girl's society! Dear
+    Fay, my sister writes to me that she and Brackley went into
+    Manchester to see your pictures. I will transcribe what she
+    says: "They are pretty well placed, but the 'Romeo' is so dark
+    a picture it is difficult to see, and the lighting of the
+    gallery has something of the defect of that at B. House. The
+    'Pan' and 'Venus' seem to me to be very good pictures. _B.
+    considers them improper._ I like the 'Pan' the best. There are
+    not many good pictures in the Exhibition." To this I replied
+    that I was much diverted by Brackley's prudishness, but that
+    if such personages were to be painted, it was not possible to
+    clothe them in crinoline or in green gauze drawers such as
+    Bomba imposed upon his Ballerina. It makes me so sick, all
+    that cant about impropriety, but there is so much of it as to
+    make the sale of "nude figures" very improbable, and therefore
+    I hope you will turn your thoughts entirely to well-covered
+    limbs, and paint no more _Venuses_ for some time to come. I
+    trust you will devote all your energies to the Romeo, Dalilah
+    and Syren, and if you have any spare time, that you will do
+    our Friar Lawrence. I forget if I told you that Miss Kaye saw
+    your portrait of yourself, and says it is quite a _libel_ on
+    your physiognomy. Why _did_ you make yourself so pinched and
+    sad-looking, Fay?
+
+    _September 12._--Your letter from Venice of 5th reached me
+    this morning. I feel sure you will not have got my long
+    letter directed there on the 5th and enclosing Phipps' answer,
+    so I had better transcribe it: "It would be very desirable
+    that Mr. L. should run over from Paris when there to see
+    exactly what is the damage done to his picture, and I will
+    have nothing done to it in the meantime, but care shall be
+    taken that the injury shall not be increased. Mr. L. does not
+    state in his letter where an answer would reach him, and if
+    you are in communication with him perhaps you would have the
+    kindness to mention to him what Her Majesty's wishes on this
+    subject are." So, you see, my dear boy, you _must_ come, and
+    perhaps it may not be time so wasted, as I shall try and find
+    out when the Queen comes back from Scotland, so that if
+    possible you may time your arrival accordingly. The P. of
+    Wales is going to see the manufactories at Manchester, and
+    they are going to ask him to Worsley, I believe. Only fancy
+    those brutes at Warnford never sending me Adelaide's letter
+    written to me the morning of her hastening off to Ireland a
+    week ago until to-day! Too bad. She wrote in great distress of
+    mind and evidently hardly expected to find Edward[63] alive,
+    as she did not believe the telegraph which said he was better,
+    thinking that if it were so they would not have sent for her.
+    You dear boy, I am so glad you enjoy your Venice--which is all
+    very pretty no doubt, but I hate stinks and fleas--and they
+    abound there. I hate wobbling in a boat and walking in dirty
+    alleys, so I don't envy you at all. Have you fallen in with
+    either of the new married couples, Wilson or Leslie? Fay, it
+    is well you should come and see me, for I don't think there is
+    much chance of my going to Paris. The Hollands are going to
+    Naples, as the wall of their house at Paris has been damaged
+    by the pulling down of the next house and has to be rebuilt,
+    and I shall have no money to pay for lodging and food. There
+    are long lists of the pictures the Queen and others are to
+    send to the great Manchester Exhibition next year--I think
+    twenty at least from the Royal Galleries, and Ellesmere sends
+    eight or ten. I see that Eastlake is at Rome, so you may fall
+    in with him there. I conclude my next letter must be directed
+    there. You should recollect to give your address _d'avance_.
+    The second post has just brought me the enclosed, which, as
+    she says she don't write to you, I send (though it will cost a
+    fortune), knowing that it will gladden your eyes to see her
+    hand. She loves you dearly as I do, Fay! Your Meran letters
+    are very pretty, and I wish I could see that place. Good-bye,
+    and God bless you. We have lovely weather--not one bad day
+    since I have been here. Go and see the Villa Salviate. What
+    have you done with Steinle--what heard of Gamba? Love.--Your
+    old loving father,
+
+                                                               H.
+
+Enclosed is one from Mrs. Sartoris to Mr. Greville, which he sends on
+to Leighton.
+
+                                             MUCKROSS, KILLARNEY.
+
+    Many thanks. I got a letter too this morning, which I send you
+    with your own--let me have mine back. E. (Edward Sartoris) is
+    certainly a little better, thank God--still in bed though. He
+    hopes perhaps to get off next Saturday--this appears to me
+    nothing short of impossible--Monday I should think the very
+    soonest for such a move. This place is divinely beautiful, I
+    see, but I go out very little, and what with the shock I
+    received before starting, and the fatigue of my rapid journey,
+    and the anxiety about him, I feel incapable of receiving any
+    _impression_ from the place. I seem to acknowledge its beauty,
+    but I cannot get even a momentary enjoyment out of it at
+    present. The _hosts_ are very kind. Herbert always was an
+    excellent fellow. I cannot write to Fay, for with all the
+    delay caused by his letter having had to follow me here, my
+    answer would no longer catch him at Venice, and I do not know
+    where he next pitches his tent. Dear boy! he seems very
+    happy--God bless him and keep him so!
+
+  MUCKROSS, _Tuesday, 9th_.
+
+                                       HATCHFORD, _September 22_.
+
+    DEAREST FAY,--The enclosed reached me to-day having first been
+    sent to Ebury Street.[64] I think it best to send it to you
+    that you may reflect on what you will do, though it seems to
+    me that with the exception of the "Cimabue" you have _no_
+    picture you could send to this Exhibition. If you wish to be
+    represented by that work, I conclude you would have to ask
+    permission of the Queen to send it there, and this should be
+    done through "The Honourable Colonel Phipps," or Mr. Harrison,
+    his secretary. This permission would of course be granted at
+    once. When Charles told me in my bed this morning that a
+    letter had come for you from Manchester, I fondly hoped it was
+    to announce sale of one or other of your pictures! I wrote
+    yesterday, and have nothing more to say to-day but that I am
+    better, though still seedy. We have got the equinoctial gales
+    with rain. I fancy we, France and England, are going to recall
+    our missions from Naples, if Bomba don't give in, and send
+    squadrons of ships. But what then? I don't suppose we mean to
+    bombard the town. But he will do _just enough_ to give us a
+    pretence for holding our hand, and matters will then resume
+    their ordinary course, and the K. of the two Sicilies be
+    governed just as it was before. Our position is a very
+    ticklish one in this affair. I long to hear whether you saw
+    Pasta--and anything more than the waddle, the red face and
+    beard. Mind and answer my questions. I should tell you that
+    amongst your papers that came from Manchester they sent P.
+    Albert's letter to Ellesmere, and the long prospectus too, but
+    there is no use in forwarding it to you--this will already
+    cost a fortune, but I think it best to send it. When is it you
+    expect to be here? How long do you stay at home?--Addio,
+    carissimo,
+
+                                                             H.G.
+
+                                          LONDON, _September 29_.
+
+    MY DEAREST FAY,--Here I am, sleeping in London on my way to
+    Worsley to-morrow morning, and I have got my M�re Augusta
+    occupying your room; the first _female_ I have ever housed or
+    fed, and it will be a rehearsal for Sister Ad. I have just
+    missed her, as she went to the station as I left it, but I
+    found a letter from her just returned from putting the boy to
+    school; it is a bore that I missed her, as I shall not see her
+    for an age. Edward has been committing all sorts of follies
+    and is again confined to his room, but is better. He ought to
+    come to London and consult a clever man, or he will be very
+    ill, as he was once before. What a fellow you are never to say
+    a word about Pasta to me! Of course Mrs. Siddons had a
+    magnificent eye and brow--who said she had not?--and was a
+    glorious actress, but I should always have preferred Reston.
+    What did Pasta say of _her_? You are wrong about P. not being
+    _powerful_--she was _tremendous_; her voice was one of immense
+    power--almost coarse at times, but prodigious, and her
+    _gestes_ sublime from grace and strength. Dear Fay, I have
+    measured the frame; it is twelve inches wide and fourteen
+    long. Now do find me a pretty cheap cro�te. I have seen no one
+    in London but Lady Shelburne, who said there was no news. She
+    disapproves, like me, of the policy with regard to Naples, and
+    I think we shall find by-and-by a great reaction _l� dessus_.
+    By-the-bye, when at Rome go and hear the opera Verdi has been
+    composing for that place on the story of Adrienne, and tell me
+    all about it. He wrote formerly such pretty melodies, and is a
+    clever fellow. I don't know what Adelaide will do about going
+    to Germany, but I hope give it up, as for many reasons it
+    appears to me at this moment to be a foolish scheme.
+
+    Good-night, you dear boy. I can't frank this, as it is late,
+    and I don't know how, so you must pay this time. Write soon,
+    and _answer_ my letters.
+
+    I don't quite understand what it is you are doing in Italy
+    except amuse yourself. Is there any other ----? How long will
+    it be before I see you?--Addio, caro caro, tanto tanto,
+
+                                                               H.
+
+On the death of Lady Ellesmere, his sister, in answer to Leighton's
+letter of sympathy Mr. Greville writes--
+
+                                          HATCHFORD, _Wednesday_.
+
+    MY DEAREST FAY,--In my affliction, I have one consolation--and
+    it is such events as these that prove it--I am rich in
+    friends, more so, much more than I deserve--and amongst them
+    there is no one whose unselfish love I prize more than yours.
+
+    Dear Fay, I _know_ you feel for me, and I am grateful.
+
+    God bless you for it.--Your affectionate
+
+                                                               H.
+
+A short note to his father from Leighton announces the death of this
+dear friend in December 1872.
+
+                                  ATHEN�UM CLUB, PALL MALL, S.W.,
+                                                        _Friday_.
+
+    MY DEAR PAPA,--I lost last night one of my oldest and dearest
+    friends--Henry Greville; he died without much suffering, and
+    looks this morning calm and beautiful in his rest. You know
+    what I lose in him.--Your affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+Among many letters of the kind, preciously preserved by those who owe
+much to Leighton, the following notes, addressed to his young friend
+"Johnny" (Mr. John Hanson Walker), may be found interesting as
+exemplifying the trouble which Leighton would take in helping young
+artists, and with what kindness, sincerity, and delicacy he tendered
+his advice and assistance. None of these letters are dated.
+
+                                                    THE ATHEN�UM.
+
+    MY DEAR JOHNNY,--I write one line in haste to say how sorry I
+    am to hear that your health has been unsatisfactory of late. I
+    earnestly trust you won't disregard your doctor's advice, and
+    that you will, _at any sacrifice_, do something to recover
+    strength, even though a long sea voyage were necessary. Health
+    is the _first_ thing. Talk it over with Miss Nan; if her love
+    is as sincere as you believe, and I don't for a moment doubt
+    it, she will give you the same advice.
+
+    For myself, I begin to think my studio will never be ready. I
+    have not done a stroke of work. I _hope_ at the end of next
+    week I shall be at it again.
+
+    In October I am off to Rome.--Yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+    2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+      ADDISON ROAD, KENSINGTON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                   ATHEN�UM CLUB,
+                                                  PALL MALL, S.W.
+
+    Supposing a proper price were given, should you care to copy
+    (for a man of position) a portrait by Sir William Beechey and
+    one or two by Sir Thomas Lawrence? I am not asking you to do
+    it for a moment, I merely want to know whether you would
+    _care_ to do the work; _if_ so, please let me know what you
+    would ask.
+
+    I have seen Mr. Greville to-day, and he begs me to tell you
+    that the Countess Grey will be glad if you can undertake for
+    her, for the sum of _�10_, a copy of a portrait of Lady
+    Charlotte Greville. The picture is now with the Countess of
+    Ellesmere, Mr. Greville's sister, and shall be sent to you
+    wherever you wish, if you will let me know at once. Is it to
+    go to Great Castle Street? Lady Ellesmere will be extremely
+    obliged if you will not keep the picture a moment longer than
+    you absolutely require it to make a good copy; the portrait is
+    that of her mother, and she is extremely loth to part with it,
+    even for a time. Please send me a line in answer to this, and
+    believe me always.
+
+                                                      _Thursday._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    The picture will be duly sent to you.
+
+    I have another matter for your consideration: Mr. Greville
+    wants to know if you can think of any good picture (Sir Joshua
+    or Gainsborough would be best) that would make a good
+    companion to the one he has already bought of you; if you
+    could suggest anything suitable, he would give you the
+    commission. I am very glad you should have encouragement, but
+    I trust you will not flag in your zeal about more important
+    studies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I send you the money from Mr. Greville for the portrait of his
+    mother. I am very glad you should have this new commission,
+    but you must thank _him, not me_, for it was entirely his idea
+    and desire. He is indeed one of the kindest and best men
+    possible. I look on him myself as a second father.
+
+    To save time, I shall make arrangements for you to work in my
+    studio on the _4 first_ days of January, if you can manage it.
+    I shall be out of town, and you will have the place all to
+    yourself.
+
+    I wish you a happy Xmas and New Year, and remain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                  WARNFORD COURT,
+                                                 BISHOPS WALTHAM.
+
+    You will forgive me, I am sure, for not writing to you to
+    thank you for your letter, received some weeks back; but the
+    fact is I have been so very busy as to make writing a matter
+    of very great difficulty. I heard from your father not long
+    ago that you have been very fortunate in getting capital
+    commissions for portraits where you have been staying. I am
+    very glad indeed to hear it, and trust sincerely that you feel
+    you are progressing as steadily in proficiency as in
+    prosperity. To the commissions you have had in the country, I
+    have one to add here. Mr. Henry Greville wishes you to paint
+    for him a copy of a head of a relation of his--I believe, of
+    poor Lady Ellesmere, his sister, whose recent death has been
+    such a terrible grief to him. You will, I am sure, be glad to
+    undertake this painting, even though it may not in itself be
+    very interesting. The size is a sort of oval kit-cat, not
+    large. He proposes to offer you ten pounds for it.
+
+    How is Miss Nan? I hope you have good accounts of her, and
+    that all goes smoothly between you.
+
+    I send this to Bath to be forwarded, as I don't know your
+    present whereabouts.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    DEAR JOHNNY,--I am just off to Paris, and write one line in
+    hot haste to thank you for yours, and to say that I am
+    delighted to hear you are conscious of progress. Come back as
+    soon as you can _conveniently_, please, because Mr. Greville
+    has _borrowed_ Lady Ellesmere's portrait for you to copy, and
+    wants to return it as soon as possible to the Duke of
+    Devonshire.
+
+    Come and see me when you return, and believe me, with kind
+    regards to Miss Nan,--Yours always,
+
+                                                             F.L.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+                                                   KENSINGTON, W.
+
+    I want very much, before they have quite disappeared, to get
+    for myself and for a friend a couple of old-fashioned country
+    bumpkins' smocks; you know the sort of thing. Do you chance to
+    know any one in any of the villages about Bath who could pick
+    up a couple? I should like a brown one (_NOT a white Sunday
+    one_) and a green one, and that they should _not_ be
+    washed--well worn, untidy things. If you saw your way to
+    getting me such garments, I should be very grateful, but don't
+    _trouble_ about it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    If you have leisure to think of anything but Miss Nan just at
+    present, will you do me a favour? Will you get for me a
+    peasant's _wide-awake_, in shape like the one I painted in
+    your portrait, only really _old_ and _soiled_ and _stained_;
+    bought, in fact, if possible, off a bumpkin's head? Can you do
+    this for me, and either send it or bring it if you are about
+    to return shortly? I will pay you when we meet.
+
+    When is the wedding to be? or is it already over? I wish you
+    all happiness and prosperity, and remain with kind
+    remembrances to Miss (or Mrs.) Nan,--Yours truly,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    I hope you can read this; my hands are so cold I can scarcely
+    hold the pen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Mr. Greville has very kindly desired me to give you another
+    commission, this time a larger one. He wants you to copy from
+    my large picture the group of women carrying flowers, the size
+    of the original.[65] He offers you �25 for it. If you are
+    disposed, as I have no doubt you will be, I would, if I were
+    you, write him a line of thanks for the kind interest he shows
+    in you. In great haste.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    One line in a great hurry to say that I am delighted to hear
+    that you have got in to the life school at the Royal Academy,
+    and to thank you for the photo., which is capital.
+
+    I have not touched my Venus since you went away. I have been a
+    good deal out of town myself, and have spent most of my time
+    in finishing the two large decorative figures, which have now
+    gone home. I am sorry you did not see them.
+
+    Come as soon as you can to begin Mr. Greville's picture.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I leave town Saturday next, and shall not see you till
+    Saturday the 6th July, so I write a line to say that you will
+    set to work by yourself; the maid will light you a fire and
+    give you the key of the studio.
+
+    I have written direct to Gatwell to order the canvas, or it
+    would not have been ready in time. You are to paint the group
+    full size. _Trace it_ to get it quite accurate. Put the head
+    of the centre figure, the woman in _yellow_, about four inches
+    or four and a half inches from the top of the canvas; that
+    will give you all the rest. _Leave out_ the little _child
+    sitting_. Go slap at the colour, vigorously but _NOT quick_.
+    The slower you work, if you work with energy, the sooner you
+    get through, and the better the result.
+
+    I hope you are enjoying yourself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MRS. HANSON WALKER
+    By permission of Mr. Hanson Walker]
+
+    Although I certainly think it is a pity to exhibit too soon,
+    nevertheless I think that your particular situation just now
+    does justify you in doing so, as long as you confine yourself
+    to the Suffolk Street Gallery. I sincerely hope you may sell
+    your pictures.
+
+    With kind regards to Mrs. Nan and love to my god-child, I am,
+    in haste, yours always,
+
+                                                             F.L.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I can't quite make out the price as written in your note, so
+    to avoid mistakes I send blank cheque, which pray fill in
+    yourself.
+
+    Just off--good-bye.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                 _26th December._
+
+    I have got your note and enclose little cheque. This is as it
+    should be. It is absurd that because I am an old friend, you
+    should be a loser by me in time and pocket.
+
+    With a merry Xmas and New Year to you and Nan, I remain, in
+    haste, yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                   2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, _Monday_.
+
+    Many thanks for your letter. I have had absolutely no time to
+    answer sooner, and now can only do so most briefly. I am
+    extremely glad to hear of the success of your labours at
+    Dorchester, and think you are very right to take for yourself
+    and "Mrs. Nan" a refreshing little holiday on the hills.
+
+    I will begin the portrait next week,[66] when you return, at
+    which time also I hope to show you some under-painted work
+    which I think may interest you. I shall certainly call and see
+    your screen. It will no doubt be a very useful bit of
+    "property" to you.
+
+    Remember me very kindly to your wife.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    MY DEAR JOHNNY,--I am much obliged to you for your letter,
+    telling me of your doings in the country. I think you will do
+    wisely in going to the Isle of Wight to paint landscape; the
+    danger of copying the old masters too exclusively, as you have
+    been forced to do lately, is that one is apt to fall into
+    mannerism by trying to see Nature with the eyes of others;
+    painting landscape direct from Nature is the best possible
+    corrective against this tendency.
+
+    I shall be glad to see you and what you have done on your
+    return, if you are here before the 20th or 22nd August; if
+    not, we shall meet in October, when I return from the East.
+
+    I am working away at my picture, which will be under-painted
+    before I leave England.
+
+    I wish you joy of your summer trip, and remain, yours very
+    truly,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                 _6th September._
+
+    I have just got your letter, and scribble a line in haste (for
+    I am very busy) to say that you are wholly at liberty to do
+    whatever you choose with Nan's picture, and that I am glad for
+    your sake that people like it. I am also much pleased to hear
+    that you have an interesting portrait on the easel, in which
+    you see progress and improvement in the matter of breadth and
+    light and subordination of half tints; nothing is more
+    important in painting; I think that after accuracy and
+    refinement of form, it is the quality you should most strive
+    for. I am myself tolerably well, but not by any means
+    brilliantly. I have got to work at a few small heads, which
+    you will see before long.
+
+    In haste, with love to Nan and the children.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                              LYNTON, _Saturday_.
+
+    I have just received your note, and hear with sincere regret
+    that you have not been prospering lately in your affairs. I am
+    in great difficulty as to what I can do for you in the matter
+    of the Curatorship. If it were only a question of testifying
+    to your character, zeal, industry, &c. &c., I should have real
+    pleasure in giving you that testimony in the highest and
+    fullest degree. But, my dear Johnny, if I am not very much
+    mistaken, the Curator is expected to be able when required to
+    _advise and direct the pupils_, and I cannot in candour
+    conceal from you that your age and experience do not appear to
+    me yet to qualify you for that part of the duties. If it were
+    not so, why does the candidate send in some of his works for
+    inspection? You must not be angry with me, Johnny; you know I
+    have always spoken the plain truth to you, and am always ready
+    and desirous to help you when it is in my power. I should be
+    only too glad to think of your obtaining some post that should
+    relieve you from all immediate pecuniary care. Give my love to
+    your wife and children, and believe me always, yours most
+    sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    _P.S._--I shall be back on Wednesday or Thursday.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                        _Sunday._
+
+    In case any alteration should have been made in the
+    arrangements of the Schools during my absence, and that
+    _teaching_ is not expected as part of the duties of a curator,
+    I send you a letter to the Council, as I should be sorry you
+    lost any fair chance by my absence.
+
+    You heard from me no doubt yesterday.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                           _Care of_ MRS. WALKER,
+                                    NEALINMORE, GLEN COLUMBKILLE,
+                                                     CO. DONEGAL.
+                                                          _15th._
+
+    I have got your note, in regard to which I feel some little
+    embarrassment. I am, as you know, always pleased when it is in
+    my power to be of any use to you, and I should therefore wish
+    to help you in this matter concerning which you write. I own,
+    however, to having some hesitation in asking this favour of
+    Mr. Hodgson, because I fear that the granting of it would be a
+    source of a good deal of inconvenience to him, and he might,
+    out of his old friendship, be put in an awkward position; he
+    would be equally loth to say "yes" or "no." The picture hangs
+    in his dining-room, _and cannot possibly be moved_. The copy
+    would be a lengthy affair, for there is an enormous amount of
+    work in the group you speak of, and you would have,
+    therefore, to be established for a long time in a room which
+    is in daily use by the family. I do not at all say that he
+    might not grant the favour you ask, but I own I feel that _I_
+    cannot, discreetly, ask it of him. I am sure you will not
+    misinterpret my declining, and I shall be very sincerely glad
+    if you yourself succeed in your direct appeal.
+
+    I trust you and yours are thriving, and that you have not
+    suffered lately from your leg.
+
+    This is a wild, wind-swept corner of Ireland in which I am
+    staying, and abounding in matter for studying, especially rock
+    forms, but the inconstancy of the weather puts sketching
+    almost out of the question.
+
+    This is a matter of comparative indifference to me, as I came
+    here purposely for rest, and not for work.
+
+    Give my love to Nan and the chicks.--Sincerely yours,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Do you know of any one who would do a life-size _copy_ of a
+    portrait of the Queen in robes for the sum of _�100_? I have
+    been asked to inquire. It is, I believe, for Chelsea Hospital.
+    In former days it might have been worth _your_ while; now it
+    no longer is, it would not pay you; but you perhaps know of
+    some less prosperous artist who would undertake it, and who
+    would do it _well_--for of course that is expected.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+                                                   KENSINGTON, W.
+                                        (_Postmark, Mar. 9. 82._)
+
+    I am absolutely _ashamed_ to rob you, but you offer me the
+    drawing so kindly that I can't possibly refuse it; I am
+    delighted with it, only you must let me give you a little
+    drawing some day in return. With very best thanks.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF GROUP FOR CEILING IN MUSIC ROOM
+    Executed for Mr. Marquand, New York, 1886
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: FIRST SKETCH OF GROUP FOR MR. MARQUAND'S CEILING
+    IN MUSIC ROOM, NEW YORK
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+The following letter was written when Mr. Hanson Walker was in
+America. In it Leighton refers to the ceiling he painted for Mr.
+Marquand (see List of Illustrations):--
+
+                                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+                                                  KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                            _12th February 1887_.
+
+    DEAR JOHNNIE,--I was very glad to get your letter giving so
+    very satisfactory an account of yourself and your doings. I
+    had already heard of your prosperity in a general way from
+    Nan, who came to see me before starting, but who told me also
+    how lonely you felt. It must have been a great joy to you to
+    see her again, and it will be a still greater when you see the
+    (_fourteen?_) youngsters about you once more; you will, like
+    everybody who crosses the water, bring back a very pleasant
+    recollection of American kindness and hospitality, and, I am
+    glad to think, also a good pocketful of money. I hope it will
+    bring you luck here. I am glad that Mr. Marquand has made you
+    welcome to his house, which I understand is very beautiful. I
+    know his Vandyke well; it belonged to an acquaintance of mine,
+    Lord Methuen, who has a number of beautiful things at Corsham.
+    It is one of the finest I know, and stands quite in the front
+    rank of Vandykes. The Turner also I know, a rare favourite of
+    mine. But of the Rembrandt I know nothing. I am glad, too, you
+    thought my "ceiling" looked well. I hope he has introduced _a
+    little gold in the rafters_ to _bind_ the paintings to the
+    ceiling itself. Give my love to Nan, and believe me, with all
+    good wishes, sincerely yours,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    Please remember me to the Marquands and to your friends the
+    Osbornes.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[56] Owing to the kindness of Mr. Greville's niece and executor, Alice,
+Countess of Strafford, I am able to quote extracts from his letters to
+Leighton in this "Life." Unfortunately the letters from Leighton to Mr.
+Greville cannot be found, though, as we know, many were written. During
+his first visit to Algiers in 1857, Leighton wrote to his mother: "The
+fact is that as besides corresponding with you I write often to Mrs.
+Sartoris, and still oftener to Henry Greville, and having continually
+much the same to tell all of you, I often cannot remember to whom I
+have written what."
+
+[57] It was when visiting his family at Bath that he first saw Hanson
+Walker, the "Johnny" of the letters and of the pictures. Leighton was
+much taken with the picturesque beauty of the boy's head, and made
+various studies from it. A pencil study he made from his head (see List
+of Illustrations) he used as a study for his picture "Lieder ohne
+Worte." Having discovered that his sitter had a natural taste for
+drawing, Leighton advised "Johnny's" father to let him become an
+artist. This led to the boy being sent to learn drawing at the School
+of Art in Bath. When Leighton returned to London after it had been
+decided that "Johnny" was to study drawing, the young student received
+one day to his surprise a large case. On opening it he found to his
+delight a cast from the antique, a drawing-board, paper, charcoal,
+chalks, in fact, all the utensils wanted by a beginner wishing to work
+seriously at Art. Never to the end of his life did Leighton's interest
+in his pupil flag. Never was he too busy to do a kindness to him or
+his. Perhaps the early and somewhat romantic marriage which "Johnny"
+made with a lady for whom Leighton felt from the earliest days of the
+wedded life a very sincere regard, and the charming children who soon
+made a pretty cluster round their parents, and were always a delight to
+Leighton, cemented the friendly interest. The head of "Nan" (Mrs.
+Hanson Walker--see List of Illustrations), painted as a wedding present
+to "Johnny," is one among the happiest of Leighton's portraits. It is
+broad in treatment, and fair and very pure in colour, and as a likeness
+was considered perfect.
+
+[58] Yearly Exhibition at Manchester.
+
+[59] This correspondence refers to the "Cimabue's Madonna" at
+Buckingham Palace. Small holes in the canvas having appeared, the
+authorities were anxious that Leighton should inspect the picture, and
+take steps to prevent further mischief.
+
+[60] Mrs. Sartoris.
+
+[61] In the Yearly Exhibition at Manchester, where Leighton sent the
+"Romeo," "Pan," and the "Venus."
+
+[62] Mr. Edward Sartoris.
+
+[63] Mr. Edward Sartoris.
+
+[64] Papers relating to the great Manchester Exhibition held in 1857.
+
+[65] "A Syracusan Bride."
+
+[66] The portrait of Mrs. Hanson Walker, which Leighton painted as a
+wedding present for his young friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+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 passed 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 nobody 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 passport 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 pass
+    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 _vi�_ 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 _vi�_ 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 Finsterm�nz 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.
+
+    God 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 Titian 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. God bless
+    you, Mammy, give my love to all from your loving boy.
+
+To his father Leighton writes:--
+
+                                         FLORENCE, H�TEL 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 noble
+    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 gods 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!_
+
+    [Illustration: CA' D'ORO, VENICE. WATER COLOUR. 1856]
+
+                                   FLORENCE, _11th October 1856_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMY,--I wonder whether you are coming to Florence,
+    and, if so, how long you are going to stay. I suppose you will
+    go to the H�tel du Nord as in old times--I go there
+    invariably, and write now from my own particular room. I wrote
+    to you last from Venice, where I spent ten days in a very
+    satisfactory manner between work and _fl�nerie_ of an artistic
+    description--indeed I _fl�ned_ this time with more advantage
+    than hitherto, for I went more closely than I had yet done
+    into the _architecture_ of Venice, studying the different
+    masters, their different styles and relative merit; I need not
+    say that I found this extremely interesting. Fred Cockerell, a
+    young architect friend of mine, was there with Villers Lister,
+    another very nice boy, a London acquaintance of mine. We were
+    a great deal together, and they accompanied me to Padua, where
+    I left them doing _Giotto_, which I would most willingly have
+    done myself if I had not been hard pressed for time. In the
+    painting line I only made one sketch, a Bonifazio of the first
+    water, which will figure very satisfactorily on my studio
+    wall; it took me a good deal of time, and is on the whole, I
+    think, very fair. In Florence I have had one or two great
+    disappointments which have rather diminished my enjoyment of
+    this loveliest place. I expected confidently to find both
+    Browning and his wife and Lyons. Neither of them are here, the
+    former not having yet returned from the North, and the latter
+    having been called home to see his father, who is very ailing.
+    I have seen the Fenzis, who received me with their wonted
+    cordiality, and am going to-day to call on the Maquays. I am
+    here too short a time to work, beyond a pencil sketch or two,
+    and am off for dear old Rome on Friday morning as ever is. I
+    shall stay there till I find a studio, which I hope won't be
+    long, and shall then rush off to Cervara in the mountains to
+    paint.
+
+    Good-bye, Mammikins. Give my best love to all, and believe me
+    your loving boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+In Rome Leighton received the following from his friend Mr.
+Cartwright:--
+
+                                    AYNHOE, _September 26, 1856_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--Truly was I delighted with your letter, so
+    that in spite of my "nature to" I gulped my huff, though I was
+    like to choke; but self-interest is a wonderful smoothener,
+    and as I want you to do something for me I mean to behave
+    myself. Leighton, by the squints which you shot over my park
+    from your outspread umbrella, by those you are hereafter to
+    shoot, by Tokay cup and venison hash--by anything you like, I
+    want you to belumber yourself with some ripe _stone
+    pinecones_, and a hundred cork acorns. I have found a _true_
+    legitimate stone pine about forty to fifty feet high on my
+    property, and as for the cork trees you have seen the one in
+    my garden, and therefore, I do not see why I should not have a
+    lot in the park. They can only be raised from acorns. Now,
+    _if_ you could take steps to get me _these_ things--God! I
+    don't know what I would not do for you, and how would we enjoy
+    it in years to come to watch the growth of our trees. It is a
+    _national_ object. You may have some difficulty in getting the
+    acorns and cones; Pantaleone or Erhardt might perhaps mention
+    to you some gardener who would procure them. _You_ know
+    probably the trees would get to be called L. pines and
+    Leighton oaks, which is one way to immortality if Orpheus and
+    Eurydices won't help you. I wrote to Mason about the pines; by
+    all means _make_ him answer, the exertion will do him good, he
+    _wants_ exercise, and therefore don't get on with his work. My
+    God! when I came in at twelve to-day he was not up!
+
+    How I envy you at Rome when I think of it; how would I _enjoy_
+    being there, and yet I can't help thinking of ----'s death at
+    the same time. Remember me to little Cornhill and every Roman
+    who remembers me. Write Poste Restante, Paris. I go there, I
+    believe, next week, but _where_ I shall be the winter ----?
+    Forster is in the Westminster--be d----d to it for stale wine
+    that it is. As for Mason, make him write, and believe me,
+    yours affectionately,
+
+                                                           W.C.C.
+
+                                        ROME, _October 14, 1856_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I have delayed writing to you for a few days
+    in the hope of finding a letter from you in answer to my last;
+    however, as the posts here are frightfully irregular, and I
+    think it very possible your answer may have been lost, I wait
+    no longer. I enclose two little criticisms on my "Romeo" and
+    "Venus," which will I think please Papa and you, and which
+    were sent me through Mrs. Sartoris by Henry Greville.[68]
+    There is, however, not the remotest chance of my selling them
+    at Manchester, and I am considering where to show them next. I
+    am trying here in Rome (where I shall stay till the end of
+    October) to make up by rigid economy for the expense
+    inevitably incurred by living at inns all the way here. I
+    can't tell you what a delight it was to me to see this dear
+    old place again. Everything is so unaltered since I left it,
+    that I felt on returning exactly as if I was coming home from
+    a drive instead of a lengthened absence. The frescoes which I
+    knew so well were as new to me again from their colossal
+    grandeur, and I wished I could spend a month or so exclusively
+    copying in the Sixtina. My picture, though not well _seen_, is
+    not particularly badly _hung_, but it can only be seen from a
+    distance, so that the expressions are almost entirely lost; it
+    does not look so well as in my studio. The Pre-Raphaelites are
+    very striking, full of talent and industry, but unpleasant to
+    the eye. Meanwhile they have the day. Colnaghi told me that he
+    _thought_ he could sell "Romeo" if I made the price _four
+    hundred_, and said I could do it without derogating, as it
+    went through his, a dealer's, hands. I consulted Henry and
+    Mrs. S., who strongly advised me to follow his advice. I have
+    done so. May it bring me luck. If the remarks you quote, dear
+    Mamma, are meant to apply to my relation with Mrs. Sartoris, I
+    can only say, that as I have derived from her more moral
+    improvement and refinement (you know it), and from her circle
+    more intellectual advantage than from _all my other
+    acquaintances_ put together twice over, I can't join with Mrs.
+    Whatshername in apprehending "a great number of
+    inconveniences."
+
+In a later letter Leighton announces the sale of the "Romeo"
+picture:--
+
+    The "Romeo," which had the best place in the Exhibition, has
+    been sold for �400, which to me represents _�360_ after
+    deduction of percentage. They have in a most slovenly way sold
+    my picture for pounds though marked _guineas_, they want to
+    know if I claimed the difference; as they have behaved without
+    sufficient _�gard_ about other things also, I have directed
+    the secretary in England to say that I should like the error
+    to be rectified, though I do _not_ wish the sale to be
+    cancelled on that account if it be too late. I don't want to
+    miss the money of course, but I have no idea of such
+    negligence on their part.
+
+    You see, dear Mamma, that my little pension to Lud has become,
+    for this year at least, so easy that I have scarcely any merit
+    left.
+
+                                        19 QUEEN STREET, MAYFAIR.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--Having arrived in London, and been to the
+    Palace to see my picture, I hasten both to tell you the result
+    of my inspection and to answer your very kind letter to Paris
+    which, like an ass that I am, I have neglected to bring with
+    me. The damage to my picture is trifling and easily
+    remediable, having arisen in no way from the precarious nature
+    of paint or varnish, but from a faulty canvas, and probable
+    rough usage in moving. I shall set all right in a few days;
+    the holes or raw places are in the sky, and luckily not near
+    the faces. I have not yet seen Colonel Phipps, and am waiting
+    for further instructions; the Court I shall of course not see,
+    as it is at Windsor.
+
+    I don't remember whether I told you that I got an invitation
+    from Manchester to exhibit next spring, and having nothing to
+    send but "Cimabue," have respectfully applied to the Queen
+    through Colonel Phipps to obtain it of her for that occasion.
+
+    I am truly sorry not to see you all but as you say, I can't
+    afford it; indeed, I write now partly to ask Papa to send me
+    some money, the �50 he gave me in the middle of August when I
+    started are not only gone, but scarcely took me back to Paris,
+    and but for Petre, whom I met coming back from Naples, and who
+    lent me a trifle with most friendly alacrity, I should have
+    been frightfully pinched; the first part of my journey being
+    all travelling, and hotel life was very dear. In Rome,
+    however, I lived for nothing, and sailed from Civita Vecchia
+    to Marseilles "before the mast," a thing I will never do again
+    if I can help it, but which enabled me just to get home to
+    Paris within a few francs of the �50. Meanwhile I have no
+    hesitation in saying that I never spent three months more
+    profitably or more agreeably. I suppose Papa kindly paid my
+    last quarter as I asked him, but not having received your
+    letter I don't in reality know.
+
+    P. Delaroche is dead, I am sorry to say. Going through Paris I
+    went to see Rob. Fleury, who with characteristic kindness put
+    me up to several dodges in picture-restoring with a reference
+    to "Cimabue"--invaluable information.
+
+After doing what was required to the Buckingham Palace picture,
+Leighton returned to Paris, where he wrote the following to Steinle:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                  21 RUE PIGALLE, _1st December_.
+
+    DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--I read with real distress the sad
+    news of your severe loss, but sincere and deep as is my
+    sympathy, I pass on in silence, for in such an hour of trial
+    there is but one comfort for you, and that not from man.
+
+    I should no doubt have come back to you from Rome in the
+    beginning of October, but I had to go to England, where I
+    spent three weeks, and am consequently now just established
+    again in Paris. My Italian journey afforded me in every way
+    the greatest pleasure and edification, and I seem now for the
+    first to have grasped the greatness of the Campagna and the
+    giant loftiness of Michael Angelo; still the dear old town,
+    now as ever, is quite unchanged. The good Cornelius is so
+    cheerful and friendly that it is a real pleasure; he has
+    finished some works which have much beauty in the design, but,
+    quite in confidence, they are nevertheless a trifle "solite
+    cose," and much too weakly drawn: from a man who makes claims
+    to style, one expects something more of solidity. Cornelius is
+    a richly and powerfully endowed man, but he does the young
+    generation no good; if young people would only look at work of
+    Michael Angelo's! I except the sculptor Willig, he is a famous
+    fellow, and also an agreeable man. I was glad to meet Gamba
+    again, but unfortunately I did not see any work of his.
+
+    Dear Friend, in spite of all my efforts I could nowhere find
+    the right garment for your composition, and learnt only after
+    a long search what is properly the official dress; I learnt at
+    last from the custodian of the Sixtina, who inquired from the
+    head "Ceremoniere," that the cardinal in these days wears the
+    Cappa Magna _pavonazza_, not the _red_.[69] The costume
+    therefore is: purple undergarment, _lace shirt_ (rochetto),
+    cappa magna of violet _cloth_ (those in the _Charwache_ will
+    wear no _silk_), black shoes, four-cornered hood, and gloves
+    with the ring; I enclose a drawing of the real confessional in
+    St. Peter's Church; I hope it may be of use to you. Dear
+    master, how can you possibly _excuse_ yourself for closing
+    your letter with a word of true and wise advice! You know that
+    I owe to you, and to no one else, the whole of my serious
+    education, and am proud of it.
+
+    If you do not get the work at Cologne, it will be a downright
+    infamy and a dirtiness without parallel; but I hope for the
+    best.
+
+    How I should like to see your "Marriage at Cana."
+
+    Keep in remembrance your loving pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                            _Saturday, 9th May 1857._
+
+    MY DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--Your letter, just received, has
+    given me intense pleasure. Your constant and affectionate
+    remembrance of a pupil who is under so many obligations to
+    you, rejoices my heart. On this occasion, however, your letter
+    was particularly welcome, because I had already begun to worry
+    myself a little about your long silence, and was almost afraid
+    you might imagine that I had not exerted myself sufficiently
+    in the matter of your cardinal.
+
+    But first of all I offer my best congratulations on the
+    completion of the Cologne affair, and on the splendid field
+    which is offered to you also in M�nster. At last you have work
+    which is worthy of your abilities and your efforts, and will
+    give them scope. With such employment I must not regret that I
+    shall not have the pleasure of seeing you again in Paris. That
+    I have not seen the "Marriage of Cana" is, I candidly confess,
+    a source of regret to me; I know the design of the
+    composition, and should have liked extremely to have seen how
+    it has turned out. When shall I see one of your works again?
+
+    What shall I tell you about myself, my dear friend? I am
+    getting on with my pictures, and have now got them all three
+    into a fairly forward state of _under_-painting; completion,
+    however, will only be reached in the course of next winter,
+    for I intend to execute them with minute care. I have
+    simplified my method of painting, and foresworn all _tricks_.
+    I endeavour to advance from the beginning as much as possible,
+    and equally try to mix the right tint, and slowly and
+    carefully to put it on the right spot, and _always_ with the
+    model before me; what does not exactly suit has to be adapted;
+    one can derive benefit from every head. Schwind says that he
+    cannot work from models, they _worry_ him! a splendid teacher
+    for his pupils! nature worries every one at first, but one
+    must so discipline oneself that, instead of checking and
+    hindering, she shall illuminate and help, and solve all
+    doubts. Has Schwind, with his splendid and varied gifts, ever
+    been able to model a head with a brush? Those who place the
+    brush behind the pencil, under the pretence that _form_ is
+    before all things, make a very great mistake. Form _is
+    certainly ALL important_; one cannot study it enough; _but_
+    the greater part of _form_ falls within the province of the
+    tabooed _brush_. The everlasting hobby of _contour_ (which
+    belongs to the drawing material) is first the _place_ where
+    the _form_ comes in; what, however, reveals true knowledge of
+    form, is a powerful, organic, refined finish of modelling,
+    full of feeling and knowledge--and that is the affair of the
+    brush (_Pinsel_).
+
+    You see I have again begun discoursing, my dear Master; you
+    must excuse all this silly talk, and ascribe it to the
+    pleasure I feel whenever I enjoy intercourse with you, even if
+    only by letter. How much we have already talked over together!
+
+    And now adieu, dear Friend. Rest assured that you have not
+    wasted your affection on an ungrateful man, and keep always in
+    remembrance--Your faithful pupil,
+
+                                                        LEIGHTON.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife.
+
+    I do not know of any work of mine that has appeared in an
+    illustrated paper--Louie has been dreaming.
+
+Three interesting letters to Steinle belong to the following year. In
+the second Leighton states that he is about to start for Algiers.
+After his arrival there he writes to his mother describing the place.
+Notwithstanding the difficulty he found in drawing the natives of
+Algiers, owing to their shyness and to their prejudices, Leighton
+succeeded while there in making drawings which rank among his very
+best; in fact, in certain qualities no others he ever drew can be said
+to equal them. To quote Mr. Pepys Cockerell (_Nineteenth Century_,
+November 1896):--
+
+"I do not believe that more perfect drawings, better defined or more
+entirely realised, than these studies of heads of Moors, camels, &c.,
+were ever executed by the hand of man."
+
+Unfortunately the paper Leighton used was of the kind which becomes
+injured by time. The brown stains which now disfigure the sheets and
+the faint tone of the pencilling make it impossible to reproduce these
+drawings with any worthy result, but some of the original sketches can
+be seen in the Leighton House Collection.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                ROME, 11 VIA DELLA PURIFICAZIONE,
+                                                 _March 3, 1857_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR MASTER,--Heartiest thanks for your kind lines of
+    the 3rd of last month.
+
+    I hear with the greatest interest that your cartoon is now
+    finished, and that you expect to get to the wall next year.
+    How I envy you this great work! I cannot deny that I rejoice a
+    little, secretly, that you are tied down to _buon_ fresco, for
+    I have a passion (unfortunately an altogether unsatisfied one)
+    for this material. You may be quite sure that if it is in any
+    way possible for me, I shall make a little excursion to
+    Cologne in order to offer my humble assistance; nothing could
+    be more delightful to me.
+
+    Some works of yours have just come to Rome; illustrations to a
+    prayer-book, engraved (I believe) by Keller. When did you make
+    these charming drawings? The one with the blossoming staff and
+    the little Madonna is quite specially sympathetic to me. The
+    things are, however, engraved without feeling or delicacy.
+
+    With what you say about the advantage of growing older I
+    quite agree, and I am in a certain respect anxious for the
+    time when I shall find my _niveau_, and shall be able to work
+    with more peace and equanimity. I have been for some time in a
+    very painful position--I feel so humbly my incapacity even
+    from afar off to approach the entrancing beauty of nature,
+    that I have not the courage to embark upon any large work. For
+    some time I have scarcely composed at all; partly, it is true,
+    because I have no time, but partly also because I do not feel
+    myself in a position to embody an idea properly. I know that
+    such a condition is morbid, and hope to extricate myself from
+    it in time. It arises also partly from the fact that my
+    _individuality_ is not yet sufficiently developed; I see it
+    coming, but it takes a very long time. I know already, on the
+    smallest computation, _what_ I want, but I do not know _how_ I
+    am to accomplish it.
+
+    I went recently to see Cornelius, who is always genial and
+    charming. He is drawing on one of the Redelli for the Campo
+    Santo. Rich and spirited in invention and arrangement, the
+    form in _details_, however, is very badly drawn--heads that
+    are unpermissible; he treats God's nature quite cavalierly. I
+    saw at his house a composition by a certain W�redle (or some
+    such name) of Vienna, a pupil of F�hrich, the subject taken
+    from the Apocalypse: "There shall be wonders." Above, the
+    Saviour, in the usual attitude, with the usual flowing
+    garment; to the right and left, Mary and John, in their
+    respective usual attitudes; at their feet four angels blowing
+    trumpets, by Cornelius; in the background a number of comets;
+    lying about in the middle and foreground, a quantity of
+    figures, which have been collected from different works of
+    Cornelius', strike convulsive attitudes on the floor; for the
+    rest, the whole is constructed with appalling academic
+    execution and lifelessness. Cornelius seemed to think it quite
+    right; I consider it difficult, with reverence and love, to
+    complete the head of one girl; for that reason I am not fond
+    of going to him, for although personally he is extremely
+    sympathetic to me, I cannot help feeling that I do not fit in
+    with him, and am obliged to dissemble. But you must be quite
+    weary of this chattering letter, dear Master; I will close.
+    Remember me most kindly to your wife and children, and rely
+    always upon the friendship of your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                        LEIGHTON.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                   _Thursday, September 3, 1857._
+
+    DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--I was, as usual, most delighted to
+    receive your cordial letter of 21st August; I am touched by
+    your constant friendship, but also somewhat ashamed that you
+    should treat your much indebted pupil almost as an equal and
+    counsellor. I have the greatest desire to see your second
+    cartoon, but I am very much afraid that this year it will be
+    quite impossible, for I am going on a journey in quite the
+    opposite direction; I am shortly going to Africa, partly to
+    make some landscape studies, but also to make acquaintance
+    with that very interesting race, but _not_ in order to become
+    a painter of Bedouins. It was my intention, as I am starting
+    immediately, not to write till I came back, in order that I
+    might have something to tell you; however, the following has
+    suddenly made me change my mind; the fat, affected,
+    tailor-like, civil-spoken little Jew visited me recently and
+    told me you want to make inquiries about wall painting, and
+    that I might tell you, if I was writing, that Conture has just
+    gone away. This impelled me to write immediately. Will you
+    forgive me, for old friendship's sake, if I put in a word
+    here, to which you need not give the smallest attention? I
+    want to protest vehemently, dear Master, against all
+    _oil_-painting on _walls_; and that, not because fresco
+    painting has sufficed for the greatest works of the greatest
+    masters, but on account of the _positive disadvantages_ of
+    oils. How, in effect, do the two materials stand to one
+    another? Fresco is certainly the one material for monuments.
+    First, because it is the most suitable for a broad, massy,
+    imposing _form_, for in no material can one pursue form so
+    completely _without losing colour_; secondly, because by no
+    other method can one attain such masterly, earnest, quiet,
+    virile effect in colour; thirdly, however, and principally,
+    because fresco _is visible from all points alike_, this
+    advantage is immeasurable for architectural art. What, on the
+    other hand, are the advantages of oil? Only one occurs to me
+    and that is quite illusory, _i.e._ you have a wider range of
+    colour; but all the colours that an oil palette has in advance
+    of fresco are, for fresco, superfluous if not pernicious.
+    Superfluous, because the broken, fine grey tones which have
+    such an infinite charm in easel pictures, and which counteract
+    the otherwise too great brilliance of the material, are quite
+    superfluous in a painting where _all tones_ are dull and
+    solid. Pernicious, where they would be applicable, because
+    they might mar the majestic peace of the work. And then it
+    should be remembered that the limited scale of the fresco
+    palette, so _far as it extends_, is unsurpassable for glow and
+    atmosphere and strength. Titian's frescoes at Padua in the
+    Tenola St. Antonio rival his oil-paintings in colour. M.
+    Angelo's "Madonna in the Last Judgment" might (for colour) be
+    by Tintoretto, and many figures on this glorious wall are as
+    glowing as Titian's! As regards the disadvantages of
+    oil-painting, I can only say that they often blister in the
+    shadows, and that one can _only see them from one point of
+    view_. I know very well that fresco is exposed to damp, but
+    one can, indeed one must, have one's wall examined before one
+    begins to work, and if it is well dried and "drained" there is
+    no danger; at the worst, one can cover one's wall with sheets
+    of lead; it has been discovered that this was often done in
+    Pompeii. Or one can also (there are instances) paint upon a
+    specially prepared canvas away from the wall. But you know all
+    this better than I. Have you forgiven me, dear Friend? I could
+    not forbear from saying this, and rely upon your indulgence.
+
+    Do not allow Schl�sser to mislead you about my work. I daub on
+    steadily, but am by a very long way not contented.
+
+    I send these lines to Frankfurt in the hope that they will be
+    forwarded to you.
+
+    I shall stay some weeks in Algiers--can I do anything for you?
+    in that case send me a line. Till the _1st October_ a letter
+    will find me; address, Poste Restante, Algiers.
+
+    All good luck be with you on your holidays, and may you gain
+    the desired strength.
+
+    Keep in remembrance your loving pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+    21 RUE PIGALLE.
+
+                                         ALGIERS, _Friday, 18th_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I arrived here only last Monday, as the little
+    delay about the money made me lose the boat by which I
+    intended to sail; having, however, nothing in my studio that
+    was dry enough or otherwise fit to work on, I left Paris all
+    the same and visited Avignon, N�mes, and Arles, most
+    interesting towns which I had long desired to see. Avignon
+    reminded me so vividly of certain parts of Rome that it was
+    all I could do not to take a place for Civita Vecchia and
+    succumb to my longing desire to see Italy once more.
+
+    I have not the least idea (especially in this hot weather) how
+    to describe to you this strange and picturesque town in which
+    I have taken up my temporary quarters; everything where the
+    African element has been preserved is so entirely new, so
+    unlike anything that you have seen, that I see no chance of
+    putting before your mind any living image of the thing. Before
+    going further I may as well tell you, dearest Mammy, that
+    although it is very hot I am perfectly well and have an
+    enormous appetite. I walk from six to eight hours every day,
+    and bathe regularly in the sea.
+
+    Algiers occupies one horn of a most beautiful bay, thickly
+    studded with villas and farms, and reminding one greatly of
+    Italy. The aspect of the town, however, shows you at once, and
+    from a great distance, that you are in no European land. You
+    must know that oriental houses have no roofs, but are
+    surmounted by terraces, that they have no windows, the rooms
+    being lit from the inner court, and that they are painted
+    three times a year of the purest white, so that on approaching
+    Algiers, rising as it does steeply up the hillside, it looks
+    from the sea and under an African sun like a pyramid of
+    alabaster or marble, or, as some poet or other has said of it,
+    like a swan about to spread her wings. The effect of this
+    whiteness glittering out from the green and purple hills and
+    hanging over a dark-blue sea is really most beautiful;
+    unfortunately, however, the whole of the lower part of the
+    town that runs along the port has been so completely
+    Europeanized that, but for a rather pretty mosque on the
+    waterside, you might fancy you were at Havre or any other
+    French seaport town. As soon, however, as you get up into the
+    Arab town, your illusions are not only restored but enhanced,
+    for assuredly nothing could be more perfectly picturesque and
+    striking than the steep, tortuous streets that climb up to
+    the Casbah, or fortress, at the top of the town. The upper
+    storeys of the houses jut out into the street in such a manner
+    that they constantly meet, forming an archway underneath, and
+    yet the streets are never dark, from the dazzling whiteness of
+    all the walls, which reflect the light in every direction and
+    gild and brighten the darkest corners. Fancy, in the midst of
+    all this gleaming white, the gorgeous effect produced by the
+    varied colours of oriental costumes and complexion: the
+    copper-coloured Arabs, the sallow Jews, the ebony negroes; and
+    then the frequent display of every kind of fruit--crimson
+    tomatoes and purple aubergines, emerald and golden melons,
+    glowing oranges, luminous green grapes, and to relieve the
+    blaze of ardent colour, the tender ivory tones of the
+    tuberose, and the soft milk-white jessamine. I don't think a
+    colourist could have a more precious lesson than seeing this
+    place; you see in half-an-hour a sufficient number of fine
+    harmonies to set you up for a year. Not less striking than the
+    display of colour is the variety of types and costumes. Arabs
+    of the desert, with their lofty bearing and ample drapery, the
+    tattered, brawny Kabyles, the richly dressed Jewesses, the
+    negresses, dressed in long indigo-coloured draperies, and with
+    bracelets of horn round their ankles; in fact, you cannot
+    imagine a greater medley than is presented by a street in the
+    Arab quarter of the town. It has this drawback, that in the
+    midst of such an _embarras de richesses_, I don't know how I
+    shall ever be able to work; as yet I have not seen a pencil
+    even, indeed I have not been off my feet since I arrived, and
+    my head is in a perfect muddle. I spend next week in the
+    interior of the country, and when I come back I shall have a
+    fortnight in which I hope to do something. Getting anybody to
+    sit here is exceedingly difficult, and costs mints. The price
+    of living here is the same as Paris, but anything at all extra
+    is very dear; a horse or a cab to get to some place beyond a
+    walk is very expensive, and my consumption of drink (lemonade,
+    coffee, &c., for pure water is not wholesome here) from six in
+    the morning till bedtime is something incredible. Good-bye,
+    dearest Mother, I will write a longer letter next time. I have
+    no news from India. Best love to all, from your most
+    affectionate boy.
+
+    If you hear from Lina, _mind_ you let me know, as I am most
+    anxious for news.
+
+    I am so sorry the ink is so pale. I have written over half the
+    letter, but it is not much use; next time I will have darker
+    ink.
+
+    [Illustration: SKETCH IN OILS. ALGIERS. 1895]
+
+                                      ALGIERS, _Monday 29, 1857_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--Poor Lina,[70] what a state of wretched
+    suspense and terror she must live in! what a frightful crisis
+    it is! God grant all may end well. Have you heard lately? Pray
+    let me know whatever you can; at this distance I can get only
+    the most salient facts, and am most eager to hear some more
+    circumstantial account of the progress of affairs. Poor
+    Sutherland, I often think of his kind grey eyes and manly
+    carriage; what a harassing, anxious life he must lead!
+
+    Before I go any further I must ensure saying a thing that I
+    have been intending to tell for some time past, and which has
+    always been driven out of my head by the more immediate
+    subject of my letter. I am by no means certain that I have not
+    already mentioned it; I wish to be quite certain. The fact is
+    that as besides corresponding with you I write often to Mrs.
+    Sartoris, and still oftener to Henry Greville, and have
+    continually much the same to tell all of you, I often cannot
+    remember to whom I have written what, and I am therefore
+    uncertain whether I told you that Romeo and Juliet and Pan and
+    Venus are by this time exciting (let us hope) the admiration
+    of the citizens of America at the town of Philadelphia. It
+    costs me nothing at all either to send or to fetch, and the
+    percentage is ten per cent. I sent them off the end of last
+    month, just before leaving Paris for Africa. Tom Taylor is on
+    the committee, and I think the speculation may turn out good,
+    particularly if Mrs. Kemble, who is in America now, takes an
+    interest in them.
+
+    Putting aside all question of anxiety and sorrow, I am
+    delighted with my visit to Algiers. I feel that, though I have
+    as yet been unable to touch a pencil, I have already taken a
+    great deal of new stuff, and if I were to leave Africa with an
+    empty sketch-book, I should still return to my easel improved
+    in knowledge of form and combination of colours. Still it is
+    a great mortification to me to see such fine types around me
+    without any means of getting them to sit, an operation to
+    which they have an insuperable objection; if it were not
+    vexatious, it would be quite amusing to see how they slink
+    away when they perceive you are trying to sketch them.
+
+    Of course, one of my great desires was to see if possible a
+    Moorish _int�rieur_; and in this, though it is difficult to
+    achieve, I have been very fortunate, through the
+    instrumentality of a young native, with whom I became
+    accidentally acquainted. I have made the acquaintance of one
+    Achmet, son of Ali Pasha, a decayed native gentleman, now
+    holding office in the French customs, but once very well to do
+    in the world. I have been twice to his house, which I may as
+    well describe to you, as it is a type of all Moorish houses in
+    this part of the world. The whole of the centre of the
+    building is taken up by a little _cortile_, open to the sky
+    and surrounded by two storeys of arcades of a graceful shape,
+    on to which the rooms open as in Greek houses. These arcades
+    are painted pure white, and are relieved by fillets of
+    coloured porcelain tiles that have a most original and
+    charming effect; the first-floor gallery is closed in by a
+    breast-high balustrade, elegantly carved and painted blue or
+    green; the top of the house is invariably an open terrace,
+    adorned with flowers and shrubs. The rooms, I said, open on
+    the corridors and have no windows (except little peeping
+    holes) on to the street; they are consequently always wrapped
+    in a sort of clear, cool, reflected twilight that is
+    inexpressibly delightful and soothing in hot, glaring weather.
+    Each room takes up one side of the house, and is therefore a
+    long narrow strip; immediately opposite the door is an alcove,
+    containing a raised, handsomely cushioned and carpeted divan,
+    and ornamented invariably with three florid gilt
+    looking-glasses. At the foot of the raised divan is another
+    lower one for those who like low seats; other such divans run
+    along the wall, and a few highly wrought, embossed chests and
+    other oriental articles of furniture complete the decoration
+    of the room. In such a room Achmet Oulid received us, putting
+    before us delicious hot coffee in tiny cups with filagree
+    stands, a delightful kind of peach jam, and the pipe of peace.
+    You would have laughed to see your son lolling on a Turkey
+    carpet and puffing away at a long pipe. Our host has the
+    dearest little daughter, ten years old, whom by a great
+    stretch of courtesy we were allowed to see. By-the-bye, nearly
+    all Arab children are lovely, and look great darlings in their
+    Turkish dress.
+
+    My paper is coming to an end and the boat does not wait, so I
+    close. I shall write you another letter before I leave this
+    and tell you more of what I have done and seen.
+
+    Good-bye, dearest Mammy.
+
+    [Illustration: SKETCH IN OILS. ALGIERS. 1895]
+
+Leighton refers to this visit in a letter to Mrs. Mark Pattison
+(1879), who was about to write an account of his art. "This visit made
+a deep impression on me; I have loved 'The East,' as it is called,
+ever since. By-the-bye, I drew here my (almost) only large
+water-colour drawing 'A Negro Festival' (the picture Leighton always
+referred to as 'The Niggers'), which was thought very well of by my
+friends."
+
+To his sister in India he wrote:--
+
+    Since I last wrote I have spent a month or six weeks in
+    Algeria, and have opened an acquaintance with the East which I
+    hope to keep up, not only from the pleasure but from the
+    instruction I have derived from even a short visit. My next
+    journey, however, will be to the old, original cradle of
+    Western Art--to Egypt, which country, as I shall visit it
+    under widely different circumstances from what you did, poor
+    dear, and I trust in much better health, will of course strike
+    me in a very different manner. There are many things in the
+    Arab quarter in Algiers which will probably stand comparison
+    with Cairo, but besides that, Egypt has far more physiognomy
+    as a country than the coast of Algeria. I am anxious to study
+    the Egyptian type, which is truly grand and wonderful.
+    However, these are plans for a tolerably remote day, as I
+    shall spend my next winter in my dear, dear old Rome, to which
+    I am attached beyond measure; indeed, Italy altogether has a
+    hold on my heart that no other country ever can have (except,
+    of course, my own); and although, as I just now said, I was
+    most delighted with Africa, and have not a moment to look
+    back to that was not agreeable, yet there is an intimate
+    little corner in my affections into which it could never
+    penetrate. If I am as faithful to my wife as I am to the
+    places I love, I shall do very well. What the first impression
+    of an Eastern country is, you already know by experience as
+    far as the mere aspect goes, but to understand my sensations
+    you must translate your own into a far brighter key. In my
+    case everything was for me: a decent passage, a glorious day,
+    a light heart, and a firm determination to enjoy myself; to
+    this add that more rapid apprehension of what is beautiful
+    which belongs to an artist's eye, and is the natural
+    consequence of the constant exercise and cultivation of that
+    faculty.
+
+    I saw in Algiers many things that interested me, very much _du
+    point de vue moeurs f�tes_, with strange music on queer
+    instruments, odd dances, odder singing. The music of the Moors
+    is altogether very strange; it is monotonous in the extreme,
+    fitful, and sometimes apparently without any kind of shape,
+    and yet there is something very characteristic and almost
+    attaching about it. This applies only to instrumental music,
+    for as for the voice, they seem to consider it only as a
+    shriller instrument, using always at full pitch, with neck
+    outstretched and eyes half shut, always from the throat and
+    always higher than they can go. It is very strange that a
+    nation which attained once so high a pitch of civilisation,
+    should either never have known or have entirely forgotten that
+    the human voice is capable of inflection, and what an
+    all-powerful vehicle it may be made of every passionate
+    sentiment or soothing influence. However, much the same thing
+    is noticeable in the peasants near Rome, whose songs consist
+    (within a definite shape) of long-sustained chest notes that
+    are peculiar in the extreme, and though often harsh seem to be
+    wonderfully in harmony with the long unbroken lines of the
+    Campagna.
+
+    _� propos_ of chanting, I saw a very striking thing one day in
+    Algiers, in the shape of a Rhapsodist, who recited, with an
+    uncouth instrumental accompaniment, a long string of strophes
+    describing (I am told) the life and deeds of some hero; it was
+    exactly what a recital of the Homeric poems must have been
+    amongst the early Greeks. The Homer stood up in the midst of a
+    motley and most picturesque group of breathless listeners, and
+    chanted, with a sort of animated monotony, verses of about
+    two lines each, heightening the colour of his tale by
+    gesticulations. After each strophe the music struck in,
+    consisting of two queerly shaped tambours and a shrill flute.
+    After the performance, or rather, during the pauses, money was
+    collected in the tambourines. Homer (if he ever lived) no
+    doubt did the same.
+
+On his return to Paris Leighton wrote to Steinle:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                       PARIS, _October 22, 1857_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Since I know your industry better than
+    any one else, and also know that at this moment you are quite
+    particularly busy, I cannot be surprised that you have not
+    answered my letter of last month; however, some warm
+    expressions slipped from me in that letter which you may
+    perhaps have taken amiss; lest this should be indeed the case,
+    I hasten, my dear Master, to make you an ample apology and to
+    beg you not to take amiss what I may have said too hastily;
+    but if it is not so, do send me a short note that my doubt may
+    be solved; for it is an excessively painful idea to me that a
+    single word from my mouth should have displeased you.
+
+    I have just come back from Africa, where I have spent some
+    weeks with extreme pleasure, and, I believe, not without great
+    benefit; indeed, I might say that an artist cannot perfect his
+    sense of form so well anywhere as in the East; the types of
+    characteristic stamp which meet one's eye at every step are a
+    wonder to see, and of the simple grandeur of the costumes one
+    can form no previous conception--one sees real Michael Angelos
+    running about the streets.
+
+    I have done little or almost nothing, for one cannot possibly
+    induce the Arabs to sit; however, I believe I have learnt a
+    great deal by my observations; I have already made a
+    resolution to become acquainted with the Egyptian race in the
+    near future. But now I must see to it that I produce something
+    this winter, for time goes bye with giant strides, and will
+    not be called back again.
+
+    And you, my dear friend? what are you working at now? How I
+    should like to see your second cartoon! but unfortunately that
+    is one of the impossibilities. What has happened about the
+    church you were to paint? Has anything been settled? Once more
+    I beg you to write me a few lines to assure me that you are
+    not angry at my indiscretion.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife. And keep in
+    kindly remembrance, your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                        LEIGHTON.
+
+And again:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                           PARIS, 21 RUE PIGALLE,
+                                              _November 2, 1857_.
+
+    DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--All my best thanks for your kind
+    letter, and for the enclosed photograph of your splendid
+    cartoon; there is no need for me to tell you how greatly this
+    has rejoiced and delighted me; by now you know that beforehand
+    regarding every work of Steinle's (Steinleischen Arbeit), and
+    in no work more than in this do I recognise the fulness and
+    the brilliance of your fancy; meanwhile (as is only human) my
+    joy is a trifle damped by the overwhelming desire to know the
+    complete composition, and then to see the original itself. How
+    glad I am that at last you have a worthy task!
+
+    It was a great relief to me to find that you did not take
+    amiss what I wrote about wall painting, and that you quite
+    understood that I could only become so wrathful regarding a
+    matter which interests me in the highest degree. I wish with
+    all my heart that you may discover something which will fill
+    all requirements, while at the same time, as a bigoted
+    frescoist, I shake my head a little at your heresy. You will
+    certainly find me dreadfully stiff-necked, dear Friend! That
+    is because lately I have seen fresco painting much nearer, and
+    have compared it with oil painting directly beside it; I
+    cannot deny that in colour I find it immeasurably more frank
+    and stronger than its oil-neighbour, which appears muddy and
+    dull next it. True, Cennini mentions wall painting, but only
+    supplementarily, and after he has written at length of _buon
+    peseo_. I certainly fall into his views again!
+
+    Now, adieu, my dear friend; once more all my best thanks; you
+    may rely upon it, that the very first thing of mine that is
+    photographed shall immediately find its way to you at
+    Frankfurt; meantime, I candidly confess to you that I am quite
+    terribly dissatisfied with my performances, and could only
+    submit a hasty work to you.
+
+    Think often of your most devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+  (Written below by Steinle)
+  Answered, 4th June 1858.
+
+The following letters, dated 30th November 1857, Paris, refer to Mrs.
+Orr's narrow escape from Aurungabad, owing to the fidelity of Sheik
+Boran Bukh, in the time of the Mutiny. It is a good example of the
+ease with which Leighton threw himself into the atmosphere of a
+situation. It reads like the writing of an Oriental!
+
+    MOST VALUED FRIEND,--The report of your gallant and generous
+    conduct towards my sister and the companions of her flight has
+    reached my ears, not only by private letters but also through
+    several of the first English newspapers. From one end of this
+    country to another, Englishmen have read the account of your
+    loyal bearing, and from one end of the country to the other
+    there has been but one voice to praise and to admire it; for
+    uprightness and fidelity are precious in the eyes of all
+    Englishmen, and honour and courage are to them as the breath
+    of life; but _my_ feelings towards you are naturally doubly
+    warm and grateful, for to your care and vigilance I owe the
+    safety of a most precious and valued life, that of a beloved
+    sister. It is to express to you this gratitude that I now
+    write, and also to beg you to accept as a small token of my
+    regard a shawl which I send together with this letter, and
+    which will be as a sign to cement our new friendship. Wear it
+    in remembrance of that perilous night at Aurungabad, and in
+    wearing it remember that on that night your fidelity won for
+    you many new friends, and amongst the truest and most sincere
+    count the brother of Mrs. Orr,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+_To_ FREDERICK LEIGHTON, Esq., &c. &c.
+
+                                    AURUNGABAD, _13th July 1858_.
+
+    MOST RESPECTED SIR,--I beg to return you my humble and hearty
+    thanks for your kindness in having sent me a revolving pistol,
+    which was highly admired by all who saw it. I cannot be
+    sufficiently thankful to your invaluable kindness. I shall not
+    part with it till death, but keep it as a remembrance of your
+    high estimation of me your unworthy servant, and ever pray for
+    your and family's welfare and happiness.
+
+    I feel very uneasy in not hearing from Captain Orr since he
+    left us; I beg you will kindly let me know how he is getting
+    on, as I hear that he is not altogether very well. I was very
+    anxious to accompany him, and he agreed to take me, but on
+    second consideration he changed his mind. I hope some day or
+    other to be able to see you and family by God's grace.
+
+    I conclude, sir, with my humble respects and good wishes to
+    self and family. Hoping all's well.--I am, Sir, your most
+    obedient and grateful servant,
+
+                                    SHEIK BORAN BUKH, _Silladar_.
+
+                                                      _Thursday._
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--In accordance with your request, yesterday
+    received, I enclose an envelope for B.B., on which perhaps you
+    will be so good as to add his rank, whatever that may be--I
+    believe Subahdar. I am glad the letter is right, and knowing
+    your great epistolary facilities, I don't feel as sorry as I
+    ought to have interfered with your design. I don't think it
+    will fall heavily on you.
+
+    I have a great favour to ask of you; and I feel sure you won't
+    grudge it me, as it concerns a man whose house is a second
+    home to me: Cartwright--indefatigable as he is, he keeps
+    constantly on the alert for any vacancy in Parliament, and is
+    in frequent communication with Hayter on the subject. Now the
+    representation of _Scarborough_ has just become vacant, and I
+    should take it as the greatest kindness if you would write to
+    that great friend of yours in that town (a banker--whose name
+    I, if I were to sit on my head, I could not remember; but you
+    know), mentioning Cartwright as a great friend and most
+    appropriate man. He (your friend) is sure to be very
+    influential amongst the townsfolk. I should wish you to say
+    this: state who Cartwright is, his family, place (Aynhoe Park,
+    Brackley), his relations _with Hayter the Whipper-in_ (that he
+    may not appear _tomb� des nues_), and the following creed:
+    Pledge himself to Reform Bill with extension of franchise;
+    considers the Educational question amongst the most important
+    of the day; wants a thorough inquiry into India and Indian
+    affairs (government), and is prepared to support Lord
+    Palmerston's administration. All this is very important to
+    mention, because _all his relations_ are hot Tories. Also, in
+    case your friend should accept the suggestion and want to
+    communicate _at once_ Cartwright, give his (C.'s) direction in
+    Paris, _No. 5 Rue Roqu�pine_. Will you do this for me?
+
+    Please give dear Mamma a wigging for expressing no pleasure at
+    the prospect I hinted at of running over to Bath for a day or
+    two in the winter; tell her if she does not behave better I
+    won't come. I would write at greater length, but my model is
+    waiting, and I have no time.--With anticipated thanks, your
+    affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+It was in the year 1857 that Leighton painted the beautiful figure of
+"Salome, the Daughter of Herodias," which apparently was never
+exhibited in any exhibition of his works till that of 1897. A sketch
+(see List of Illustrations) made for the picture is in the Leighton
+House Collection, also other drawings of dancing figures sketched in
+Algiers.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR "SALOME, THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS."
+    1857
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+To his mother he wrote in the beginning of 1858:--
+
+                                             MONDAY, _Jan. 1858_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--Many thanks for your nice long letter, which I
+    had been anxiously expecting not only for news of yourself but
+    to hear what tidings had reached you from India. I am so
+    glad dear Lina continues tolerably well considering her
+    position. I can fully understand how dreadfully anxious poor
+    Sutherland must have been the whole time about her. I mean to
+    write to her myself without delay. Will you please let me have
+    her present direction, as I don't know it? How kind Sutherland
+    is to have remembered at such a moment about my tigerskin!
+    What an excellent and thoughtful creature he must be! The
+    extract from Brig. Stuart's despatch is most gratifying and
+    satisfactory, but I want to see it in print; where is it
+    published? can't you somehow get it and let me have it? I have
+    the greatest desire to possess it in that shape. What a nice
+    letter Booran Buckh's is. I am afraid that about the regiment
+    returning to Aurungabad is a hope not very likely to be
+    realised. There is still a frightful deal to do in Oude. Sir
+    Colin wants men sadly, and cavalry is particularly precious.
+
+    Mario's _�trenne_ cost me a pound, it was the least I could
+    do. Let me reassure you, dear Mamma, about my behaviour to
+    that amiable creature. I have been at his house often since,
+    and am sure he is not in the least hurt; as for his thinking I
+    was proud about his being an actor, that is so out of the
+    question that I could not help laughing when I read the
+    passage in your letter. In the first place, he would never
+    dream of suspecting me of such a piece of vulgarity, and in
+    the next, actor or no, he still is Count Candia, and therefore
+    more than my equal in rank.
+
+    I hope I may be with you somewhere about the 6th or 7th
+    February, and should stay till the 10th or 11th. It would be
+    humbug to say that I should not rather find you alone than in
+    a whirlpool of funereal gaieties; but, however, I am at your
+    disposal; do with me as you wish. I have been suffering very
+    much of late from tooth and face ache. I am rather better now,
+    thanks to, or in spite of, homoeopathy.
+
+    Lady Cowley I have never found in yet. The Embassy parties
+    have not begun yet. I go out almost every evening, but only in
+    a circle of four or five houses. I can't stay at home, my eyes
+    are too weak to do anything, I am sorry to say; I have not
+    opened a book this winter. The Hollands are going to Naples,
+    to my great regret; they were very kind; poor Lady Holland has
+    only just recovered from a very serious illness.
+
+    You tell me to bring over my Algerine sketches, but I have
+    very little to show, a few scratches only of types; my two
+    principal studies are _in oils_; I can't well take those over.
+    I am working away at my pictures as well as the pitch-dark
+    weather allows (which is very badly); however, I hope they may
+    turn out well. The silent Sartoris said to-day he thought my
+    Juliet picture "safe to succeed."
+
+    Good-bye, dear Mamma; best love to all from your most affect.
+    boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+
+END OF VOL. I
+
+    Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+    Edinburgh & London
+
+    [Illustration: "BLIND SCHOLAR AND DAUGHTER"
+    No. 1. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: NELLO'S SHOP: "SUPPOSE YOU LET ME LOOK AT MYSELF"
+    No. 2. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE FIRST KEY"
+    No. 5. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE PEASANTS' FAIR"
+    No. 6. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE DYING MESSAGE"
+    No. 7. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "FLORENTINE JOKE"
+    No. 8. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE ESCAPED PRISONER"
+    No. 9. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "NICCOLO AT WORK"
+    No. 10. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "YOU DIDN'T THINK"
+    No. 11. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "FATHER, I WILL BE GUIDED"
+    No. 13. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE VISIBLE MADONNA"
+    No. 15. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "DANGEROUS COLLEAGUES"
+    No. 16. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "MONNA BRIGIDA"
+    No. 17. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "BUT YOU WILL HELP"
+    No. 18. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "DRIFTING"
+    No. 20. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "WILL HIS EYES OPEN?"
+    No. 21. "Romola"]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[67] "Romeo," "Pan," and "Venus," being then exhibited at the yearly
+autumn Exhibition at Manchester.
+
+[68] "368. _From Keats' Ode to Pan, in the 'Endymion'_: F.
+Leighton.--Flesh painting is the grand test. With the majority of
+artists the attempt results in a something very much resembling tinted
+marble. Not so Mr. Leighton. This enchanting creation of his mind glows
+with the rich warm hues of life; and the sweeping outline which gives
+such beauty to the female form is preserved with subdued definiteness.
+The background is a fine piece of mellow autumnal tinting.
+
+"_The Royal Institution._--In the second room will be found one of the
+very best, if not the best picture in the exhibition, No. 183,
+'Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets,' by F. Leighton.
+Whatever its other merits or faults may be, it tells the sad story
+clearly and forcibly. The scene is 'the tomb of all the Capulets,' and
+the moment chosen by the artist is when the heads of the rival houses,
+standing by the dead bodies of those in whom all their hopes had been
+centred, agree to lay by their ancient feuds, and clasp their hands in
+sign of future friendship.
+
+    "'_Capulet_--O brother Montague, give me thy hand:
+                 This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
+                 Can I demand.
+     _Montague_--But I can give thee more:
+                 For I will raise her statue in pure gold:
+                 That while Verona by that name is known
+                 There shall no figure at such rate be set,
+                 As that of true and faithful Juliet.'
+
+In the foreground are the bodies of the lovers, placed on a bier.
+Juliet has thrown herself upon the body of Romeo, her hands clasped
+around his neck, and her cheek touching his. In that position, typical
+of her undying love, the fatal potion has done its work. Lady Capulet,
+in a paroxysm of maternal grief, has thrown herself on her knees at the
+foot of the bier; behind her is the Friar. Opposite the spectator are
+old Capulet and Montague, their aged forms bowed with grief, in the act
+of reconciliation. These are the principal figures. The Prince,
+attendants, &c., fill up, without crowding, the picture. The gloom of
+the ancient monument is capitally rendered, the colouring is
+harmonious, and the disposition of the figures careful and dramatic.
+The artist has admirably discriminated the characters of the two aged
+noblemen. Readers of Shakespeare will not need to be reminded of the
+distinction which the dramatist has made between the two. Montague
+appears only in the first and last acts, but displays great resolution,
+accompanied by a noble moderation, in the brawl commenced by the
+retainers of each of the houses. The language put into his mouth is
+noble and poetical, especially in concluding his account of the black
+and portentous humour which had overtaken his son.
+
+    "'But he, his own affection's counsellor,
+      Is to himself,--I will not say--how true,--
+      But to himself so secret and so close,
+      So far from sounding and discovery
+      As is the bud, bit with an envious worm,
+      Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
+      Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.'
+
+No such language as this is ever given to old Capulet. On the contrary,
+he is fussy, shallow, and pretentious. Even the Nurse snubs him. In the
+first act he rushes out frantically calling for his sword, to which
+Lady Capulet replies--
+
+    "'A crutch, a crutch!--why call you for a sword?'
+
+And the Nurse on another occasion says--
+
+    "'Go, go, you cot quean, go,
+      Get you to bed; faith you will be sick to-morrow
+      For this night's watching.'
+
+The artist has finely distinguished the two men; there is no mistaking
+them. On the other hand, if we may 'hint a fall' or two, we should say,
+that the faces of the lovers are too livid and corpse-like. They are
+but newly dead, and the artist would have been truer to nature and
+increased the beauty of his picture if he had allowed some of the
+beauty of life to linger around them. The attitude of the Friar, too,
+with elevated arms and appalled look, is not in harmony with the grand
+composure of his demeanour at all other times, the noble motives from
+which he had acted, and that sanctity of character which induces the
+Prince to say to him, after his explanatory speech--
+
+    "'We still have known thee for a holy man.'
+
+With all drawbacks, however, this is a noble picture; and if our
+readers will turn to the scene in the play and refresh their memories
+before going to the Institution, they will, we think, agree with us in
+ranking it as a successful Shakesperian illustration--high praise, but
+deserved."
+
+[69] Among the drawings sold by the Fine Art Society in 1897 was a very
+striking and interesting sketch in water-colour by Steinle. The subject
+was a peasant confessing to a Cardinal. May be it was the sketch for
+this picture for which Steinle asked Leighton to help him respecting
+the cardinal's costume.
+
+[70] Mrs. S. Orr was in India, the Mutiny taking place at that time.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +----------------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Typographical errors corrected in text:                        |
+    |                                                                |
+    | Page xviii: Spagniola replaced with Spagnola                   |
+    | Page  63: Middelburg replaced with Middelburgh                 |
+    | Page  69: antlered replaced with anthered                      |
+    | Page 136: Spagniola replaced with Spagnola                     |
+    | Page 153: volorous replaced with valorous                      |
+    | Page 160: Kuppelwiesser replaced with Kuppelwieser             |
+    | Page 190: Sclosser replaced with Schlosser                     |
+    | Page 210: "magnificent intellectual capacity, and unerring and |
+    |           instantaneous spring upon the point to unravel."     |
+    |           replaced with "magnificent intellectual capacity,    |
+    |           and an unerring and instantaneous spring upon the    |
+    |           point to unravel." (see "Reminiscences of G.F. Watts"|
+    |           by Mrs. Russell Barringtong, page 193.)              |
+    | Page 198: antlered replaced with anthered                      |
+    | Page 226: Spagnolli replaced with Spagnola                     |
+    | Page 261: "bran new" replaced with "brand new"                 |
+    | Page 272: "He offers you �25 for if" replaced with             |
+    |           "He offers you �25 for it"                           |
+    | Page 273: "your sincerely" replaced with "yours sincerely"     |
+    | Page 291: Pigale replaced with Pigalle                         |
+    |                                                                |
+    | Footnote 10: Sain-Damien replaced with Saint-Damien;           |
+    |              l'envalussait replaced with l'envahissait; and,   |
+    |              remplet replaced with remplit                     |
+    | Footnote 36: Caranco replaced with Carcano                     |
+    |           (see Adelaide Sartoris' book "A Week in a French     |
+    |           Country-House" page xxx.)                            |
+    |                                                                |
+    | Note that the names I'Anson and Ffrench are legitimate         |
+    | surnames.                                                      |
+    |                                                                |
+    | Frankfort a/M. is the abbreviation for Frankfurt am Main,      |
+    | (in English 'Frankfort on the Main') a city on the Main        |
+    | River, Germany.                                                |
+    |                                                                |
+    +----------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic
+Leighton, by Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, LETTERS OF FREDERICK LEIGHTON ***
+
+***** This file should be named 35934-8.txt or 35934-8.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/3/35934/
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/35934-8.zip b/35934-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0711954
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-8.zip
diff --git a/35934-h.zip b/35934-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9e8f419
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h.zip
diff --git a/35934-h/35934-h.htm b/35934-h/35934-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d8a7f0e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/35934-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,14601 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Baron Leighton (vol. 1), by Mrs. Russell Barrington.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+    p {  margin-top: .5em;
+         text-align: justify;
+         margin-bottom: .5em;
+         text-indent: 1em;
+         }
+    h1   {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    h5,h6 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    h2 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    h3 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    h4 {
+         text-align: center; font-family: garamond, serif; /* all headings centered */
+         }
+    hr { width: 33%;
+         margin-top: 1em;
+         margin-bottom: 1em;
+       }
+    body{margin-left: 10%;
+         margin-right: 10%;
+        }
+    a  {text-decoration: none} /* no lines under links */
+    hr.wide   {margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; width: 25%; color: black;}
+    div.centered {text-align: center;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 1 */
+    div.centered table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;} /* work around for IE centering with CSS problem part 2 */
+    ul        {list-style-type: none} /* no bullets on lists */
+    ul.nest   {margin-top: .15em; margin-bottom: .15em; text-indent: -1.5em;} /* spacing for nested list */
+    li        {margin-top: .15em; margin-bottom: .15em;} /* spacing for list */
+
+    .cen      {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em;} /* centering paragraphs */
+    .sc       {font-variant: small-caps;} /* small caps */
+    .fakesc   {font-size: 80%;} /* fake small caps, small font size */
+    .noin     {text-indent: 0em;} /* no indenting */
+    .hang     {text-indent: -2em;} /* hanging indents */
+    .linenum  {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */
+    .note     {margin-left: 2em; margin-right: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} /* footnote */
+    .block1   {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; font-size: 95%; padding-top: .5em; padding-bottom: .5em;} /* block indent */
+    .block2   {margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;} /* block indent */
+    .block3   {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%;} /* block indent */
+    .block4   {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; padding-top: .5em; padding-bottom: .5em;} /* block indent */
+    .right    {text-align: right; padding-right: 2em;} /* right aligning paragraphs */
+    .totoc    {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* Table of contents anchor */
+    .totoi    {position: absolute; right: 2%; font-size: 75%; text-align: right;} /* to Table of Illustrations link */
+    .img      {text-align: center; padding: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} /* centering images */
+    .sidenote {width: 15%; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 1em; padding-left: 1em; font-size: smaller; float: right; clear: right;}
+    .tdr      {text-align: right;} /* right align cell */
+    .tdrb     {text-align: right; vertical-align: bottom;} /* right align cell */
+    .tdrt     {text-align: right; vertical-align: top;} /* right align cell */
+    .tdch     {text-align: left; padding-top: .5em; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-left: 15%;}
+    .tdc     {text-align: center;}  /* center align cell */
+    .tdl      {text-align: left;}  /* left align cell */
+    .tdlp     {text-align: left; padding-left: 1.5em;}  /* left align cell */
+    .tdlsc    {text-align: left; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */
+    .tdrsc    {text-align: right; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */
+    .tdcsc    {text-align: center; font-variant: small-caps;} /* aligning cell content and small caps */
+    .tr       {margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 1em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} /* transcriber's notes */
+
+    .bb       {border-bottom: solid black 1px;}
+    .bl       {border-left: solid black 1px;}
+    .bt       {border-top: solid black 1px;}
+    .br       {border-right: solid black 1px;}
+    .bbox     {border: solid black 1px;}
+
+    .pagenum  { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+               /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+               position: absolute; right: 2%;
+               font-size: 75%;
+               color: gray;
+               background-color: inherit;
+               text-align: right;
+               text-indent: 0em;
+               font-style: normal;
+               font-weight: normal;
+               font-variant: normal;} /* page numbers */
+
+    .footnotes        {border: dashed 1px;}
+    .footnote         {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 90%;}
+    .footnote .label  {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right; font-size: 90%;}
+    .fnanchor         {vertical-align: text-top; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;}
+
+    .poem             {margin-left: 25%; margin-right: 15%; text-align: left;}
+    .poem br          {display: none;}
+    .poem .stanza     {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;}
+    .poem span        {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i1     {display: block; margin-left: 1em;}
+    .poem span.i2     {display: block; margin-left: 2em;}
+    .poem span.i3     {display: block; margin-left: 3em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.i4     {display: block; margin-left: 4em;}
+    .poem span.i13    {display: block; margin-left: 13em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;}
+    .poem span.pn     { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */
+                        /*  visibility: hidden;  */
+                            position: absolute; right: 2%;
+                            font-size: 75%;
+                            text-align: right;
+                            text-indent: 0em;
+                            font-style: normal;
+                            font-weight: normal;
+                            color: silver; background-color: inherit;
+                            font-variant: normal;} /* page numbers in poems */
+
+
+    </style>
+   </head>
+<body>
+
+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic
+Leighton, by Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton
+       Volume I
+
+Author: Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2011 [EBook #35934]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, LETTERS OF FREDERICK LEIGHTON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen" style="font-weight: bold;">Transcriber's Note:</p>
+<br />
+<p class="noin">Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.</p>
+<p class="noin" style="text-align: left;">Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.
+For a complete list, please see the <span style="white-space: nowrap;"><a href="#TN">end of this document</a>.</span></p>
+<p class="noin">The Errata on page xxii have been incorporated into this e-book.</p>
+<p class="noin">The Illustration list has one image out of sequence.</p>
+<p class="noin">Click on the images to see a larger version.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img"><a name="cover" id="cover"></a>
+<a href="images/cover.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/cover.jpg" width="60%" alt="Reverse of Jubilee Medallion and Crown of Bay Leaves" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Cover: Design for reverse of the Jubilee Medallion, and Crown of Bay Leaves<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img">
+<img border="0" src="images/deco.jpg" width="30%" alt="Publisher's Mark" />
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>The Life, Letters and Work of<br />
+Frederic Baron Leighton</h2>
+<h4>Of Stretton</h4>
+<br />
+<h4>VOL. I</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="block2"><p>"<i>If any man should be constantly penetrated with a gift
+bestowed on him, it is the artist who has realised as his
+share a genuine love for nature; for his enjoyment, if he
+puts his gift to usury, increases with the days of his life.</i>"</p>
+
+
+<p>"<i>Every man who has received a gift, ought to feel and act as
+if he was a field in which a seed was planted that others
+might gather the harvest.</i>"</p>
+
+<p class="right"><i>FREDERIC LEIGHTON.</i></p>
+<p><i>August 1852.</i></p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h2>The Life, Letters and<br />
+Work of</h2>
+<h1>Frederic Leighton</h1>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h3 style="margin-bottom: -.15em;">MRS. RUSSELL BARRINGTON</h3>
+
+<h5 style="margin-top: -.15em;">AUTHOR OF "REMINISCENCES OF G.F. WATTS," ETC. ETC.</h5>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>IN TWO VOLUMES</h4>
+
+<h3>VOL. I</h3>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>LONDON<br />
+GEORGE ALLEN, RUSKIN HOUSE<br />
+1906</h4>
+
+<h5>[All rights reserved]</h5>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>Printed by <span class="sc">Ballantyne, Hanson &amp; Co.</span><br />
+At the Ballantyne Press</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img"><a name="frontis" id="frontis"></a>
+<a href="images/frontis.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/frontis.jpg" width="55%" alt="Early portrait of Lord Leighton" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">EARLY PORTRAIT OF LORD LEIGHTON<br />From the Painting by G.F. Watts (Photogravure)<br />
+By permission of the Hon. Lady Leighton-Warren and Sir Bryan Leighton,
+Bart.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>
+TO ALL WHO HOLD DEAR THE<br />
+MEMORY OF FREDERIC LEIGHTON<br />
+THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED WITH<br />
+THE AUTHOR'S APOLOGIES FOR<br />
+ITS VERY MANY SHORTCOMINGS</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_vii" id="PageV1_vii">[vii]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>PREFACE</h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>Ten years and more have passed since Leighton died, yet it is still
+difficult to get sufficiently far away, to take in the whole of his
+life and being in their just proportion to the world in which he
+lived.</p>
+
+<p>When we are in Rome, hemmed in by narrow streets, St. Peter's is
+invisible; once across that wonderful Campagna and mounting the slopes
+of Frascati, there, like a huge pearl gleaming in the light, rises the
+dome of the Mother Church. As distance gives the true relation between
+a lofty building and its suburbs, so time alone can decide the height
+of the pedestal on which to place the great.</p>
+
+<p>The day after Leighton's death Watts wrote to me:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"...The loss to the world is so great that I almost feel ashamed to
+let my personal grief have so large a place.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you knew him so well. I am glad for any one who knew him.
+No one will ever know such another, alas! alas! alas!</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you have enjoyed the friendship of one of the greatest men
+of any time."</p>
+
+<p>This is the estimate of a great artist who knew Leighton for forty
+years, and for many of those years enjoyed daily intercourse with him.</p>
+
+<p>A few like Watts required no length of time before forming a right
+estimate of Leighton. They not only knew him to be great, but knew why
+he was great. Undoubtedly <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_viii" id="PageV1_viii">[viii]</a></span>as a draughtsman Leighton was unrivalled;
+but bearing in mind his English contemporaries&mdash;Watts, Millais, Holman
+Hunt, Rossetti, and Burne-Jones&mdash;it is not as a painter that even his
+truest friends would claim for him his right to the exceptional
+position he undoubtedly occupied.</p>
+
+<p>What was it that gave Leighton this position? He himself was the very
+last to claim it as a right. His creed and his practice were ever to
+fight against the weaknesses of his nature rather than to rejoice in
+its strength. For assuredly, however strong the intellect, beautiful
+the character, brilliant the vitality, and fine the intuitive
+instincts, a man may yet have within his nature foibles in common with
+the herd. The difference is, that in the truly great the unworthier
+side of nature is viewed as unworthy&mdash;is fought against and banished
+like the plague.</p>
+
+<p>"A good man is wise, not because all his desires are wise, but because
+his reasonable soul masters unwise desires and is itself wise.</p>
+
+<p>"He is courageous, because he knows when to fight, and does so under
+control of reason.</p>
+
+<p>"He is temperate, because his pluck and his desires unite in giving
+the first place to the reasonable soul; and finally, he is just,
+because each principle is in its place and stops there."</p>
+
+<p>In a letter to his mother when he was twenty-three Leighton wrote: "I
+feel I have of my nature a very fair share of the hateful worldly
+weakness of my country people;" adding, "Still, I have found no
+sufficiently great advantage or compensation for the tedium of going
+out." Again, three years later, after describing to his sister the
+delight he felt in the beauty he found in Algiers, he wrote: "And yet
+what I have said of my feelings, though <i>literally true</i>, does not
+give you an exactly true notion; for, together <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_ix" id="PageV1_ix">[ix]</a></span>with, and as it were
+behind, so much pleasurable emotion, there is always that other
+strange second man in me, calm, observant, critical, unmoved,
+blas&eacute;&mdash;odious!</p>
+
+<p>"He is a shadow that walks with me, a sort of nineteenth-century
+canker of doubt and discretion; it's very, very seldom that I forget
+his loathsome presence. What cheering things I find to say!"</p>
+
+<p>Doubtless Leighton had within him the possibilities of becoming a
+worldling, and also of becoming a cynic. He overrode and banished the
+first as despicable, the second as hideous.</p>
+
+<p>But it is not in the wisdom that&mdash;Socrates-like&mdash;steered his life by
+reason, that we find the adequate answer to the question, "Why was
+Leighton the prominent entity he was?" Diverse as were his natural
+gifts and his power of achievement on various lines, he differed
+radically from that modern development&mdash;the all-round man, who has no
+concentrated fire as a centre to illumine his life, but develops all
+his capacities so that they shall shine forth equally on certain high
+levels. From childhood Leighton had one overriding passion, and from
+this sprang the will-force and vitality which throughout his life
+succeeded in bringing his intentions to fruition. Whatsoever his hand
+found worthy to do at all, he did with the whole might of his great
+nature. Still even that would not adequately answer the question. His
+greatness truly lay in the fact that the choice he made of what was
+worth doing was never limited by personal interests. He impelled the
+force of his powers for the welfare of others, and for the causes
+beneficial to others, as much or more than to those matters which
+concerned himself alone. Hence his true greatness and his great
+fame&mdash;for &AElig;schylus is right: "The good will prevail."</p>
+
+<p>A sense of duty&mdash;"the keenest possible sense of it," <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_x" id="PageV1_x">[x]</a></span>to use Mr.
+Briton Rivi&egrave;re's words&mdash;which was the keynote of all Leighton's
+actions, was impelled in the first instance by a feeling of gratitude
+for the joy with which beauty in nature and art had steeped his being
+from a child; a deep well of happiness, a constant companion, ever
+springing up in his heart, which he craved that others should share
+with him. This happiness gave sweetness to his life, lovableness to
+his character, irresistible power to his control. Leighton's was truly
+a life of praise and gratitude for the joys nature had bestowed on
+him. He had a pleasant way of making the truth prevail. The
+description by Marcus Aurelius of his "third man" applies well to the
+character of Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>"One man, when he has done a service to another, is ready to set it
+down to his account as a favour conferred. Another is not ready to do
+this, but still in his own mind he thinks of the man as his debtor,
+and he knows what he has done. A third in a manner does not even know
+what he has done, but he is like a vine which has produced grapes, and
+seeks for nothing more after it has once produced its proper fruit. As
+a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee
+when it has made the honey, so a man, when he has done a good act,
+does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to
+another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season."</p>
+
+<p>Leighton's work in every direction was complete work, because his mind
+grasped completely the proportion and aspect of everything he
+undertook. His inborn affection for, and sympathy with, his
+fellow-creatures impelled him to feel that the area of self-interest,
+however gifted that self might be, was too restricted for him to find
+full completeness therein. This could only be attained by working with
+and for others. Such feelings and doctrines are common in religious
+and philanthropic men; but in the ego of the modern artist there <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xi" id="PageV1_xi">[xi]</a></span>is
+generally something which seems to demand a concentration of attention
+on his own ego in order to develop his gifts as an artist. The
+attitude of Leighton towards his own work, and towards that of others,
+was essentially contrary to this concentration.</p>
+
+<p>In his letters to his mother, and to his master, Eduard von Steinle,
+are found the bases on which the superstructure of his after career
+rested, the underpinning of that monumental feature of the Victorian
+era&mdash;namely, in unflagging industry, in ever striving to make his life
+worthy of the beauty and dignity of his vocation as an artist, and in
+ever endeavouring to make his work an adequate exponent of "the
+mysterious treasure that was laid up in his heart": his passion for
+beauty.</p>
+
+<p>In my attempt to write Leighton's life I have purposely devoted more
+space to the earlier than to the later years of his career as an
+artist. With an artist more than with others is it specially true that
+the boy is father to the man; and if Leighton's example is in any way
+to benefit students of art, the early struggles, the failures, more
+even than the successes, will teach the lesson that there is no short
+cut on the road which has to be travelled even by the most gifted.
+From the family letters and those to his master, which are, with a few
+exceptions, given in full, it will also be seen that, however high was
+the pedestal on which Leighton placed his mistress Art, he felt keenly
+likewise the beauty of his family relationships, and a deep, grateful
+affection for the master who had given him his start on the road to
+fame.</p>
+
+<p>If this endeavour to present a true picture of Leighton the man has
+any value, it is owing mainly to the fact that Mrs. Matthews has
+placed at my disposal the family and other letters in her
+possession,&mdash;an act which demands the thanks of all those who are
+interested in the fame of her brother.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xii" id="PageV1_xii">[xii]</a></span>I also wish to acknowledge with gratitude the considerate kindness of
+several of Leighton's friends in contributing "notes" and letters,
+which are of true value in bringing before the public a right view of
+the man and of the artist. First and foremost among these contributors
+must be placed Dr. von Steinle, son of Professor Eduard von Steinle of
+Frankfort-on-Main, the beloved master to whom Leighton in 1879
+referred as "<i>the indelible seal</i>," when writing of those who had
+influenced him most for good. The first letter of the correspondence
+which was carried on between the master and pupil, and preserved
+preciously by each, is dated August 31, 1852, the last 1883. Only
+second in interest to this correspondence, which discloses Leighton's
+intimate feelings and aspirations as an artist, are the notes supplied
+by Mr. Briton Rivi&egrave;re, R.A.&mdash;notes which could only have been written
+by one whose own nature in many ways was closely attuned to that of
+Leighton's, and which give the intimate aspect of Leighton as an
+official. "It would be difficult for any one," writes Mr. Briton
+Rivi&egrave;re, "to give in a short space any adequate account of a character
+so full and complex as Leighton's." And indeed it would require a
+great deal more than two volumes even to touch on all the events of
+this eventful life, which might further illustrate Leighton's
+character; but Mr. Briton Rivi&egrave;re has noted certain salient
+characteristics of his friend with a sympathy, and a fine touch, which
+I think will prove of very rare interest in this record. The tribute
+to Leighton of Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, R.A. (from a sculptor's point of
+view), carries great weight, and gives also, as does that of another
+old comrade in the Artists' Volunteer Corps, an appreciative account of
+Leighton as the soldier. To these, to Lady Loch, the Hon. Mrs. Alfred
+Sartoris, Sir William Richmond, R.A., Mr. Walter Crane, Mr. Alfred
+East, P.R.B.A., <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xiii" id="PageV1_xiii">[xiii]</a></span>I offer my thanks for so kindly contributing notes
+which help to solve the problems presented by "a character so full and
+so complex." For courteous permission to publish letters I wish to
+express my thanks to Alice, Countess of Strafford, the executor of Mr.
+Henry Greville, who was one of, if not the most intimate of the
+friends who loved Leighton; the Hon. Mrs. Leigh, Mrs. Fanny Kemble's
+daughter and executor; the Right Hon. Sir Charles Dilke, executor of
+Mrs. Mark Pattison (afterwards Lady Dilke); the Right Hon. John
+Morley, Dr. von Steinle, Mr. John Hanson Walker, Mr. Cartwright, Mr.
+Robert Barrett Browning, Professor Church, Mr. T.C. Horsfall, and Mrs.
+Street, daughter of the late Mr. Henry Wells, R.A.; the executor of
+George Eliot, Mrs. Charles Lewes; and the executors of John Ruskin.
+There are many other letters and notes of interest which have been
+preserved by Mrs. Matthews, but which cannot be inserted for want of
+space. Among these are affectionate notes from Joachim, Burne-Jones,
+Hebert, Robert Fleury, Meissonier, G&eacute;rome, Tullio Massarani; also
+friendly letters from Cardinal Manning, Viscount Wolseley, Sarah
+Bernhardt, John Tyndall, Froude, Anthony Trollope, Sir John Gilbert,
+Lady Waterford, and Lord Strangford. A number of letters exist from
+members of the Royal Family to Leighton, all evincing alike admiration
+for the artist and an affectionate appreciation of the man.</p>
+
+<p>In these pages there will be found a repetition of several sentences.
+This is intentional. Watts would often remark, "A really wise and true
+saying can't be repeated too often"; and in Leighton's letters are
+several tallying with this description, which it would be a pity to
+detach from their own context, and yet which are also required
+elsewhere to enforce the argument.</p>
+
+<p>As regards the kindness shown in allowing reproductions <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xiv" id="PageV1_xiv">[xiv]</a></span>of pictures,
+I have to tender my loyal gratitude to the Queen for the gracious loan
+of the picture presented to her Majesty by Leighton; also to the
+Prince of Wales for allowing the "Head of a Girl," given to his Royal
+Highness as a wedding present by the artist, to be reproduced in these
+pages.</p>
+
+<p>Other owners of pictures to whom I proffer also my warm thanks are
+Lord Armstrong, Lord Pirrie, the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, the Hon.
+Lady Leighton-Warren, Sir Bryan Leighton, the Hon. Mrs. Sartoris, Sir
+Elliot Lees, Sir Alexander Henderson, Mr. E. and Miss I'Anson, Mr. S.
+Pepys Cockerell, Mr. T. Blake Wirgman, Mrs. Stewart Hodgson, Mr.
+Hanson Walker, Mrs. Henry Joachim, Mrs. Stephenson Clarke, Mrs. C.E.
+Lees, Mrs. James Watney, Mr. Hodges, Mrs. Charles Lewes, Mr. H.S.
+Mendelssohn, Mr. Phillipson, and Dr. von Steinle.</p>
+
+<p>Also to the Fine Art Society, the Berlin Photographic Co., Messrs.
+Agnew &amp; Son, Messrs. P. &amp; D. Colnaghi, Messrs. Henry Graves, Messrs.
+Lefevre, Messrs. Smith, Elder, &amp; Co., and the directors of the
+Leicester Galleries.</p>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="toc" id="toc"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xv" id="PageV1_xv">[xv]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CONTENTS</h3>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="70%" summary="Table of Contents">
+  <tr>
+  <td width="80%">&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdrsc" width="20%"><span style="font-size: 80%;">PAGE</span></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#INTRODUCTION">INTRODUCTION</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">1</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdch">CHAPTER I.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">ANTECEDENTS AND SCHOOL DAYS, 1830-1852</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">34</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdch">CHAPTER II</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">ROME, 1852-1855</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">91</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdch">CHAPTER III</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">PENCIL DRAWINGS OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS, 1850-1860</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">197</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdch">CHAPTER IV</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">WATTS&mdash;SUCCESS&mdash;FAILURE, 1855-1856</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">222</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdch">CHAPTER V</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">FRIENDS</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">250</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdch">CHAPTER VI</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">STEINLE AND ITALY AGAIN&mdash;FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE EAST, 1856-1858</a></td>
+  <td class="tdr">278</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xvi" id="PageV1_xvi">[xvi]</a></span><br />
+<a name="toi" id="toi"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xvii" id="PageV1_xvii">[xvii]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h3>
+
+<h3>VOLUME I</h3>
+<br />
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="75%" summary="List of Illustrations">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt" width="5%">1.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc" width="75%"><a href="#cover">Design for Reverse of the Jubilee Medallion</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb" width="20%"><i>Cover</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Executed for Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Government, 1887.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">2.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#cover">Crown of Bay Leaves</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><i>Cover</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>From Drawing made by Lord Leighton at the Bagni de Lucca, 1854.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">3.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#frontis">Portrait of Lord Leighton by G.F. Watts, about 1863</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><i>To face Dedication</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of the</i> Hon. Lady <span class="sc">Leighton-Warren</span> <i>and</i> Sir <span class="sc">Bryan Leighton</span>, Bart. (<i>Photogravure</i>)</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">4.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep001">Head of Young Girl</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><i>To face page 1</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By the gracious permission of</i> <span class="sc">Her Majesty the Queen.</span></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">5.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep017">Portraits of Lord Leighton's Father and Mother when Young</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">17</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>From Miniatures.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">6.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep019">Early Painting of Boy Saving a Baby from the Clutches of an Eagle</a> (<i>Colour</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">19</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">7.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep027">Portrait of Professor Eduard von Steinle</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">27</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of his Son</i>, Doctor <span class="sc">von Steinle</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">8.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep028">Portrait of Mrs. Sartoris, 1856</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">28</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">9.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep033">Crypt under St. Paul's Cathedral where Barry, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Turner, and Lord Leighton were Buried</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">33</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">10.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep037">Portraits Of Lord Leighton and his Younger Sister, Mrs. Matthews</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">37</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Drawn by him when a boy.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xviii" id="PageV1_xviii">[xviii]</a></span>11.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep043">Early Comic Drawing made in Frankfurt</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">43</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> Mr. <span class="sc">John Hanson Walker</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">12.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep048">Portrait of Mr. I'Anson, Lord Leighton's Great-uncle, 1850</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">48</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> Mr. E. <i>and</i> Miss <span class="sc">I'Anson</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">13.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep055">The Death of Brunelleschi, 1851</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">55</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> Doctor <span class="sc">Von Steinle</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">14.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep056">The Plague in Florence, 1851</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">56</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">15.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep069">Studies of Branches of Fig and Bramble</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">69</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">16.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep081">Study of Byzantine Well Head, Venice, 1852</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">81</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> Mr. <span class="sc">S. Pepys Cockerell</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">17.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep098">From Pencil Drawing of Model, Rome, 1853. "Costume di Procida"</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">98</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">18.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep112">Head of Model used for Figure in Cimabue's Madonna,
+    erroneously stated to have been the Portrait of Lord Leighton, 1853</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">112</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">19.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep116">Sketch of Subiaco, 1853</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">116</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">20.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep152">Head of Vincenzo, 1854</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">152</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">21.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep138">Copy in Pencil of the Portraits of Giotto, Cimabue, Memmi,
+    and Taddeo Gaddi</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">138</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>From the Capella Spagnola, Sta. Maria Novella, Florence,
+    1853. Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">22.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep145">Study of Woman's Head for Figure at the Window&mdash;Cimabue's
+    Madonna, 1854 (<i>Photogravure</i>)</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">145</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">23.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep149">Original Sketch in Pencil and Chinese White for Cimabue's Madonna, 1853</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">149</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xix" id="PageV1_xix">[xix]</a></span>24.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep193">Cimabue's Madonna, 1855</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">193</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of the</i> <span class="sc">Fine Art Society</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">25.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep194">Facsimile of Letter from Sir Charles Eastlake, announcing
+    that Queen Victoria had Purchased Cimabue's Madonna, May 3, 1855</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">194</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">26.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep200">Study of Cyclamen, 1856</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">200</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">27.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep201">Wreath of Bay Leaves, 1854</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">201</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">28.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep202a">Study of a Lemon Tree&mdash;Capri, 1859</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">202</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp">By kind permission of Mr. <span class="sc">S. Pepys Cockerell</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">29.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep202b">Study of Branches of a Deciduous Tree</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">202</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">30.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep205">Early Studies of Kalmia latifolia, Oleander, and Rhododendron Flowers</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">205</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">31.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep206a">Studies of Pumpkin Flowers</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">206</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">32.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep206c">Study of Vine, 1854&mdash;Bagni di Lucca</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">206</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">33.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep207">Studies of Vine Leaves, "Bellosguardo," Sept. 1856</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">207</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">34.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep211a"><span class="sc">"Ariadne Abandoned by Theseus&mdash;Death Releases Her."</span> 1868</a> (<i>Photogravure</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">211</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> <span class="sc">Lord Pirrie</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">35.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep211b">"Elisha Raising the Son of the Shunammite," 1881</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">211</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp">(<i>Photogravure</i>)</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">36.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep211c">"D&aelig;dalus and Icarus," 1869</a> (<i>Photogravure</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">211</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> Sir <span class="sc">Alexander Henderson</span>, Bart.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">37.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep213a"><span class="sc">"Captive Andromache," 1888</span></a> (<i>Photogravure</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">213</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of the</i> <span class="sc">Berlin Photographic Co.</span></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">38.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep213b"><span class="sc">Study in Oils for "Captive Andromache"</span></a> (<i>Colour</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">213</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> Mrs. <span class="sc">Stewart Hodgson</span></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">39.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep214a">"Weaving The Wreath," 1873</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">214</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdr"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xx" id="PageV1_xx">[xx]</a></span>40.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep214b">"Winding the Skein"</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">214</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of the</i> <span class="sc">Fine Art Society</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">41.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep214c">"The Music Lesson," 1877</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">214</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of the</i> <span class="sc">Fine Art Society</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">42.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep218a">Studies of Sea Thistle, Malinmore</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">218</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>From Sketch Book</i>, 1895.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">43.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep218b">Studies of Sea Thistle, Malinmore</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">218</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>From Sketch Book</i>, 1895.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">44.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep221a"><span class="sc">"Return of Persephone"</span></a> (<i>Photogravure</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">221</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Corporation of Leeds.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">45.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep221b"><span class="sc">Study in Oils for "Return of Persephone"</span></a> (<i>Colour</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">221</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp">By kind permission of Mrs. <span class="sc">Stewart Hodgson</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">46.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep223">From Decorative Painting on Gold Background of Cupid with Doves</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">223</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">47.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep229a"><span class="sc">"Idyll," 1881</span></a> (<i>Photogravure</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">229</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">48.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep229b">Portrait of Miss Mabel Mills, 1877</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">229</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">49.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep230a">"Venus Disrobing for the Bath," 1867</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">230</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> Sir <span class="sc">A. Henderson</span>, Bart.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">50.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep230b">Phryne at Eleusis, 1882</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">230</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">51.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep233">Portrait of Mrs. Adelaide Sartoris, drawn for her Friend, Lady Bloomfield, 1867</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">233</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> the Hon. Mrs. <span class="sc">Sartoris</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">52.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep234">Study for Portion of Frieze, "Music" (not carried out in final design). 1883</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">234</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">53.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep241"><span class="sc">From Sketch in Water Colour for Tableaux Vivants, "The Echoes of Hellas"</span></a> (<i>Colour</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">241</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">54.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep251">Study from Mr. John Hanson Walker, when a boy, for "Lieder Ohne Worte," 1860</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">251</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">55.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep273"><span class="sc">Portrait of Mrs. John Hanson Walker, Painted as a Wedding
+    Present to her Husband, 1867</span></a> (<i>Colour</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">273</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> Mr. <span class="sc">Walker</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xxi" id="PageV1_xxi">[xxi]</a></span>56.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep276a">Figures for Ceiling for Music Room, previous to the Drapery
+    being added, 1886</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">276</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">57.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep276b">Original Sketch in Charcoal of Dancing Figures for the same, 1886</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">276</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">58.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep285"><span class="sc">Water Colour Drawing of the Ca' d'Oro, Venice</span></a> (<i>Colour</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">285</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">59.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep299"><span class="sc">View in Algiers</span></a> (<i>Colour</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">299</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">60.</td>
+  <td class="tdl"><a href="#imagep301"><span class="sc">View in Algiers</span></a> (<i>Colour</i>)</td>
+  <td class="tdrb">301</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">61.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc"><a href="#imagep308">Sketch for "Salome, the Daughter of Herodias," 1857</a></td>
+  <td class="tdrb">308</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>Leighton House Collection.</i></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdrt">62.</td>
+  <td class="tdlsc">Sixteen Scenes in Florence&mdash;Illustrations to "Romola"</td>
+  <td class="tdrb"><i>Beginning page 310</i></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp"><i>By kind permission of</i> Mrs. <span class="sc">Charles Lewes</span>.</td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">&nbsp; 1. <a href="#imagep310a">Blind Scholar and Daughter.</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">&nbsp; 2. <a href="#imagep310b">"Suppose You let me look at Myself;" Nello's Shop.</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">&nbsp; 5. <a href="#imagep310c">"The First Key."</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">&nbsp; 6. <a href="#imagep310d">Peasants' Fair.</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">&nbsp; 7. <a href="#imagep310e">The Dying Message.</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">&nbsp; 8. <a href="#imagep310f">Florentine Joke.</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">&nbsp; 9. <a href="#imagep310g">The Escaped Prisoner.</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">10. <a href="#imagep310h">Niccolo at Work.</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">11. <a href="#imagep310i">"You didn't Think."</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">13. <a href="#imagep310j">"Father, I Will be Guided."</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">15. <a href="#imagep310k">The Visible Madonna.</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">16. <a href="#imagep310l">Dangerous Colleagues.</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">17. <a href="#imagep310m">"Monna Brigida."</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">18. <a href="#imagep310n">"But You will Help."</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">20. <a href="#imagep310o">"Drifting."</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  <td class="tdlp sc">21. <a href="#imagep310p">"Will his Eyes Open?"</a></td>
+  <td>&nbsp;</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep001" id="imagep001"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep001.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep001.jpg" width="46%" alt="Head presented to the Queen by Lord Leighton" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">HEAD PRESENTED TO THE QUEEN BY LORD LEIGHTON<br />
+By permission of Her Majesty the Queen<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_xxii" id="PageV1_xxii">[xxii]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>ERRATA</h3>
+<br />
+
+<div class="block3">
+<p>Motto facing Title-page, line 3, <i>for</i> "from," <i>read</i> "for."</p>
+<p>Page  xx, No. 49, <i>for</i> "Figures for Ceiling, &amp;c.," <i>read</i> "By kind permission of Sir A. Henderson, Bart."</p>
+<p>Page  31, line 7, <i>for</i> "at all," <i>read</i> "to all."</p>
+<p>Page  60, omit note.</p>
+<p>Page  67, line 31, <i>for</i> "unscorched," <i>read</i> "sunscorched."</p>
+<p>Page 103, line 31, <i>for</i> "worse that," <i>read</i> "worse than."</p>
+<p>Page 127, line 16, <i>for</i> "Wasash," <i>read</i> "Warsash."</p>
+<p>Page 169, line 8, <i>for</i> "Pantaleoni," <i>read</i> "Pantaleone."</p>
+<p>Page 197, note, <i>for</i> "Vol. I.," <i>read</i> "Vol. II."</p>
+<p>Page 213, lines 6,7, <i>for</i> "owing ... from," <i>read</i> "owing ... to."</p>
+<p>Page 265, note. The reference number should be to "Edward," instead of to "Adelaide."</p>
+<p>Page 296, line 17, <i>for</i> "Couture," <i>read</i> "Conture."</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="INTRODUCTION" id="INTRODUCTION"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_1" id="PageV1_1">[1]</a></span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h2>THE LIFE OF LORD LEIGHTON</h2>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h3>INTRODUCTION<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+<br />
+
+<p>In 1860, when Leighton, at the age of thirty, definitely settled in
+England, art was alive in two distinctly new directions. Ruskin was
+writing, the Pre-Raphaelites were painting, and Prince Albert, besides
+encouraging individual painters and sculptors, had, through his fine
+taste and the exercise of his patronage in every branch of art,
+developed an interest in good design as it can be carried out in
+manufactures and various crafts. Leighton followed the Prince
+Consort's initiatory lead; and, by showing the same cultured and
+catholic zeal in her welfare, was enabled to continue and develop
+Prince Albert's important work, thereby widening and elevating the
+whole outlook of art in England.</p>
+
+<p>It has at times been asserted that Leighton was greater as a President
+of the Royal Academy than he was as a painter. It would be truer, I
+think, to say that it was because he was so great as an artist in the
+highest, widest meaning of the word, so sincere a workman, that he
+stands unrivalled as a President. In a letter to a friend, dated May
+1888, ten years after he had been elected President, he wrote, "I am a
+workman first and an official afterwards," and it was, I believe,
+because he carried into his official duties the true artist's warmth,
+sincerity, and zeal for his special vocation, that his influence as an
+official was never deadened by theoretic red-tapeism, nor by secondary
+or side issues. Leighton ever <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_2" id="PageV1_2">[2]</a></span>flew straight to the mark, and the mark
+he aimed at in his presidential work was ever the highest essential
+point from the view he also took as an artist. His official duties,
+carried out with so great an amount of scrupulous conscientiousness,
+would have gone far to fill the entire life of an ordinary human
+being; yet these duties were, to the last, subordinated in his
+personal existence to his self-imposed duties as a painter and a
+sculptor.</p>
+
+<p>The words, "I am a workman first and an official afterwards,"
+epitomise the creed of his life. From earliest childhood art had cast
+over Leighton's nature a glamour which made his heart-service to her
+the great passion of his life. His "great nature" had in it many
+sources of stirring interest and of pure delights, which he enjoyed
+keenly; but nothing came in sight, so to speak, which ever for a
+moment seriously challenged a rivalry with the salient ruling passion.
+His character, as it developed, wound itself round it; his strongest
+sense of duty focalised itself in its service; his ambition ever was
+more inspired and stimulated by a devotion to the best interests of
+art than by any purely personal incentive. Leighton was an artist of
+that true type in whom no influence whatsoever can deter or slacken
+incessant zeal for work. In the deepest recesses of his nature burnt
+the unquenchable fire, the paramount longing to follow in Nature's
+footsteps, and to create things of beauty. Among the many loyal
+servants who have dutifully worshipped at the shrine of art, never was
+there one who more completely devoted the best that was in him to her
+service.</p>
+
+<p>"Va! your human talk and doings are a tame jest; the only passionate
+life is in form and colour."<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p>
+
+<p>Leighton's nature may be viewed from three aspects. Though each aspect
+is apparently detached from the others, it would be impossible to
+record a true portrait were the three not kept in view while
+attempting to draw the picture.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_3" id="PageV1_3">[3]</a></span>First, there was Leighton, the great man, the public servant, gifted
+with exceptional powers of intellect and character, who attained the
+highest social position ever reached by an English artist; the
+Leighton the world knew, whose sway was paramount in the many councils
+and assemblies to which he belonged no less than when fulfilling his
+duties as President of the Royal Academy, and whose helpfulness and
+zeal in promoting the extension of a knowledge and appreciation of
+English art in foreign countries and in the colonies became
+proverbial. Lady Loch tells of his invaluable help in the efforts she
+and her husband made to encourage art, while the late Lord Loch was
+Governor of the Isle of Man, of Victoria, and of Cape Colony. "I feel
+it would be impossible," she writes, "to convey in a few words what a
+wonderful friend Frederic Leighton was to my husband from the time he
+first knew him,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> forty years before Leighton's death, and to myself
+from the time we married. He was always ready to help us at every
+turn. Any deserving artist whom we sent to him would be certain to
+find in him a friend. When we arranged the very small Art Exhibition
+in the Isle of Man, you could hardly imagine with what energy and
+thoughtfulness he entered into the matter, impressing upon us all the
+steps that we ought to take in order to secure its success, even to
+the details, such as packing and insuring the pictures. He himself
+sent us pictures for the Exhibition, and guided our judgment in
+admiring and caring for those which were best and most to be valued,
+with a paternal care and zeal not describable. Again, when we were in
+Australia, and the great International Centennial Exhibition in
+Melbourne took place in 1888, Frederic Leighton selected such a good
+collection of pictures that they simply were the saving of the
+Exhibition financially&mdash;they attracted such continuous crowds of
+visitors. Subsequently, when an exhibition <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_4" id="PageV1_4">[4]</a></span>of ceramic work was asked
+for in Melbourne, and Henry Loch wrote to consult his friend, amidst
+all Frederic Leighton's important work and duties, he rushed about and
+secured a most interesting collection of all kinds of china and
+pottery, which was greatly appreciated by the Australians. Again, in
+1892, he formed a Fine Art Committee, consisting of himself, who was
+appointed Chairman, Sir Charles Mills, Sir Donald Currie, M.P., Mr.
+W.W. Ouless, R.A., Mr. Colin Hunter, A.R.A., Mr. Frank Walton, and Mr.
+Prange, to select pictures to send for exhibition at Kimberley.
+Besides a picture lent by Queen Victoria, at Leighton's request, of
+the portraits of herself and the royal family by Winterhalter, and
+four by Leighton, which he lent, the Committee secured 181 pictures,
+though not without great difficulty, Leighton told us, because the
+artists were afraid their works would be injured by the burning sun,
+the sandstorms, and the rough journey up from the Cape. Owing,
+however, to Leighton's untiring exertions, a very interesting and
+successful exhibition took place in this then little known town of our
+English colony in Africa."</p>
+
+<p>On the day Leighton died, Watts, his near neighbour and
+fellow-workman, in a letter to a friend, wrote that he had enjoyed "an
+uninterrupted and affectionate friendship of five-and-forty years"
+with Leighton. He continues: "No one will ever know such another. A
+magnificent intellectual capacity, an unerring and instantaneous
+spring upon the point to unravel, a generosity, a sympathy, a tact, a
+lovable and sweet reasonableness, yet no weakness. For my own
+part&mdash;and I tell you, life can never be the same to me again&mdash;my own
+grief is merged in the sense I have of the appalling loss to the
+nation; it seems to me to be no less."<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> Later, Watts wished it
+recorded that Leighton's character was the most beautiful he had ever
+known. This tribute from the great veteran artist, thirteen years
+Leighton's senior, but who <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_5" id="PageV1_5">[5]</a></span>outlived him more than eight years, was
+echoed far and wide by many at the time of Leighton's death. To his
+powers and influence, exercised in the Royal Academy as a body and to
+the members individually, Mr. Briton Rivi&egrave;re, the painter, and Mr.
+Hamo Thornycroft, the sculptor, give the following appreciative
+tributes.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Briton Rivi&egrave;re writes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"To begin with, I never really knew him&mdash;though we had met several
+times before&mdash;until I began to serve upon the Council with him very
+soon after his election as President. This at once brought us into
+very intimate relations, and a very few meetings convinced me that his
+opinions and actions on that body were invariably regulated by a true
+spirit of absolute justice and fairness to all, and that if he had his
+own particular art beliefs&mdash;which he certainly had, for art was to him
+almost a religion, and his own particular belief almost a creed&mdash;he
+never allowed it to bias him in the least. Indeed, I have never worked
+with any one who exhibited a broader or more catholic spirit of
+tolerance, even sympathy with all schools, however diverse from his
+own, only demanding honesty and sincerity should be the basis of each
+kind of work.</p>
+
+<p>"I have always felt that no one, who had heard only his elaborately
+prepared speeches, knew his real power as a speaker.</p>
+
+<p>"He was a master of time. I do not think he ever failed to keep an
+appointment almost to the minute. He was seldom much too early, but
+never too late.</p>
+
+<p>"He was an ideal president for any institution, and after serving
+under him for many years, I cannot think of any one faculty which a
+president should possess, which Leighton wanted."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamo Thornycroft writes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"My earliest recollection of Leighton was in 1869, when, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_6" id="PageV1_6">[6]</a></span>with several
+other young art students, I went to his studio. He had promised to
+criticise the designs we had made from Morris' 'Life and Death of
+Jason.' This he did most admirably, it seemed to me, and most
+sympathetically, devoting considerable time to each; and I came away
+encouraged and a sworn devotee of the great man.</p>
+
+<p>"For the next few years, I had the benefit of his teaching at the
+Academy Schools, where he was most energetic as a visitor, and took
+the greatest pains to help the students. He was, moreover, an
+<i>inspiring</i> master. Besides doing much for the school of sculpture,
+till then much neglected, he started a custom of giving a certain time
+to the study of drapery on the living model. His knowledge in this
+department and his excellent method were a new element in the training
+in the schools, and soon had a salutary effect upon the work done by
+the students. His influence, through the Academy Schools, upon the
+younger generation of sculptors was very great. There can be no doubt
+whatever that the rapid advance made in the art of sculpture during
+the last thirty years was to a considerable extent due to the sympathy
+and the interest which Leighton gave to it.</p>
+
+<p>"Leighton, as is well known, carefully prepared his important
+speeches, like many great speakers; but I never saw him fail, or even
+hesitate, when called upon to speak unexpectedly. At meetings of the
+Academy Council or at the general assemblies, his summing up and his
+weighing of the arguments brought forward by members in course of
+discussion was always masterly, just and eloquent. He had such a great
+sense of proportion, and detected what was the essence and the
+essential part of a speaker's argument."</p>
+
+<p>At a meeting held in Leighton's studio, after his death in May 1896,
+for the purpose of furthering the scheme of preserving the house for
+the nation as a memorial to the great <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_7" id="PageV1_7">[7]</a></span>artist, the sculptor, Mr.
+Alfred Gilbert, R.A., on rising to speak, said he felt too much on the
+occasion to be able to make a speech, adding, "I can only say that all
+I know, and all the little I have been able to do as a sculptor, I owe
+to Leighton."</p>
+
+<p>In a letter, dated February 9, 1896, Watts again writes: "I delighted
+in shaping a splendid career of incalculable benefit to his
+(Leighton's) epoch. His abilities, his persuasiveness, the peculiar
+range of his cultivation, would have fitted him to accompany a
+delicate embassy, where his efficiency would have been made evident,
+establishing a right to be entrusted with the like as its head; I
+believe something of this and more, if there could be more, was for
+him in the future. You know, I always looked forward to his seat in
+the House of Lords. That came about, and I believe the rest was but a
+question of time. Feeling this, you can understand that my own grief
+seems to me to be selfish. I am glad you enjoyed the friendship of one
+of the greatest men of any time."</p>
+
+<p>In the speech which the King, then Prince of Wales, made at the first
+banquet held after Leighton's death, on May 1, 1897, His Majesty
+referred to the late President in the following words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"All of us in the room, and I especially, must miss one whose eloquent
+voice was so often heard at this banquet&mdash;a voice, alas! now hushed
+for ever. It is unnecessary, as it would be almost impertinent in me,
+to hold forth in praise of the merits and virtues of Lord Leighton.
+They are known to you all. He has left a great name behind him, and he
+himself will be regretted not only by the great artistic world, but by
+the whole nation. I myself had the advantage of knowing him for a
+great number of years&mdash;ever since I was a boy&mdash;and I need hardly say
+how deeply I deplore the fact that he can be no more in our midst. But
+his name will be cherished and honoured throughout the country."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_8" id="PageV1_8">[8]</a></span>It is not necessary to dwell more lengthily on this salient aspect of
+Leighton. During his lifetime it was public property, the great name
+he has left is evidence sufficient to coming generations.</p>
+
+<p>Secondly, as portrayed chiefly by his human qualities, there was the
+aspect of Leighton as his family and his friends knew him; the beloved
+Leighton, the delightful companion, the charming personality, the
+being whose brilliant vitality brought a mental stimulus into all
+intercourse with him. The Leighton <i>qui savait vivre</i> perhaps better
+than did ever any other conspicuous, overworked servant of the public;
+an active, positive influence, radiating strength and sunshine by his
+presence; and playing the game&mdash;whatever game it was&mdash;better than even
+the experts in special games. In that which perhaps he played best,
+lay his remarkable social power. Leighton had a deep-rooted and
+ingenuous sincerity of nature, and never for a moment lost his
+self-centre; yet he had the rare gift of unlocking the side most
+worthy to be unlocked in the nature of his companion of the moment. He
+had the power of evolving out of most people he met something that was
+real and of interest. Never giving himself away, he yet managed to
+meet other individualities on any ground that existed which could by
+any possibility be made a mutual ground. Though generosity itself in
+believing the best of every one, and at times entrapped by the wily,
+anything like flattery was a vice in his eyes. He neither gave himself
+away, nor induced others to give themselves away while in his company,
+and would always abstain from obtruding his opinions, modestly
+withholding judgment where he saw neither a duty nor a distinct reason
+to pronounce.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the strongest mark of Leighton's true distinction lay in the
+fact that, notwithstanding his reserve on all matters of deep feeling,
+notwithstanding his love of form in the living of life as in the
+creating of art, notwithstanding the <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_9" id="PageV1_9">[9]</a></span>perpetually shifting and urgent
+claims which, as a public man and a prominent social entity, were
+being continually forced upon him, the inner entity, the real
+Leighton, remained to the end a child of nature. No need was there for
+him to gauge the proportionate merit of the various conflicting
+influences that played on his complicated life; his own instinctive
+preferences clenched the matter indubitably, asserting that the
+noblest grace and the finest taste lay in the spontaneous and the
+natural. When Watts wished it recorded that Leighton's nature was the
+most beautiful he had ever known, he referred, I think, more specially
+to that lovable, kind-hearted ingenuousness and noble simplicity which
+were its deepest roots, notwithstanding a life of conflicts,
+ambitions, and unparalleled success. There are among those who most
+honour and love Leighton's memory, and who felt most keenly his loss,
+poor and unsuccessful artists and students, of whom the world has
+never heard, but to whom the great President gave of his very best in
+advice and sympathy.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> He never posed, though he was an adept in
+catching the atmosphere of a situation, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_10" id="PageV1_10">[10]</a></span>however new and foreign to
+his usual beat such a situation might be. Scrupulous in his attitude
+of reverence towards his vocation as an artist, <i>ever</i> most scrupulous
+to render unto C&aelig;sar the things that are C&aelig;sar's, the inner core of
+the nature remained simple and unstained by worldliness.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was the third aspect of Leighton, the Leighton at times
+half-hidden from himself; the yearning, unsatisfied spirit, which,
+though subject at times to great elevations of delight, at others was
+also the victim of profound depressions and a sense of loneliness&mdash;a
+state of being born out of that strange, only half-explained region
+whence proceed all intuitive faculties. Such states are referred to
+occasionally in his letters to his mother, and we find their influence
+recorded at intervals in his art. In 1849, on a sketch of Giotto when
+a boy, are written in the corner the words "Sehnsucht"; in 1865, there
+is the David, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove; for then would I fly
+away and be at rest"; in 1894, the "Spirit of the Summit"&mdash;these are
+all alike expressions of the home-sickness that yearned for an abiding
+resting-place not found in the conditions of this world. "Oh, what a
+disappointing world it is!" were words he uttered shortly before his
+death. In 1894, when at Bayreuth, a friend was congratulating him on
+his ever fortunate star having even there easily overcome the
+difficulties of the crowd. Leighton, passing over the immediate
+question, answered with a striking serious sadness, "I have not <i>ever</i>
+got what I most wanted in this world."</p>
+
+<p>No mind was ever more explicit to itself in its mental working, than
+was his with regard to matters which the intellect can investigate and
+solve. His judgment could never be warped by reason of an insufficient
+brain apparatus with which to judge himself and others impartially.
+But Leighton was a great man, beyond being the one who owned "a
+magnificent intellectual capacity." The qualities he possessed, which
+made <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_11" id="PageV1_11">[11]</a></span>him a prominent entity who influenced the interests of the world
+at large, secured for him a footing on that higher level where human
+nature breathes a finer, more rarefied atmosphere than that in which
+the intellect alone disports itself; a level from which can be viewed
+the just proportion existing between the truly great and the truly
+little. Selfishness disappears in a nature such as Leighton possessed,
+when that level is reached. The necessity for self-sacrifice forces
+itself so peremptorily, that there is no struggle to be gone through
+in exercising it. For instance&mdash;notwithstanding the absorbing nature
+of his occupations and the intense devotion he felt towards his
+vocation as an artist, when it was a question of the country needing a
+reserve force for her army to draw on in case of war&mdash;a need which is
+at this present moment insisted on by Lord Roberts with such zealous
+earnestness&mdash;Leighton at once seized the importance of the question,
+and, at whatever sacrifice to his own more personal interests,
+enlisted as a volunteer, and mastered the art and duties of soldiering
+so completely that many officers in the regular army envied his
+knowledge and efficiency.</p>
+
+<p>The following is an appreciation by an old comrade in the Artists'
+Volunteer Corps:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The names of those who first enrolled themselves to form the Artists'
+Volunteer Corps in 1860 is a record of considerable interest in
+itself, and calls back many reminiscences connected with art. Leighton
+joined May 10, 1860, and was in a few days given his commission as
+ensign.</p>
+
+<p>"Probably the very character of the first recruits tended to prevent
+that expansion and accession of numbers without which no military body
+can flourish. Lord Bury, the first commandant, became the Colonel of
+the Civil Service Rifles; and whatever attention may have been given
+to firing and detailed training, the early appearances of the
+'Artists' in <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_12" id="PageV1_12">[12]</a></span>public at reviews was, as a rule, as a company or two
+attached to the Civil Service Rifle Corps.</p>
+
+<p>"Events, however, brought a change in the command, and Leighton
+having, not without hesitation, accepted it, set himself at once to
+introduce reforms. The Captains, he announced, were to be responsible
+each for the command and drill of his company. He, to carry out before
+promotion as Major Commanding a duty which the previous laxity had
+never required of him, learned the company drill by heart and went
+through the whole complicated system then existing, on a single
+evening under trying circumstances in very insufficient space.
+Reorganisation did not rapidly fill the ranks, and there was much hard
+work to be done before the Artists' Corps appeared as a completed
+eight-company battalion, and took its place among the best of the
+Volunteer Corps of the Metropolis. The personality of the Commander
+did very much to achieve this result, and Leighton became
+Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant in 1876.</p>
+
+<p>"Next to his duty to his Art and to the Royal Academy, as he was ever
+careful to say, he esteemed his duty in the Corps. Busy man, with his
+time mapped out more than most, he was always accessible and ready to
+give the necessary time to those who had access to him on the Corps
+business. He never appeared on parade without previous study of the
+drill to be gone through, while his tact, energy, and personal charm
+were brought out and used at those social meetings with officers and
+with men which do so much to build up the tone of a volunteer body.</p>
+
+<p>"Of camps and duties in the tented field he took his part cheerfully.
+He shared the hardship of the early experience of the detachment at
+the Dartmoor Man&oelig;uvres, where, camping on the barren hills above
+the lower level of the mist, the extemporised commissariat followed
+with difficulty, and the officers consoled themselves for the
+roughness of their <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_13" id="PageV1_13">[13]</a></span>fare by the consumption of marmalade, which
+happened to be supplied in bulk, and had to clean their knives in the
+sand to make some show for the entertainment of the Brigadier at such
+dinner as could be had.</p>
+
+<p>"Regarding volunteering so earnestly as he did, the reports of the
+Inspecting Officers would appear of great importance in Leighton's
+eyes. On one occasion paragraphs had appeared in the papers about the
+Corps which probably gave some umbrage to the authorities. The
+Inspecting Officer kept the battalion an unconscionable time at drill,
+changed the command, fell out the Staff Sergeants, yet all went well.
+At length, with Leighton again in command, and a word imperfectly
+heard, the square walked outwards in four directions. The confusion
+was put to rights, and the well-prepared speech from the Inspecting
+Officer as to the importance of battalion drills, &amp;c., followed. It
+was quite a pleasure to point out to the distressed Leighton that the
+whole was manifestly a 'put up thing.'</p>
+
+<p>"The answer he received on another occasion admitted of no
+misinterpretation. Riding with the Officer after the inspection, and
+anxious to know whether in his opinion he was really doing any good
+work by his volunteering, Leighton asked whether the Officer would be
+willing to take the battalion he had just inspected under fire, and
+received the laconic reply, 'Yes, sir, hell fire.'</p>
+
+<p>"On Leighton's election as President of the Academy, his twenty-five
+years active service in the Corps ceased in 1883. All the time that
+the history of the volunteering of the nineteenth century is known,
+his name will be associated with the Artists' Corps to the honour of
+both."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, R.A., also adds his tribute in the following
+lines:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I should think that few Commanding Officers of Volunteer Regiments
+could surpass Colonel Leighton in efficiency. <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_14" id="PageV1_14">[14]</a></span>His wonderful knowledge
+of infantry drill, and the decision with which he gave the word of
+command, made it very easy for the men in the ranks to obey him; and
+the quickness of eye with which he detected an error in any movement
+frequently saved confusion in the ranks on a field day. The Artists'
+Corps soon became one of the smartest in London. I well remember how
+efficiently he commanded the Volunteer Battalion in the Army
+Man&oelig;uvres on Dartmoor in 1876, when for a fortnight of almost
+continuous rain on that wild moorland he kept us all happy and full of
+respect for him by his fine soldierly example. His thoroughness and
+kindness were constant. After a soaking wet night he would come down
+the line of tents in the early morning distributing some unheard-of
+luxury, such as a couple of new-laid eggs to each man, which he had
+managed to have sent from some outlying village."</p>
+
+<p>Besides the obvious results of a complex and astonishingly
+comprehensive nature, there were also phases in Leighton's life which
+were the outcome on that side of his being half hidden to himself.</p>
+
+<p>Most of us have dual natures, not only in the sense that good and bad
+reside within us simultaneously, but we have also a less definable
+duality of nature; nature's original creature being one thing, and the
+creature developed by the conditions it meets with in its journey
+through life, another. Each acts and reacts on the other. We meet the
+conditions forced upon us in life from the point of our own
+individualities. On the other hand, the original creature gets twisted
+by circumstances and the influence of other personalities, and becomes
+partially altered into a different person. This backwards and forwards
+swaying of the influence of nature and circumstances helps to make
+life the intricate business it is. In the case of highly gifted human
+beings there seem to be further complications, arising chiefly,
+perhaps, from the fact that these form so small <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_15" id="PageV1_15">[15]</a></span>a minority. Very
+subtle and undefinable is the effect of such gifts on the character
+and nature of those possessing them, for nature herself maintains a
+kind of secrecy and endows her favoured ones with but a half
+consciousness in respect of them. She gives to the artist and to the
+poet the something, unshared with the ordinary mortal, which controls
+the inner core of his being, and which is another quantity to be
+allowed for in his contact with his fellows. It initiates his most
+passionate, peremptory conditions of temperament, yet it remains
+partially veiled to himself, in so far that he cannot explain it, nor
+give it its right place, any more than the lover can explain the
+glamour which is spread over life by an overpowering first love. When
+Plato classes the souls of the philosopher, the artist, the musician,
+and the lover together<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> as having been born to see most of truth, he
+recognises the same inspired instinctive quality in the artist as in
+the lover. In the artist is linked, as part of its separateness from
+the rest of the community, the inseparable shyness of the lover.
+Anything is better than to expose the sacred, indescribable treasure
+to the indifferent stare of the uninitiated. We find every sort of
+ruse adopted by lovers and artists to avoid being forced into
+explicitness on so tender, so intimate a passion; so convincing to its
+possessor, so impossible of full explanation to those who possess it
+not. The necessity to give it a clear outline is only forced when a
+danger arises of the lover being robbed of his mistress, the artist of
+his vocation; then the will, propelled by <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_16" id="PageV1_16">[16]</a></span>the all-conquering love,
+asserts itself, and difficulties have to succumb before it.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the result of opposition in Leighton's case. From early
+childhood he was known to care for nothing so much as for drawing, and
+his talent attracted notice and pleased his family, every
+encouragement being given him by his parents in his studies. It was
+only when, as a boy of twelve, he viewed art as the serious work of
+his future life, and when this view was met by the authorities as one
+not to be encouraged, that the strong passion of his nature asserted
+its rights. Clearly in opposition are planted the firmest roots of
+those inevitable developments which make the great of the world great.
+In Leighton was nurtured that sense of responsibility towards his
+vocation, so salient a characteristic throughout his career, partly by
+his father's attitude towards the worship of his nature for beauty and
+for her exponent art. To prove that his self-chosen labour was no mere
+play work, no mere avoiding the hard work of life and the duller paths
+of service generally recognised only as of serious use to mankind, for
+a game which was a mere pleasure, was a strong additional incentive to
+Leighton's own high aspirations, inspiring him yet more to treat the
+development of his gifts as a moral responsibility. He considered it
+almost in the light of a debt owing to those to whom he was attached
+by strong family affection, that he should prove good his cause.
+Though he fought and overcame, having once won his point, he did his
+utmost to satisfy his father's ambition for him, and to be "eminent."</p>
+
+<p>On August 5, 1879, he wrote to Mrs. Mark Pattison, who was compiling
+notes for an article on his life: "My father, of his own impulse, sat
+down to write a few jottings, which I cannot resist sending you,
+because I was touched at the thought in this kind old man of eighty.
+<i>He</i>, by the way, <i>is</i> a fine scholar, and was, at his best, a man of
+exceptional <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_17" id="PageV1_17">[17]</a></span>intellectual powers. My desire to be an artist dates as
+far back as my memory, and was wholly spontaneous, or rather
+unprompted. My parents surrounded me with every facility to learn
+drawing, but, as I have told you, <i>strongly</i> discountenanced the idea
+of my being an artist unless I could be eminent in art."</p>
+
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="Leighton's Parents">
+  <tr>
+  <td width="50%">
+    <div class="img"><a name="imagep017" id="imagep017"></a>
+    <a href="images/imagep017a.jpg">
+    <img border="0" src="images/imagep017a.jpg" width="74%" alt="Lord Leighton's Father" /></a><br />
+    <p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">LORD LEIGHTON'S FATHER<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+    </div>
+  </td>
+  <td width="50%">
+    <div class="img">
+    <a href="images/imagep017b.jpg">
+    <img border="0" src="images/imagep017b.jpg" width="75%" alt="Lord Leighton's Mother" /></a><br />
+    <p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">LORD LEIGHTON'S MOTHER</p>
+    </div>
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td colspan="2" class="tdc">From Miniatures, by permission of Mr. H.S. Mendelssohn</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>Still&mdash;though to excel was Leighton's aim, in order to satisfy his
+father's and also his own ambition&mdash;within the hidden recesses of that
+aim lay the reverent, more single-hearted worship for his mistress
+Art&mdash;seldom unveiled, it would seem, when with his father, to whose
+purely intellectual and philosophical attitude of mind it would not
+have appealed. Those alone possessed the key to that inner sanctuary
+who did not need the key; who wanted no introduction, and were not
+merely sympathisers, but native inhabitants. There is a freemasonry
+between the inmates of these places remote from the world's usual
+habitations, and these, naturally, have a horror of vaunting the
+possession of a sacred ground to the outsider, the uninitiated. Many
+of Leighton's most intimate acquaintances gathered no clue, through
+their knowledge of him, of the existence of the secluded spot. Dr.
+Leighton's influence, however, non-artistic as was his nature,
+stimulated his son's natural mental elasticity, encouraging a
+comprehensive and unprejudiced view of life and people, a view which
+marked Leighton's undertakings with a stamp of nobility and
+distinction throughout his career. Yet further&mdash;the intellectual
+training he received in youth probably enlarged, in some respects, the
+areas of the sacred sanctuary itself, enabling Leighton, when he was
+the servant of the public and possessing wide influence and patronage,
+not only to exercise power with the qualities which spring from a high
+intellectual development, but to mellow with wisdom the guidance of
+the yet higher sympathies of the heart, when helping those staggering
+along the road which he himself had travelled over with <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_18" id="PageV1_18">[18]</a></span>such success.
+To many, however, especially to those possessing the artistic
+temperament, it must always remain, to say the least, a questionable
+advantage to a student of art that his intellectual faculties should
+be forced forward at the expense of the development of his more
+emotional and ingenuous instincts, at the age when sensitiveness to
+receive impressions is keenest, and when such impressions have the
+most lasting power in moulding the future tendencies of his nature.
+Certainly the effects of a development of critical and analytical
+faculties is apt to prove a damper to those ecstasies of enthusiasm
+which inspire the most convincing conceptions in art. When first
+starting and facing seriously his independent career alone, Leighton
+writes to his mother: "I wish that I had a mind, simple and
+unconscious as a child." Again, writing to his elder sister from
+Algiers in 1857, after describing the delightful impression produced
+by a first visit to an Eastern country, he adds: "And yet what I have
+said of my feelings, though <i>literally true</i>, does not give you an
+exactly true notion, for together with, and as it were behind, so much
+pleasurable emotion, there is always that other strange second man in
+me, calm, observant, critical, unmoved, blas&eacute;&mdash;odious! He is a shadow
+that walks with me, a sort of nineteenth-century canker of doubt and
+dissection; it's very, very seldom that I forget his loathsome
+presence. What cheering things I find to say!"</p>
+
+<p>Allied to the third, more intimate aspect of his nature were phases in
+Leighton's feelings when heart would seem to conquer head. He would at
+times indulge in what might almost be designated as a self-imposed
+blindness, when he would allow of no criticism by himself or others of
+the cause or person in question. An enthusiastic, unselfish devotion,
+a sense of chivalry or pity, would override his normally
+clear-sighted, intellectual acumen. Having set his belief and
+admiration <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_19" id="PageV1_19">[19]</a></span>to one tune, faithful loyalty&mdash;and maybe a certain amount
+of obstinacy&mdash;would bind him fast in an adherence to the same.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep019" id="imagep019"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep019.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep019.jpg" width="65%" alt="Boy rescuing sleeping baby from Eagle" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">EARLY PICTURE OF BOY RESCUING SLEEPING BABY FROM EAGLE<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Belonging also to the intuitive, more emotional side of his nature,
+was the curiously strong influence places exercised over him, certain
+localities affecting him and exciting his sympathies with a strong
+power.</p>
+
+<p>In 1857 he wrote to his elder sister: "If I am as faithful to my wife
+as I am to the places I love, I shall do very well!"</p>
+
+<p>In order to seize fully Leighton's complete individuality, an
+understanding of Italy, his "second home," is perhaps necessary&mdash;a
+conception of the nature of the unsophisticated Italian life which
+fascinated him so greatly when as yet no invasion had been made of
+cosmopolitan, so-called civilisation. As a magnet, Italy drew Leighton
+to her.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a> Under the influence of her radiant beauty, breathing such a
+life of charm and colour beneath sunlit skies, he felt the sources of
+happiness in his own nature expand and his powers ripen. In the
+fertility of her soil, the vitality of her people, the superb quality
+of her art&mdash;fine and gracious in its perfection, and distributed
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_20" id="PageV1_20">[20]</a></span>generously throughout the length and breadth of her land&mdash;he
+experienced influences which intensified his emotions and vivified his
+imagination. The child-like charm of her people, so spontaneously
+happy, enjoying the ease and assurance of nature's own aristocracy,
+because enjoying nature's generous gifts with unabashed fulness of
+sensation, in whom are non-existent those sensibilities which create
+self-consciousness, restraint, and an absence of self-confidence,
+aroused in Leighton an interest deeper than mere pleasure. It was to
+him like the joy of a yearning satisfied, as of those who, having had
+their lot cast for years with aliens and foreigners, find themselves
+again with their own kith and kin, surrounded by the native atmosphere
+which had lent such enchantment to childhood. Again and again he
+returned to Italy to be made happy, to be revived, to be strengthened
+by her. Her influence became kneaded into his very being, not only
+nourishing his sense of beauty and rendering more complete the artist
+nature within him, but touching the sources from which his artist
+temperament sprang, inspiring his very personality and changing it
+into one which was certainly not typically English. His rapid
+utterance, his picturesque gesture, his very appearance, were not
+emphatically English.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>Certain Englishmen who knew Leighton but slightly felt out of sympathy
+with him for this reason, experiencing a difficulty in recognising him
+as one of themselves. It was, however, only on the surface that a
+difference existed. Once intimate with Leighton, he was ever found to
+be <i>au fond</i> English of the English. After the age of thirty it was in
+England Leighton fought the serious battle of life&mdash;Italy was but the
+playground, though a playground of such fascination <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_21" id="PageV1_21">[21]</a></span>to him that the
+glamour of it was spread over the working hours no less than over the
+holidays. In these days we have to go into the smaller towns and
+villages to discover the typical Italian characteristics; but when
+Leighton, as a child, was taken from the gloom of Bloomsbury to this,
+to him a magic world,&mdash;syndicates, building-companies, tramways, and
+modern things generally, had not as yet invaded either Rome or
+Florence. When grown up and master of his own actions, he wandered
+into unsophisticated haunts&mdash;villages and towns off the beaten tracks,
+where with abnormal facility he learned the distinctive <i>p&acirc;tois</i> of
+every district, listening with delight to local folk-songs, and
+watching the peasants and the aborigines of the soil. In early
+sketch-books we find records of visits to Albano, Tivoli, Cervaro,
+Subiaco, San Giuminiano, and to even smaller and less known villages
+in Tuscany and Veneziano, where he enjoyed the unalloyed flavour of
+Italy and her people. Those who pay only flying visits to the country
+after they are grown up would find a difficulty perhaps in realising
+what Italy was to Leighton; but any one visiting for a few weeks even
+such a well-known place as Albano, without other preoccupation than to
+watch the natives and wander in the beautiful scenery to the sound of
+the many flowing fountains, could still catch something of the true
+national spirit which fascinated him so greatly. The typical Britisher
+might regard the ways of these natives of the <i>Provincia di Roma</i> as
+irrational, idle, semi-savage. Doubtless the streets and piazzas
+abound in noisy inhabitants, gesticulating with wild dramatic fervour,
+who appear to have otherwise little to do in life but to loiter and
+"look on"; sociable groups of women sit round the doorways knitting;
+but it is the talk, accompanied by excited action, which is engrossing
+them. Charmingly pretty children are playing everywhere&mdash;idle,
+troublesome, but so happy! To the <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_22" id="PageV1_22">[22]</a></span>accompanying sound of running
+waters,&mdash;night and day,&mdash;cries, yells, and songs ring out through the
+ancient little town.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> High up on the side of the mountains it
+overlooks the Roman Campagna, the tragic strangeness of those
+land-waves rolling away, flattened and stretched out, for miles and
+miles, under the dome of light and shadowing cloud, a network of
+bright gleams and violet lakelets, to the far-off brilliant shine on
+the sea limit.<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> This noise, dramatic action, gesticulation, all
+ending apparently in nothing in particular, but filling the little
+town with such amazing vitality&mdash;what is it all about? The typical
+Englishman does not know&mdash;does not care to know, despising the whole
+thing as beneath his notice. But Leighton knew well what it meant.
+From experiences in his own nature he realised that it was but an
+innocent outlet, through voice and gesture, of an excitement resulting
+from an imperative dramatic instinct, a vital force in the emotional
+nature of the Italian. He recognised the necessity for such an outlet
+in such temperaments through his sympathy with the glad exuberance of
+physical vitality enjoyed in this sunlit land; anti-puritan though it
+may be, this exuberance is none the less pure and innocent.</p>
+
+<p>The holy Saint Francis in his ecstasies of spiritual illumination
+would, it is said, break out into song from the natural impulse to
+find an outlet and to throw off the excess of excitement, that
+thrilled through his being.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_23" id="PageV1_23">[23]</a></span>Leighton knew that to suppress the vitality which needs such an outlet
+was to minimise the forces necessary for life's best work. He himself,
+in the working of his mind, was possessed of a magnificent facility&mdash;a
+facility which left the strength of his emotions fresh and free, to
+enjoy the ecstasies of admiration and delight which the choice gifts
+of nature and art had given him; but there are many among modern men
+and women, taught by much reading, who overweight their physical
+vitality in the effort to develop intellect and to forward
+self-interest, till all simple physical enjoyment is lost, and the
+natural man becomes repressed into a mental machine incapable of any
+spontaneous emotions of joy, and blunt to the fine aroma of life's
+keen and pure pleasures&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"My nature is subdued to what it works in."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>To Leighton the simple joyous child of nature, in the form of the
+unsophisticated Italian, was a preferable being. To the end of his
+life he retained much of the child in his own nature, and had ever an
+inborn sympathy with the love for children so evident everywhere in
+unspoilt Italy; for the gracious caressing of them by the poorest of
+the poor&mdash;old men in the veriest tatters and rags showing a complete
+and beautiful submission to the dominating charms of babyhood.</p>
+
+<p>The memory of the hideous, gruesome stories of baby-farming in England
+strikes indeed a contrast with the scenes <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_24" id="PageV1_24">[24]</a></span>that abound at every turn
+in any old, dirty, picturesque Italian village, and assuredly settles
+the question, Is our English development of civilisation an unalloyed
+benefit?</p>
+
+<p>As a contrast to the definite, explicit German development of his
+intellectual machinery, Leighton had special sympathy with the
+emotional spontaneity of the Italian race; also as a contrast to the
+selective and finely poised conclusions to be worked out in theories
+of composition learnt from his beloved master Steinle, arose a special
+admiration for the casual, unpremeditated, inevitable grace and charm
+in the manners and gestures of this southern people. What laboured
+theories so often failed to achieve, nature here was always doing in
+her most careless moods.</p>
+
+<p>In considering the intimate aspect of Leighton's nature, and the
+interweaving of the original fabric with the forces developed by the
+circumstances he encountered, the influence of Italy must assuredly be
+given a very distinct prominence. From her and her people he acquired
+courage in the exercise of his intuitive preferences, also a
+development of that rapid and direct insight so inborn in her
+children. Like the lizards that dart with such lightning speed across
+her sun-scorched walls and over the gnarled bark of the weird olive
+tree, the perceptions of the typical Italian are swift, and fly
+straight to the mark. In the Italian, however, this vividness of
+perception is mostly expended in ejaculation and dramatic gesture,
+which,&mdash;subsiding,&mdash;leaves a state of indolence and nonchalance,
+untroubled by any mental exertion. In Leighton the rapidity with which
+his perceptions seized the core of truth was backed by an intellectual
+activity of extraordinary power, by which he worked his intuitive
+sensibilities into the interests which guided the solid aims of his
+life.</p>
+
+<p>Probably no Englishman ever approached the Greek of the Periclean
+period so nearly as did Leighton, for the reason that he possessed
+that combination of intellectual and emotional <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_25" id="PageV1_25">[25]</a></span>power in a like rare
+degree. The human beings who achieve most as active workers in the
+world, are doubtless those in whom can be traced a capacity for making
+apparently incompatible forces pull together towards a desired end.
+Leighton succeeded in allying two distinct developments in his nature;
+and by, so to say, putting these into double harness and driving them
+together, acquired an advantage which few other artists, if any, have
+possessed since the time of the Greeks.</p>
+
+<p>But, being essentially English as well as Greek-like, Leighton pushed
+this combination of powers to a moral issue. He held as his creed of
+creeds that the mission of Art was to act as a lever in the uplifting
+of the human race, not by going beyond her own domain, but by
+directing the sense of beauty with which her true priesthood must ever
+be endowed, in order to eliminate from man his more brutal tendencies,
+to refine and perfect his insight into nature, and to develop his
+delight in her perfection. He held that, the stronger the emotional
+force in an artist, the stronger the sense of responsibility should
+be; the more he should seek to express it in a manner which would
+elevate rather than deprave. In his picture of "Cymon and Iphigenia,"
+Leighton expressed the main dogma of his belief. In sentences towards
+the end of his second address to the Royal Academy students in the
+year 1881, he eloquently describes the complex and deep nature of
+those &aelig;sthetic emotions whence spring the Arts:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is not, it cannot be, the foremost duty of Art to seek to embody
+that which it cannot adequately present, and to enter into a
+competition in which it is doomed to inevitable defeat.</p>
+
+<p>"On the other hand, there is a field in which she has no rival. We
+have within us the faculty for a range of emotions of vast compass, of
+exquisite subtlety, and of irresistible force, to which Art and Art
+alone amongst human forms of expression has a key; these then, and no
+others, are the chords which it is her appointed duty to strike; and
+Form, Colour, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_26" id="PageV1_26">[26]</a></span>and the contrasts of Light and Shade are the agents
+through which it is given to her to set them in motion. Her duty is,
+therefore, to awaken those sensations directly emotional and
+indirectly intellectual, which can be communicated only through the
+sense of sight, to the delight of which she has primarily to minister.
+And the dignity of these sensations lies in this, that they are
+inseparably connected by association of ideas, with a range of
+perceptions and feelings of infinite variety and scope. They come
+fraught with dim complex memories of all the ever-shifting spectacle
+of inanimate creation, and of the more deeply stirring phenomena of
+life; of the storm and the lull, the splendour and the darkness of the
+outer world; of the storm and the lull, the splendour and the darkness
+of the changeful and transitory lives of men. Nay, so closely overlaid
+is the simple &aelig;sthetic sensation with elements of ethic or
+intellectual emotion by these constant and manifold accretions of
+associated ideas, that it is difficult to conceive of it independently
+of this precious overgrowth.... The most sensitively religious mind
+may indeed rest satisfied in the consciousness that it is not on the
+wings of abstract thought alone that we rise to the highest moods of
+contemplation, or to the most chastened moral temper; and assuredly
+Arts which have for their chief task to reveal the inmost springs of
+Beauty in the created world, to display all the pomp of the teeming
+earth, and all the pageant of those heavens of which we are told that
+they declare the Glory of God, are not the least eloquent witnesses to
+the might and to the majesty of the mysterious and eternal Fountain of
+all good things."</p>
+
+<p>Not only could no attempt be approximately made at giving a real and
+vivid picture of Leighton's remarkable personality were not the three
+aspects of his nature taken into account, but also if the influences
+which affected him strongly during those years when his genius and
+character were being <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_27" id="PageV1_27">[27]</a></span>developed were not also considered. His
+conscious nature and feelings, during the first thirty years of his
+life, can be best traced in his letters, notably in those to his
+mother. It is easy to recognise, in reading his mother's letters to
+him, from whom he inherits the warm tender generosity which made his
+nature so lovable.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep027" id="imagep027"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep027.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep027.jpg" width="50%" alt="Professor Edouard Steinle" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR EDOUARD STEINLE<br />
+Drawn by Himself<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>When at Frankfort, in 1845, he first became acquainted with the most
+"indelible" influence of his life in that inner sanctuary in which he
+had hitherto been a lonely inmate. Seven years later, in the Diary he
+calls "Pebbles," written for his mother, when, fully fledged, he
+leaves the nest to battle alone on the field of life, he pays a
+tribute of unqualified affection and gratitude to his master, Steinle,
+who first unlocked the door to Leighton's full consciousness of the
+depth of his devotion for his calling (see pp. 61 and 62).</p>
+
+<p>In 1879, the year after Leighton was elected President of the Royal
+Academy, in the same letter to Mrs. Mark Pattison already quoted from,
+he writes, respecting the influences which affected his art
+development: "For <i>bad</i> by Florentine Academy, for good, far beyond
+all others, by Steinle, a noble-minded, single-hearted artist, <i>s'il
+en fut</i>. Technically, I learnt (later) much from Robert Fleury, but
+being very receptive and prone to admire, I have learnt, and still do,
+from innumerable artists, big and small. Steinle's is, however, the
+<i>indelible seal</i>. The <i>thoroughness</i> of all the great old masters is
+so pervading a quality that I look upon them all as forming one
+aristocracy."</p>
+
+<p>During the first year when he settled in Rome, in the beginning of
+1853, he made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris. Leighton's
+friendship with Mrs. Sartoris (Adelaide Kemble), many years his
+senior, and one who had ever viewed her art as a singer from the
+purest and highest aspect, became a strong and elevating influence in
+his life. Professor <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_28" id="PageV1_28">[28]</a></span>Giovanni Costa (the "Nino" of the letters), one
+of Leighton's most intimate friends from the year 1853 to the end in
+1896, wrote of Mrs. Sartoris, referring to the early days in Rome from
+1853 to 1856:<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> "The greatest influence on the life of Frederic
+Leighton was exerted by Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris (Miss Adelaide Kemble),
+who had the mind of a great artist. Mr. Sartoris was one of the
+greatest critics of art, and Mrs. Sartoris had a most elevated and
+serene nature."</p>
+
+<p>This great friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris brought with it many
+others, notably those of Robert Browning and of Mr. Henry Greville.
+Some years later, Leighton writes of Mr. Henry Greville, in a letter
+to his pupil and friend, Mr. John Walker: "He is indeed one of the
+kindest and best men possible, I look on him myself as a second
+father"; and Henry Greville in a letter to Leighton writes: "I wish
+you were my son, Fay"&mdash;Fay being the name given to Leighton by his
+inner circle of intimates, and certainly a stroke of genius in the one
+who invented it. Writing from Frankfort to his mother, where he
+returned to show his works to Steinle after his family had finally
+migrated to Bath and he to Rome, he says: "I have had such a letter
+from Henry (Henry Greville); there never was anything like the
+tenderness of it. You would have been just enchanted."</p>
+
+<p>The friendship with Mrs. Sartoris only ended with her death in 1879,
+the year after Leighton was elected President of the Royal Academy.
+Being then close upon fifty, deeply sensible of the grave
+responsibilities involved by his new position, Leighton entered on a
+fresh phase in his career. As president of the centre of national
+living art, this phase involved a serious view being taken of the
+interests of art such as could be encouraged by a public body. Also as
+one who had been helped and encouraged by personal friendship and
+influence to work out the best in him, with his ever eager <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_29" id="PageV1_29">[29]</a></span>and
+generous nature he felt anxious to hand on the help he had received by
+devoting a like sympathy to the individual interests of other workers.
+His field of action had become enlarged, and he rose with consummate
+ability to the fulfilment of the duties this larger area entailed on
+him. Not only by his biennial addresses to the students of the Royal
+Academy, but by the speeches delivered spontaneously at the councils
+and elsewhere, when no preparation would have been possible, his fame
+as an orator was established. Many there are who have heard the
+impromptu speeches he made, who can vouch, as do Mr. Briton Rivi&egrave;re
+and Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, that these were just as fine in language and
+excellent in the concise form in which the words were made to convey
+the intended meaning, as those which Leighton had carefully prepared
+beforehand, and possessed, moreover, the charm of an unlaboured
+effort.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep028" id="imagep028"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep028.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep028.jpg" width="57%" alt="" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">FROM DRAWING OF ADELAIDE SARTORIS<br />
+Paris, 1856<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The seventeen years, during which Leighton was President of the Royal
+Academy, and prominent in every direction as the leader of the art of
+his country, were not without saddening influences. His duties
+necessitated contact with many varieties of human nature, some far
+from sympathetic to him. The contrast between his own disinterested
+reverence for beauty, moral and physical, with the indifference
+displayed by many of his brother artists towards his own high aims and
+aspirations, forced itself more and more on Leighton as the optimistic
+fervour and enthusiasm of youth waned with years and failing health.
+He had to face the depressing fact that selfish motives are the ruling
+factors with most men, even with those who ostensibly follow the
+calling of beauty. Much of the joyousness of his spirit was lessened
+accordingly, though his "sweet reasonableness," to quote Watts' truly
+suggestive words, never deserted him. This prevented any bitterness or
+resentment from finding permanent location in his nature. Another
+source of distress arose from the fact that his great <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_30" id="PageV1_30">[30]</a></span>position
+aroused the jealousy of the envious. However exceptional his tact,
+however truly heartfelt his consideration for others, no virtues could
+stand against the vice of being so pre-eminently successful in the
+eyes of the envious, whose vanity alone placed them in their own
+estimation on a level with the great.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing perhaps excites so rampant a jealousy in unappreciative and
+envious natures, as does the unexplainable charm of a delightful
+personality. It aggravates the dull and envious beyond measure to see
+a being thus endowed galloping over the ground in all directions with
+ease, there being in their eyes no sufficient explanation for the
+pace. Such success is viewed by the envious as a kind of trick, some
+witchery of fascination, which deludes the world into bestowing
+unmerited advantages on the conjuror. Those, on the contrary, who can
+appreciate a transcendent and delightful personality, recognise it as
+the convincing grace of the power of uncommon gifts flashing their
+radiance into the intercourse of every-day life, modestly ignored as
+conscious possessions but inevitably sparkling out in any human
+intercourse, and from a social point of view making the greatest among
+us the servants of all.</p>
+
+<p>Jealousy fights with hidden weapons. What man or woman ever
+acknowledged being jealous? The passion is disguised. Hence the
+hideous sins that follow in its wake: ingratitude, treachery,
+calumnies, are called into the service to blacken the offending
+object. Bacon says of envy: "It is also the vilest affection, and the
+most depraved; for which cause it is the proper attribute of the
+devil, who is called <i>the envious man, that soweth tares amongst the
+wheat by night</i>, as it always cometh to pass that envy worketh
+subtilly, and in the dark; and to the prejudice of good things, such
+as is the wheat."</p>
+
+<p>Leighton suffered from the jealousy of the envious, though in most
+cases the open expression of it was smothered during <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_31" id="PageV1_31">[31]</a></span>his life by
+reason of his power and position. Besides being tender-hearted and
+easily hurt at any feeling of hostility shown against him, he
+cordially hated any phase of the ugly.</p>
+
+<p>In the spring of 1895 Leighton said to a friend: "My one constant
+prayer is that I should not live beyond seventy." His great dread was
+to be a burden to any one&mdash;to cease to be useful to all. His wish was
+more than fulfilled. He passed onward five years before the allotted
+three score and ten.</p>
+
+<p>Many there were who felt with Watts that life was indeed darkened; "a
+great light was extinguished," a beloved friend was no longer amongst
+them to help, encourage, and brighten the days. To a wide social
+circle, a personality, rare in its charm and endowments, differing
+from all others, had passed off the stage. It was as if, amid the
+sober brown and grey plumage of our quiet-coloured English birds,
+through the mists and fogs of our northern clime, there had sped
+across the page of our nineteenth century history the flight of some
+brilliant-hued flamingo, emitting flashes of light and colour on his
+way.</p>
+
+<p>To the wide public a power and a control, noble and distinguished in
+its quality, had ceased to rule over the art interests of the country.
+Last, but not least, to his "brothers and sisters," as Leighton called
+all earnest students and artists, it was as if a strong support, a
+centre of impelling force, an inspiration towards the best and highest
+in art, had been suddenly swept away.</p>
+
+<p>On the day of his funeral, a friend, whose husband had known him from
+the commencement to the end of the brilliant career, wrote the
+following notes:&mdash;<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></p>
+
+<p>"Lord Leighton's funeral to-day was as brilliant as his life, and we
+came home from the majestic ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral feeling
+that his kind and gracious spirit would have rejoiced&mdash;for all he
+loved and honoured in life were there <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_32" id="PageV1_32">[32]</a></span>mourning for the loss of their
+gifted and genial friend. As the procession moved slowly into the
+Cathedral the crimson and golden pall was Venetian in its brilliancy,
+and the long branch of palm spoke touchingly of pain over and the
+conquest won. Music, the sister Art he so devoutly worshipped, lifted
+up her voice in pathetic accents to the dome of the vast Cathedral,
+striving to re-echo the solemnity and grief around.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear gracious Leighton, how vividly my husband recalled his earliest
+impressions of him, the handsome young artist at Rome. Visions arise
+in the mind of joyous days in his second home there, the cultured and
+hospitable house of Adelaide Sartoris, which formed the happy
+background of Leighton's life. He remembered the departure of his
+picture 'The Triumph of Cimabue,' sent with diffidence, and so,
+proportionate was the joy when news came of its success, and that the
+Queen had bought it. It was the month of May. Rome was at its
+loveliest, and Leighton's friends and brother artists gave him a
+festal dinner to celebrate his honours. On receiving the news,
+Leighton's first act was to fly to three less successful artists and
+buy a picture from each of them (George Mason, then still unknown, was
+one), and so Leighton reflected his own happiness at once on others.
+To-day as we viewed the distinguished (in the best sense of the term)
+mourners, it seemed an epitome of all his social and artistic life. He
+never forgot an old friend, and not one was absent to-day. The men
+around his coffin all looked heartily sad. It was only when those
+peaceful words came, 'We give Thee hearty thanks, for that it hath
+pleased Thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this
+sinful world,' that we remembered the agony of his last three days on
+earth, and we could be glad for our dear friend that it was past. We
+could give hearty thanks, but it was for him and him alone, for we
+turn with heavy hearts to our homes, feeling <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_33" id="PageV1_33">[33]</a></span>that with Frederic
+Leighton ever so much kindness, love, and colour has gone out of the
+world."</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep033" id="imagep033"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep033.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep033.jpg" width="50%" alt="Crypt under St. Paul's Cathedral" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em; margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%;">CRYPT UNDER ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, WHERE BARRY, SIR
+JOSHUA REYNOLDS, TURNER, AND LORD LEIGHTON WERE BURIED<br />
+From a photo, by permission of Messrs. S.B. Bolas &amp; Co.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Attached to the wreath which lay on his coffin were the lines written
+by our Queen:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Life's race well run,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Life's work well done,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Life's crown well won,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;Now comes rest."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>In Leighton's own letters, more than is possible in any other written
+words, will be traced those qualities of character and feeling which
+guided the rare gifts nature had bestowed. These, used with unstinting
+generosity for the benefit of others, established for our national art
+a position, cosmopolitan in its influence, never previously attained
+by English painting and sculpture, and of which it may be fairly
+hoped, future generations, no less than the present, may reap the
+benefit.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> George Eliot&mdash;"Romola."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> Lord Loch's cousin, Colonel Sutherland Orr, married
+Leighton's elder sister in the year 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Quoted in G.F. Watts' "Reminiscences."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> An incident, one out of many that tell of Leighton's
+hearty, eager helpfulness, happened on one of the evenings at the
+Academy, after the prizes had been given away. A student was passing
+through the first room, on his way to the entrance. He looked the
+picture of dejection and disappointed wretchedness, poorly and
+shabbily dressed, and slinking away as if he wished to pass out of the
+place unnoticed. Millais and Leighton, walking arm in arm, came along,
+pictures of prosperity. Leighton caught sight of the poor, downcast
+student. Leaving Millais, he darted across the vestibule to him, and,
+taking the student's arm, drew him back into the first room, and made
+him sit down on the ottoman beside him. Putting his arm on the top of
+the ottoman, and resting his head on his hand, Leighton began to talk
+as he alone could talk; pouring forth volumes of earnest, rapid
+utterances, as if everything in the world depended on his words
+conveying what he wanted them to convey. He went on and on. The shabby
+figure gradually seemed to pull itself together, and, at last, when
+they both rose, he seemed to have become another creature. Leighton
+shook hands with him, and the youth went on his way rejoicing. It is
+certain that if other help than advice were needed, it was given. But
+it was the extraordinary zest and vitality which Leighton put into his
+help which made it unlike any other. He fought every one's cause even
+better than others fight their own.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> In Plato's "Ph&aelig;drus," Socrates says: "The soul, which
+has seen most of trouble, shall come to the birth as a philosopher, or
+artist, or musician, or lover; that which has seen truth in the second
+degree, shall be a righteous king, or warrior, or lord; the soul which
+is of the third class, shall be a politician, or economist, or trader;
+the fourth, shall be a lover of gymnastic toils, or a physician; the
+fifth, a prophet, or hierophant; to the sixth, a poet or imitator will
+be 'appropriate'; to the seventh, the life of an artisan, or
+husbandman; to the eighth, that of a sophist, or demagogue; to the
+ninth, that of a tyrant; all these are states of probation, in which
+he who lives righteously, improves, and he who lives unrighteously,
+deteriorates his lot."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> He wrote to his sister in 1857 from Algiers: "I shall
+spend my next winter in my dear, dear old Rome, to which I am attached
+beyond measure; indeed, Italy altogether has a hold on my heart that
+no other country ever can have (except, of course, my own), and
+although, as I just now said, I was most delighted with Africa, and
+have not a moment to look back to that was not agreeable, yet there is
+an intimate little corner in my affections into which it could never
+penetrate." And later he wrote in a letter to his mother: "I have so
+often been to Italy, and so often written to you from thence, that it
+seems quite a platitude to tell you how much I enjoy it, and what a
+keen delight I felt again this time when I once more trod the soil of
+this wonderful country; indeed, by the time you get this you will
+already yourself be in full enjoyment of its pleasures, and though
+naturally you cannot feel one tittle of my attachment and yearning
+affection for it, yet you will have all the physical delights of sun
+and serene skies and a good share of the wonder and admiration at the
+inexhaustible natural beauties of this garden of the world. I came
+through Switzerland this time, but as quick as a shot, as I was in a
+hurry to get <i>home</i> to Italy."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> Du Maurier, who took much interest in tracing indications
+of various racial distinctions in the remarkable people of his time,
+was troubled on this point. He was convinced that in Leighton existed
+indications of foreign or Jewish blood, but was quite unable to
+discover any facts in support of this theory.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> Leighton wrote in a letter to his sister from Algiers of
+the strange sounds which the Moors emit, adding: "Much the same sort
+of thing is noticeable in the peasants near Rome, whose songs consist
+(within a definite shape) of long-sustained chest notes that are
+peculiar in the extreme, and though often harsh, seem to be
+wonderfully in harmony with the long unbroken lines of the Campagna."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> On December 1, 1856, Leighton writes to Steinle: "My
+Italian journey afforded me in every way the greatest pleasure and
+edification, and I seem now for the first time to have grasped the
+greatness of the Campagna and the giant loftiness of Michael Angelo."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> "Apr&egrave;s de pareilles &eacute;motions, il avait besoin d'&ecirc;tre
+seul, de savourer sa joie, de chanter sa libert&eacute; d&eacute;finitivement
+conquise, sur tous les sentiers le long desquels il avait tant g&eacute;mi,
+tant lutt&eacute;.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">"Il ne voulut donc pas retourner imm&eacute;diatement &agrave; Saint-Damien. Sortant
+de la cit&eacute; par la porte la plus voisine, il s'enfon&ccedil;a dans les
+sentiers d&eacute;serts qui grimpent sur les flancs du Mont Subasio. On &eacute;tait
+aux tout premiers jours du printemps. Il y avait encore &ccedil;&agrave; et l&agrave; de
+grandes fondri&egrave;res de neige, mais sous les ardeurs du soleil de mars
+l'hiver semblait s'avouer vaincu. Au sein de cette harmonie,
+myst&eacute;rieuse et troublante, le c&oelig;ur de Fran&ccedil;ois vibrait
+d&eacute;licieusement, tout son &ecirc;tre se calmait et s'exaltait; l'&acirc;me des
+choses le caressait doucement et lui versait l'apaisement. Un bonheur
+inconnu l'envahissait; pour c&eacute;l&eacute;brer sa victoire et sa libert&eacute;, il
+remplit bient&ocirc;t toute la for&ecirc;t du bruit de ses chants.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">"Les &eacute;motions trop douces ou trop profondes pour pouvoir &ecirc;tre
+exprim&eacute;es dans la langue ordinaire, l'homme les chante."&mdash;<i>Vie de S.
+Fran&ccedil;ois d'Assise, par Paul Sabatier.</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> "Notes on Lord Leighton," <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>, March
+1897.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> The <i>Morning Post</i> of February 4, 1896.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_34" id="PageV1_34">[34]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER I<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>ANTECEDENTS AND SCHOOL DAYS<br />
+1830-1852</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>Some light is thrown on Leighton's ancestry by the following letter,
+written by Sir Baldwyn Leighton to Sir Albert Woods, Garter, at the
+time when a peerage was bestowed on Frederic Leighton. It deals with
+the question of associating the name of Stretton with the Barony.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Tabley House, Knutsford,</span><br />
+<i>January 10, 1896.</i></p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">Dear Sir</span>,&mdash;In answer to yours of January 9, I beg to
+say that there are two places called Stretton in the County of
+Salop; one, now known as Church Stretton, having become a
+small town, was formerly in the possession of my family
+through the marriage of John de Leighton, my lineal ancestor,
+with the daughter and heiress of William Cambray of Stretton
+in the fourteenth century, whose arms we still quarter (see
+Herald's Visitation for Shropshire). This no longer belongs to
+me, having been mortgaged and sold by Sir Thomas Leighton, Kt.
+Banneret, temp. Hen. VIII. But there is another Stretton in
+the parish of Alderbury with Cardeston which does still belong
+to me, and has always belonged to the family from time
+immemorial. I have been in communication with Sir Frederic
+Leighton on the subject, and it <i>is</i> my wish that he should
+adopt the supplemental title of Stretton. According to a
+pedigree made out by a Shropshire antiquarian some thirty
+years ago, Sir Frederic's branch descends from the younger son
+of the John de Leighton who married the Cambray heiress, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_35" id="PageV1_35">[35]</a></span>who was admitted burgess of Shrewsbury in 1465. Therefore I
+am of opinion that it <i>is</i> a very proper supplemental title
+for Sir Frederic to assume.&mdash;I remain, yours, &amp;c.,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Baldwyn Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>"To Sir <span class="sc">Albert Woods</span>, Garter."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In 1862, Leighton writes to his mother:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p>"You must know that I received some time back a letter from the <i>Rev.
+Wm. Leighton</i> (address, <i>Luciefelde, Shrewsbury</i>) asking me very
+politely to give him whatever information I could about our family, as
+he was making a pedigree of the Leighton family, and was anxious to
+find out something about a branch that had settled and been lost sight
+of in London. I answered that I regretted I could give him no definite
+information on the subject, beyond our belief that we were of a
+younger branch of the Shropshire Leightons, whose arms and crest we
+bore, that I knew personally nothing of my family further back than my
+grandfather, telling him who and what he was. I ended by referring him
+<i>to Papa</i>, to whom I immediately wrote, telling him the nature of Mr.
+Leighton's request, and begging him to write to him at once in case he
+could give him any clue that might facilitate his researches. I then
+received a second, and very interesting, letter from Mr. L. telling me
+that he had found in Yorkshire some Leightons (I forget the Christian
+names, but not Robert) who claimed to descend from the Shropshire
+stock, and whose crest differed from the Leighton crest exactly as
+ours does, <i>i.e.</i> in the <i>forward</i> expansion of the right wing of the
+Wyvern; a peculiarity, by the by, which did not appear to be of weight
+with him. There was more in this letter which I don't clearly
+remember, but nothing establishing our claim; this letter I
+immediately forwarded to you, and since then both myself and Mr.
+Leighton have been waiting to hear from Papa."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_36" id="PageV1_36">[36]</a></span>The conclusion arrived at from these inquiries was&mdash;that, three or
+four hundred years ago, the descendants of John de Leighton and the
+Cambray heiress migrated from Shropshire to Yorkshire, and that
+Leighton's grandfather, Sir James Leighton, court physician to the
+Emperor Nicholas of Russia, was a descendant of this branch. Dr.
+Leighton, the artist's father, married the daughter of George Augustus
+Nash of Edmonton. He and his wife, early in their married life, went
+to St. Petersburg, and it was supposed that he would probably succeed
+his father as court physician to the Czar, who favoured Sir James
+Leighton with his intimacy; but the climate of St. Petersburg not
+suiting Mrs. Leighton's health, they remained there but a few years.
+It was at St. Petersburg that the two eldest children were born,
+Fanny, who died young, and Alexandra, the god-child of the Empress
+Alexandra, who became Mrs. Sutherland Orr. From St. Petersburg, the
+family moved to Scarborough, and it was at Scarborough, on December 3,
+1830, that the most famous member of the Leighton family was born. The
+question as to which was the actual house in which the event took
+place was satisfactorily settled at the time when Leighton was raised
+to the peerage, in letters which appeared in the press,&mdash;one
+containing the testimony of Mrs. Anne Thorley, who was in Dr.
+Leighton's service for three years with the family at Scarborough, and
+for two years after they moved to London. She affirms that Leighton
+was born in the house in Brunswick Terrace, now numbered 13, but which
+at that time consisted only of three houses. Mrs. Thorley adds,
+"Fred's mother was a splendid lady&mdash;such a good one with her children,
+and most affectionate."</p>
+
+<p>A second son named James, who died in his infancy, was also born at
+Scarborough, and five years after the birth of Leighton his younger
+sister Augusta, now Mrs. Matthews, was born in London.</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><a name="imagep037" id="imagep037"></a>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="80%" summary="Leighton's Parents">
+  <tr>
+  <td width="50%">
+    <div class="img">
+    <a href="images/imagep037a.jpg">
+    <img border="0" src="images/imagep037a.jpg" width="85%" alt="Lord Leighton when a Boy" /></a><br />
+    <p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Lord Leighton when a Boy<br />
+    From a Portrait by Himself<br />
+    By permission of Mr. H.S. Mendelssohn<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+    </div>
+  </td>
+  <td width="50%">
+    <div class="img">
+    <a href="images/imagep037b.jpg">
+    <img border="0" src="images/imagep037b.jpg" width="85%" alt="Lord Leighton's younger Sister when a Child" /></a><br />
+    <p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Lord Leighton's younger Sister when a Child<br />
+    From a Drawing by Lord Leighton<br />
+    By permission of Mr. H.S. Mendelssohn</p>
+    </div>
+  </td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_37" id="PageV1_37">[37]</a></span>Dr. Leighton had every prospect of excelling among those most
+distinguished in his profession. Deafness, however, by which he was
+unfortunately attacked about that time, made it impossible for him to
+practise any longer as a physician. Deprived of his active work, he
+turned his attention to more abstract lines of study, and to
+philosophy.</p>
+
+<p>In 1840, Mrs. Leighton, after a severe illness, required a drier
+climate than that of England, and the family travelled on the
+Continent, visiting Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.</p>
+
+<p>Family annals record the delight with which Leighton, the boy of ten,
+enjoyed the beauty of nature in Switzerland, the flowers and
+everything he saw in the land of mountains. When he reached Rome, the
+buildings, the fountains, the ruins, the models awaiting hire on the
+Piazza di Spagna, fascinated him, and he filled many sketch-books with
+records of all the picturesque scenes that struck him as so new and
+wonderful. From earliest days, drawing was Leighton's greatest
+amusement, and he had it always in his own mind that he would be an
+artist and nothing else. When in Rome, he was allowed to study drawing
+under Signor Meli, but his father insisted on other lessons being
+carried on with regularity and industry. We hear of his elder sister
+and Leighton learning Latin together from a young priest. Dr. Leighton
+had a commanding intelligence, and made his will felt. As with many
+fond fathers who centre their chief interest on an only son, and
+foster thoughts of a notable future for him, Dr. Leighton seems to
+have felt that the greater his interest and affection, the greater
+must be the exercise of strict discipline over his boy. Leighton
+received, to say the least, a stern upbringing from his father,
+mitigated, however, by the greatest tenderness from his mother. The
+boy's will respecting his future career proved sufficient for the
+occasion, and he had reason to be thankful that the general knowledge,
+which Dr. Leighton insisted on his acquiring, was instilled at so
+early an age. From the time he was ten years <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_38" id="PageV1_38">[38]</a></span>old he was made to study
+the classics, and at twelve he spoke French and Italian as fluently as
+English. Dr. Leighton had himself taught the boy anatomy, ever
+cherishing the hope that he would, when he came to years of
+discretion, renounce the idea of being an artist, and follow in the
+footsteps of his father and grandfather by becoming a doctor. In
+either case a knowledge of anatomy was thought necessary, and, in
+after years, Leighton declared he knew much more anatomy when he was
+fourteen than he did when he was President of the Royal Academy. "I
+owe," he said, "my knowledge to my father. He would teach me the names
+of the bones and the muscles. He would show them to me in action and
+in repose; then I would have to draw them from memory; until my memory
+drawing was perfect, he would not let it pass."</p>
+
+<p>The family returned to England for the summer of 1841, spending it at
+the paternal grandfather's country house at Greenford; and during the
+following winter Leighton studied at the University College School in
+London. Mrs. Leighton's health again declined in England, and the
+family migrated to Germany, the country chosen by Dr. Leighton as that
+in which the education of the children could be best carried forward.
+Leighton studied under tutors at Berlin, it being only in his spare
+moments that he found time to sketch, or to visit the galleries. Then
+followed a move to Frankfort, and thence to Florence. There he was
+allowed to enter the studio of Bezzuoli and Servolini, celebrated
+artists in Florence, but of whose real greatness Leighton, even at
+that early age, entertained his doubts. It was in Florence that the
+father's will had finally to submit to the son's passion for his
+vocation. Dr. Leighton was too wise to allow prejudice to affect his
+serious actions. He could no longer blind himself to the fact, that
+this desire to be an artist was a vital matter with his son. He felt
+it would be wrong to try and override the boy's desires without
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_39" id="PageV1_39">[39]</a></span>seeking the opinion of an expert on art matters as to whether there
+was any probability of Leighton excelling. He therefore took him and
+his drawings to Hiram Powers, the sculptor, for the verdict to be
+given. The well-known conversation took place after Powers had
+examined the work.</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I make him a painter?" asked Dr. Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>"Sir, you cannot help yourself; nature has made him one already,"
+answered the sculptor.</p>
+
+<p>"What can he hope for, if I let him prepare for this career?"</p>
+
+<p>"Let him aim at the highest," answered Powers; "he will be certain to
+get there."</p>
+
+<p>Leighton had won: he had now to prove good his cause. Even though
+theoretically his father had given in, he yet hoped that, as years
+went on, a change in his boy's views might come about; but he was
+allowed to work at the Accademia delle belle Arti, under Bezzuoli and
+Servolini, and besides continuing his study of anatomy with his
+father, Leighton attended classes in the hospital under Zanetti. Of
+this time in Florence, one of his life-long friends, Professor Costa,
+writes: "I knew, both from himself and from his fellow-students, that
+at the age of fourteen Leighton studied at the Academy of Florence
+under Bezzuoli and Servolini, who at this time (1842) had a great
+reputation. They were celebrated Florentines, excellent good men, but
+they could give but little light to this star, which was to become one
+of the first magnitude. Leighton, from his innate kindness, loved and
+esteemed his old masters much, though not agreeing in the judgment of
+his fellow-students that they should be considered on the same level
+as the ancient Florentines. 'And who have you,' said Leighton one day
+to a certain Bettino (who is still living), 'who resembles your
+ancient masters?' And Bettino answered, 'We have still to-day our
+great Michael Angelos, and Raffaels, in Bezzuoli, in Servolini, in
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_40" id="PageV1_40">[40]</a></span>Ciseri.' But this boy of twelve years old could not believe this, and
+one fine day got into the diligence, and left the Academy of Florence
+to return to England. Although the diligence went at a great pace, his
+fellow-students followed it on foot, running behind it, crying, 'Come
+back, Inglesino! come back, Inglesino! come back,' so much was he
+loved and respected. He did come back, in fact, many times to Italy,
+which he considered as his second fatherland."</p>
+
+<p>It was, however, at Frankfort, where the family settled in 1843, that
+Leighton fell under the real, living art influence of his life, in the
+person of Steinle. Leighton described this artist later as "an
+intensely fervent Catholic, a man of most striking personality, and of
+most courtly manners." In the temperament of this religious Catholic
+was united a fervour of feeling with a pure severity in the style of
+his art which belonged to the school of the Nazarenes, of which
+Steinle was a follower, Overbeck and Pf&uuml;hler having led the way. A
+spiritual ardour and spontaneity placed Steinle on a higher level as
+an artist than that on which the rest of the brotherhood stood.
+Leighton, boy as he was, at once realised in his master the existence
+of that "sincerity of emotion,"&mdash;to use his own words when preaching,
+nearly forty years later, to the Royal Academy students; a quality
+ever considered by him as an essential attribute of the true
+artist-nature&mdash;of that inner vision of the religious poet, of that
+finer fibre of temperament which endowed art in Leighton's eyes with
+higher qualities than science or philosophy alone could ever include.
+Steinle viewed art with the reverence and nobility of feeling which
+accorded with those aspirations that had been hinted to the boy's
+nature in his best moments, but which had had no sufficiently clear,
+decisive outline to inspire hitherto his actual performances. In
+Steinle's work he found the positive expression of those aspirations;
+there, in such art, was an absolute confutation of <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_41" id="PageV1_41">[41]</a></span>the creed that art
+was but a pleasant recreation, having no backbone in it to influence
+the serious work of the world; the creed which meant that, if taken up
+as a profession, it led but to the making of money by amusing the
+&aelig;sthetic sense of the public in a superficial manner. The view taken
+by the magnates&mdash;the "Barbarians" of the time&mdash;was, that unless a
+painter were a Raphael, a Titian, or a Reynolds, his position was
+little removed from that of the second-rate actor or the dancer. It
+was not the profession, but the individual prominence in it which
+alone saved the situation. In Steinle, Leighton found an exponent of
+art, who reverenced the vocation of art itself as one which should be
+sanctified by the purest aims and the highest aspirations.</p>
+
+<p>In the nature of one who exercises a strong influence over another is
+often found the real clue to the nature influenced. Circumstances had
+led Leighton to be reserved with regard to his deepest feelings
+respecting art, but with Steinle that reserve vanished. Under the
+influence of this master he realised an adequate cause for this
+deep-rooted, peremptory passion. Steinle's nature explains that of his
+pupil; for Leighton was, in an intimate sense, introduced to a full
+knowledge of his own self by Steinle. This influence, to use his own
+words, written more than thirty years later, was the "indelible seal,"
+because it made Leighton one with himself. The impress was given which
+steadied the whole nature. There was no vagueness of aim, no swaying
+to and fro, after he had once made Steinle his master. The religious
+nature also of the German artist had thrown a certain spell over him.
+Leighton possessed ever the most beautiful of all qualities&mdash;the power
+of feeling enthusiasm, of loving unselfishly, and generously <i>adoring</i>
+what he admired most. Fortunate, it may possibly have been, that his
+father's strict training developed his splendid intellectual powers at
+an early age; fortunate it certainly was, that, when emancipated from
+other trammels, he <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_42" id="PageV1_42">[42]</a></span>entered the service of art under an influence so
+pure, so vital in spiritual passion as was that of Steinle.</p>
+
+<p>However, it was not till Leighton reached the age of seventeen that he
+was allowed to give his time uninterruptedly to the study of art. At
+that age he had acquired sufficient knowledge of the classics and of
+the general lines of knowledge even to satisfy his father. He had also
+completely mastered the German, French, and Italian languages. The
+vitality of his brain was almost abnormal, otherwise his constitution
+was not strong. Constantly such phrases as "I am not ill, but I am
+never well" occur in his letters, and he suffered from weakness and
+heat, also from "blots" in his eyes, perhaps the result of scarlet
+fever, which he had as a child. His school days seem to have had their
+<i>mauvais moments</i>. When he was fifteen, his parents and elder sister
+went to England, leaving him and his little sister at school during
+their holidays. The love for his mother, and his longing to be with
+her, is told in the following pathetic appeal:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p class="right">"<span class="sc">Frankfort a/M.,</span><br />
+<i>Friday, June 26, 1845.</i></p>
+
+<p>"[<span class="sc">Dear Mamma</span>],&mdash;Your letter, which I have just
+received, caused me the greatest pleasure, for I have been
+anxiously expecting it for three long days. I am very pleased
+to hear that Lina is getting stronger, though slowly, and hope
+that Hampstead will agree with her and you better than London.
+I am very sorry to hear that you are not very well. I hope
+that the country will refresh Papa after all his fatigues. I
+need not tell you that I was very unhappy when I heard what
+you said about my going to England; ever since I have been
+here, from the time I wake to the time I go to bed, I think of
+London; the other night, indeed, I went in my dream to see the
+new British Museum. However, if there is nothing to be
+done.... From Hampstead you can see London, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_43" id="PageV1_43">[43]</a></span>there is the
+dear old common where I and the Coodes used to play, and the
+pretty little lake where I went to slide, and it's such a
+pleasant walk to London and the galleries, and ... is there
+<i>no</i> little hole left for poor Punch?<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a> On the 16th July all
+the schoolboys go on a three weeks' journey, whose wing but
+yours can take care of me for so long a time? I will ask for
+money to buy a clothes-brush, I have none; 2 fl. I spent on
+water-colours for the painting lesson, 5 fl. a splendid book,
+'Percy's Relics of Old English Poetry,' 1 fl. sundries, my
+last florin I lent to Bob, but he was fetched away in a hurry
+before his money was given to him, however he said he would
+send it me from Mayence, but I have not seen it since. It is a
+great bore to have no money; that 1 fl. would have lasted the
+second month very well as I only want it for sundries. I have
+dismissed Mottes, my <i>new</i> boots have already been <i>re</i>soled,
+and he made me wait three weeks for a pair of boots, which of
+course I did not take. I wish I had had turning clothes, my
+jacket is very shabby, and I cannot afford to put on my best
+whilst it goes to the tailor; my black trowsers are ruined,
+but I must wear them whilst my blue ones go to be lengthened.
+Little Gussy looks very well, she is very well, and has sundry
+'zufrieden's' and 'tr&egrave;s content's.' On the advice of <i>Pappe</i>,
+the master of mathematics and nat. phil., I have got a
+'Meierhirsch's Algebraische Aufgaben.' I want a Euclid, mine
+is in England, how shall I get at it? I am quite well, but
+<i>long</i> to see you all, and to have some <i>wing</i>; pray write
+very soon. Give my best love to Papa and Lina, and believe me,
+dear Mamma, your affectionate and <i>speckfle</i> son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">F. Leighton."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep043" id="imagep043"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep043.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep043.jpg" width="50%" alt="Early Comic Drawing, About 1850" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">EARLY COMIC DRAWING, About 1850<br />
+By permission of Mr. Hanson Walker<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>History does not record whether the "little hole for poor Punch" had
+been found or not. Together with other studies, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_44" id="PageV1_44">[44]</a></span>Leighton was allowed
+to attend the model class at the famous Staedelsches Institut, and, in
+1848, when the family went to Brussels, he painted his first picture,
+Othello and Desdemona, his elder sister sitting as model for the
+Desdemona, and also a portrait of himself. From Brussels he went to
+Paris, studying in an <i>atelier</i> in the Rue Richer, among a set of
+Bohemian students, and then to Frankfort, to work seriously under his
+beloved master Steinle. The following letter to his father shows how
+unsatisfactory he considers his studies had been in both Brussels and
+Paris, and that now, as he expressed it, he is girding his "loins for
+a new race."</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p class="right">"<span class="sc">Cronberg</span>, <i>Friday evening</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"[<span class="sc">Dear Papa</span>],&mdash;As I have reason to believe that you
+are not indifferent to the fate of the studies which met with
+Dielmann's censure, and at the same time opened my eyes to the
+fact that I have not yet (to use a German phrase) 'die Natur
+mit dem L&ouml;ffel gefressen,'<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a> I now write to tell you that I
+have retouched better parts of them, and <i>that</i> to Burger's
+satisfaction as well as to mine. Of course some are better
+than others. Independently of the intense irritation which bad
+sitting (as well you know) occasions to my nerves, they give
+me great trouble, and I take it; but this can hardly astonish
+me, when I consider that, in point of fact, during the whole
+time that has elapsed between my leaving the model class in
+the Staedelsches Institut up to my return to Frankfurt, I have
+<i>never</i> studied from nature; that I did not in Brussels, I
+need not remind you, and you must also remember that
+everything I painted in Paris, in the way of portraits, was
+done <i>before</i> nature, I grant, but with a certain <i>ideal</i>
+colour or tone, the consistency of which might be illustrated
+by putting Rubens, Reynolds, Titian, Tom Lawrence, Vandyke,
+Velasquez, Correggio, Carracci, Rembrandt, and Rafael into a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_45" id="PageV1_45">[45]</a></span>kaleidoscope, and setting them in a rotatory motion, in a
+word&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When taken<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Well shaken.<br /></span>
+<span class="i3">(What's his name&mdash;Hem!)<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noin">I am therefore girding my loins for a new race, far from
+discouraged, but rather with the persuasion that one with my
+innate love for colouring, and, I think I may add, sharp
+perception of the merits and demerits of the colouring of
+others, has a fair chance of success; nor am I dissatisfied
+with my beginning."</p></div>
+
+<p>In the year 1849, he went to London to paint the portrait of his
+great-uncle, Mr. I'Anson, Lady Leighton's brother, and wrote to his
+father and mother the following:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"Fleeced at Malines&mdash;very fine passage&mdash;slept well, why the
+deuce had not I a carpet bag? horrid inconvenience! my chest
+of drawers twenty feet below the surface of the deck, obliged
+to get on friendly terms with a sailor to borrow a comb (which
+had got blue with usage)&mdash;lovely brown tints about my shirt,
+cuffs more picturesque than tidy; two hours stifling in that
+confounded hole of a waiting-room in the custom house; arrive
+at last at Mr. I'Anson's at about three o'clock; as he was not
+at home I dressed and ran half round London before dinner;
+crossed Kensington Gardens, saw the outside of the Exhibition,
+went down Hyde Park, along Green Park, stared at Buckingham
+Palace, rushed down St. James' Park, flew up Waterloo Place,
+made a dive at Trafalgar Square, and a lunge at Pall Mall,
+gasped all along Regent Street, turned up Oxford Street, bent
+round to the Edgware Road, and from there the whole length of
+Oxford Terrace, I brought home a very fine appetite!"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_46" id="PageV1_46">[46]</a></span>"[<span class="sc">My dearest Mother</span>],&mdash;I have resumed my Uncle's
+likeness, and as far as it goes (the head is done) very
+successfully. Will you tell Papa from me that it is more
+'aufgefasst' (as I expected) than 'durchgef&uuml;hrt,' but that I
+have seized the <i>twinkle</i> of his mouth to a T.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. I'Anson treats me with the utmost kindness, it is of
+course superfluous to tell you that I enjoy myself beyond
+measure.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a very slow writer&mdash;I am without readiness either of
+thought or speech owing to the picturesque confusion which
+possesses my brain, and not, God knows, from a phlegmatic
+habit of mind."</p></div>
+
+<p>Letter to his mother from Norfolk Terrace, Hyde Park:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"[<span class="sc">Dearest Mother</span>],&mdash;I have received your kind letter,
+and conclude from your silence on that point that Lina is now
+getting on well. In order to avoid losing time on fluency of
+style, I shall follow, strictly as I find them, the heads of
+your epistle, and answer them in the same succession. First, I
+hasten to thank you and Papa for your kind permission to
+prolong my stay, a permission which I value the more that I
+know that Papa was desirous I should return as soon as
+possible. You tell me, dear Mamma, that I am not to lose time
+in seeing the <i>lions</i> of London, and Papa, in his displeasure
+at my having done so little as yet towards the real object of
+my visit, seems to imply an idea that I <i>have</i> been so doing;
+I regret very much that you should entertain that notion, and
+assure you that I have neither hitherto dreamt, nor have
+ultimate intention, of seeing that long list of wonders, the
+Colosseum, the polytechnic, the cosmorama, the diorama, the
+panorama, the polyorama, the overland mail, Catlin's
+exhibition, the Chinese exhibition, nor even Wild's great
+globe, for that, I am told, costs five shillings; this is a
+decided case of 'Frappe, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_47" id="PageV1_47">[47]</a></span>mais &eacute;coute.' And if Papa did not
+think that I had so wasted my time, is it not very certain
+that, if I had not thought it a matter of duty, I would not
+have tired myself making what I most hate, calls, instead of
+seeing works of art?</p>
+
+<p>"Lady Leighton looked in some respects worse, and in some much
+better, than I expected; I was surprised to see her walk with
+her back bent, and leaning on a stick; but I was more
+surprised still to see a face so free, comparatively, from
+wrinkles, and bearing such evident traces of former beauty.
+Her reception was of the warmest; in her anxiety lest I should
+be lonely and uncomfortable in an inn, she insisted on my
+sleeping in her house. She talked much, long, and <i>well</i>,
+though slowly and in a suppressed tone; she dwelt tenderly on
+Papa's name, and advocated warmly our return to England. I saw
+two letters which she wrote to her brother, my uncle, and
+which were both most elegantly written; both contained a
+paragraph in allusion to me; in the first, written before my
+visit (in answer to one in which my uncle had prepared her for
+seeing me), she expresses herself most <i>eager to receive and
+to love the grandson, of whom all speak so highly</i>; in the
+second, written after my return to London, she says that her
+<i>dear and fascinating grandson amply realises all her
+expectations</i>, and that seeing him has increased that pain
+which she feels at being separated from us all.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I will give you a <i>catalogue raisonn&eacute;</i> of whom I have
+seen: Cowpers, this you know; Smyths, ditto; Laings, very
+kind, though Mr. Laing, like the Cowpers, did not know me till
+I mentioned my name; Wests, exceedingly kind, invitation to
+dinner; Richardsons, motherly reception, party, given for me;
+Moffatt, very <i>pr&eacute;venant</i>, asked me twice to dinner, both of
+which invitations I was unfortunately obliged to refuse, but
+wrote a very civil note, and went next morning in person to
+apologise; Hall, dreadfully busy, but gave me cards to
+Maclise, Goodall, Frith, Ward, Frost; Maclise was not at home,
+but <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_48" id="PageV1_48">[48]</a></span>I found Goodall, Ward, and Frith, and was pleased with my
+visits. There is a new school in England, and a very promising
+one; correctly drawn historical <i>genre</i> seems to me the best
+definition of it. They tell me there is a fine opening for an
+historical painter of merit, and that talent never fails to
+succeed in London. Goodall, a young man about thirty, who
+painted 'The Village Festival,' in the Vernon Gallery, and of
+which you have an engraving in one of your Art Journal
+numbers, sells his pictures direct from the easel; and he does
+not stand alone. Sir Ch. Eastlake received me very politely,
+but looks a great invalid; Lance, very jolly, and Fripp,
+ditto. Bovills and E. I'Ansons, very kind, invitations, of
+course; Mackens, you know; I have found no time to call on Dr.
+Holland, Mr. Shedden, or Tusons.</p>
+
+<p>"Having told you <i>whom</i>, I will now tell you rapidly <i>what</i>, I
+have seen: Vernon Gallery, very much gratified; Dulwich
+Gallery, very much disappointed; British Institution, ditto;
+National Gallery, pictures magnificent, locality disgraceful,
+I must make another visit there; Royal Academy, on the whole,
+satisfactory; British Museum, very fine; Mogford's Collection,
+very indifferent; Marquis of Westminster (Mr. Laing), very
+fine indeed; private collection (through interest of Mr.
+Moffatt), delightful; Windsor, <i>Vandyke</i>, superb; <i>Lawrence</i>,
+a wretched quack. Time presses&mdash;<i>la suite au prochain
+num&eacute;ro</i>."</p></div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep048" id="imagep048"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep048.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep048.jpg" width="55%" alt="Mr. I'Anson, Lord Leighton's Great-Uncle. 1850" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">MR. I'ANSON, LORD LEIGHTON'S GREAT-UNCLE. 1850<br />
+By permission of Mr. E. I'Anson<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The portrait of his great-uncle, Mr. I'Anson, here reproduced, proves
+that the visit to London effected the desired result. On his return to
+Frankfort he painted the portraits of Lady Cowley and her three
+children. Lady Cowley writes: "I am delighted with the pictures of my
+dear little girls, and again return you my most sincere thanks for
+having painted them." And in another letter: "I should have called on
+Mrs. Leighton all these days, had I not been very unwell with the
+grippe, as I wished to express to her, as well as to yourself, how
+very grateful I am for the beautiful portrait you have <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_49" id="PageV1_49">[49]</a></span>made of my
+little Frederick. I am quite delighted with it, as well as every one
+else who has seen it. Besides being extremely like, it is such a good
+painting that it must always be appreciated. Ever yours sincerely,
+Olive Cecilia Cowley." In the spring of 1852, Leighton, being then
+twenty-one, went to Bergheim, to paint the portraits of Count
+Bentinck's family. He writes from there:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"[<span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>],&mdash;Having naturally a reflecting turn
+of mind, I am struck with the truth of the following aphorism:
+'It's all very well to say I'll be blowed, but where's the
+wind?' Circumstances induce me to deliver a sentiment of a
+parallel tendency; it's all very well to say 'mind you write';
+but where's the post? A deficiency in that latter commodity is
+a leading feature in the economy of the principality of
+Waldeck; so much so, that any individual residing in Bergheim,
+and desiring to carry on a correspondence 'ins Ausland,' is
+obliged to take advantage of the privilege freely granted him
+by the liberal constitution of the country of carrying his own
+letters to the first frontier town of the next state, and
+having posted them, waiting for an answer. I, however,
+<i>knowing my privileges</i>, and not being desirous of availing
+myself of them in <i>that line</i>, humbly and modestly send these
+lines by my hostess's flunkey, who is going to Fritzlar
+to-morrow on an errand of a similar description. <i>N.B.</i>&mdash;If
+you want a person to receive an epistle within a fortnight
+(that is allowing you to be a neighbour), you must chalk up
+<i>per express</i> on the back of it, in consideration of which he
+or she will receive it through the medium of a hot messenger,
+much, and naturally, fatigued and excited by a journey
+performed at the rate of half a mile an hour, not including
+the pauses in which the <i>inner man</i> is refreshed and
+invigorated by a cordial gulp of 'branny un worrer.'</p>
+
+<p>"Fancy a man getting to a place, by appointment, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_50" id="PageV1_50">[50]</a></span>expecting a
+carriage and trimmings to take him to a lovely retirement in
+the country, and finding&mdash;devil a bit of it! Well that's
+precisely what did not happen to me when I got to Waldeck,
+because although the carriage was not there, there was a
+letter to say it could not come. The road to Bergheim, which
+crosses a river of no mean pretensions without the assistance
+of a bridge (other advantageous peculiarity of the state of
+Waldeck), was, it appeared, rendered impracticable by an
+inundation of the torrent alluded to; it was therefore
+proposed to me (without an option) to perform the journey on
+the top of an <i>oss</i> provided for the purpose and accompanied
+by a groom mounted on another; I willingly accept an offer so
+much to my taste, and for the first time after a lapse of
+nearly three years put a leg on each side of a steed. The
+first part of the road was executed at a round trot on a very
+nice level <i>chauss&eacute;e</i>, but I cannot say that I felt altogether
+at home on my saddle. An eye to effect is nevertheless kept
+open, which is manifested by my catching up two drowsy,
+drawling, jingling 'po shays' and sweeping past them with
+supreme contempt, but at a great expense of my lumbar muscles.
+Presently, however, my continuation-clad members began to thaw
+a little, and to adapt themselves to the saddle, which also
+lost some of its rigid severity; I began to feel very
+comfortable, and, by Jove! it was a good job I did, for on
+getting out of Fritzlar, we left the high road (for reasons
+above given) and plunged into a rugged, donkey-shay sort of
+by-path in which the ruts were without exaggeration a foot
+deep. Nothing daunted, however, I make light of this 'terrain
+l&eacute;g&egrave;rement accident&eacute;,' cross stream and ride along tattered
+banks with the nonchalance of the Chinese Mandarin in the
+Exhibition of '51; in fact, such is my confidence in myself,
+that I at last begin to feel above my stirrups, I scorn them,
+fling them over my saddle, and perform without their
+assistance the rest of the journey to within <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_51" id="PageV1_51">[51]</a></span>half a mile of
+Bergheim, and that on a road the profile of which was about
+this:</p>
+
+<p>(Here was drawn a line representing a hill-side almost
+perpendicular.)</p>
+
+<p>"On my arrival I am of course kindly received by the Countess
+(her husband is still at Oldenburg), got my tea, and go to bed
+rather stiff after an equestrian performance of about two
+hours and a half. The house is large and rambling, fifteen
+windows in a row, and yet I cannot get a satisfactory light,
+the only available north room looking on a lane, the
+white-washed houses of which reflect disagreeably on the
+picture, whenever the sun shines. However I must make up my
+mind to it and do my best; I am at present painting the
+Countess."</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p class="right">"<span class="sc">Bergheim</span>, <i>Sunday</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"[<span class="sc">Dear Mamma</span>],&mdash;In the midst of my anxious
+expectations of a letter from you, it suddenly occurred to me
+that I had forgotten to give you my direction; in the full
+confidence that <i>late is far preferable to never</i>, I now
+hasten to make up for my omission&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="cen">
+Mons. F. Leighton<br />
+bei<br />
+Ihrer Erlauchten der Gr&auml;fin von<br />
+Waldeck und Pyrmont<br />
+zu Bergheim<br />
+bei Fritzlar<br />
+F&uuml;rstenthum Waldeck.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>N.B.</i>&mdash;You will not forget to write <i>per express</i> on the top
+of the envelope; for reasons, see my letter of last Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>"Being sorely pressed for time, I now huddle on to the rest of
+the paper a few loose remarks, for the incoherency of which I
+crave your indulgence.</p>
+
+<p>"The aspect of affairs is much changed since my last epistle;
+then, I was looking forward with anxious though sanguine
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_52" id="PageV1_52">[52]</a></span>expectation to the labour before me; now, I look back on one
+portrait (that of the Countess), achieved to the great
+satisfaction of those for whom it is intended, and contemplate
+with satisfaction the progress which the other is making in
+the same direction. I must, however, add that, owing to the
+necessary absence of the Countess for two days next week, my
+return home will be delayed in proportion, as I have a few
+more touches to give to the portrait of my eldest patient,
+whose husband is desirous of taking it over to England with
+him. (I shall probably be with you Saturday afternoon&mdash;at all
+events I shall let you know beforehand.)</p>
+
+<p>"What I said a few lines back will have suggested to you what
+I am now going to add; Colonel B. is now returned from
+Oldenburg, and will probably be in London in the early part or
+middle of June; he is <i>much</i> pleased with the pictures, and in
+his kindness has promised me an introduction to his brother in
+town, and also to another relation, whose name I have
+forgotten; the result of which is to be: access to the
+collections of Lord Ellesmere, Duke of Sutherland, and Sir
+Robert Peel. I told Colonel B. that if on his road to or from
+Toeplitz in the autumn he should pass through Frankfurt, I
+should be very glad if he could bring the pictures with him,
+as they would both want a varnish, and the children probably a
+few glazes and touches; he said that he would make a point of
+so doing, that indeed after all the trouble and pains I had
+taken for him, it was the least he <i>could</i> do; for these and
+other reasons (not unimportant) which I shall communicate when
+I see you, you need not regret my having made two journeys to
+paint his wife and children.</p>
+
+<p>"That I spend one of the days of the Countess' absence in
+seeing <i>Wilhelmsh&ouml;he</i>, a sight reputed unique of its kind,
+will, I hope, not seem unreasonable.</p>
+
+<p>"I have noted down, as they occurred to me, during the <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_53" id="PageV1_53">[53]</a></span>last
+few days one or two little arrangements, relative to my
+approaching journey, which I would ask you to make during my
+absence, trusting at the same time that if in the meanwhile
+anything else should occur to your provident mind, and be
+transmitted to your <i>many-knotted</i> pocket-handkerchief, you
+will kindly carry it into execution, in order to avoid delay
+when I return from the country, as <i>my</i> time will be almost
+entirely taken up by Lady P.'s [Pollington's] sitting and the
+<i>business calls</i> I have to make.</p>
+
+<p>"Will Papa kindly order a tin case for my compositions; it
+should be a plain cylinder, about an inch and a half in
+diameter, with a lid at one end; let its length be that of my
+'Four Seasons.'</p>
+
+<p>"To my amazement I have just received a letter from you, dear
+Mamma&mdash;<i>did</i> I give you my direction? You forgot the <i>per
+express</i> on the back of the letter. Pray write soon. Much love
+and many kisses to all.&mdash;Your dutiful and affectionate son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">F. Leighton."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Soon after Leighton's return to Frankfort Lord Cowley was appointed
+British Ambassador in Paris, and writes the following letters. The
+invitation he gives to Leighton to make his home at the Embassy while
+pursuing his studies was not accepted, Steinle's teaching being only
+given up later for the charms of Italy.</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"<span class="sc">My dear Mr. Leighton</span>,&mdash;I am more obliged than I can
+say by the kindness you have shown in painting portraits of my
+children. I never saw anything so like, or in general so
+pleasing, as the portrait of Frederic, and I only regret that
+it is not in England to be seen and appreciated. Once more
+accept my thanks, and believe me to be very truly yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Cowley."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_54" id="PageV1_54">[54]</a></span>"<i>Sunday Afternoon.</i></p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">My dear Mr. Leighton</span>,&mdash;It has been quite out of my
+power to get to your house, as I had intended, to take leave
+of you, and to thank you again for the valuable reminiscence
+which through your talent and kindness I carry away with me.
+It will give Lady Cowley and myself great pleasure if you will
+visit us at Paris. You cannot find a better school of study
+than the Louvre, and we shall be most happy to lodge and take
+care of you.</p>
+
+<p>"Pray present my best compliments to the members of your
+family.</p>
+
+<p>"I regret very much not being able to do it in person.&mdash;Very
+faithfully,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Cowley."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On his return from Waldeck, Leighton painted the portrait of Lady
+Pollington, one of his Frankfort acquaintances.</p>
+
+<p>During these years, when Leighton studied under Steinle, his family
+lived also at Frankfort, and therefore few other letters written at
+that time exist. There was a journey to Holland, made during the early
+summer of 1852, from England, where he and his family had returned for
+a visit. The journey back to Frankfort, <i>vi&acirc;</i> Holland, is the subject
+of a long letter to his mother.</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"There I am at the Hague. Pretty place, the Hague, clean,
+quaint, cheerful, <i>and</i> ain't the Dutch just fond of smoking
+out of long clay pipes! <i>And</i> the pictures, <i>Oh</i> the pictures,
+<i>Ah</i> the pictures! That magnificent Rembrandt! glowing,
+flooded with light, clear as amber, and do you twig the <i>grey</i>
+canvas? <i>What</i> Vandykes! what dignity, calm, gently breathing,
+and a searching thoughtfulness in the gaze, amounting almost
+to fascination; and only look at that Velasquez, sparkling,
+clear, dashing; Paul Potter, too, only <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_55" id="PageV1_55">[55]</a></span>twenty-two years old
+when he painted that bull, and just look at it; Jan Steen,
+Terburg, Teniers, <i>Giov. Bellini</i> (splendid), &amp;c. &amp;c. There I
+catch myself bearing something in mind: 'And yet, after all'
+(with an argumentative hitch of the cravat), 'all that those
+fellows had in advance of us was a palette and brushes, and
+<i>that</i> we've got too!' I walk down to Scheveningen, and
+sentimentalise on the seashore; I find the briny deep in a
+very good humour, and offer <i>you</i> mental congratulations.</p>
+
+<p>"About the Rembrandt at Amsterdam, I say nothing, for it is a
+picture not to be described. I can only say that, in it, the
+great master surpasses himself; with the exception, however,
+of this and the Vanderhelst opposite to it, which is full of
+spirit and individuality, the <i>Ryko Museum</i> is tolerably flat.
+After a dull afternoon, I hurry off to Arnheim, and to
+Mayence, and to Frankfurt, where I arrive on Wednesday
+evening. From Cologne to Frankfurt, Janauschek<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a> was on the
+same conveyance as myself; I made her acquaintance, which was
+a great blessing to me on that tedious, cockney-hackneyed
+journey. She is lady-like, interesting, amiable, and
+<i>severely</i> proper, almost cold; she observed the strictest
+incognito. Towards evening, however, when she had ascertained
+that I was a resident at Frankfurt, and therefore probably
+knew her perfectly well, and that I was an artist, which
+excited her sympathy, and that my name was Leighton, a name
+with which she was acquainted (through Schroedter and others)
+as that of one of the most talented young artists of Frankfurt
+(hem!), she relaxed considerably. She has a melancholy and
+most interesting look, and talks very despondently of the
+state of dramatic art nowadays. I made myself useful to her at
+the station, and she was warmly grateful. About my picture<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a>
+(which I have entrusted to Steinle's care) <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_56" id="PageV1_56">[56]</a></span>I have nothing to
+communicate, except that I am confirmed in thinking that it
+has been universally well received; even Becker seems to like
+it in many respects&mdash;of course you know that the leading fault
+is that it was painted under his rival; Oppenheim said (when I
+talked of it as a daub) that he wished he could daub so, and
+that he promised me a great future; Prince Gortschakoff (who,
+by the by, preferred the portraits, and judges with all the
+<i>aplomb</i> of a Count Briez) introduced himself to me in the
+gallery, and told me in the course of conversation that he
+regretted very much having no work of mine, adding that he
+only bought masters of the first order; <i>that</i> was a
+compliment, at all events; Dr. Schlemmer has been very kind to
+me, and has given me a letter for Venice; I dined with him on
+Sunday, and made the acquaintance of Felix Mendelssohn's
+widow, a charming woman."</p></div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep055" id="imagep055"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep055.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep055.jpg" width="52%" alt="The Death of Brunelleschi" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"THE DEATH OF BRUNELLESCHI." 1851<br />
+By permission of Dr. Von Steinle<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep056" id="imagep056"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep056.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep056.jpg" width="85%" alt="The Plague in Florence" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"THE PLAGUE IN FLORENCE." 1851<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Between the years 1849 and 1852 Leighton painted, besides the
+portraits mentioned, three finished pictures, "Cimabue finding Giotto
+in the Fields of Florence," "The Duel between Romeo and Tybalt," and
+"The Death of Brunelleschi"; and also made the notable drawing, now in
+the Victoria and Albert Museum, of a scene during the plague in
+Florence. His master, Steinle, easily discerned that Leighton was
+truly enamoured of Italy; the subjects he chose were Italian, and his
+memory was full of the charm and fascination of the country which he
+ever referred to, to the end of his life, as his second home. It was
+decided that he should go to Rome, his father having determined to
+leave Frankfort and to reside at Bath, where his mother, Lady
+Leighton, was then living. Steinle gave Leighton an introduction to
+his friend and fellow "Nazarene," Cornelius, and on the eve of his
+departure his mother wrote a farewell letter of "injunctions,"
+flavoured happily by hints of humour. There is something very quaint
+to those who knew Leighton after he was thirty in the admonitions
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_57" id="PageV1_57">[57]</a></span>with regard to manners and politeness, which occur in several of his
+mother's letters.</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"<span class="sc">My dearest Child</span>,&mdash;As we are about to part, you may
+perhaps think you will be rid of my lectures, but no, I leave
+you some injunctions in writing, so that you will not be able
+to urge the plea of forgetfulness if you continue your
+negligent habits, though you certainly may <i>forget</i> to read
+what I write&mdash;but I trust to your love and respect for me,
+though the latter needs cultivation nearly as much as habits
+of refinement in you. I have no new advice to give you, I can
+but repeat what I have urged on you many times from your
+childhood upwards; I do implore you, let your conscience be
+your guide amidst all temptations, they will be such as they
+have never yet been to you, as you will henceforward have no
+other restraint on your actions than what is self-imposed. I
+beseech you, do not suffer your disbelief in the dogmas of the
+Protestant Church to weaken the belief I hope you entertain of
+the existence of a Supreme Being. Strive to obey the law He
+has implanted in us, which approves good and condemns evil,
+though the struggle for the mastery between these principles
+is sometimes fearful, as every one knows, especially in youth.
+My precious child, if one sinful mortal's prayer for another
+could avail, how carefully would you be preserved from moral
+evil (the greatest of all evil); but I need not tell you there
+is no royal road to Heaven any more than to excellence in
+inferior objects, every advantage must be obtained by energy
+and perseverance. May God help you to keep free of the
+greatest of all miseries, an upbraiding conscience; for though
+this can be deadened for a time in the hurry of life while
+youth lasts, there comes an hour when life loses its
+attractions, and <i>then</i> issues the troubled consequence of
+merry deeds. I am aware you have heard all this a hundred
+times, and better expressed, but it will bear repetition; and
+now that it is your <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_58" id="PageV1_58">[58]</a></span>mother who is counselling you, you will
+not, I trust, turn a deaf ear.</p>
+
+<p>"I can but repeat what I have continually told you&mdash;to refine
+your feelings you must neither utter nor encourage a coarse
+thought. It would be an inexpressible pleasure to me to leave
+you confirmed in good habits; but wishes are idle. I trust to
+your desire to improve in all ways and to please me. The next
+sheet I wrote some time ago, intending to rewrite it, but the
+trouble is too great for my shaking hands, and I add what I
+have written to-day on separate pieces of paper. I have
+written enough; I have only now to add an entreaty that you
+will not throw these admonitions away, but sometimes read
+them, remembering they come warm from your mother's heart.</p>
+
+<p>"My child, your manners are very faulty, and I am consequently
+much disappointed. You take so much after me, and my nearest
+relations had such refined manners, that I made sure you must
+resemble my father and brothers. There is, however, nothing on
+earth to prevent your becoming the gentleman I wish to see
+you, and remember to write ineffaceably on the tablets of your
+memory, 'Too much familiarity breeds contempt.' You remember
+how seriously young &mdash;&mdash;'s forwardness has been commented on.
+Well, it is true, you have never, as far as I know, spoken as
+he has done; but as I have seldom seen you in company, nor
+your father either, without observing some want of politeness,
+is it not probable that other people have their eyes open
+also?"</p></div>
+
+<p>These admonitions received, Leighton started on his journey to Rome.
+At Innsbruck, on August 18, 1852, he began to write a Diary, in order
+that his mother should hear the details of his travels, and to serve
+"as a clue" by which he might one day recall the "impressions and
+emotions of the years of his artistic noviciate."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_59" id="PageV1_59">[59]</a></span>Leighton's utterances on paper in these early days display the same
+intense exuberance of vitality which, during the whole of his notable
+career, served to spur on his mental and emotional powers to perform
+with great completeness all the various kinds of work which he
+undertook; a vitality which conquered triumphantly the effects of
+indifferent health and troubled eyesight. In the diaries and letters
+is also to be traced the existence of that Greek-like combination of
+qualities so characteristic of Leighton&mdash;namely, explicit precision in
+his thought and expression, and a subtle power of analysis, united
+with great emotional sensitiveness and enthusiastic warmth of
+temperament. His feeling for beauty was an intoxicating joy to him.
+Heartfelt and genuine joy engendered by beauty in nature and art is
+not a very common feeling among the moderns, though so much fuss is
+made by many in our day in their endeavours to become "<i>artistic</i>";
+but, as a ruling guide, beauty has gone out of fashion. The accounts
+that Leighton gives of his ecstasies in the presence of beautiful
+scenes, enforce the belief entertained by those who knew him best,
+that it was the power which beauty exercised over him that developed
+his exceptional strength in all artistic directions. What force in the
+over-riding of difficulties does not passion give to the lover! No
+less a force was engendered in Leighton by the inspiration of the
+beauty of nature.</p>
+
+<p>In the letter to his mother, which accompanies the Diary, referring to
+the joy he has been experiencing, Leighton adds: "I feel almost a kind
+of shame that so much should have been poured down on me. I will put
+my talent to usury, and be no slothful steward of what has been
+entrusted to me. Every man who has received a gift ought to feel and
+act as if he was a field in which a seed was planted, that others
+might gather the harvest." The purity of purpose which guided
+Leighton's life to the end, generated first by the precepts of his
+mother in the fertile soil of his own beautiful <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_60" id="PageV1_60">[60]</a></span>nature, subsequently
+developed by the teaching of the high-minded Steinle, and finally
+established later by other elevating influences, chastened the
+emotional side of Leighton's passion for beauty, and disentangled it
+even in the earliest days from lower and purely sensuous
+contamination. The puritanical attitude of mind towards beauty
+appeared to Leighton absolutely impure and desecrating, in that it
+associated influences and feelings which are of the lowest with the
+appreciation of God's most beautiful creations, and some of man's
+highest aspirations with sensations entirely degraded and unworthy.</p>
+
+<p>Fun and humour abound in the family letters, and in the Diary.
+Leighton was never guilty of being sentimental, and when referring to
+the word <i>ideal</i> in one of his letters, he writes he "hates such
+stuff." After he died, it was written of him: "He was no idealist;
+needless to say, he was no materialist, no one less so; nor does the
+term realist seem to recall his nature. He was&mdash;if such a word can be
+used&mdash;an actualist, the actual was to him of primary importance. But
+the actual meant a great deal more to Leighton than it does to most of
+us. Life and its vivid interests was spread over a much wider area; so
+many more of its various ingredients were such very actual entities to
+him."<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a></p>
+
+<p>And when Leighton started, at the age of twenty-one, to begin his
+independent life, we feel that it is with the <i>actual</i> that he
+grappled&mdash;the actual in his sensations, his feelings, his impressions,
+his conditions. An unmistakable note of reality rings through his
+description of all these. He has no tendency, even unconsciously, when
+under the glamour of the most entrancing impressions, to colour the
+picture other than he <i>actually</i> saw it. In the strength of his own
+real nature he goes forth on the journey of life.</p>
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_61" id="PageV1_61">[61]</a></span><br />
+
+<h4>DIARY</h4>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Innsbruck</span>, <i>August 18, 1852</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I contemplate the life and adventures of Mr. Thumb.</div>
+
+<p>"When Hop o' my Thumb, a nursery hero of European note, first sallied
+out into the world with an eye to making a fortune, his first step was
+(justly foreseeing what the world would expect of the hero of a future
+romance) to lose himself in a large and horrid forest, in which it was
+pitch dark all day long, and nothing was heard but ... &amp;c. &amp;c. (Here
+see biog. of H.O'M. Thumb, Esq., vol. i.)</p>
+
+<p>"Now, in those days mile-posts were not yet come in, and maps were
+excessively expensive; how, then, was H.O'M.T., after he should have
+realised a large independence, to find his way back through this
+intricate waste? Here admire the man of parts and sagacity! '<i>He
+determined</i>,' says the historian, '<i>to drop pebbles in a row all along
+the path</i>'!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">and adopt one of his measures,</div>
+
+<p>"Admirable Thumb! I, too, purpose, as I stroll along, to drop every
+now and then mental pebbles, which shall serve as a connecting link
+between the past and the future, and as a clue by which I may one day
+recall the emotions and impressions of the years of my artistic
+noviciate.</p>
+
+<p>"Be with me, oh Thumb!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">but make a reservation.</div>
+
+<p>"<i>N.B.</i>&mdash;Quality of pebbles not warranted.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<h4>PEBBLES</h4>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble I.</div>
+
+<p>"Kind, affectionate, earnest Steinle!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A tribute of affection and respect for my dear Steinle.</div>
+
+<p>"In a record of whatever concerns me as an artist, <i>his</i> name should
+be at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. <i>Now</i>, at the
+beginning, for our parting is still painfully present to my mind; our
+parting, and the last few days we spent together: the sad face and
+moistened eye with which he watched the diligence in which I rolled
+off from Bregenz; his <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_62" id="PageV1_62">[62]</a></span>fitful way, when we travelled together&mdash;one
+moment jovial and facetious, another laying his hand affectionately on
+my shoulder and remaining silent; his saying to me before I started,
+'I shall be all alone to-morrow, here, and yet I shall be with you all
+the day.'...</p>
+
+<p>"<i>In the middle</i>, all through, and to the end&mdash;because if ever,
+hereafter, my works wear the mark of a pure taste, if ever I succeed
+in raising some portion of the public to the level of high art, rather
+than obsequiously acquiesce in the judgments of the tasteless and the
+ignorant, and if I keep alive, to the end, the active conviction that
+an artist, who deserves the name, never ceases to learn, the key of
+such success will be in one name: Steinle; in having constantly borne
+in mind his precept, and his example.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I find on reflection that though I started a week ago, I am
+only just gone!</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I look forward,</div>
+
+<p>"Although a week has already elapsed since I left Frankfurt, so long
+my home, it is only now that I have parted from Steinle that I really
+feel that I have taken the great step, that I have opened the
+introductory chapter of the second volume of my life, a volume on the
+title-page of which is written "Artist." It seems to me that my
+wanderings began at <i>Bregenz</i>, and that in retracing, as I presently
+shall, my route until I got there, I am tearing open again leaves that
+were closed&mdash;to remain so. I seize the opportunity offered by this
+first day of repose to take breath, and, as I stand within the
+threshold, to look before me and reconnoitre. Italy rises before my
+mind. Sunny Italy! the land that I have so long yearned after with
+ardent longing, and that has dwelt in my memory since last I saw it as
+a never-fading, gentle-beckoning image of loveliness; I am about again
+to tread the soil of that beloved country, the day-dream of long years
+is to become a reality. I am enraptured!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">but don't feel quite <i>it</i>.</div>
+
+<p>"And yet&mdash;how is it that my pleasure is not unalloyed? that I
+involuntarily shrink from grasping the height of my wishes? It is
+because I feel a kind of sacred awe at breaking through <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_63" id="PageV1_63">[63]</a></span>the charm
+that has been so long gathering around the image that I have carried
+in my inward heart, as one who loves, at touching with cold <i>reality</i>
+that which has so long been the far removed object of dreamy, sweetly
+melancholy longings!</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot help thinking that an imaginative man must feel something
+similar when on the point of changing courtship for marriage.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Get better.</div>
+
+<p>"Other thoughts, too, assail me, and sometimes make me uneasy. 'Do I
+fully feel....' No, 'Shall I <i>continue</i> fully to feel the immense
+importance to me of the three or four years now before me? feel that
+they will be the corner-stone of my career, for good or for evil?
+Shall I have the energy to carry out all my resolutions? Shall I
+fulfil what I have promised?'... Then I think of Steinle, and I feel
+reassured.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble II.</div>
+
+<p>"Let me come to the point, to the description of my journey; but
+before I begin, let me remember that, whilst of all my friends and
+companions only <i>three</i> were present at my departure,&mdash;one of them was
+there in order to give me a commission, and another to acknowledge a
+service,&mdash;old General Bentinck did not think it too great an exertion
+to see off, at eight in the morning, one, three times younger than
+himself.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Middelburgh, August 11.</div>
+
+<p>"My first day's journey took me to Middelburgh, along the Bergstrasse,
+which we all know, and of which I therefore say nothing, and yet I
+enjoyed it more than I ever had done before; it was one of those cool,
+clear, <i>opalescent</i> mornings, in which all nature looks as if it was
+teeming with health and freshness; there was something exhilarating,
+too, in the atmosphere, which very much increased my enjoyment; I
+looked upon familiar scenes, but I saw them in a new light; it seemed
+to me as if I was reading nature in a new book.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Stift Neuburg.</div>
+
+<p>"On arriving at Heidelberg, I hurried at once, by appointment with
+Steinle, to a place in the neighbourhood called <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_64" id="PageV1_64">[64]</a></span>'Stift Neuburg,' the
+property and residence of Frau Rath Schlosser, the widow of his old
+and intimate friend, Rath Schlosser.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I enjoy myself.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Heilbronn, August 12.</div>
+
+<p>"Picture to yourself, just where the Neckar makes a graceful curve,
+about a mile above Heidelberg, half-way up a rich and sunny slope,
+chequered with clustering vineyards and luxuriant meadows, an old,
+picturesque convent, with its adjoining chapel and appurtenant dairies
+and farmhouses, the whole group raised up on a lofty, timeworn,
+weather-beaten terrace&mdash;and you will form some idea of <i>the Stift</i>.
+There I spent the afternoon in the most charming possible manner,
+whether in wandering with Steinle along the solitary, shady walks of
+the convent garden, or in snuffing about in the vaulted, mildew old
+library (which, by the by, contains six or seven thousand valuable and
+curious books), or the silent chapel, with its stained-glass windows,
+or in looking through Frau Rath's magnificent collection of drawings
+by German artists, or, finally, in enjoying the conversation of the
+Frau Rath herself, who is a most clever and amiable old lady. The next
+morning (for I spent the night there) after all breakfasting together,
+we went down by a postern gate to the river-side, and awaited the
+arrival of the Heilbronn steamer; general leave-taking, shaking of
+hands, gratitude and thanks on the one side, on the other reiterated
+invitations for the future, which I sincerely hope I may one day be
+able to meet. The valley of the Neckar as far as Heilbronn, where we
+arrived on the evening of the same day, is dull enough in all
+conscience; indeed, had it not been for the company and always
+interesting conversation of Steinle, I really do not know what I
+should have done with myself; such a contrast with the preceding day!</p>
+
+<p>"Between Heilbronn and the Lake of Constance, however, a new scene
+opens out; I see Germany under a totally new aspect, I understand at
+last what German poets mean when they rave about the lovely
+'Schwabenland' and call it the <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_65" id="PageV1_65">[65]</a></span>'Perle deutscher Gauen'; I can now
+imagine the existence of <i>landed patriotism</i> (if I may be allowed the
+expression) among the Germans coming from that part of the country. It
+is, indeed, an enchanting panorama; a never-ceasing variety of rich,
+profusely fertile valleys, studded with cheerful, bright-looking,
+home-inviting villages, and enclosed by chains of gently undulating
+hills. The corn was ripe, and waved in golden stripes across the
+variegated plains; the peasants, a picturesque, good-humoured set,
+were scattered over the fields, some mowing down the heavy laden
+wheat, others binding it into graceful sheaves; in one respect the
+scene reminded me of my own dear country: it looked as if a blessing
+were on it.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Ulm: its cathedral</div>
+
+<p>"On our road we passed through Ulm,<a name="FNanchor_18_18" id="FNanchor_18_18"></a><a href="#Footnote_18_18" class="fnanchor">[18]</a> and visited the cathedral,
+some parts of which (especially the portico) are very beautiful and
+elegant; the interior contains a magnificent and highly elaborate
+tabernacle, and some wood-carving by Syrlin of exquisite workmanship;
+the whole, however, left a melancholy impression on both of us,
+especially on Steinle, who is an ardent Catholic. It stands neglected
+and half-finished, in the midst of a miserable, rambling town-village,
+a thing of olden times, for whose presence one can hardly account. It
+was built, or rather, begun, as a monument of Catholicism; the country
+round it has become Protestant; itself has been protestantized; it has
+been disfigured by an incongruous heap of business-like pews; it is no
+longer accessible at every hour of the day, from Sunday to Sunday its
+walls re-echo no sound but the occasional tread of the pew-opener, as
+he dusts the seats of those who pay him for it; the soul has left the
+grey old pile; it is a stately corpse. What artist, however uncatholic
+in his belief, can contemplate those old Gothic churches, with their
+glorious tabernacles and other ornaments equally beautiful and equally
+disused, without painfully feeling what <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_66" id="PageV1_66">[66]</a></span>an almost deadly blow the
+Reformation was to High Art, what a powerful incentive it removed,
+irrecoverably? Who, in his heart of hearts, can but dwell with
+melancholy regret on the times when art was coupled with belief, and
+so many divine works were virtually expressions of faith? What a
+purifying and ennobling influence was thus exercised over the taste of
+the artist! an influence which nothing can replace. This influence was
+incalculably great; no dwelling was so humble but it owned a crucifix;
+no artist so poor in capacity but endeavoured to produce something not
+unworthy of his subject; the general <i>tone</i> of taste thus produced
+reacted on everything; witness the most insignificant doorlatch or
+ornament that remains to us from the Middle Ages. Is it not remarkable
+that the first artists of the modern day, in the higher walk of art, I
+mean, are <i>Catholics</i>? Cornelius and Steinle were born in the Church
+of Rome; Veit and Overbeck went over to it; Pugin, too, our great
+architect, was converted by his art to the Catholic faith.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">August 15, Sunday.</div>
+
+<p>"From Friedrichshafen a delightful sail took us across the emerald
+coloured Lake of Constance to Bregenz, where I parted from Steinle.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble III.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">August 21, Saturday.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I make a reflection,</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">and feel grateful.</div>
+
+<p>"I am sitting at my window in the inn (h&ocirc;tel, I'll trouble you!) at
+Meran. For the first time since I left Innsbruck I have leisure again
+to take up my pen. As I look back on my journey through the Tyrol, so
+far as it goes, I am forcibly struck with the reflection that my
+enjoyment of it has been much keener this time than ever it was
+before; this increased enjoyment has not, I feel, arisen from any
+external or adventitious circumstances; last time that I was in this
+lovely country, I contemplated it with ease and comfort from the
+rumble of our own carriage; this time I have jolted through it under
+all the disadvantages attendant on an <i>Eilwagen</i> and indifferent
+weather; it has arisen in the greater development <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_67" id="PageV1_67">[67]</a></span>of my artistic
+sensibilities, in my sharpened perception of the charms of nature,
+which discloses to me now a thousand beauties that found no echo in me
+when I saw them last. I congratulate myself on this reflection. If any
+man should be constantly penetrated with gratitude for a gift bestowed
+on him, it is the artist who has realised as his share a genuine love
+for nature; for his enjoyment, if he puts his gift to usury, increases
+with the days of his life.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I get drunk with the anticipation of Italy,</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">and spout a parable.</div>
+
+<p>"Another circumstance, which has greatly augmented my relish of the
+Tyrol, is that, at every step, it assumes more and more the character
+of my darling Italy; I have watched with fond anxiety every little
+token that whispered of the south; the gently purpling tints that
+steal gradually over the distant hills, as one advances towards the
+land of the amaranthine Apennines, the slow but steadily progressive
+change of vegetation, the gaunt and ragged fir giving way by degrees
+to the encroachment of a richer and more gently rustling shade, the
+anxiously watched gradations, the climax at last; the walnut, first,
+'few and far between,' but warmly welcome, with its clustering leaves
+of juicy green; the chestnut, with its long, graceful, dark-hued
+foliage; the vine, again, no longer, as in the north, tied stiffly to
+a row of sticks (like a regiment of gooseberry bushes), but luxurious,
+wildly spreading, gracefully trained along rows of outward-slanting,
+basket-like trellis-work, and wreathed here and there by a pious hand
+up a roadside image of the Crucifixion in illustration of the words of
+Christ: '<i>I</i> am the true vine.' Now, too, the dark striped, portly
+pumpkins, with their gorgeous flame-like flowers, begin to appear,
+sometimes drowsily lolling under the tremulous shade of the mantling
+vines, sometimes basking with half-closed eyes down the sunscorched
+lizard-haunted walls, sometimes trained across from house to house,
+hanging like Chinese lamps over the heads of the passers by.
+Presently, a <i>fig-tree</i>&mdash;two&mdash;three&mdash;more&mdash;plenty! A cypress&mdash;and, by
+Jove! look at <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_68" id="PageV1_68">[68]</a></span>that terrace of stately, heavy-laden citron and orange
+trees! Nothing is wanting now but the olive. How could I pass by such
+dear old friends without loitering a little among them? A faithful
+lover, I return, after six years of longing absence, to the home of
+her of my inward heart; I hurry along, I have already crossed the
+garden gate. I breathe the air she breathes, I see from afar the bower
+where she dwells; but as I hasten along the well-known path, a
+thousand reminiscences of her arise from every object around me, and
+cling to me, and throw a gentle net across my faltering step, and
+whisper softly to my dream-wrapt brain&mdash;I am spellbound&mdash;I linger,
+even in my impatience.</p>
+
+<p>"I must not forget the excessively picturesque appearance of all the
+towns and villages south of Innsbruck; long, narrow, tortuous streets,
+lined on each side with never-ceasing vistas of arcades, and enclosed
+by houses of most fancifully artistic irregularity; as one passes
+along the vaulted galleries the eye is constantly caught by some
+picturesque object; either the peasants, as they stroll along in their
+divers costumes, or the many-coloured, richly piled fruit stalls that
+every now and then fill the arches, or, through an open door, the
+endless depth of vaulted passages and fantastic staircases and
+irregular inward courts and yards, offering to the artist's eye a play
+of lights and shades and mysterious, dreamy half-tints that might
+shame even a Rembrandt or an Ostade. As the exterior of all the houses
+is (with the exception, of course, of the ornaments) scrupulously
+white, the streets, narrow as they are, reflecting, by the luminous
+nature of their local tint, the light of day into the remotest corner,
+have a most cheerful aspect.</p>
+
+<p>"Of the Tyrolese themselves, three qualities seem to me to
+characterise them, qualities which go well hand in hand with, and, I
+think it is not fanciful to say, are in great measure a key to, their
+well-known frankness and open-hearted honesty. I mean Piety, which
+shines out amongst them in many little <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_69" id="PageV1_69">[69]</a></span>things, a love for the art,
+which with them is, in fact, an outward manifestation of piety, and
+which is sufficiently displayed by the numberless scriptural subjects,
+painted or in relief, which adorn the cottages of the poorest
+peasants, and, last not least, a love for flowers (in other words, for
+nature), which is written in the lovely clusters of flowers which
+stand in many-hued array on the window-sills of every dwelling. The
+works of all the really great artists display that love for flowers.
+Raphael did not consider it 'niggling,' as some of our broad-handling
+moderns would call it, to group humble daisies round the feet of his
+divine representation of the Mother of Christ. I notice that <i>two
+plants</i>, especially, produce a beautiful effect, both of form and
+colour, against the cool grey walls: the spreading, dropping, graceful
+<i>carnation</i>, with its bluish leaves and crimson flowers, and the
+slender, anthered, thousand-blossomed <i>oleander</i>.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep069" id="imagep069"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep069a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep069a.jpg" width="52%" alt="Branch of Fig Tree" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF A BRANCH OF FIG TREE, 1856<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img">
+<a href="images/imagep069b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep069b.jpg" width="52%" alt="Study of Bramble" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF BRAMBLE, 1856<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble IV.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Statues in Innsbruck.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I take on,</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">and lay on,</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">but bottle it up again.</div>
+
+<p>"One of the sights in Innsbruck has left on me a deep and, I hope, a
+lasting impression: the bronze statues in the Franciscan church; they
+are the finest specimens of German medi&aelig;val sculpture that I ever saw,
+and grew on me as I gazed at them in a manner which I hardly ever felt
+before; their great merit consists in combining in the most astounding
+manner the most consummate knowledge of the art with all the
+simplicity of nature and the most striking individuality (that first
+of artistic qualities), and exhibiting at the same time the most
+elaborate finish in the details, with greatest possible breadth and
+grandeur of general masses; this quality is particularly conspicuous
+amongst the women, three, especially, standing side by side, show, by
+three perfect examples, the whole secret of ornamental economy; the
+one, whose dress is ornamented with all the richness of which a
+luxurious imagination and an unparalleled power of execution were
+capable, recovers its simplicity of outline and mass by having a
+tightly <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_70" id="PageV1_70">[70]</a></span>fitting body and sleeve and a skirt of moderate amplitude;
+the second, whose ornaments, though richly, are more broadly disposed,
+retains its balance by a slightly increased amplitude of drapery;
+while the third, whose dress is altogether without embroidery,
+acquires a corresponding effect by large, loose sleeves and richly
+folded skirt, and two large plaits hanging down her back. What an
+opportunity this would be, backed by these giants of breathing bronze,
+to make an indignant descent on some paltry and muddle-headed moderns,
+who don't know how to discriminate between that kind of finish which
+proceeds from the love of a smooth surface, and makes the artist
+equally careful of his pumps and of his pictures, and that other kind
+of minuteness which is the beautiful fruit of a refined love for
+nature, and proceeds from a feeling of piety towards the mother of
+art, and who complacently call 'niggling,' a quality above the
+appreciation of their <i>breadth-mad</i> brains; who, in their
+art-made-easy system of 'idealising' (forsooth), look for artistic
+'beauty' in a facial angle of so and so much. What with the <i>Greeks</i>
+was an <i>abstract of</i> <span class="fakesc">MAN</span>, and very appropriately applicable
+in the cases of demi-gods (that the ancients <i>could</i>, and <i>did</i>, 'en
+tems et lieu,' individualise, may be sufficiently seen in their
+admirable portraits), becomes with <i>them</i> an absurdly misapplied
+<i>average of mankind</i>, not <i>a</i> man, or <i>men</i>. <i>The leading feature in
+Nature is a</i> <span class="fakesc">MANIFOLD INDIVIDUALITY, AN ENDLESS VARIETY</span>; <i>she
+is like a diamond, that glances with a thousand hues</i>. 'Indeed!' I
+hear them contemptuously sneering, 'you don't seem to be aware, sir,
+that ideal beauty is the great <i>centre</i> of all these <i>extreme</i>
+varieties, and the only thing worthy of a great artist's attention.'
+'Well, gentlemen,' say <i>I</i>, 'without inconsistency, you can't get out
+of the way of the following mouthful: there are (perhaps you will
+allow) three elementary colours, which in different combinations
+produce every variety of hue; <i>but</i>, the great <i>centre</i> of these
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_71" id="PageV1_71">[71]</a></span>three <i>extremely</i> various colours is <i>grey, non-colour ... the ideal
+of a bit of colouring, "the only thing worthy of the attention of a
+great colourist" is a picture with no colour in it at all</i>.' However,
+Messrs. the Generalisists and <i>Apollinisists</i> 'have every reason to
+congratulate themselves on the extensive circulation of their views,
+for their <i>ideal</i>' is visible in every haircutter's window. Never
+mind, I must contain myself&mdash;but the rod is in pickle!</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble V.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Meran.</div>
+
+<p>"A glorious amphitheatre of lofty mountains! On one side rugged,
+sternly rising, crenelated, grey, snow-strewn; on the other, dreamy,
+far outspreading, gently vanishing, southward luring, softly glowing,
+wrapt in tints of loveliest azure, gradually blending with the
+silver-fretted sky. A spreading, fertile gushing valley. Down the
+sunny, swelling slopes, across the embosomed plain, an endless,
+curling, wreathing flood of gold-green vines, foaming and eddying with
+purple grapes. Through the verdant waves, like rushes in a stream, the
+Indian corn raises its slender form and feathered head in long array.
+Beneath, outstretched at ease, the pumpkin winks and yawns. At the
+foot of a steep-fronted, purpling rock, skirting the glowing
+vineyards, a foaming mountain stream, emerald and silver. Along the
+heights, nestling in verdure, rise thickly scattered, castellated
+villas, looking, with their bright, white walls, like smiles on the
+face of the earth. An epitome of what is rich and joyous and
+unfettered in landscape. The Alpha and Omega of all that is charming
+in the Tyrol. <span class="sc">Meran!</span></p>
+
+<p>"I can say no more for it.</p>
+
+<p>"To my mind, it is inferior to Italy only in one respect: it is
+wanting in that glowing, strongly marked individuality, that earnest
+beauty, that 'charm that is in melancholy,' which fascinates so
+powerfully in the land of wine and oil.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble VI.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Italy!</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I "realise," as the Americans say,</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">and find reason to think that I am a queer party.</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_72" id="PageV1_72">[72]</a></span>"To be able to say that, on returning after long years to a country
+whose image memory has, during the whole of that time, fondled with
+all the partiality of ardent attachment, one has found one's best
+expectations realised, is, in this world of disappointments and
+frustrated expectations, indeed a rare thing; but to find imagination
+<i>surpassed</i> by reality is rarer still; yet it is my case now that I
+once more breathe the air and tread the soil of Italy. For this, I
+feel more grateful than I can say; for to have been disappointed in
+<i>these</i> hopes would have been to me the greatest of miseries; as it
+is, my enjoyment is a double one: that which is occasioned by the
+positive, intrinsic beauty of what I see, and that, not less great, of
+recalling at the same time a happy, long-dwelt-on past. This I have
+more particularly experienced since my arrival in Verona; and here a
+queer feature in my queer idiosyncrasy obtrudes itself to notice,
+<i>i.e.</i> the extraordinary dominion exercised over me by the senses of
+smell and hearing! That I do labour under these peculiarities I always
+knew, but to what a ludicrous extent, I did not find out till, on
+arriving here (Verona), I was suddenly seized by a gust of a thousand
+smells and a din of a thousand sounds, some always remembered, others
+long-forgotten, suddenly rising up again to my memory. I was
+spellbound, the veil of the past was torn up, I was fairly carried
+back against the stream of time. Ridiculous as it may sound, my
+enjoyment of Italy, independently, of course, of the art (which is an
+extraordinary tissue of reality and illusion), would be very imperfect
+without this combination of trifles. One thing, I think, must affect
+every one agreeably; I mean the exquisitely humorous cries of the
+vendors in the thoroughfares and market-places; who could hear and not
+remember the loud, expostulatory shriek with which the one dwells on
+the excellencies of his handkerchiefs, the argumentative and facetious
+tone in which another infers that comfort is not possible without a
+supply of his matches, that <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_73" id="PageV1_73">[73]</a></span>urgent wail with which a third deplores
+that man should have so little appreciation of his baked apples, the
+muddy, half-suffocated tenor with which a fourth proclaims his
+water-melons, or the rabid, piercing soprano which seems to warn the
+public that 'if those violets are not bought pretty quick, there will
+soon be none to buy'?"</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble VII.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Verona.</div>
+
+<p>"I do not think there exists anywhere a more powerfully and
+fantastically individual town than Verona; it is to Italy what
+Nuremburg is to Germany; but it is a transfiguration of Nuremburg; in
+point of wildly picturesque variety it defies description and
+surpasses expectation; it is saturated with art; wherever one turns,
+the eye is struck by some beautiful remnant of the taste&mdash;that was; of
+that glowing, sterling feeling for art, which spread itself over
+everything, and ennobled whatever it touched. Hardly a house that
+cannot boast of a sculptured archway, or some such token of ancient
+splendour; not a church, even the most insignificant, but is crowded
+with old paintings in oil and fresco, few of which are bad, some very
+good, a few excellent, but <i>all</i> in a far higher <i>tone of feeling</i>
+than nine-tenths of the shallow, papery daubs with which the
+nineteenth century covers its carcase of steam engines. No
+wonder&mdash;they are all scriptural or apocryphal subjects, and were all
+painted with an ardent belief in the faith to which they all owe their
+existence; from thence arose, amongst other excellencies, a certain
+na&iuml;f, ingenuously childlike treatment of the miraculous, which,
+combined with the manly dignity of consummate art, gives them an
+indescribable charm, which nothing can replace. Now&mdash;with us, at
+least, of the cold belief&mdash;men throw really eminent talents&mdash;<i>to the
+dogs</i>. But, for us Protestant artists, things are made much worse than
+they in any way need be, by the total rejection of pictures and
+statuary in our churches. Now, three centuries back, in the first
+ebullition of reformatory <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_74" id="PageV1_74">[74]</a></span>fanaticism, such a practice was not only
+comprehensible, but even a natural and necessary consequence and token
+of their total disavowal of everything approaching to the Romish form
+of worship; but its continuance at present amongst us is, not only
+contrary to the spirit of the Anglican Church, which after all, when
+compared to Lutheranism and Calvinism, is a <i>conservative</i> one, but is
+founded on arguments altogether untenable with any degree of
+consistency; for if, as we are told, pictures and statues distract the
+attention and produce a worldly frame of mind, if it be true indeed
+that works of <i>high art</i> (for, of course, no others are here taken
+into consideration), than which surely nothing is more calculated to
+raise the tone of the mind and prepare it for the reception of
+elevated impressions, have indeed so pernicious an effect, then, it is
+evident, by the same argument, the beauties of architecture, the
+eldest of the sister arts, must be equally rejected; at the sight of a
+Gothic church, that offspring of Christianity, we must shrug our
+shoulders and say with pious aversion: 'Vanitas vanitatum!' But the
+Church of England has not gone as far as that; indeed, great attention
+is paid to our Church's architecture; is there no inconsistency here?
+Or does the Church, terrified by the example of Romish image-worship,
+fear a similar evil amongst us, whose belief is so infinitely more
+circumscribed than that of Rome? Or is she so tender of admitting
+symbols into her bosom, she, whose corner-stone is a symbol: the Last
+Supper?</p>
+
+<p>"To return to Verona.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble VIII.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">The Veronese love flowers,</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">and have good legs.</div>
+
+<p>"As Gamba, owing to the time which my letter took in reaching him, was
+not able to meet me at the time appointed, I remained two days at
+Verona, days to which I shall always look back with unmixed pleasure.
+I indulged, this time (the more that I knew the town already), in the
+luxury of <i>not</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_75" id="PageV1_75">[75]</a></span>'sight-seeing,' but strolled about the whole town in
+every direction, dropping into churches, staring at tombs and palaces
+and piazzas and pictures, just as if rolled past me in the
+ever-varying panorama. I was struck, in the Tyrol, with the profusion
+of flowers everywhere displayed; but here I see far more, and those,
+too, more artistically distributed; they rise in double and treble
+tiers on, in, and about the gracefully curved balconies, and assert
+their sway wherever human ingenuity makes it possible to place a
+flower-pot, and in a great many other places besides; creepers wreathe
+from window to window, and vines actually springing from holes in the
+walls, with no visible root or origin at all, spread their graceful
+mantle over the walls of crumbling palaces. Of the Veronese
+themselves, I cannot say that they are a handsome race; the women
+especially, though they have a great deal of character in their
+features, are generally far from good-looking. Amongst the peasants I
+saw some very fine men; they have, some of them, very good legs,
+slender and well shaped as a Donatello or a Ghiberti.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Thursday, August 26.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Gamba.</div>
+
+<p>"On Thursday Gamba came, just as I was giving him up in a high state
+of despair and mystification. We hurried at once by Padua to Venice,
+where I found your letter.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I look back and feel ashamed,</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">and make a clumsy excuse.</div>
+
+<p>"As I look through what I have written, before sending it off to you,
+I feel, painfully, that my style is clumsy, stuttering, incoherent;
+that I am wordy, without saying enough; that I am overfree in my use
+of fanciful epithets, without giving an adequate idea of the
+suggestive beauty of what I see; that I am sometimes almost mawkish,
+without saying half I feel; that I am incorrigibly slovenly and
+forgetful; that I can't write, that I can't spell. In answer to all
+this, I can only answer by referring to a little premonitory
+observation at the foot of my first page, <i>i.e. Quality of Pebbles not
+warranted</i>.</p>
+
+<br style="clear: both;" />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<h4><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_76" id="PageV1_76">[76]</a></span>BATCH No. 2.</h4>
+
+<p class="cen">(This blank represents three weeks.)</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Sept. 16.</div>
+
+<p>"<i>September 16.</i>&mdash;Many happy returns of the day, dear Gussy! The other
+day I took a pair of scales, and put into the one vessel the price you
+would have to pay for the postage of a congratulatory letter to be
+received by you on your birthday, and into the other a pleasure which
+a surprise might afford you; the postage outweighed its rival; so I
+wrote no letter. If my directions have been attended to, you will, no
+doubt, have received a far more satisfactory outward and visible sign
+of my good wishes.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Sept. 18.</div>
+
+<p>"<i>September 18.</i>&mdash;The same to you, Papa!... <i>Can the river offer its
+fountain a drink?</i></p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble I.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Sept. 19.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I lucubrate,</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">when I consider, &amp;c. &amp;c.,</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">whereas, &amp;c. &amp;c.,</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">and even then, &amp;c. &amp;c.,</div>
+
+<p>"Three weeks (apparently months) have elapsed since I last soared on
+the descriptive pinion; now, and only now, on the eve of my departure
+from Venice, I find time and leisure again to pour on the past a
+libation of pen and ink. I resume the quill with a feeling of
+disheartenment. With what intentions did I begin to write this
+(journal)? Had I not hoped to note down, at once and in all their
+freshness, my emotions and impressions just as I should receive them?
+and to speak also sometimes of the thousand little incidents that fall
+in one's path, and which form the arabesque round the chapter of life?
+And how are my hopes fulfilled? Behold me, on the morning of the last
+day, the day of parting, packing, paying, and passports, forced to
+throw in a hurried and disconnected heap a few general remarks
+concerning what I have seen and heard and felt and found, and not
+found, during my stay in the home of Titian. And even that,
+how difficult! For in this short stay, sight has succeeded sight,
+emotion has followed emotion, in one continued merry-go-round; I have
+been alternately <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_77" id="PageV1_77">[77]</a></span>grave and gay, melancholy and jocose, dejected and
+enraptured; add to this that in my mind, as in the dissolving views,
+one picture always effaces its predecessor, and you will at once
+perceive that I am in the position of a man trying to see the pebbles
+at the bottom of a muddy brook, or his natural face in a basin of
+gruel.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">but you know, &amp;c.</div>
+
+<p>"Now, I again repeat what I made a preliminary condition: that
+I send you the pebbles, loose and disjointed, and that I don't
+undertake to make a necklace of them.</p>
+
+<p>"'But whose fault is all this?' (I hear you ask).</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">besides, it's not my fault</div>
+
+<p>"During my stay here (I continue, without attending to your question)
+I have been up nearly every day <i>before the sun</i> (about five o'clock),
+and after working and tearing about the town all day, towards evening
+I was not sorry to....</p>
+
+<p>"Do you guess how it was I wrote so little?</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A little digression</div>
+
+<p>"Here a little observation obtrudes itself to my notice. Man (for
+there is nothing like throwing your own frailties on mankind in
+general) is born with an irresistible tendency to talk <i>at something
+or somebody</i>; eighteen pages back I was talking to nobody; or, if I
+did address anything, it was that very vague personage, the future;
+now I find myself getting more and more personal; <i>you's</i>, I expect,
+will soon get up to fifty per cent.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble II.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">A picture.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">(Parenthetic Pebble about Gondolas.)</div>
+
+<p>"Venice! Mighty word, city of endless associations, image that fills
+the mind! What impressions has it left on me? I shrink from answering
+a question so difficult to answer <i>fairly</i>, and from dissecting a
+point of such intricate anatomy. Whilst I think it over, I will give
+you a picture or two to look at; you shall have a peep out of the
+window where I sit writing. It is early morning, everything is cool
+and calm, in silent, almost breathless expectation of the not yet
+risen sun. Before your eyes rises one of the most splendid views in
+Europe, that of the Grand Canal from the steps of the Academy; the
+stately, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_78" id="PageV1_78">[78]</a></span>dark green street of waters reflects on its wide-spreading
+mirror the grey and crumbling palaces, and the lovely form of Sta.
+Maria della Salute, with her domes of dazzling white. Not a ripple
+mars its glossy surface, except where, at rare intervals, some silent
+gondola glides swiftly along, scattering the sparkling drops from its
+graceful oar, or where, here and there, the playful 'aura mattutina'
+has left too rough a kiss upon its slumbering cheek. No sound is
+heard, but the distant, even, measured chimes, that seem to be rocking
+on the silence of the morning. Along its marge, singly, or clustering
+in close array beneath roofs of vine-covered trellis, lie the
+far-famed, ebon-coloured, swiftly gliding gondolas of Venice.
+'Gondolas!' Whilst the sun is rising, let me say a word or two on
+gondolas. It has always excited my great surprise that these barks,
+which are graceful almost beyond imagination, are, in point of fact,
+in their present shape the offspring of a period, next to our own, the
+most execrable in point of taste which the world has produced. I mean
+the end of the seventeenth, or rather the beginning of the eighteenth
+century. Yet, so it is. In the time of Carpaccio and the Bellinis they
+were queer, tolerably uncouth contrivances, about two-thirds of their
+present length, pointed and equally curved at both ends, so as to
+resemble as nearly as possible a slice of melon, dead of the cholera.
+In Titian's day the shape began to taper out a little, and the iron
+points or knobs, <i>at both ends</i>, rose to a greater height, and were
+enriched with a serrated ornament; but they did not assume their
+present slender proportions and graceful ornament, <i>at the prow only</i>,
+till the eighteenth century; as also the mysterious and exquisitely
+comfortable little cabins or coffins, which now surmount them, and
+which formerly were open <i>behind and before</i>, forcing the passenger to
+sit upright! They contained then the rudiment of an idea of grace,
+which took its natural growth and development in spite of man.
+Meanwhile, for I have been watching him, the sun has <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_79" id="PageV1_79">[79]</a></span>appeared above
+the horizon; not that I see his own, real, glorious face, for he is
+hidden behind an ancient palace, but I see his reflection glowing in
+the eye of nature. First a gentle, tremulous, golden light began to
+steal along the dappled morning sky, warning all the little, distant,
+fleecy clouds to shake their plumes, for that it was going to begin;
+then, of course, the water took up the tune; and then (it was fit the
+biggest building should set the example) the 'Salute' assumed a
+saffron hue, and gradually one by one all the palaces on one side of
+the Canal, right up to our windows, and, did not you notice? your own
+face took quite a shine. For a while you yourself and everything round
+you seems wrapped in a trance; presently you begin to write. How is
+this? The whole picture begins to dance and quiver. Our Lady della
+Salute glows with a deeper blush, and trembles. Then, suddenly, her
+redness vanishes, her glorious countenance sparkles, and she raises
+her stately form in a garment of burnished silver; the gondolas that
+nestle round her feet, and hem in the whole length of the Canal, seem
+like a fillet of sparkling gems around a web of emerald and gold; the
+sky is a sea of light; the sun is in the wide heavens&mdash;it's time for
+breakfast. Waiter, coffee and rolls!</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">I am reminded,</div>
+
+<p>"'Do you mean,' I hear you urge, 'to come to the point, and tell us
+how you like Venice?'</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">but take no notice.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble IV.</div>
+
+<p>"Another picture! (pretending not to hear). The same scene, but under
+a different aspect. How different! Just now it was a scene of dawning
+life, a burst of gladness&mdash;now it is a mild, a gentle dream, an
+Italian moonlight night, a <i>Venetian</i> moonlight night&mdash;calm, clear,
+soft, fancy stirring. You lean idly out of the window; there are two
+of you, or ought to be, but you don't say anything to one another; you
+are rocked in silence; you feel the sweet, warm breath of night pass
+over your cheek; you think of Shakespeare's exquisite verses on what
+he never saw but with the eye of his <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_80" id="PageV1_80">[80]</a></span>boundless fancy; you are sitting
+with Jessica and Lorenzo (that is his name, I think) on a bank of
+violets; you are anxiously waiting for Portia and her company; your
+ear is attentive to every sound; presently a sweet, half-heard strain,
+like a distant echo, dawns on your ear; then it is lost again; again
+it swells, and seems to glide gently along the shadowy waters towards
+you, nearer, still nearer. You see a track of gleaming light along the
+water, and at intervals a shower of tiny stars; it's no illusion; they
+glide along towards you, the voices that rose from the distant waters;
+they are almost beneath your window. Quick, quick, a gondola; a dozen
+or more musicians, with every kind of instrument, sit together in a
+bark, and alternately play and sing lovely melodies by the musicians
+of Italy. As long as the strain lasts the oar is suspended, and the
+floating orchestra drifts slowly along with the slowly ebbing tide;
+round it, a cluster of gondolas, full of breathless listeners whose
+very soul seems to melt with the delicious sounds, and combine with
+them&mdash;at least, you can answer for yourself, for you are one of them.
+Those are moments which you, I am sure, will never forget.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">You interrupt me, but I take no notice.</div>
+
+<p>"'You are beating about the bush, we want an ans....'</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble V.</div>
+
+<p>"Another picture! (taking no notice of you)&mdash;a bit of Giorgione,
+coloured by Veronese. You are in an <i>atelier</i>; pictures and sketches
+in different stages of advancement lie about the tables and cover the
+easels; at one end of the room you see a large cupboard; its open
+doors betray within layers of rich old silks and damasks, some made
+up, some in pieces, as they were found at the antiquary's; further, an
+old mandoline, that perhaps could tell of the days of Titian. Through
+the large, gaping window you look upon a group of the most picturesque
+Venetian houses, with their fanciful basket-shaped chimneys and
+irregular windows and thousand-fold tints; the foreground is
+gracefully supplied by a screen of slender, net-like trees, amongst
+which heavy-laden vines wreathe in <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_81" id="PageV1_81">[81]</a></span>fanciful festoons. But where is
+Werner? the amiable inmate of this charming snuggery; where his
+pupils? Ah, I hear them! Hark! in the garden, a merry laugh, a
+clattering of cups, a sound of several voices, a suggestion of
+enjoyment; you rush to the scene of action; on your road you nearly
+break your neck over a table covered with the remains of a hearty
+dinner. A few yards further, you see half-a-dozen young men (of course
+artists) stretched, in every variety of ingeniously comfortable
+attitude, on a temporary floor of Turkey carpets, in a cool, clear,
+shady spot beneath arches of roof-weaving vines; in the middle, at
+comfortable arm's length, coffee, and heaps of purple grapes, whilst
+the intervals of conversation are filled by affectionate and earnest
+appeals to long Turkish pipes. You approach; you are recognised;
+seized by the hand, thrown down on the carpet; and presently you
+perceive that an entire afternoon is gone by! But that afternoon
+becomes a landmark to you. May not such reminiscences well endear a
+place to one's memory?</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep081" id="imagep081"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep081.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep081.jpg" width="52%" alt="Study of Byzantine Well Head" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF BYZANTINE WELL HEAD. Venice, 1852<br />
+By permission of Mr. S. Pepys Cockerell<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>"'Well, then, I suppose....' (say you).</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, let me continue.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">More where the rest came from.</div>
+
+<p>"Another impression. You are sitting, early in the morning, in a
+spacious, picturesque court; you have got your sketch-book, and you
+are busily poring over a drawing of a beautiful old Saracenic well;
+you are intent on doing it well, on cutting out that friend you have
+got with you. Presently you are seized with a peculiar sensation; you
+have heard, all of a sudden, the voice of an old, old friend, who
+speaks to you of things you don't see round you; a veil falls from
+your eyes; you feel that you have missed something for some time past;
+a vision rises before your eyes&mdash;a sweet vision of wooded hills and
+grassy fields, teeming with a thousand wild flowers and sending forth
+a sweet smell, and of flowing streams, of <i>fresh</i> waters, of birds
+singing merrily as they fly from tree to tree, and swing on the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_82" id="PageV1_82">[82]</a></span>slender branches; and then you remember that you dwell in a
+mysterious city, closed in by the salty sea. Who was the friend that
+called up these lively images in your mind? It was a poor, solitary,
+wandering <i>Bee</i>. But he suggested something else to you, the roaming
+honey-gatherer&mdash;he reminded you of <i>freedom</i>; reminded you that
+Freedom had no home <i>there</i>; and he made you <i>feel</i> how much you had
+felt it, how much you had been unconsciously haunted by the breath of
+oppression that hovers over poor, browbeaten Venice, and whose
+pestilence clings to its rocky shore, as the rankling seaweed to the
+skirts of its palaces. Poor Venice! once resounding with joyous
+voices, now its walls seem, as you pass them, to mutter mournfully of
+arrests, condemnations, executions! Its narrow streets re-echo with
+the heavy tread of exulting soldiers, with the watchword of a foreign
+tongue. Palaces and convents are become barracks and infirmaries, and
+Slavonian troopers loll and spit where the proudest lords and
+loveliest ladies of Venice used to assemble to the banquet or the
+ball. But I turn away from such sad reflections, lest they may seem to
+outweigh all the delight that I have spoken of before.</p>
+
+<div class="sidenote">Pebble VI.</div>
+
+<div class="sidenote">What I think about it.</div>
+
+<p>"I have rehearsed to you a few of my impressions for good and for
+evil, and I think that was the only way of answering your (imaginary)
+questions. I need make no apologies for not <i>describing</i> Venice to
+you, as you have all seen it, and it is a place the image of which
+does not easily fade. I might say a word or two about the Venetians.
+Whatever some people may say (and, if I am not mistaken, Byron amongst
+them), the female Venetian type, such as it is transmitted to us by
+Titian, Giorgione, Pordenone, &amp;c. (<i>i.e.</i> stout, tall, round-faced,
+small-mouthed, <i>Roxolane-nosed</i>) has either totally disappeared, or
+only manifests itself to a chosen few; one feature only I recognise,
+and that is a profusion of fine hair, which they plait in the most
+elaborate manner. A thing <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_83" id="PageV1_83">[83]</a></span>that rather puzzles those who go to Venice
+with the idea of seeing <i>Titians</i> and <i>Veroneses</i> at the windows and
+in the streets, is that the women have altogether left off dyeing
+their hair auburn as they used in former times. To show you that
+vanity made the fair sex go through the greatest personal discomfort
+as far back as the sixteenth century, I will tell you what the process
+of dyeing was. On the top of nearly every house in Venice is a kind of
+terrace-like scaffold, or scaffold-like terrace ('you pays your money
+and takes your choice'), which has the noble vocation of drying linen;
+in former days, however, they were built for a different purpose. In
+the middle of the day, during the greatest heat of the sun, the party
+anxious to impart to her hair a tint between sugar-candy and radishes
+repaired to these <i>lofty</i> spots, and there regularly bleached her hair
+in the following manner: she put on her head the <i>brim</i> of a large
+straw hat, so that the top of the head was exposed to all the power of
+the sun, whilst the face and neck were kept in the shade. Through the
+hole thus left in the middle of this extraordinary headgear the whole
+of the hair was drawn, and spread out as much as possible; which done,
+different kinds of waters, made for the express purpose, were passed
+over it by means of a little sponge fastened to the top of a reed.
+History does not give the exact number of <i>coups-de-soleil</i> caught in
+this manner; a few, I should imagine. However, I can warrant the
+accuracy of my statement, which is borrowed from a contemporary author
+of the highest standing. The men of Venice are neither handsome in the
+face nor well made in the body. The Venetian dialect is amusing; in
+the mouth of a woman, if well spoken, it is pretty, musical,
+childlike, lisping; but in the mouth of a man, for the most part,
+muddy, stammering, unintelligible.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr style='width: 15%;' />
+<br />
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"There, much as still remains to say, and willingly as I
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_84" id="PageV1_84">[84]</a></span>dwell on its memory, I must discard Venice, and turn to your
+kind letter, for it is now, I am afraid, more than a month
+since I last wrote. This delay has, however, been unavoidable,
+for when one is travelling, or staying a short time in a
+place, one is always hurried and flurried in the day-time, and
+in the evening tired or excited&mdash;or both. Next time you hear
+from me (which will be when I reach Rome) my communication
+will openly take the shape that this has imperceptibly been
+attaining, that of a letter; when I am once settled for the
+winter I shall, I hope, be better able to write <i>au jour le
+jour</i>. Before entering into your letter, which will be a
+longish job, I must acknowledge the receipt of one from Papa,
+containing part of my remittance; it was written in most kind
+terms (I tell you this because you can't have seen it, since
+he wrote in London), and was, I think, the longest I ever got
+from him, at all events it was the first in which he said
+anything beyond what was necessary to business. It gave me
+sincere pleasure. I was touched, it seemed to me that distance
+had brought me nearer to him; pray thank him both for that and
+for the consideration with which he has provided for an
+emergency which will in fact arise&mdash;that of my not reaching
+Rome in October; I do not expect to get there until the first
+week in November. Of one thing I must remind Papa; he talks of
+sending to Rome the <i>remaining eighty</i> pounds of my second
+quarter; he has, I am afraid, forgotten that he gave me sixty
+for my first; my remittance this time is only <i>forty</i> pounds,
+he therefore has only twenty to send to Rome.</p>
+
+<p>"I now turn to your letter, dear Mamma; I lay it by my side,
+and as I read it slowly through, answer it systematically,
+head for head, for in my present hurry I have indeed no time
+to pick and choose, or to arrange my topics according to their
+importance and interest, or even to consult as much as I wish
+the little amusement that my letters give you. However, I
+console myself a little with the reflection that it certainly
+is not the composition of my letters which gratifies you much,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_85" id="PageV1_85">[85]</a></span>for I am painfully aware that my ideas are brought to paper
+with about as much order as the footprints of a cock-sparrow
+show on a gravel-walk.</p>
+
+<p>"You say, dear Mamma, that you have a fear of not telling me
+all that I wish to hear; and there, indeed, you are right, for
+if you were to tell me <i>all</i> that I wish to know about your
+doings, you might write for a week; but you are equally right
+in supposing that <i>whatever</i> you write concerning yourself
+(and selves) is full of interest to your distant Punch. About
+my health? Well, I plead guilty, steaks <i>do</i> still continue to
+be to me <i>physical consciences</i>; this admonitory part they
+took more especially at Venice, where the climate, I must
+confess, did not agree with me particularly well. This is
+perhaps attributable to the water, which was particularly bad
+there, for my diet was of the simplest description. Judge for
+yourself: in the morning early, coffee and dry bread (I have
+discarded butter to keep company with Gamba, who is not in the
+habit of eating any); at eleven or so, fruit and bread; at
+four or five, a simple dinner; and in the evening, an ice or a
+cup of coffee. Here I live much in the same way.</p>
+
+<p>"I am truly delighted to hear that you are accommodating
+yourself a little to an English climate; if you once get over
+that one great obstacle, nothing else need prevent your
+establishing yourself in the country which, after all, is
+still the dearest to you; with the prospect of pleasant and
+desirable society for yourself and the girls, and of other
+resources for Papa, there is every reason to hope that you
+will find in Bath what you have so long wished for, a home in
+<i>England</i>."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Speaking of his elder sister's suffering, he continues:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"I feel, almost, a kind of shame that so much should have been
+poured down on me, who have deserved it less. To become
+deserving of it, must be my great, never-wavering <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_86" id="PageV1_86">[86]</a></span>endeavour;
+I will put my talent to usury, and be no slothful steward of
+what has been entrusted to me. Every man who has received a
+gift, ought to feel and act as if he was a field in which a
+seed was planted that others might gather the harvest.</p>
+
+<p>"I am delighted to hear that Lady Leighton is getting on well,
+and as much gratified at having made on her a favourable
+impression; pray tell her that her presence and conversation
+inspired me with a desire to please her, and that her
+affectionate reception has still a lively hold on my memory.</p>
+
+<p>"You tell me that you were touched at Steinle's kindness to
+me, and indeed it was such as might well touch any one; this
+time you will be touched at his affliction, poor man, he has
+just had a heavy misfortune&mdash;the most affectionate of fathers
+has lost another child, the second, in a year and a half; I
+heard this from Andr&eacute;, who has just arrived from Frankfurt,
+and who called on the unfortunate man before he started and
+found him much dejected. He said in his melancholy but calm
+tone of voice: 'Ich habe eine Tochter begraben.' You think it
+improbable that I shall find a <i>second</i> Steinle; I delight in
+the belief that there <i>is none</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"I am not surprised at your finding it impossible to imagine
+an artist without a genuine love for nature. In any but an age
+of perverted taste such a thing could not exist; but it is
+only too true that that most essential of qualities has become
+obsolete, and is hardly to be found at all. Artists now are
+full of <i>breadth</i> and <i>depth</i>; and, between us and the
+doorpost, <i>flatness</i>. On this subject I mean to tell you more
+in my next letter, when I speak more particularly of my
+<i>artistic</i> impressions and opinions, which I have not yet
+done.</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad to hear what you tell me about the comfort you
+enjoy in Bath, from the superior cleanliness and decency of
+behaviour of English servants over foreign ones; it is a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_87" id="PageV1_87">[87]</a></span>thing to which I am particularly alive, and which struck me
+very much last time I was in England; Gussy too, I am sure,
+appreciated it very much. I am sorry that I cannot participate
+in your enthusiasm about the beauties of Bath (barring, of
+course, the situation, which is charming), but I will say
+nothing against it, as I am only too glad that you should be
+pleased with it. I quite follow you in your admiration of the
+edifices in Westminster; I think that, taking them altogether,
+they form one of the finest groups of architecture that I ever
+saw; but what particularly pleases me in the Houses of
+Parliament is the example they set of building in that style
+of architecture which is our own, the growth, as it were, of
+our soil, and which therefore best befits our country. Such
+feelings, I have reason to believe, are becoming prevalent in
+England, and they may have great results; but I reserve all
+this for another letter. I am glad to hear of the institution
+you tell me of for the cultivation of good principles; I
+believe that the greatness of England will not be as ephemeral
+as that of the other nations that have had the lead in
+succession, because so much is done to consolidate and
+increase in strength the basis on which it stands, and which
+is the best prop to the enduring prosperity of a nation,
+uprightness and morality.</p>
+
+<p>"I have now followed and answered your letter, from beginning
+to end, from point to point, it is time I should close; next
+time I write, I shall be in Rome, settled for the
+winter.&mdash;Believe me, dear Mamma, with very best love to all,
+your most affectionate and dutiful son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Fred Leighton."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Venice</span>, <i>31st August</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">Honoured and very dear Herr Steinle</span>,&mdash;If I did not,
+according to our agreement, write to you directly Rico<a name="FNanchor_19_19" id="FNanchor_19_19"></a><a href="#Footnote_19_19" class="fnanchor">[19]</a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_88" id="PageV1_88">[88]</a></span>arrived, it was because I could not make up my mind to put
+you off with two words, whereas I had neither time nor leisure
+to write you anything detailed. Now, however, arrived and
+established in Venice, I take up my pen to repair the neglect.
+It is a lovely, cool, clear summer morning; I sit at my window
+on the Grand Canal, and before my eyes rises in glorious
+beauty the incomparable outline of Sta. Maria della Salute
+with the adjoining Dogano. The newly risen sun (it is five
+o'clock in the morning) throws a golden, enchanted light along
+one side of the Canal; the gondolas and barges, which nestle
+in a numerous array at the steps of the <i>Salute</i>, glitter in
+the dusky distance like gleaming jewels on the borders of the
+silver mirror of the water, whose clear bosom is gently
+ruffled by the soft breath of dawn. All is still, except the
+distant church bells. What words can give an idea of such a
+sight? I gaze about me in a day-dream and think of you, the
+dear friend, the honoured master; all that I owe you for
+heartfelt sympathy and wise guidance, and cannot pay, rises
+before my grateful soul, and reminds me that I have lost one
+whom I shall miss many a time. I hope with all my heart that
+your stay in the mountains of Appenzell will have given you
+fresh strength, and that in all respects you are
+re-established and invigorated according to your expectations.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, however, as I am to speak of myself, and to give some
+account of my impressions on my journey, I note that for me
+the potent picture of Italy, of Venice, has pushed all that
+went before into the background, almost blotted it out, so
+that now it floats before me like a dim remembrance; but with
+two exceptions: two pictures have impressed themselves deeply
+on my memory, and will certainly not be easily erased&mdash;I mean
+the <i>Franciscan church at Innsbruck</i> and lovely <i>Meran</i>. You
+were indeed right when you said that the cast giants in that
+church are the grandest achievement <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_89" id="PageV1_89">[89]</a></span>of German sculpture; they
+are colossal, a truly imposing spectacle, brilliant monuments
+of an age of noble taste. What eternal truth! What an amazing
+impress of individuality! Of marvellous execution that never
+borders on the little, full of breadth and strength, and yet
+nobly slender, they are the most perfect example of <i>economy
+of detail</i>; what a sharp contrast to the superficial
+stone-hammering (I might say) of to-day; what an everlasting
+shaming to the nineteenth century! I could name many sculptors
+who could not look at these things without profit.</p>
+
+<p>"Meran! What an indelible, fascinating picture floats before
+one's eyes at the name; this Alpha and Omega of all that is
+lovely in Tyrol; this lovely amphitheatre of mountains, rugged
+on one side, and steep and covered with snow on the other,
+glowing in the purple gleam of the south&mdash;widely extended,
+melting away, alluring; this fertile plain; this gold-green
+flood of climbing vines, hanging down like waterfalls from the
+espaliers on the mountain slopes, with the purple foam of the
+vines; these thousand pleasure-houses and castles; the
+picturesque costume!</p>
+
+<p>"But why so many words? You have seen this beauty yourself,
+and have no doubt a clearer picture of it than I can paint for
+you.</p>
+
+<p>"In Botzen, to my very great regret, I was unable to see Herr
+von Hempel, since he was staying, not in his town house, but
+in a castle at a distance of two hours; but I visited Becker's
+brother. He received me in a most friendly manner, asked much
+after his brother, of whom he had heard <i>nothing</i> for more
+than a <i>year</i>, and told me that his mother, who had recently
+visited him in Feldkirch, had wept bitterly about it. I must
+also inform you that he has recently <i>taken unto himself a
+wife</i>&mdash;a fact of which our good Jacob (that is his name, is it
+not?) also knew nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"I could still, dear Herr Steinle, write much to you <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_90" id="PageV1_90">[90]</a></span>about
+Tyrol and Italy (especially about <i>Verona</i>), for I know no one
+with whom I so gladly share my artistic sensations as with
+you, but lack of time obliges me to close quickly for the
+present; I will only add that after I had been two days in
+Verona the worthy Rico arrived, and we are now having a <i>feast
+of art</i> in Venice together.</p>
+
+<p>"Should you be still at the Stift when you receive these
+lines, I beg you to kiss the Frau Rath's hand for me, and to
+tell her that I remember vividly the day I spent in her house.
+Remember me most kindly to your wife&mdash;I congratulate her upon
+her deliverance from the Cronberg martyrdom; kiss the little
+children for me, and remember me to the elder ones; remember
+me also to Frau Sch&ouml;ff &amp; Co. and to all my other good friends;
+this is perhaps rather a large request, but whom could I omit?
+I rely upon your kindness. I close with a plea for forbearance
+towards my incorrigible writing and my lame, headlong
+style.&mdash;Heartfelt greetings from your devoted and grateful
+pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>P.S.</i>&mdash;Should you have anything to say to me, or any
+commission to give me, the address, Poste Restante, Florence,
+will find me till the end of September.</p>
+
+<p>"Gamba wishes to be cordially remembered to you, and promises
+himself to be under your wing again in eighteen months.</p>
+
+<p>"In my next letter I will tell you about Italy."</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<hr/>
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> In the winter of 1845 Leighton went to a children's
+costume ball in Florence as Punch, and for some time after the name
+clung to him in his family.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Literally, "devoured nature with a spoon."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> A distinguished actress.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> Probably "The Death of Brunelleschi."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> See Appendix, In Memoriam.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_18_18" id="Footnote_18_18"></a><a href="#FNanchor_18_18"><span class="label">[18]</span></a> See sketch, "A Monk Dividing Enemies," Leighton House
+Collection, "Ulm, 1852."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_19_19" id="Footnote_19_19"></a><a href="#FNanchor_19_19"><span class="label">[19]</span></a> Count Gamba.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_91" id="PageV1_91">[91]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER II<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>ROME<br />
+1852-1855</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>The first group of letters from Leighton to his family from Rome tells
+of his instalment, his projects, his disappointments, his indifferent
+health, and his eye-troubles. But more important are the views he
+expresses on his "<i>artistic</i> impressions," and the ideas which force
+themselves on his mind, resulting from these impressions; the
+increased anxiety with which he regards the task he has set before
+him; the "paralysing diffidence" which he feels with regard to
+"composing." In the letter he wrote on January 5, 1853, he enters more
+intimately into his own feelings in addressing his father than in any
+previous letter I have seen. This letter is in answer to one from his
+father, which Leighton describes in writing to his mother<a name="FNanchor_20_20" id="FNanchor_20_20"></a><a href="#Footnote_20_20" class="fnanchor">[20]</a> as "the
+longest I ever got from him, at all events it was the first in which
+he said anything beyond what was necessary to business; it gave me
+sincere pleasure. I was touched; it seemed to me that distance had
+brought me nearer to him." Leighton was evidently eager to respond to
+any advance from his father towards possible intimacy on the ground of
+his art-interests. In "Pebbles" he writes that he opens the
+"introductory chapter of the second volume" of his life, "a volume on
+the title-page of which is written 'artist'"; in these first letters
+from Rome he begins the second volume itself. The letter to his
+younger sister, on her "coming out," contains at its close memorable
+advice on the subject of the development of her musical taste.<a name="FNanchor_21_21" id="FNanchor_21_21"></a><a href="#Footnote_21_21" class="fnanchor">[21]</a>
+"You must descend into <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_92" id="PageV1_92">[92]</a></span>yourself, and draw at the fountain of your own
+natural taste, but mind you go very deep, that you may really get at
+your <i>genuine, natural</i> taste, and I think you won't go far wrong. He
+who knows how to hear the voice of nature has found the safest guide,
+and he only is a good master who opens the mind of his pupil to that
+voice." At the age of twenty-one, Leighton had realised, and was
+himself pursuing, the only right course in studying any art. By
+invariably drawing deeply from the fountain in his own nature, he ever
+remained true and sincere as an artist. It is evident that, if there
+is no fountain to draw from in a nature, any study of art becomes
+useless, and Leighton, when consulted in later years, never encouraged
+false hopes in those who possessed no natural endowments. When he
+wrote,<a name="FNanchor_22_22" id="FNanchor_22_22"></a><a href="#Footnote_22_22" class="fnanchor">[22]</a> "being very receptive and prone to admire, I have learnt,
+and still do, from innumerable artists, big and small; Steinle's is,
+however, the indelible seal," he referred to the fact that in Steinle
+he had fortunately found the master who opened his mind to the voice
+of his own nature. Leighton felt a great necessity to sift the various
+influences which played upon his receptive nature, on account of his
+ready sympathy with all that was admirable. He had constantly to seek
+for that inner light, that "genuine, natural taste," which his revered
+master had led him to search for and find, and to act from the
+dictates of that light, and from no other.</p>
+
+<p>The commencement of the first letter from Rome to his mother is
+missing; the date of the post-mark is November 25, 1852, Rome.</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"...unnoticed, and which now requires to be woven in with the
+rest. I mean, of course, my more directly and practically
+<i>artistic</i> impressions, and their results. I take them up 'ab
+ovo.' To an artist an occasional change of scene <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_93" id="PageV1_93">[93]</a></span>is of the
+greatest advantage, if not importance; for, generally
+speaking, when he has stayed long in one place, surrounded day
+after day by the same objects, his eye becomes, by the
+deadening effect of constant habit, indifferent to what he
+sees around him, and often even inaccessible to the
+impressions which a newcomer might receive from the same
+natural beauties; most things that please the eye or the
+imagination, do so (in my case, at least) by some peculiar
+association; indeed I should imagine it must be so with all
+things, for even when one cannot (as one often can) define
+precisely the association which creates the echo within of the
+impressions received, it seems to me that one is instinctively
+aware of a kind of indefinable <i>innate relationship</i> to the
+beauties manifested in nature, to which, by-the-bye, I think,
+all other associations might ultimately be traced through
+different degrees of consanguinity. It is in being
+unexpectedly reminded (however indirectly or unwittingly) of
+this affinity, that lies all the pleasure that we experience
+by the means of sight; indeed, it strikes me, although I am
+too ignorant to explain why, that the 'feu sacr&eacute;' of the
+artist is a kind of inward, spontaneous, ever active,
+instinctive <i>impulse</i>, blind and involuntary, to manifest and
+put forth this his pedigree&mdash;as it were a yearning of son to
+father, an attraction of a part to the whole, which is, as it
+were, the living <i>motive</i> and condition of his existence, and
+which sometimes infuses in his works 'un non so ch&egrave;' that is
+felt by others, but for which he would be at a loss to
+account, and of which he is perhaps barely aware; it is a
+manifestation of a <i>truth</i> which is felt to be <i>fit</i>, and
+called <i>beautiful</i>. These reflections, which have often
+involuntarily forced themselves on me, suddenly remind me of
+an expression I once heard Papa quote from some German
+philosopher, I think Hegel: 'Der Mensch ist das Werkzeug der
+Natur.' Good gracious, where am I running to? and how <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_94" id="PageV1_94">[94]</a></span>far out
+of my depth! and yet one feels the want to empty one's head a
+little now and then; latterly, especially, these ideas have
+been stirred up in me by the perusal of fragments on the
+theory, philosophy, of Art, &amp;c., by Eastlake, which gave rise
+in me to some painful feelings. At the first onset I was
+amazed and bewildered at the quantity and great versatility of
+Eastlake's acquirements, a man who has yet found time to
+cultivate his art with success. I was filled with regret and
+mortification when I looked at myself and considered how
+little I know, and how little, comparatively, my health and
+eyes will allow me to add to my meagre store. As I got further
+into the subject, my feelings altered; it seemed to me to grow
+more and more vast and comprehensive, but not more
+<i>intricate</i>, for it appeared by degrees to embrace and involve
+in itself (and be involved in) all human knowledge, so that I
+felt that there must be only one key to all mystery, the
+<i>non</i>-possession of which key is the characteristic, the
+condition <i>des Menschseins</i>. Then it struck me as utterly
+absurd for anybody to pretend to know anything about anything;
+but it also struck me that it is not given to man to be a
+neutral spectator, that he must advance or recede; and that
+beautiful saying of Lessing's, which Papa read to us, occurred
+to my mind: 'Wenn der Allm&auml;chtige' (I quote from memory, and
+therefore probably not quite correctly) 'vor mich hin tr&auml;te in
+der Rechten die vollkommene Erkenntnis, in der Linken ein
+ewiges Streben nach Wahrheit, ich w&uuml;rfe mich flehend in seine
+Linke und sagte: Vater, gieb! die reine Wahrheit ist doch nur
+Dir allein!'<a name="FNanchor_23_23" id="FNanchor_23_23"></a><a href="#Footnote_23_23" class="fnanchor">[23]</a> I hardly meant to say all this, especially as
+it must seem horridly weak to a philosopher of Papa's calibre,
+but I <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_95" id="PageV1_95">[95]</a></span>really could not help it; I wish such thoughts would
+never come into my head, for I am painfully aware that I have
+not the grasp of mind to investigate any abstract subject
+deeply, and I wish that I had a mind, simple and unconscious,
+even as a child. I hurry back to the point with my tail
+between my legs; I was saying, was not I? that habit deadens
+us (read <i>me</i>) to the <i>suggestive</i> qualities of nature, and
+that change of scene is sometimes required to make us again
+<i>aware</i> of nature; after such change she speaks a more
+eloquent language than ever; I have heard her voice, ever
+since I left Frankfurt, ring more powerfully than ever before,
+and it has been the key to all that I have done, and to all
+that I have omitted. But there are some cases in which this
+numbing effect of habit has more lasting, almost irrevocable
+consequences; when one has been for a long space of time
+<i>utterly</i> familiarised with an object (a work of art in
+particular) of which one did not, when the acquaintance or
+<i>liaison</i> was contracted, appreciate all the beauties, though
+in process of time the <i>understanding</i> may become fully aware
+of these qualities, the <i>heart of the mind</i>&mdash;if I may use such
+an expression&mdash;can never feel that ingenuous fulness of
+admiration which would penetrate a sensitive and cultivated
+spectator on seeing it <i>for the first time</i>. This I have felt
+more particularly in the case of the 'Transfiguration' here in
+the Vatican; I am so utterly familiar with it from a child,
+when I could in no way understand it, that I find it
+impossible to judge of it <i>objectively</i>; I see colossal merit
+in it, and yet, when I have looked at it for a few minutes, I
+turn away and walk on; I am deadened to it. Thank God, it is
+not so with his (Raphael's) divine frescoes, which are so
+maimed and profaned in the engravings that the originals were
+<i>new</i> to me. But I am at the end of my paper, and as you do
+not wish me to cross, I must this time close by just telling
+you what my disappointments have been, that you may not <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_96" id="PageV1_96">[96]</a></span>form
+a false idea of them. First, I expected to find an
+<i>atmosphere</i> of high art, and every possible 'g&uuml;nstige
+Anregung' for its cultivation; in this I have been completely
+disappointed; of the numberless artists here, scarcely any can
+call themselves historical painters, and Gamba and I, who
+hoped for emulation, are thrown completely on ourselves;
+Overbeck is the only remains of that much to be regretted
+period when he and Cornelius and Veit and Steinle and others
+were labouring together in friendly strife; he will, however,
+never be to us what Steinle was. The next greatest sore point
+was the difficulty of getting a studio. When we arrived in
+Rome the first thing we heard was that all the <i>ateliers</i> were
+taken; and it was only after some days despondent search that
+I got a little bit of one most skimpingly furnished, that I
+should have sneered at when I first arrived. I have no
+<i>s&eacute;cr&eacute;taire</i>; I am obliged to lock up my papers with my
+shirts; I have been obliged to buy a lamp, for the one they
+gave me tried my eyes; and if I want any article of furniture
+I must buy it, because I understand that at the end of the
+year hiring costs as much here as buying. My <i>atelier</i> for
+next winter I shall take in the spring, as a good many become
+vacant at that time. Rome is twice, nearly three times, dearer
+than Florence in some respects; I am in despair; Gamba, who
+has just half what I have, absolutely starves himself in his
+food, and can hardly keep himself cleanly dressed; yet he has
+fewer expenses than I, who have calls to make now and then,
+and must dress accordingly. Oakes, too, who had sent me a
+charming letter to Florence, saying that he delighted in the
+idea of coming to spend the winter with me in Rome, was
+suddenly prevented; this was a bitter disappointment; I had
+expected a great deal of improvement from his conversation. I
+am in the bleak position of one who stands in immediate
+contact with <i>no</i> cultivated and superior mind. The Laings
+have not come yet; I hope <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_97" id="PageV1_97">[97]</a></span>to goodness they won't disappoint
+me also.&mdash;I remain, dearest Mamma, your dutiful and
+affectionate son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Fred Leighton."</p>
+
+<p class="cen">(<i>La suite &agrave; un prochain num&eacute;ro.</i>)</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right">"1852.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">Dearest Gussy</span>,&mdash;As a gallant brother, I can't well
+do less than answer separately your postscript to Mamma's
+letter. I shall make a point, if I meet with it, of reading
+Andersen's 'Dichterleben'; your recommendation is sufficient
+to predispose me favourably. I perfectly understand what you
+say about St. Paul's, and quite agree with you on that
+subject. What suits a salmon-coloured ribbon? By George,
+that's a weighty question, and requires mature reflection; it
+would look <i>best</i> on a white dress with blue flowers or spots;
+a sea-green would not look bad, and on black silk it would be
+<i>distingu&eacute;</i>; a bluish violet would not be bad either. I am
+sincerely sorry that I am not able to 'assister' at your
+triumphal entry into your eighteenth year; I am afraid the
+spell is beginning to fall by degrees from the greatest of
+days. If my directions have been attended to, I was present by
+proxy on the memorable occasion. Do you fully appreciate the
+immense importance of the epoch? Do you sufficiently feel that
+you are on the brink of being <i>OUT</i>? You are very much
+mistaken in supposing that I hear much good music here; there
+is little or none to hear; the theatres, at least, are all
+bad. I sincerely hope that you cultivate assiduously the
+talent with which you are blessed; especially the vocal part I
+am very anxious about; of course you will take lessons in
+Bath. I sympathise very much with you on the want of
+Rosenhain's guiding influence; I fully appreciate your
+difficulty; you must descend into yourself, and draw at the
+fountain of your own natural taste, but mind you go very deep,
+that you may really get at your <i>genuine, natural</i> taste, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_98" id="PageV1_98">[98]</a></span>and
+I think you won't go far wrong. He who knows how to hear the
+voice of nature has found the safest guide, and he only is a
+good master who opens the mind of his pupil to that
+voice.&mdash;Believe me, with many kisses, your very affectionate
+brother,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Fred.</p>
+
+<p>"If Gussy <i>did</i> want to be a charitable Christian, she would
+copy in her pretty handwriting five lines a day of my horrid
+scrawl, for I am ashamed that my Pebbles should remain in such
+a state."</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Bath</span>, <i>Sunday, November 29, 1852</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">My beloved Child</span>,&mdash;I need not tell you how close an
+account I keep of the day of the month, nor how my heart beats
+as the foreign post hour approaches, because you know how
+tenderly I love you, and what it cost me to part from you, and
+consequently how anxiously I look for the consolation for your
+absence which your letters afford me, and I had hoped you
+would supply this balm liberally. Of course while you were
+actually travelling I made every allowance for weariness, &amp;c.
+&amp;c., but if you have carried out your intentions, you must
+have been in Rome quite ten days, and though I said in my last
+I hoped for the future you would leave only three weeks
+between each of your letters home, it is now more than a
+calendar month since I had last the great happiness of seeing
+your handwriting. I would not, my love, be unreasonable, but
+you must remember that, in addition to the natural desire to
+hear how you manage for yourself, my maternal anxieties have
+been awakened by the indisposition you spoke of as not
+serious, it is true, but which has started up before me,
+explaining your delay in writing, and which, in spite of
+reason's suggestion that a slight illness would not hinder
+your work, whilst Gamba would prevent the addition of suspense
+to the trouble a serious attack would <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_99" id="PageV1_99">[99]</a></span>cause us, has brought
+the evil of separation very bitterly before me. The goodness
+of your heart, my child, will teach you how you can soften
+this to me; it is one of the few occasions remaining to you to
+exercise self-denial, as you live alone and have no one to
+please but yourself. I now and then wonder a little anxiously
+whether you ever think of my exhortations, so much have I
+wished that you should be in the retirement of your house as
+gentlemanly as you are in company. But then I recollect
+sentences in your letter, proving such right views in
+important matters, such a clear understanding of your
+responsibilities, that I resolve to believe that you will
+strive to do right in small matters as well as in great ones;
+indeed, my child, I have remarked with deep satisfaction your
+appreciation of the blessings that are allotted to you, and
+indeed you do right to enjoy them with all humility, for I
+cannot flatter you in opposition to the dictates of my
+conscience that you are <i>so</i> well deserving of happiness as
+your poor sister. She is deserving of the highest respect of
+all, bearing all her trials with admirable patience. The
+persevering rain, which has caused a great deal of illness in
+Bath, has had a very bad effect on her, throwing her back just
+as she was beginning to mend, so that she has a great deal of
+rough ground to go over again. We revel in literary abundance,
+even German and French books are in the circulating libraries,
+and <i>I</i> often wish the days longer to read and to work. Gussy
+says she hopes you will not think her ill-natured if she
+declines copying your letters, for, indeed, were she willing
+to undertake this difficult task, I should forbid it, as her
+eyes, always delicate, are unusually weak; whether this comes
+from too long confinement to the house, or from crying, I
+cannot say; the latter is produced by <i>Heimweh</i>! what do you
+think of this for an English girl? Thank God, she employs the
+best remedy against regretful feelings, as she is occupied
+from morning <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_100" id="PageV1_100">[100]</a></span>till night. Are you equally industrious? I read
+the other day the following assertion by Southey, which I copy
+for you, in case you should <i>still</i> have the habit, so common
+amongst young people, of wasting during the day occasional
+quarter-hours or ten minutes, because, they ask, only such a
+few minutes, how often have I heard that excuse. This is the
+portion: 'Ten minutes' daily study, for seven years, will give
+the student sufficient knowledge of seven languages to read
+them with ease, and even to travel without an interpreter in
+the respective countries.' Is not this an encouragement to
+industry? We imagine you by this time settled in your lodging
+and beginning to feel at home. God grant that you may have
+your health there and meet with kind friends; we are curious
+to know what your letters will do for you. In the meantime you
+will, I doubt not, have met some old acquaintances&mdash;the Henry
+Walpoles, the Laings, Mr. Petre, the Isembourgs, and Princess
+Hohenlohe; to what amount the latter will condescend, I know
+not, but remember, I entreat you, my advice. The two former
+families you will most likely have first met at church; let me
+hope at least that you will not abandon the habit; it may at
+last bring a blessing upon you. The intentions of your
+Frankfurt acquaintances we learnt in a letter from Mme.
+Beving; she had heard from M. Fenzi that he had given you a
+general invitation to his villa, and that you had dined with
+him, or been asked to do so; I do not know whether he made any
+comment on you. Did your organ of <i>veneration</i> do its duty?
+Forgive my hints, dear son; all your good qualities are
+pictured in lively colours before my eye, but I do not even
+try to forget your faults, lest I should neglect my duty to
+you; with the best resolutions we all occasionally require a
+fillip to our conscience. Next Friday is your birthday. It
+will be the first on which you have not received your parents'
+blessing in person. We shall not forget you, my darling. <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_101" id="PageV1_101">[101]</a></span>God
+bless you, my own dear Freddy; in this prayer your father
+joins most fervently; think often of the advice and love of
+your devoted mother,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"A. Leighton."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep098" id="imagep098"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep098.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep098.jpg" width="55%" alt="Costumi di Procida" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">COSTUMI DI PROCIDA. Rome, 1853<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p class="right"><span class="sc">1 Brock Street, Bath</span>,<br />
+<i>December 13, 1852</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Frederic</span>,&mdash;I need not say that we had all of us
+great pleasure in receiving your letter from Rome, though not
+before your dear mother had suffered great anxiety from the
+delay&mdash;the greater, because your former letter did not give a
+very encouraging account of your health. It gave us also great
+pain to hear of the vexatious disappointments which have
+attended your first entrance into the Eternal City, but this
+was, perhaps, to be expected, as the sanguine expectations of
+youth are seldom realised, and we may hope that by this time
+you will have found in other advantages and opportunities for
+improvement a sufficient compensation for the loss of those
+you had expected. What you say about the weakness of your
+eyesight is far more serious, and, indeed, would have
+occasioned us alarm if we did not hope and believe that you
+meant no more than we already knew at Frankfort, that your
+eyes were weak, and not that they had continued to grow
+weaker. But when I consider that your only means of acquiring
+an honourable independence and gratifying your laudable
+ambition depends upon your eyesight, I surely need no
+arguments to urge you in the strongest manner to use all those
+precautions for its preservation which your own good sense
+must suggest&mdash;to throw aside your brush or pencil the first
+moment that your eyes begin to smart or water, not to draw on
+white paper or by candlelight (or lamp or any artificial
+light), nor read except large print, nor small print even by
+daylight, except for a few minutes occasionally in a book of
+reference, and to acquire as much knowledge as you can,
+independently of books, by conversation with well-informed
+men, if you are so fortunate as to meet with them; when you
+cannot paint, talk, or observe, exercise your memory, it will
+store and cultivate your mind more and try your eyes less than
+reading, which in your case cannot be systematically pursued.
+You may perhaps meet some well-informed young men amongst the
+German artists. Above all, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_102" id="PageV1_102">[102]</a></span>draw your compositions as large as
+possible (or rather as necessary for your eyes) and not such
+as your architectural drawings, "Four Seasons," &amp;c., which
+contain so many objects minutely drawn. I suppose, likewise,
+that chalk and charcoal must be better than pencil, and the
+paint-brush better than either. You have no reason to complain
+either of want of ideas or of power of expressing them (at all
+events with your pen), however deficient you may think
+yourself in a command of language for conversation; but the
+fact is that, considering the distance that separates us, it
+is of much more importance to us to know <i>how</i> you are, what
+you do, and what you observe, than what you think. Your
+letters remind me of my friend, Dr. Simpson of York, who, when
+we sat down for dinner, would enter into some abstract
+discussion, say, of the nature and varieties of fish, or, <i>&agrave;
+propos</i> of the aitch-bone, on the homologies of the skeleton,
+while in the meantime fish and beef were growing cold and my
+appetite impatiently vivacious; so in your letters, while we
+are burning with impatience to know how you are, what progress
+you are making, or at all events what are your opportunities
+of progress in the art, you indulge us with abstract
+reflections on the theory of art in general. Your last letter,
+it is true, begins and ends with interesting matter, but with
+an interpolation of some three pages of disquisition on the
+nature of genius in art, &amp;c., &amp;c., which, however well thought
+or expressed, would be more in place in an essay than in your
+letter to us who are so much more interested in what
+immediately concerns yourself. The consequence is that,
+although with a praiseworthy wish to please us you have tried
+your eyes with a long letter, you have omitted much we were
+anxious to know&mdash;whether, for instance, you were conscious of
+having made any progress, or derived any advantage from the
+many pictures both in art and nature you have had so many
+opportunities of seeing; whether you had been making many, and
+what sketches or copies, for we are quite convinced that you
+have not been losing your time; whether you have been
+comparing what you can do with what other artists of about
+your age and standing in Italy can do, and whether the result
+is satisfactory; whether there are any among them from whom
+you can take any useful hints; whether Overbeck or any other
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_103" id="PageV1_103">[103]</a></span>competent artist is willing to assist you; whether, above
+all, you saw Power at Florence, and what he thought of your
+compositions; whether you find in Rome the material advantages
+you expected in the way of models, &amp;c., and whether you will
+think it advisable to draw from the antique&mdash;the Apollo,
+Torso, &amp;c.; in short, I cannot too strongly impress upon you
+that one fact is of more value to us than a volume of
+reflections. Of course, I would not have you infer that the
+progress of your mind, your thoughts and feelings, are by any
+means a matter of indifference to us, but after all they can
+be only imperfectly shown in occasional letters, and must
+necessarily exclude information of a more positive and, for
+the present, of a more important nature. Let me caution you,
+too, against reading any of the modern German works on
+&aelig;sthetics; they can be only imperfectly understood without a
+knowledge of the philosophies, of which they form a part, and
+any advantage you may derive from them will not be at all
+commensurate to the time and trouble, especially for you who
+have so much positive knowledge to acquire. If, however, any
+of your German friends can convey to you in conversation any
+clear ideas on the subject (and if they have them themselves
+there is no reason why they should not), well and good, but do
+not let them impose upon you, as they so often do upon
+themselves, with words either without any well-defined
+meaning, or one different from, or even the direct contrary,
+of the usual one. According to Hegel, for instance, 'das
+Sch&ouml;ne, ist das <i>scheinen</i>' (Sch&ouml;ne from scheinen) 'der <i>Idee</i>
+durch ein sinnliches Medium.' Now every artist knows without
+Hegel that his idea, or, if he prefers to think so, nature's
+idea within and through him, appears or manifests itself in
+the sensuous material, in colours if he be a painter, or stone
+if he be a sculptor, but this would be worse than trite, it
+would be intelligible to a plain understanding. <i>Idee</i> has a
+far deeper meaning. If you hear a German flourishing away with
+the magic word, ask him what he means. He will tell you,
+perhaps, that it is das Absolute or der objective Geist as
+distinguished from the Begriff or subjectiver Geist, or rather
+the indifference of both, and that is neither one nor t'other,
+but potentially either, or the <i>an sich</i>, or <i>an und f&uuml;r
+sich</i>, or rather the <i>an, f&uuml;r, &uuml;ber sich</i>; at last after <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_104" id="PageV1_104">[104]</a></span>much
+<i>hin und herreiten</i> you get some faint glimmering of what is
+meant; perhaps what some people call the soul in nature, or in
+still plainer English, nature, or the unknown cause of all we
+see, not an abstraction but a real entity, impersonal,
+however, and therefore not a god, acting according to certain
+laws, unconsciously in external nature (in ihrem Anders'sein)
+coming to itself&mdash;acting consciously in man, but more
+reflectively in science, more instructively in art. Well, you
+have caught the <i>Idee</i> at last (perhaps!) through its many
+Proteus-like changes and recognise an old friend after
+all&mdash;scratch your head, and ask whether you are any wiser than
+before. 'Das scheinen der Idee durch ein sinnliches
+Material'&mdash;in the Madonna of Raphael, for instance&mdash;'ist das
+Sch&ouml;ne.' Why then, says Punch, not equally so in the pork-pie
+and the mustard-pot, since the <i>Idee</i> manifests itself equally
+in both. The German solves the difficulty by "Sie sind ein
+practischer Engl&auml;nder, und haben keinen speculativen Geist."
+In the meantime, let us hope that nature will use you as her
+tool to carry out in colours and canvas some of her beautiful
+ideas, and leave it to the German to find out how the
+practical Englishman who has not read Hegel's "&AElig;sthetics" has
+set about it. That you may accomplish this to the utmost
+extent of your wishes is the sincere wish of, dear Fred, your
+affectionate father,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fredc. Leighton.</p>
+
+<p><i>P.S.</i>&mdash;"Werkzeug der Natur" is an idea by no means peculiar
+to Hegel.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"<i>Your</i> birthday&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Dearest Mamma, may it be a right happy one&mdash;one that may
+serve, and be used, as a pattern to cut out others on. Judging
+by your accounts, there is one among you who will contribute
+mirth to your enjoyment&mdash;one who takes as many shapes as
+Proteus, and is always the most welcome of guests; his name is
+<i>Bettering</i>. In this world confident expectation is a greater
+blessing, almost, than fruition. I too, if my directions have
+been followed (as I confidingly hope), shall have appeared to
+you on the great day <i>as good as gold</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_105" id="PageV1_105">[105]</a></span>"How grieved I was, dearest Mother, to hear that I had given
+so much pain to the kindest of hearts! My excuse, such as it
+was, you got in my last letter, which reached probably the day
+after you posted your epistle to me; I was sincerely sorry; I
+had not, I must confess, any idea of anxious suspense on your
+part, as you were not in expectation of any <i>particular</i> news;
+I shall in future try to be more deserving of your solicitude;
+this time, you see, I am punctual.</p>
+
+<p>"Health Report. Taking all in all, tol. sat., owing, no doubt,
+to the unusually magnificent weather which we have had since I
+arrived here; rheumatism, average; colds, not more than usual;
+eyes?... hum ... might be better; I suppose macaroni 'al
+burro' are not unwholesome&mdash;I and Gamba and several others eat
+it nearly every day.</p>
+
+<p>"I now turn to your letter. Little Gussy an authoress! dear
+child, it gives one unfeigned pleasure to hear of her
+successful <i>d&eacute;but</i>. I have myself had no opportunity of
+judging of her talent for writing, but feel convinced that
+with her warm heart, impressionable soul, sterling
+understanding, and quick powers of observation, whatever she
+writes will please a healthy taste. She has my very best
+wishes. And yet, what slight cloud was that, I felt pass over
+my pleasure, casting (I could not help it) an undefined shadow
+on my heart? Did not I feel startled at being so palpably
+reminded that the <i>child</i> Gussy no longer exists? Did I not
+seem to feel, disagreeably, that the bridge was cut down
+behind us, that the last tie was broken that, in Gussy's
+person, still linked us to childhood, the buoyantly confiding
+age, the irresponsible age? Did not I become, through her,
+painfully aware that when I took leave of you, you all sealed
+with your kiss the first volume of my life, that I am indeed
+launched into the second, that the rehearsal is indeed over
+and the curtain drawn up?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_106" id="PageV1_106">[106]</a></span>"And do I not feel, even now, a <i>hypocrite</i>, <i>to know</i> my
+path, and yet so often to deviate from it? Write often, dear
+Mother!</p>
+
+<p>"The hint you gave me about husbanding my time, I shall take
+to heart; it is a thing of which I myself full well feel the
+necessity and know the unfailing benefit; but I confess that
+when I read your quotation from 'Bob,' I felt irresistibly
+reminded of the question once put to sage and wise courtiers
+by the facetious monarch 'who never said a foolish thing, and
+never did a wise one,' viz. Why is a tub of water with a goose
+in it lighter than one without?</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'God help thee, Southey, and thy readers too!' (Byron).<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"Your next question is: Am I comfortably <i>settled</i> in Rome?
+Well, I am happy to say that since the first week or fortnight
+my prospects have been slowly but steadily brightening, one
+cloud after another has passed away, and though I do not
+expect to see the bright sky of fulfilled expectations quite
+unveiled, yet I look forward to the enjoyment sooner or later
+of contentment. I wrote my last letter in a tone of
+considerable disheartenment, which I was indeed labouring
+under; perhaps it was the triumph of a selfish feeling that
+made me communicate my woes to you when it was not in your
+power to mend them; but yet it is such a relief to feel that
+there are those who are not indifferent to our grievances, who
+rejoice when <i>we</i> rejoice, and weep when <i>we</i> weep; and then,
+too, it seemed to me that perhaps a word from you might throw
+a new light on my position and give me new reason to be
+comforted. Meanwhile, altered circumstances have reassured me
+on some points, and my own reason has pacified me on others
+which I saw to be irremediable; the prospect of emulation of a
+peculiar kind, such as I found in Steinle, and generally
+speaking in the German school (I do not mean the emulation <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_107" id="PageV1_107">[107]</a></span>of
+industry which I find amply in Gamba, or in the science of the
+art which I have lately discovered amongst certain young
+Frenchmen, but that which affects the animating <i>spirit</i> of
+the art, the <i>spiritual</i> taste, the tendency of one's
+thoughts), I have entirely renounced; the visions that I had
+(God knows why, for I don't think I ever expected to grasp
+them) of a time like that of Steinle's sojourn in Rome, when
+so many master-minds were united together in friendly strife,
+all inspired by the same spirit, all going hand in hand&mdash;have
+all faded away, and only linger in my mind as a sweet
+regretted image, like the gentle glow of twilight in the
+western sky when the cold moon is already in the heavens. But
+I have, on the other hand, seen reason to believe that this
+will turn out for my good; that it is proper that I should,
+once for all, and in all things, accustom myself to the idea
+that I am, or should be, a <i>self-dependent</i> and
+<i>self-actuated</i> being, accountable to myself for good and for
+evil; that I must therefore learn to build and rely on my own
+resources, and remember the most important of truths, that if
+the growth of my art is to be healthy, lasting, fruit-bearing,
+it must, though fostered from without, be rooted deeply in,
+and receive its vital sap from the soil of my own mind. Still,
+I have thought it good to hang up in my studio a work of
+Cornelius and one or two of Steinle, to animate myself by
+dwelling constantly on <i>an idea of excellence</i> (not <i>ideal</i>, I
+hate such stuff) irrespective of the <i>specific mode</i> in which
+it is manifested; and in this I think I have chosen the <i>juste
+milieu</i>&mdash;so far my reason. Yet I do not deny that I every now
+and then feel longings and regrets that make me feel the truth
+of those lovely words&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'We look before and after,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And pine for what is not;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;&nbsp;Our sincerest laughter<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">With <i>some</i> pain is fraught.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_108" id="PageV1_108">[108]</a></span>"Among the irremediable disappointments on which I have to
+put the best face, is that of not seeing Oakes here this
+winter. From a man of warm feelings, of tastes congenial to my
+own, of a cultivated and liberal mind, I had hoped to derive
+much pleasure and especially advantage, and thus to have
+supplied in some measure the void which must arise (and, alas!
+remain) in my brain from want of time, want of robuster
+health, want of eyes. A friendship, too, of mutual seeking is
+so agreeable a thing. Matters stand so: when I was in Florence
+I received from him a letter full of a kind and friendly
+spirit, in which he seized with eagerness at the idea of
+spending a winter with me in Rome; he was already in Paris,
+where he was in treaty with a travelling servant in order to
+continue his journey; he had written to you (did you get the
+letter?) to know where he was most likely to catch me up; he
+was anticipating the enjoyment we should find together in
+Venice, or in Florence, or wherever we should meet; this
+letter has been waiting for me a month at the post. I arrive
+in Rome, and look anxiously about for Oakes, who, I suppose,
+must already have arrived; no Oakes&mdash;no
+news&mdash;suspense&mdash;despair; at last a letter: he has been
+recalled from Paris; he is obliged, willy nilly, to stand for
+his borough (Conservative, Ministerial); he is an M.P.</p>
+
+<p>"Another disappointment, hitherto, is the non-arrival of the
+Laings; I had promised myself great enjoyment in Isabel's
+society; the footing on which we stand is such an agreeable
+one: enough familiarity (for old friendship's sake) to make
+our intercourse easy&mdash;a relaxation; enough restraint to refine
+it and make it improving; she plays, too. Music! How I yearn
+for music, which I never hear in the land best adapted to
+foster it; music, that humanises the soul, that calls forth
+all that is refined and elevated and glowing and impassioned
+in one's breast, and without which the very lake of one's
+heart ('il lago del cuore,' Dante) stagnates and is
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_109" id="PageV1_109">[109]</a></span>congealed. I express myself extravagantly, but my words flow
+from my heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Again, the studio, which I at last found, though snug and
+cheerful, very (let's give the devil his due), is, in its
+professional capacity, bad beyond description; the light is
+execrable; I could not dream of painting a picture in it
+(thank God, I have only taken it till spring), scarcely even a
+portrait, 'which is absurd,' Euclid, hem. What a list of
+lucubrations! for goodness' sake, let me look at the gay side
+of the picture. It has been a great comfort to me all through
+that all the artists resident here, whom I have spoken to on
+the subject, felt on first arriving the same kind of
+disappointment that I did, and that all by degrees have
+acquired the conviction that, after all, it's the best place
+in the world for study. I have myself begun to feel what an
+incalculable advantage it is always to have models at your
+disposition whenever, and <i>however</i>, you want them; I look
+forward, too, with the greatest delight to the studies that I
+shall make this summer in the exquisitely beautiful spots to
+which the artists always take refuge from the heat and malaria
+of Rome. I long to find myself again face to face with Nature,
+to follow it, to watch it, and to copy it, closely,
+faithfully, ingenuously&mdash;as Ruskin suggests, 'choosing
+nothing, and rejecting nothing.' I have come to the conviction
+that the best way for an historical painter to bring himself
+home to Nature, in his own branch of the art, is strenuously
+to study <i>landscape</i>, in which he has not had the opportunity,
+as in his own walk, of being crammed with prejudices,
+conventional, flat&mdash;academical. But I am getting to the end of
+my paper, and I have as yet said but little to the point; I
+have not yet answered Papa's question about my sketching, and
+therefore that I may not seem to be shirking the point, I
+shall just tell you that amongst the sketches that I have made
+(mostly architectural) are some by <i>far the best I ever
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_110" id="PageV1_110">[110]</a></span>did</i>.<a name="FNanchor_24_24" id="FNanchor_24_24"></a><a href="#Footnote_24_24" class="fnanchor">[24]</a> I have also to justify Marryat about not writing; I
+got his letters the other day with a kind note to say that he
+had been ill; that to the Princess Doria has availed me
+nothing, as she is in mourning for her father, Lord
+Shrewsbury; that to the Prince Massimo has opened to me at
+once two of the first and most exclusive houses in Rome, those
+of his two sisters, the Princess Lancelotti and the Duchess
+del Drago. Enough for to-day. Good-bye, dearest Mother. Very
+best love to all. Think often of your dutiful and affectionate
+son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>"I am ashamed to think of the time I have taken writing this
+letter; not from want of ideas, not from any great difficulty
+in expressing them, but from the great difficulty I have in
+getting at them, controlling them, holding them fast.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'A saucepan without a handle.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Soup without a spoon.'<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p>"<span class="sc">Via di Porta Pinciana, N. 8.</span>"</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Roma, Via di Porta Pinciana, N.V.</span><br />
+(<i>Postmark, Jan. 5, 1853.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">Dear Papa</span>,&mdash;When I received, the other day, your
+kind and most interesting letter, and felt the appropriateness
+of your admonitions&mdash;felt, too, how foolish it is for me, who
+am ignorance personified (in certain matters, at least) to
+waste <i>my</i> time in speculations on subjects beyond my grasp,
+and to exhaust <i>your</i> patience by twaddling them out to you,
+whilst your own penetrating and comprehensive mind takes, in
+preference, a practical view of the subject&mdash;a question
+suddenly presented itself to me: Bless my soul! what will he
+say to the epistle I have just sent off? For, as you, by this
+time, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_111" id="PageV1_111">[111]</a></span>know yourself, it is, though perhaps less groggy than
+the last, still insufficient in point of practical purport; a
+<i>messed-up</i> dish, not a joint. I hasten, if possible, to make
+'amende honorable' by communicating to you in language as
+concise as possible whatever information you either express or
+hint a desire to have.</p>
+
+<p>"One word only, a farewell one, on the subject of my
+<i>ci-devant</i> digressions; no, <i>three</i> words; I must say in my
+own justification. 1st. That when I sat down to write, it was
+always with an idea of telling all (or nearly), and all in
+detail, too, from which I was prevented by invariably getting
+to the end of my paper, my time, and my eyes (as it would try
+them to cross) before I had accomplished my object; 2nd. That
+I have been discursive with an idea of entertaining for a time
+the suffering members of the family; 3rd. That all my abstract
+drawl, though it in some cases abutted in tenets that I had at
+different times heard you let fall, was <i>altogether</i> my own;
+indeed it was, perhaps, the consciousness of the instinctive
+<i>self-suggestedness</i> of such thoughts that made me turn round
+on myself and take an objective view of ditto. A philosopher
+is very like a dog trying to catch his own tail.</p>
+
+<p>"Now to business. You speak of my eyes; I cannot conceal from
+you that they are worse than they were at Frankfurt, but I do
+not know whether I can say that they are <i>getting gradually</i>
+worse; everybody takes some time in getting <i>acclimatis&eacute;</i> to
+Rome; my sufferings may perhaps be ascribed to that. I intend
+for some months to give up the nude in the evening. Your
+advice about gathering information from the conversation of
+men of cultivated mind I would most gladly follow, but, alas,
+I only know <i>two</i> really well-informed people here, and one is
+an old man I hardly ever see. There is no fear of my drawing
+my compositions too small, for (I shall tell you why
+presently) I am drawing <i>none at all</i>, and probably shall draw
+none for a considerable time; <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_112" id="PageV1_112">[112]</a></span>but close and minute study of
+Nature in its details is, as I now see more plainly than ever,
+of paramount importance. I come to another point which it is
+difficult to touch with conciseness: have I made any progress?
+Perhaps I am not entitled to answer positively in the
+affirmative till I shall have painted some portrait or picture
+better than anything I have yet produced; this I have not yet
+had an opportunity of doing; but if, from superlative
+confidence, having fallen to a more beseeming diffidence, if
+having improved and chastened my taste, if having become more
+anxiously aware of the extent of my task and more deeply
+humbled by those who have fulfilled it, may be called
+progress, then I can answer: Yes, I have made a step.</p>
+
+<p>"I was deeply impressed with the glorious works of art I saw
+in Venice and Florence, and was particularly struck with the
+exquisitely <i>elaborate</i> finish of most of the leading works by
+<i>whatever</i> master; the highest possible finish combined with
+the greatest possible breadth and grandeur of disposition in
+the principal masses; art with the old masters was full of
+love, refined, utterly sterling. I had got during my journey
+through the Tyrol into a frame of mind that rendered me
+particularly accessible to such impressions; I had been
+dwelling with unwearied admiration on the exquisite grace and
+beauty of the details, as it were, of Nature; every little
+flower of the field had become to me a new source of delight;
+the very blades of grass appeared to me in a new light. You
+will easily understand that, under the influence of such
+feelings, I felt the greatest possible reluctance to <i>sketch</i>
+in the hasty manner in which one does when travelling; I
+shunned the idea of approaching Nature in a manner which
+seemed to me disrespectful, and the consequence was that until
+I got to Verona I did not touch a pencil. In Venice and
+Florence, however, I made several drawings, some of which are
+most highly finished, and afforded me, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_113" id="PageV1_113">[113]</a></span>whilst I was occupied
+on them, that most desirable kind of contentment, the
+consciousness of endeavour. Of course I was obliged to conquer
+to a certain extent my aversion to anything but finished
+works, and accordingly I made a considerable number of
+<i>sketches</i> 'proprement dits.' With regard to composing,
+however, I still feel the same paralysing diffidence, I cannot
+make up my mind to draw compositions like those I have
+hitherto produced, but, at the same time, I feel that I am as
+yet incapable of drawing any in the manner I should wish, and
+as I see no prospect of such a desirable state of things till
+I have spent a summer in the mountains and drawn landscape,
+men and animals for several months, it is very unlikely that I
+shall put my hand to anything original till next winter; then
+I shall pour myself out with a vengeance. When I left
+Frankfurt I asked Steinle whether I should compose the first
+winter; he answered: '<i>Oh, wenn Sie m&ouml;gen.</i>' He foresaw how it
+would be. It gives me great comfort to feel that I am quietly
+settled to study for some years in one place, and that I am
+able to make plans for the future without having to reckon on
+removals and changes. Meanwhile, this winter I take models, I
+have been studying the anatomy of the horse, I shall draw at
+the Vatican from Raphael and Michael Angelo (<i>perhaps</i>, too,
+from the antique), &amp;c. &amp;c. A digression, whilst I think of it:
+I think that the pains in my eyes are in some measure nervous,
+for mentioning them invariably brings them on, in broad
+daylight. About the little emulation I find here I have spoken
+in my last letter. The general tone here (of course with some
+exceptions) is one of public toadying mediocrity. There is
+here one young Frenchman, remarkable for correctness but
+coldly scientific (only in his art), without that warmth and
+spontaneity which give such a peculiar charm to works of
+genius. Overbeck was endlessly courteous and praised me very
+highly, talked of the artists <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_114" id="PageV1_114">[114]</a></span>in Rome acquiring in us 'einen
+&auml;chten Zuwachs' ('a real addition'), but the half century
+between our respective ages and his pietistical manner make me
+sure that we shall derive but little advantage from him; I
+neither expected nor wished to find a second Steinle.</p>
+
+<p>"As for Powers, though he was very polite to me in his own
+sort of way, I am pretty certain that he had entirely
+forgotten, nor did he ask me to show him anything. You may
+console yourself on that score&mdash;a sculptor, especially one who
+can do little but busts (however pre-eminently good they may
+be, and <i>his</i> are), can very seldom judge well of pictures.
+Gibson, the great sculptor, whom I know very well, and who
+shows me great kindness by-the-bye, has about as little
+judgment in painting as a man well can. That I <i>do</i> find
+models here, and many other material advantages, I told you in
+the letter that you lately received.</p>
+
+<p>"I have now, dear Papa, answered all your questions; it only
+remains for me to thank you for your poignant and admirably
+practical remarks on the German philosophers&mdash;remarks, I
+assure you, which have quite answered their purpose; both they
+and the kind wishes you have expressed concerning my future
+advancement shall not have been thrown away on your grateful
+and affectionate son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Fred Leighton."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep112" id="imagep112"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep112.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep112.jpg" width="55%" alt="Study of Head for &quot;Cimabue's Madonna&quot;" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF HEAD FOR "CIMABUE'S MADONNA." 1853<br />
+Erroneously supposed to be the Portrait of Lord Leighton<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right">(<i>Postmark, Jan. 5, '53.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;To your appendix an appendix. Paper
+and time force me to laconism.</p>
+
+<p>"My personal discomforts, for which you show such kind
+sympathy, are, I am happy to say, now only very slight; the
+only thing I suffer annoyance from is my stove, which makes my
+head ache; with regard, however, to beating a retreat, I must
+candidly tell you that I see my only chance of coming to
+anything is studying here steadily for <i>some <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_115" id="PageV1_115">[115]</a></span>three</i> years;
+the more so that it is by all accounts only at the end of the
+first year that one feels all the advantages which Rome
+affords. My plans seem to be these: this winter, studies; next
+summer, ditto, in the mountains, or wherever it is coolest;
+next winter, pictures, portraits, compositions; summer after,
+Paris, see the large Veronese (which was invisible the last
+time I was there); from Paris to Bath to see all you darlings
+again, spend two or three weeks in England studying its
+character under the ciceroneship of Oakes, that thorough
+Briton, and collecting materials for some large (in meaning if
+not in size) picture to be painted in Rome during the third
+winter, and to be my firstling in an English exhibition; I
+feel that one day my painting will have a strongly national
+bias. That autumn I should probably return to Rome <i>vi&acirc;</i> Spain
+to see the Murillos, &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>"When you next write to Lady Pollington, pray remember me very
+kindly to her; her merry face and facetious ways are still
+before me. Lord Walpole, whom you mention as coming to Rome,
+and whom I shall know if he does, is indeed, I believe, a very
+agreeable and clever man. The Henry Walpoles have been very
+civil to me; Mrs. Walpole told me that if I wrote to you I was
+to give her best&mdash;I think she said, <i>love</i>&mdash;for that you were
+a great favourite of hers.</p>
+
+<p>"Here I must absolutely close, though I have plenty more to
+say. My very best thanks to Papa and you all for the kind
+presents, but I don't see why you won't allow me the pleasure
+of giving you anything. As I have written this letter
+immediately after the other, I cannot promise to write again
+soon. To yourselves, very best love from your dutiful and
+affect.</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Fred Leighton."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following letters from Steinle are evidently the first Leighton
+received in Rome from his master. No comment <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_116" id="PageV1_116">[116]</a></span>on them is necessary.
+Every line is evidence of the affectionate quality and beauty of the
+nature that so permanently influenced Leighton's for good.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Frankfurt am Main</span>,<br />
+<i>January 6, 1853</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">My very dear Friend</span>,&mdash;Although I do not know your
+address, and am uncertain whether this will reach you, yet I
+can no longer withstand the urging of my heart; I only know
+that you and Gamba are in Rome, that you have visited
+Overbeck, as he himself has written me; assuming, however,
+that you also visit the Caf&eacute; Greco, I will risk that address.
+Your spirited lines from Venice reached me safely, and I can
+truly say that since then my thoughts and my good wishes for
+you and for Gamba have daily accompanied you. A report which
+has been circulated here, that you, Gamba, and Andr&eacute; had been
+attacked by robbers, made me anxious for a time, and I
+expected from day to day that you would yourself write me
+something about this adventure&mdash;in vain. Overbeck writes me
+now that it would give him particular satisfaction to be able
+to help or serve you in any way during your stay in Rome, and
+cordially wishes that you and Gamba would give him the
+opportunity to do so, but unfortunately he knew nothing else
+about you to tell me. What Sch&auml;ffer writes me is also so
+extremely scanty, that for all that concerns you and Rico I am
+thrown back on my own thoughts and suppositions. That you are
+both absent from me is unfortunately a painful truth; as to
+whether the ideal life which from old and dear habit I still
+live with you, be also true, the future, I hope, may show. I
+have an idea that you, dear friend, and perhaps also your
+faithful comrade, already suffer from the artistic fever of
+Rome, which every one feels in the first year. It is that
+glorious old Rome, with her wealth, and the multitude of her
+impressions, which works so <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_117" id="PageV1_117">[117]</a></span>powerfully upon the receptive
+mind, that it can retain nothing in contradiction, and cannot
+escape her influence; this period is one of discomfort,
+because we feel ourselves oppressed; but though it is of the
+greatest value, and no doubt bears rich fruit, the work of
+artists of to-day is neither in a position to offer you
+anything important, nor to deceive you in sight of the old
+masters; if the multitude of impressions is first gradually
+assimilated, if everything is assigned its place, if we take a
+wide survey, and can stride forward freely in pursuit of the
+goal set before us, then only does that wonderful spirit which
+hovers over Rome rise up in us strong and inspiring, and then
+we are able to recognise what we have actually won in the
+fight with discomfort. Thus, and in similar circumstances, I
+fancy that my dear friends are in the same case as the bees,
+which swarm, and toil with all the load they collect, but
+cannot make honey by perpetual sucking. That is inconvenient
+and oppressive, but ah! when this time is past, what wealth
+will they unfold, with what comfort will they look upon the
+well-filled satchel, how quickly they will recognise that such
+wealth pays interest for the whole life! But if it is
+otherwise, dear friend, then laugh at the all-wise Steinle,
+and resolve finally to free him from such delusions, and to
+set the matter before his eyes as it really is, and be you
+assured of one thing, that he always wishes that everything
+may be good and prosperous for you, that all that you are
+longing to attain you may attain, and that Almighty God may
+guard you and Rico from all ill! You can have had no idea with
+what feelings your friend would read your vigorous, spirited
+lines from Venice. I received them, on my return, from Gamba,
+a very dear lad, and could not help being sorry that you, who
+have become so dear to me, should know absolutely nothing of
+what distressed your friend. We are men; hear, then, the news.
+Returning from Switzerland, I heard of the illness of my
+daughter Anna, in Metz, and I and <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_118" id="PageV1_118">[118]</a></span>my wife hurried to her, and
+spent six sorrowful days by the death-bed of my little
+sixteen-year-old daughter. After the funeral, I came back
+here, and finished 'The Raising of Jairus' Daughter.' The real
+pleasure of my art I felt shrink from me day by day in Metz;
+and now all my pleasure depends upon the beloved art, for
+happiness is more and more confined within the four walls of
+my <i>atelier</i>. Do not read any complaint in this; I have learnt
+much sadness, but have also found rich cause to thank God from
+my heart. What manner of children should we be, if we would
+not kiss the rod when we are chastised? And now, dear friend,
+with all my heart a greeting to Rome, and to all who remember
+me kindly. All friends here send greetings to you and Gamba,
+including Casella il Professore; Senator Nay is in Rome. I
+hope with all my heart that you have good news of your dear
+ones, and remain, always and altogether yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Steinle."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep116" id="imagep116"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep116.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep116.jpg" width="85%" alt="View of Subiaco" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">VIEW OF SUBIACO, NEAR ROME. 1853<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">Most Esteemed Herr Steinle</span>,&mdash;When you receive these
+lines I shall have already been long in the lovely land
+wherein I lack nothing but your presence; I beg you to accept
+from me the accompanying translation of the first volume of
+the works of the Father of English Poetry as a little
+remembrance; whether it is a good rendering of the great
+master I cannot judge, as at the moment of writing it has not
+arrived; but one thing I can answer for: it is the only volume
+of the only translation of Chaucer into the German language in
+existence; I only regret that there is also no Italian
+version; may it serve you as a souvenir of your devoted and
+grateful pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Fred Leighton."</p>
+
+<p class="sc">"Frankfurt a/M."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_119" id="PageV1_119">[119]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Rome, Via Della Purificazione</span> No. 11,<br />
+<i>January 11</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">My Very Dear Friend</span>,&mdash;At last I am able to write you
+a few words, and (although very late) to send you my very best
+good wishes and congratulations for the New Year. I am sure
+that you will be kind enough to forgive my long silence, and
+will believe me when I tell you that I absolutely could not
+help it. I hope with all my heart that in the meantime you
+have been well and strong, and that your beautiful works have
+progressed in accordance with your wishes. How has the
+experiment with the new ground turned out? Have you already
+started on the other cartoon? I, for my part, have experienced
+the fact that to make plans and to carry them out are two
+different things; for nothing has come of the pictures which I
+set myself to paint. I have already told you in Frankfurt,
+dear Master, how painfully my deficiency pressed upon me, and
+how clearly I felt that my works lacked a highly genuine
+finish in the form, an intimate knowledge of nature; this
+consciousness had so increased when I arrived in Rome that
+without more ado I determined to employ myself during the
+whole winter exclusively upon school tasks, and by all means
+to endeavour to rid my artistic capacity a little of this
+defect; so now I continually paint study heads, which I try to
+finish as much as possible, and in which I especially have
+good modelling in view; that I have achieved this,
+unfortunately I cannot yet assert, but I derive great
+enjoyment from the attempt, and hope that my efforts will not
+remain unrewarded; I shall then next year, if I come to the
+painting of pictures again, go to work with greater knowledge
+and clearness, and shall be able, I hope, to clothe my ideas
+more suitably.</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing further to report of myself. I hope, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_120" id="PageV1_120">[120]</a></span>my dear
+Friend, to receive a few lines from you, telling me what you
+are doing, for you know well how deeply interested I am.</p>
+
+<p>"Will you be so kind as to tell Mr. Welsch that my trouble to
+find the Palazzo Scheiderff was in vain, and I have also
+unluckily not seen his brother? If I pass through Florence
+again in spring, I will try my luck once more. And now, adieu,
+dear Master. Kindest remembrances to your wife and children,
+and to you the warmest greeting, from your grateful pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Leighton."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right">"<span class="sc">Frankfurt am Main</span>,<br />
+<i>March 24, 1853</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">My Very Dear Friend</span>,&mdash;My desire for news of you and
+Gamba was certainly great, but I possessed my soul in
+patience, for I was convinced that it would come at last; you
+and Rico have given me so many proofs of your love and
+friendship, that I was able to face with perfect calm and
+confidence all the numerous and impatient questions for news
+of you which came to me. Now, however, I see by your welcome
+lines, to my inward regret, that some restrained anxiety about
+you is justified, and while on one hand I greatly regret the
+weakness of your eyes and in a manner suffer with you, yet I
+have also my consoling argument that the Roman climate, at a
+better time of year, will certainly be good for your ailment,
+and that my Leighton can rise up again, that he will not lose
+courage. But whatever joy I had when you and your noble
+friends bore such splendid witness of one another, I cannot
+express myself as very easily satisfied; that you, in your
+efforts, would stand alone in Rome, I knew well, I am sure you
+are cut out for it, and it appears to me, even, as if every
+good heart that rises to a happy independence nowadays, must
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_121" id="PageV1_121">[121]</a></span>feel his loneliness, I might even say, that it must in order
+to give skill and power of conviction. The better you get to
+know Rome, the more you will learn to love her, and much will
+be freely given, when once the year of struggle is past, that
+could never be seized by force. How much I have rejoiced over
+all that you write of your and Rico's studies, how I should
+like to see them! Cling now to nature, you are quite right,
+you will not lose the art of composition, for it is not a
+thing that can be acquired: it is a gift, and one that you and
+Rico possess. Now, indeed, it always seems to me, when I
+consider the highest aims of art, and indeed the greatest
+capacities of man, that there should be a certain equalisation
+of the various powers, and it strikes me as indispensable, if
+we are not to become one-sided, that we should by such
+equalisation balance these various powers so as to achieve a
+<i>complete harmony</i>. Thus, however great a delicacy goose-liver
+may be, it always indicates a diseased goose, the monstrous
+enlargement of an organ, &amp;c.; I do not say this by way of
+blame, and am thinking perhaps too much only of my own feeble
+powers, but merely as a little warning that it may be well to
+keep in view. Do not think that it is the Professor asserting
+himself, I say this only as a matter of experience and because
+you and Rico lie very close to my heart, and are associated
+with my own feeling of the sacredness of art. I have, however,
+no anxiety; you have good and noble natures, and will not lose
+the tracks of truth. Spare and save your eyes, I hope that you
+will soon be quite free from this ill, and then&mdash;forward! What
+you write me of the friends is certainly quite correct, and I
+myself thought no otherwise; Overbeck is the purest and
+noblest man that I have ever met; moreover a genius&mdash;therefore
+I rejoice that you and Rico know him; he speaks with feeling
+and judgment of his art. Excuse, dear Leighton, my
+forgetfulness; I have not thought of the dear and lovely
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_122" id="PageV1_122">[122]</a></span>present which with your note surprised me so pleasantly on my
+return&mdash;I mean the powerful and rich Chaucer; I find the
+prologue splendid, rather knotty, but the Germans of that time
+are still knottier. I thank you heartily. Of myself, I can
+inform you, that I daily rejoice more over the grey canvas; I
+have worked two months on my picture of the 'Whitsun-sermon,'
+and now in three weeks have painted half the picture, and am,
+even though somewhat exhausted, not altogether discontented
+with the result. This picture, which grows daily more like a
+fresco, is getting on fast, but much still remains to be done,
+and I have the progress of the whole picture in hand. Of the
+friends here, I can tell you that all speak of you and Gamba
+with love and sympathy, and that you are kindly remembered by
+all. Thank Rico cordially for his welcome note; if you and
+Rico always call me 'master,' a title which abashes me, we
+shall be friends, and I hope that as I grow old in years, at
+least I shall remain young in art. Tell Rico that I had a
+visit from his grandmother, who loves him dearly; with a few
+lines he would give her extreme pleasure. Now, adio, dear
+friend; equip yourself with patience and courage, and keep sad
+thoughts far from you. Greet all friends from me most
+heartily, also I have to send to you and Gamba warmest
+greetings from all here, including my wife, Frau Ruth
+Schlosser, and Casella. Let me hear sometimes how you get on.
+Always and altogether yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Edw. Steinle."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p>(<i>Postmark, March 28, 1853.</i><br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<i>Received April 6.</i>)</p>
+
+<p class="right">(<i>On cover</i>&mdash;Mrs. Leighton,<br />
+1 Brock Street, Bath, England.)<br />
+<span class="sc">"Rome, Via de Porta Pinciana</span> 8.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;If I did not, as was naturally my
+first impulse, answer your letter directly I received it, it
+was because Isabel's<a name="FNanchor_25_25" id="FNanchor_25_25"></a><a href="#Footnote_25_25" class="fnanchor">[25]</a> portrait has of late taken up all the
+time, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_123" id="PageV1_123">[123]</a></span>or rather eyes, that I can dispose of; this being,
+however, a <i>drying</i> day, I seize the opportunity of making up
+for lost time. As I have mentioned the portrait, I may as well
+say <i>en passant</i> that I expect it to be a very successful
+likeness, and as decent a painting as a thing done in so
+desultory a manner can be expected to be; Gamba admires it
+very much, and intends to copy some parts. I was much touched
+at the affectionate sympathy you show for me in my visitation,
+and am as glad for you as for myself to say that there is a
+decided improvement in the state of my eyes, so that, although
+they are by no means <i>well</i>, it would hardly be worth while to
+go to a doctor for a written account of my symptoms; the more
+so as Dr. Small, who is a man very well thought of, thinks it
+all depends on the weather, and will go away when fine weather
+sets in, which God give! Add to this that several people of my
+acquaintance, <i>i.e.</i> Mrs. Sartoris and Mrs. Walpole, who never
+had anything the matter with their eyes, find them affected
+now. About two months ago I went to consult Dr. Small, or
+rather, on calling on him one day he <i>had me up</i>
+professionally, for I felt a delicacy about going myself, as
+he had told me that he would be very happy to be of service to
+me <i>without</i> any remuneration. Finding that Dr. Small's
+prescription had done me no perceptible good, I determined at
+last to go to a hom&oelig;opathic physician, of whom I heard
+great things. He was originally the apothecary of Hahneman (do
+I spell the name rightly?) the father of Hom&oelig;opathy. Under
+his hands I certainly improved rapidly; but it so happened
+that, just as I went to him, the rains, which had lasted
+without interruption for six weeks, ceased, and we had some
+days of glorious weather&mdash;now, who cured me, Jove or the
+apothecary? The weather is now as bad again as ever; but
+though less well, I have not <i>relapsed</i> with it. Most days I
+can paint three or four hours (I don't think I could draw),
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_124" id="PageV1_124">[124]</a></span>and the other evening I even read half an hour with a lamp
+without feeling pain; what a pass things have come to that
+that should be a boast! I confess that the little I do, I do
+without energy or great enjoyment. I have not yet given my
+eyes the fair trial of complete rest which, when the Laings
+go, I shall be able, through your kind promise of a piano and
+singing lessons, to do for a fortnight or three weeks. My
+sincere thanks to Papa for his kindness and liberality. I
+shall begin immediately after the holy week, for until the
+<i>forestieri</i>, of which there are a fabulous number, have gone
+to their respective summer quarters, neither piano nor masters
+are in any way come-at-able.</p>
+
+<p>"Having now spoken of my health, I return to your letter, for
+I find that the only way of writing at all to the point, is to
+answer sentence for sentence the questions and remarks you ask
+and make, and in the same order.</p>
+
+<p>"I indeed count myself fortunate in having the acquaintance of
+Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris; it is a source of the greatest
+enjoyment to me; they show me the most marked kindness, which
+I value all the more because it is for my own sake, and not
+for that of a dinners-demanding letter of introduction. I am
+never there less than three times a week, and often more; I
+have dined with them <i>en famille</i> four times, and it is only
+seven weeks since I made their acquaintance. Although I have a
+good many friends here, it is the only house which it is
+improving to me to frequent; her conversation is most
+agreeable to me, not from any knowledge she displays, but from
+her great refinement of feeling and taste; her husband is an
+enthusiastic amateur painter. I also meet there a young man of
+the name of Cartwright, a very old friend of theirs, who seems
+to me to possess an extraordinary amount of information, a
+mine which I have already begun to 'exploiter' to my own
+profit.</p>
+
+<p>"I have made a considerable number of acquaintances, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_125" id="PageV1_125">[125]</a></span>and have
+had more than enough parties, for people have a habit here of
+receiving once a week, so that, especially towards the end of
+the season, there never was an evening when I could not have
+gone somewhere, and often I had two or three places for one
+night; I used often to stay away from them, till I was afraid
+of offending people, which one does not wish to do when one
+experiences kindness from them. Then came a long series of
+arrears, which I found most monotonously tiring, for I am more
+lazy about dressing for a party than ever; more than once,
+when I have gone to my room to go through that hateful
+operation, I have slipped into bed instead of into my glazed
+boots; and yet, if I had taken the steps a great many young
+men do take, I should have gone to twice the number of places.
+Now all this was very well for this winter, as I could do
+nothing else on account of my eyes, but next year I shall turn
+over quite a new leaf; in the first place, give up dancing
+altogether&mdash;it is too fatiguing; and in the next, go nowhere
+but to my old acquaintances (of this winter, I mean).</p>
+
+<p>"I have lionised Isabel all over Rome, and devoted to her
+nearly all my afternoons since she came; it is the luckiest
+thing in the world, her coming here at a time when I am not
+able to paint; she is going in a few days; you may easily
+imagine that I have not slept in the afternoons since she has
+been here.</p>
+
+<p>"Gamba is, as you rightly suggested, far too straitened to go
+into society; however, he no way requires it, he has good
+health and untiring industry, and requires no such relaxation.
+As my paper is coming to an end, I must pass over the rest of
+your letter more rapidly. I fully feel with you that it is
+better in many respects that I should not go to Frankfurt, but
+I confess that when I saw it was out of the question, I felt
+painfully having to wait another year before seeing you;
+however, it is for the best. I am <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_126" id="PageV1_126">[126]</a></span>interested in hearing that
+you have bought a house in Bath; it looks as if you had at
+last found an anchor in your own country; is the society of
+Bath really agreeable? I always hear it spoken of in a jocular
+tone. What becomes of the Frankfurt house? You won't sell it,
+will you? Pray remember me most kindly to Kate Chamberlayne,
+and thank her for giving such an unworthy a corner in her
+memory.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, dear Mamma, I must close. Pray write very soon, and
+give me a quantity of news about all your doings; tell me how
+dear Lina gets on and Gussy's Pegasus."</p></div>
+
+<p>The preceding letter contains the first mention that I have seen of
+Leighton's friends, Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris, who were to be so much to
+him during twenty-five years of his life. He had known them seven
+weeks when he wrote it, and already Rome had become a happier place.
+All that most interested him in social intercourse was satisfied in
+their companionship, and in that of the intimate circle of friends who
+frequented their house. It soon became a second home, a home doubly
+welcome, as Leighton felt keenly being separated from his family. Mr.
+Sartoris was a fairly good amateur artist, and was considered by his
+friends to be a first-rate critic of painting. To Leighton's reasoning
+mind, ever prone to analyse and to give expression to the results of
+his analysis, it must have been inspiringly interesting to discuss art
+in general and his own in particular with one who had a natural gift
+for criticism.</p>
+
+<p>Again, music was ever a joy to Leighton, a joy only equalled by that
+inspired by his own art. Mrs. Sartoris (Adelaide Kemble), imbued with
+the noble dramatic instincts and traditions of the Kembles, was not
+only a great singer, but a great musician, and had in all matters a
+fine taste, bred of true and deep feeling united with keen natural
+perceptions. In Miss Thackeray's "Preface to a Preface" to <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_127" id="PageV1_127">[127]</a></span>Mrs.
+Sartoris' delightful story, "A Week in a French Country House," she
+quotes the description of one who had known the two sisters, Fanny and
+Adelaide Kemble, from their youth: "Mrs. Kemble is essentially poetic
+and dramatic in her nature; Mrs. Sartoris, so much of an artist,
+musical, with a love for exquisite things and all that belongs to form
+and colour." (Some of us remember hearing Lord Leighton say that,
+though Mrs. Sartoris did not paint, she was a true painter in her
+sense of beauty of composition, in her great feeling for art.) Another
+old friend, referring to Mrs. Sartoris, with some show of reason
+deprecated any attempt to record at all that which was unrecordable:
+"Would you give a dried rose-leaf as a sample of a garden of roses to
+one who had never seen a rose?" she exclaims, recalling, not without
+emotion, the golden hours she had spent, the talks she had once
+enjoyed in the Warsash Pergola. "You have only to speak of things as
+they are," said a great critic who had known Mrs. Sartoris in her
+later years. "Use no conventional epithets: those sisters are beyond
+any banalities of praise." Again, take another verdict: "That fine and
+original being, so independent and full of tolerance for the young;
+sympathising even with <i>misplaced</i> enthusiasm, entering so vividly
+into a girl's unformed longings. When I first knew her, she seemed to
+me to be a sort of revelation; it was some one taking life from an
+altogether new and different point of view from anything I had ever
+known before." Such are the descriptions given by those who knew her
+intimately of the lady who held out so kind a welcoming hand to
+Leighton when, as a youth of twenty-two, he started for the first time
+alone on the journey of life. I saw Mrs. Sartoris only two or three
+times at the house of our mutual friends, Mrs. Nassau Senior and Mrs.
+Brookfield. It was during the last years of Mrs. Sartoris' life, when
+illness and sorrow had marked her noble countenance with suffering. A
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_128" id="PageV1_128">[128]</a></span>friend of mine, however, who was greatly attached to Mrs. Sartoris,
+would often talk to me of her. My friend had had exceptional
+opportunities of coming in contact with the most distinguished minds
+in Europe. She told me she had never met with any personality who
+naturally, and apparently without effort, so completely dominated all
+others who were present. However distinguished the guests might be at
+a dinner, Mrs. Sartoris, she said, was invariably the centre of
+interest to all present.</p>
+
+<p>The Sartoris children were another source of delight to Leighton in
+this home. No greater child-lover ever existed. He writes, moreover,
+that all social pleasures which he enjoyed during the three years he
+lived in Rome he owed to these friends.</p>
+
+<p>With life brightened and inspired by their sympathy, and by all the
+sources of interest and culture which their society included, Leighton
+began brooding over the work which he meant should embody the best of
+his attainments so far as they were then developed. Florence and her
+art had cast a spell on his spirit very early in his existence. He had
+become especially enamoured of Giotto, the half-Catholic, the
+half-Greek Giotto. Pheidias had not yet touched him intimately; but
+his loving, spontaneous appreciation of this Florentine master, whose
+work in one sense echoes the secret of the noble, serene sense of
+beauty to be found in that of the Greeks, proves that in very early
+days Leighton's receptive powers were alive to it. The subject which
+inspired his first great effort appealed especially to Leighton from
+more than one point of view. In the historical incident which he chose
+was evinced the great reverence and appreciation with which the early
+Florentines regarded art, even when expressed in the archaic form of
+Cimabue's painting. The fact of his picture of the Madonna causing so
+much public enthusiasm was in itself a glorification of art; a witness
+that in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_129" id="PageV1_129">[129]</a></span>integral feelings of these Italians such enthusiasm for
+art could be excited in all classes of the people. One of the
+doctrines Leighton most firmly believed, and most often expressed, was
+that of the necessity of a desire for beauty among the various classes
+of a nation, poor and rich alike, before art of the best could become
+current coin.<a name="FNanchor_26_26" id="FNanchor_26_26"></a><a href="#Footnote_26_26" class="fnanchor">[26]</a> In painting the scene of Cimabue's Madonna being
+carried in triumph through the streets to the Church of Sta. Maria
+Novella, Leighton felt he could record not only his own reverence for
+his vocation, but the fact that all who follow art with love and
+sincerity find a common ground, whatever the class may be to which
+they belong. To Steinle, religion and art were as one, and his pupil
+had so far been inoculated with his master's feeling that, as his
+friend and brother artist, Mr. Briton Rivi&egrave;re, writes: "Art was to
+Leighton almost a religion, and his own particular belief almost a
+creed." As no difference of class should be recognised in church, so
+neither should any be accentuated between artists, when such are
+worthy of their calling, a belief which Leighton carried into practice
+all his life in his relations with his brother artists. He makes
+Cimabue, the noble, lead by the hand the shepherd boy Giotto, who was
+destined to outstrip his patron in the race for fame, and to become so
+great an influence in the history of his country's art. The magnates
+of the city are represented in Leighton's procession as forming part
+of it, while Dante, standing in a shadowed corner, is watching it
+pass.</p>
+
+<p>Again, Leighton was afforded an opportunity, in the accessories of the
+design, of painting the things which had entranced him in those days
+when he first fell in love with Italy; the medi&aelig;val costumes in the
+old pictures, the background to the <i>Citt&agrave; dei Fiori</i> of hills, spiked
+with cypresses pointing <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_130" id="PageV1_130">[130]</a></span>dark, black-green fingers upwards to the sky,
+and the beautiful San Miniato crowning one of their summits, the stone
+pines, the carnations, the <i>agaves</i>&mdash;all these things that had
+appealed to his native sense of beauty as such wonderful revelations,
+when, at the age of ten, he was transported to the sunlit land of art
+and beauty, after being accustomed to the sights and surroundings of a
+dingy region in fog-begrimed London.</p>
+
+<p>The subject of Leighton's early <i>opus magnum</i> was indeed no bare
+historical fact to his mind; it was a symbol of everything to which,
+in his enthusiasm for his calling, he attached the most earnest
+meaning, and which was also steeped in the radiant glamour cast over
+his spirit from childhood by the land that inspires all that is most
+ardent in the &aelig;sthetic emotions of an artist.</p>
+
+<p>The subject decided on, in the spring-time of 1853 he began working,
+as hard as the trouble in his eyes would permit, at the cartoons for
+the design. His intention of remaining in Italy during the summer was
+frustrated, partly by the unsatisfactory state of his eyes and health
+generally, partly by the decision of his family to return to their
+home in Frankfort for the summer, before finally settling in Bath.
+This change of plans is first mentioned in a letter to Steinle
+received February 23, 1853:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Rome, Via Di Porta Pinciano 8.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Master and Friend</span>,&mdash;How gladly I seize the
+opportunity to answer your delightful letter, and to connect
+myself again through the post with a man and a time round whom
+and which so many dear remembrances cling; that I did not do
+this immediately on receipt of your lines, I hope you have not
+set down to a possible negligence or to any sort of cooling of
+my grateful attachment to you, but that you have
+thought,&mdash;something has happened, Leighton has not forgotten
+me; and so it is; I suffer <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_131" id="PageV1_131">[131]</a></span>with my eyes. How sorry I am to
+begin a letter by giving you such news, for you expected only
+to hear from me of industrious making of progress; therefore
+exculpation of my silence is my first duty. The disorder of my
+eyes is not painful; I do not suffer with it; I am only
+incapacitated. Oh, that I were again in Frankfurt, then I
+should be well! Otherwise I am fairly well, and am intensely
+eager to do a great deal&mdash;and dare not; I am not altogether
+incapacitated, only my wings are clipped; I work for two or
+three hours every day, but as I cannot accomplish all that I
+desire, the little I can affords me the less pleasure; what,
+however, particularly damps my ardour is the lack of
+intellectual stimulus, because for <i>nearly six weeks</i> I have
+not <i>looked at a book</i>, for in the evening I simply dare not
+do <i>anything</i>. I have driven myself out into society, till I
+absolutely prefer going to bed. If I could only compose in my
+head! but first this was always difficult for my unquiet head,
+and secondly I have, in consequence of this moral <i>Sirocco</i>,
+been blown upon by such a <i>svoglia-tezza</i> that it is quite
+impossible; it only remains for me to think sadly of my, and I
+may say to you, most sympathetic friend, of our hopeful
+expectation, and to vex myself with the recollection of the
+zeal and joy with which I had commenced to put my plans into
+execution in Venice and Florence. My optic ailment is partly
+of the nerves, but principally rheumatic. You can imagine
+whether it has been improved by four weeks of unbroken wet
+weather! But enough of these complaints. I will now turn to
+your letter and answer the points on which you touch. What a
+refreshment your lines were to me! They are a mirror of your
+warm, rich soul; I read with unfeigned emotion how
+sympathetically you still think of your two pupils; you have
+not been out of our minds for a moment; see how it is in my
+atelier here: in your portrait you are bodily, in your
+writings you are spiritually, present with me daily. That I
+did not write to you immediately on my arrival was certainly
+wrong of me, for then I had not begun to suffer with my eyes;
+but my head was in such a maze that I always put off and
+thought, I will wait till I hear if he has received my first
+lines, quite forgetting that you did not know my address in
+Rome. I am sure you will forgive me. What you imagined about
+my impressions, agrees at the first blush with <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_132" id="PageV1_132">[132]</a></span>the facts, but
+as regards the "gathered honey" it has unfortunately turned
+out quite differently. I feel as if blighted, and until I have
+the full use of my eyes it will not be otherwise. Of Rico I
+will say nothing, for he will write himself either to-day or
+to-morrow; I can only tell you that so far we have travelled
+through Italy in perfect concord and friendship; but there is
+one thing that he will not tell you himself, he is
+indefatigably industrious, and has made marked progress in
+both drawing and painting. One word about my own development.
+Since I left Frankfurt, my observations on nature and art, in
+all beyond what is technical, have produced in me a curious
+shyness, a peculiar and uncomfortable distrust of myself. When
+on my journey I saw Nature unfold before my eyes in her
+teeming summer glory, and saw how each flower is like a
+miracle on her richly worked garment, when I saw how golden
+threads wound everywhere through the whole fabric of beauty,
+then it seemed to me that the artist could not without
+sacrilege pass over the least thing that is sealed with the
+love of the Creator; when, later on, I noticed in Venice and
+Florence with what love and truth the great Masters had
+rendered the smallest, then my feelings arose; I knew only too
+well that I, until I should have drawn a multitude of studies,
+could not possibly complete a composition in the sense that I
+should wish, and otherwise I would not; and the consequence of
+this knowledge is that I have not attempted a stroke of
+composition, and I often anxiously ask myself whether I could;
+thus far it has worked to paralyse me, but on the other hand
+it has led me to draw some very complete studies which would
+certainly not displease you, dear Master. Finally, I touch
+upon a point which, on account of its painfulness, I would
+gladly pass over. I heard in Florence from Andr&eacute; of your
+severe loss, and my first impulse was to write to you to
+express my sympathy; but when I set about it, I found it so
+infinitely difficult to say anything suitable without
+irritating your wound, that in the end I forbore. Your
+consolation you draw from a higher source than human
+friendship.</p>
+
+<p>We have visited Overbeck several times, and have found him a
+dear and estimable old man, but naturally the difference of
+age and of aims is too great between us for him to supply
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_133" id="PageV1_133">[133]</a></span>your place with us; besides, I do not wish that he should in
+any way supplant Steinle in my memory or affection.</p>
+
+<p>Flatz and Rhoden have welcomed us both most cordially; your
+name is a charm with them; as regards their art, both are
+<i>thoroughly able</i>, but unfortunately such <i>literal copyists</i>
+of Overbeck's style that absolutely no difference is
+perceptible; consequently they are quite insipid to me, for I
+consider a real independence indispensably necessary in an
+artist. From all three I send you most cordial greetings.</p>
+
+<p>Much as I could still tell you, my dear friend, I must hasten
+to a close on account of my eyes. I beg you not to repay my
+silence in kind, but when you have a moment, put a few lines
+on paper for the encouragement of your distant pupil. I long
+also to know how your works prosper, particularly the large
+one on the grey canvas with the light from above.</p>
+
+<p>Accept the assurance of the unalterable, devoted attachment of
+your grateful pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>It is not impossible that I might come to Frankfurt for a
+short time this summer.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p>A Monsieur Frederic Leighton,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Frankfort a/M. Poste Restante.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Bath</span>, <i>May 15, 1853</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My beloved Son</span>,&mdash;I have hardly the courage to tell
+you how intense is our joy at the prospect of meeting you, so
+much sooner than we had hoped, knowing that our pleasure is
+obtained, or will be, at the expense of a grievous
+disappointment to your long cherished and quite reasonable
+hopes. Your father was quite depressed the whole evening after
+the receipt of your last letter. I am sure I need not tell you
+how willingly I would relinquish my expected happiness to
+promote yours. I shall write but a short letter, as we hope to
+be in Frankfort soon after this reaches its destination.
+Surely I told you in my last epistle we mean to spend the
+summer at home, for the last time to bear that name, alas! I
+fear I shall never, in England, feel as I do in Germany when
+tolerably well. The climate makes it impossible for me to feel
+that springiness of spirit so nearly <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_134" id="PageV1_134">[134]</a></span>allied to youthful
+feelings which I have often enjoyed at Frankfort and for no
+particular reason. It was in the air, but never notice these
+observations in your father's presence. He is sufficiently
+troubled at the thoughts of depriving me of my beloved house
+and garden, which, after all, is done by my own desire. I have
+just been reading an extract from a letter to Miss Pakenham
+from Mrs. Maquay, partly at that lady's request, that we might
+know the agreeable impression you made on her and your
+acquaintances at Rome. I will not gratify your vanity by
+repeating words of praise that have sunk deep into my mother's
+heart; "for the matter of that," I think your father and
+sisters are equally pleased at the tribute to your attractive
+qualities.</p>
+
+<p>I will no farther fatigue your eyes as we hope so soon to
+embrace you. We fervently hope your eyes will be obedient to
+the treatment, which shall enable you to return to Rome for
+the winter. You cannot doubt that your father desires as much
+as you that you may be in a fit state to return.</p>
+
+<p>God bless you, my dearest, all unite in this wish, if
+possible, more than the others.&mdash;Your tenderly attached
+Mother,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">A. Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Leighton went for medical treatment to Bad Gleisweiler, bei Landau,
+and writes to Steinle from there on July 25, 1853:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Honoured and Dear Friend</span>,&mdash;What can you think of me
+for leaving you so long without news of me! It certainly did
+not occur through forgetfulness, but because I always deferred
+in the hope of being able to announce some marked improvement
+in my condition, but that is still impossible, although my
+general health (particularly in respect of the hardening
+against cold-catching) is much stronger, though unfortunately
+the improvement in my eyes is not great; this, however,
+requires time, and especially patience. I shall be here
+another fortnight, then my medical treatment will proceed in a
+so-called after-cure <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_135" id="PageV1_135">[135]</a></span>(Nachkur); I shall be dieted, take many
+baths, work in moderation&mdash;ouf! But I will conform to it all
+willingly, if only I may very soon return to my adored Italy.
+How I cherish the beloved image in my heart! how it comforts
+me! how many idle hours it beautifies for me! how mightily it
+draws me! The remembrance of the beautiful time spent there
+will be riches to me throughout all my life; whatever may
+later befall me, however darkly the sky may cloud above me,
+there will remain on the horizon of the past the beautiful
+golden stripe, glowing, indelible, it will smile on me like
+the soft blush of even. In the meantime, I impatiently await
+the moment when I shall see you again, my dear friend, and
+when I shall be permitted to set before your eyes the work
+which we have already discussed together; I shall seek so to
+deal with my affairs that you shall not be ashamed of your
+grateful and devoted pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p><i>P.S.</i>&mdash;I beg to be remembered most kindly to your wife, and
+to all my friends.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p>(<i>On envelope</i>&mdash;A. Madame Leighton,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;50 Frankfurt a/M.)</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Bad Gleisweiler, bei Landau.</span><br />
+(<i>Postmark, July 30, 1853.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>I had the first quarter last year; so that I shall still be
+where I started; however, I can say nothing more myself to
+Papa, since he has given me to understand that his reason is
+want of confidence in me, for, having rejected the obstacle
+which I myself suggested&mdash;that he could not afford it&mdash;he
+leaves no other reason possible. I confess I do not feel much
+flattered that this feeling should have so penetrated him as
+to make him fall back from me on an occasion so momentous as
+the painting of my first exhibiting picture, a moment critical
+in my career, and on the immense importance of which nobody
+can, at other times, dwell with more disheartening eloquence
+than himself; how, he says, do I know that your picture will
+succeed? Is it this doubt that makes him throw obstacles in my
+way? Nobody is better persuaded than myself of the kindness of
+Papa's heart, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_136" id="PageV1_136">[136]</a></span>and of the sincerity of his desire for my
+welfare, but he does not seem in any way to realise the
+importance of the occasion. Now, if I, like so many other
+young men, had gone into the army, he would not&mdash;for what
+father does?&mdash;have hesitated for a moment to provide me with
+my complete outfit as required by the rules of the regiment,
+for he would have felt that I could not canter about on parade
+without a coat; but now that I am girding myself for a far
+greater struggle, now that I am about, single-handed, to face
+the bitter weapons of public criticism, does he withhold the
+sword with which he might arm me, for fear I should waste my
+blows on the butterflies that pass me as I march into the
+field? At two and twenty I am still in his eyes a schoolboy
+whose great aim is to squeeze as much "tin out of the
+governor" as he can by any ingenuity contrive.</p>
+
+<p>Will you remember me most kindly to my uncle, aunt, and
+cousins, and take for all yourselves the best love of your
+dutiful and affectionate son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Leighton took the cartoons for his picture of Cimabue's Madonna to
+Frankfort to discuss the designs with Steinle and obtain from him his
+criticism and advice. In the autumn of 1853, the home in Frankfort was
+finally given up, and the family returned to Bath. Leighton, on his
+journey back to Rome, stopped some weeks at Florence, to steep himself
+afresh in her medi&aelig;val art, and to gather fresh material for the
+details of his picture. During this visit, he drew the group of
+figures painted <i>al fresco</i> by Taddeo Gaddi on the walls of the
+Capella Spagnola of Sta. Maria Novella, which included the portraits
+painted from life of Cimabue and Giotto. In this portrait Leighton
+found the costume for the hero of his picture. He also repeated the
+dress in painting the cartoon for Cimabue's portrait executed in
+mosaic in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The pencil sketch (see List
+of Illustrations) is wonderful as a drawing, considering the
+conditions under which it was made. It was secured for the Leighton
+House <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_137" id="PageV1_137">[137]</a></span>Collection, and in the preface for the catalogue it is
+described (see Appendix). While at Florence he wrote the following
+letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Florence, 386 Via del Fasso</span>,<br />
+<i>November 13, 1853</i>.</p>
+
+<p>[<span class="sc">My Very Dear Mamma</span>],&mdash;How could you for one instant
+suppose that I could suspect you of coldness towards me? I was
+quite distressed that you should have entertained such an
+idea, and had I followed my first impulse should have written
+at once to tell you so; but, as it so easily happens when one
+is newly arrived in a strange place, first one thing and then
+another made me defer writing, till at last I made up my mind
+to stay at home all this morning, and not to get up till the
+letter should be finished; I am, however, still several days
+within my month. With regard to my health, I made no especial
+mention of it, probably because, as I have a treatment before
+me when I get to Rome, I attached little importance to my
+feelings in this state of interim; however, as you mention it,
+I am happy to say that my faceache makes its appearance
+decidedly less often than it did in Frankfurt, and that my
+eyes seem to me, if anything, better since I have got to
+Italy. One thing is certain, and that is that my spirits are
+very much improved since I have got back to the dear land of
+my predilection; I felt it as soon as ever I arrived in
+Venice; I felt a heavy cloud roll away from over me, the sun
+burst forth and shone on my path, and a thousand little
+springs, stifled and half-forgotten fountains of youth and
+joyousness, gurgled up in my bosom and buoyed up my heart, and
+my heart bathed in them and was glad&mdash;happy Fred! that he has
+such sources of joy and happiness! Unlucky Fred! for he will
+never be able to live but where the heavens always smile&mdash;and
+where he can economise on umbrellas!</p>
+
+<p>I have had many happy hours within the last three weeks, but I
+think that the happiest time of all was the afternoon of our
+descent on to Florence from the mountains of the Romagna; even
+the morning of that day was very enjoyable, for although the
+sky was murky and cross, and it rained as far as you could
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_138" id="PageV1_138">[138]</a></span>see, yet I knew that that very evening, in that very coach, I
+should be rattling along the streets of dear, dear Florence,
+and that bore me up, and I made light of the rain, and
+whistled out of tune in order to take off the wind, who, in
+spite of his fine voice, has certainly no ear for music. Then,
+too, we had a most amusing coachman, who did nothing but tell
+stories and crack jokes the whole time. One episode is worth
+transcribing: "Seen to-day's paper, sir?" (turning sharply
+round). "Well, no" (says I); "anything in it?" "Ah!" (says
+he), "very interesting correspondence from the moon." The
+article seems to have been as follows: "Our correspondent in
+the moon tells us of rather a discreditable affair which has
+just taken place in a high quarter. It seems that the other
+night St. Peter, having spent the evening with a few friends,
+by whom he was entertained with the distinguished hospitality
+which his high position entitled him to expect, left them in
+such a state of excitement and, in short, intoxication, that
+he lost his way, and was missing at his post till ten o'clock
+the next morning. Unfortunately, too, he had taken the keys
+with him. About two o'clock in the morning a batch of souls,
+with passports for heaven, came up to the gates and requested
+admittance, but finding all knocking in vain, they were
+obliged to spend the night behind a cloud in a very exposed
+situation, which was made doubly disagreeable by their having
+put on in anticipation the very slight costume habitually worn
+in the abode of eternal happiness; several severe colds were
+caught." "But all this," he added (mysteriously producing a
+key from his waistcoat pocket), "does not affect me&mdash;letters,
+you know, despatches." I have myself subsequently consulted
+the papers in question, and find that St. Peter, in the
+confusion of his ideas, had taken up his seat at the other
+Sublime Porte, and had inadvertently let a lot more Russians
+into the Danubian Principalities. So the papers say. However,
+I confess that I rather question the whole affair.</p>
+
+<p>I close with the old, yet ever new refrain. Pray, write very
+soon! if at once, to Florence, Poste Restante; if not, to
+Rome, Poste Restante.&mdash;With very best love to all, I remain,
+dearest Mamma, your dutiful and affectionate son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep138" id="imagep138"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep138.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep138.jpg" width="55%" alt="Portraits of Cimabue, Giotto, Simone Memmi, and Taddeo Gaddi" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">Portraits of Cimabue, Giotto, Simone Memmi, and Taddeo
+Gaddi, from Fresco in Capella Spagnola, by Taddeo Gaddi. Santa Maria
+Novella, Florence, 1853.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_139" id="PageV1_139">[139]</a></span><span class="sc">Bath</span>, <i>August 13, 1854</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dearest Freddy</span>,&mdash;We are delighted to know you are
+out of Rome, for it is possible to have too much of a good
+thing; and much as you delight in "seeing the streets flooded
+with light and glittering under a metallic sky" (how beautiful
+it must be!), the pure air of the country, a less fierce heat,
+and a total change of scene, will, I trust, make a new man of
+you. How long a holiday shall you take, and did you mean that
+you are staying with the Sartoris family as a visitor? under
+all circumstances you will be a great deal with them, and as
+for the happiness you would so affectionately share with me, I
+would not, if I could, deprive you of a morsel of it; you are
+enjoying such unusual social advantages that it is a solace to
+me to know that you are capable of appreciating them. Thank
+God, you have no taste for what so many men of your age call
+pleasure, and that in spite of your sociable disposition, you
+always show good taste in the choice of your companions. I
+wish we could have a little of your society. The &mdash;&mdash; are
+still familiar and dear friends, but their minds are so
+different, so conventional, that many sides of your sisters'
+minds are closed, even to them.</p></div>
+
+<p>The next letter from Leighton to his mother was written after he
+returned to Rome:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p>(<i>On cover</i>&mdash;Mrs. Leighton,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No. 9 Circus, Bath, England.)</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, Via Felice 123</span>,<br />
+<i>January 19, 1854</i>.<br />
+(<i>On cover&mdash;Arrived Jan. 6, '54.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;When I received your long expected
+letter, which, by-the-bye, took sixteen days reaching me, I
+was just winding myself up to write and tell you that I was
+sorely afraid some letter of yours must have been lost; I need
+hardly tell you that I was relieved of a considerable anxiety
+when I found that all was right, and that your letter, not
+mine, had been detained in that most slovenly of all
+institutions, the Roman post.</p>
+
+<p>And now that I have taken up my pen, what a quantity I have to
+make up for in the way of congratulations, and greetings, and
+good wishes relative to days often and felicitously to <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_140" id="PageV1_140">[140]</a></span>recur!
+what jolly birthdays loom in the imagination, what Christmas
+Eves and Christmas Days, and old years going out and new ones
+coming, with a punctuality never known to fail! Alas! that I
+cannot send you some outward and visible sign of my inward
+sympathies and hearty yearnings; here would be a fine
+opportunity of enumerating an extensive catalogue of blessings
+which I sincerely wish to see showered down upon you, but that
+they can all be returned in one compendious, all-embracing
+word&mdash;Health! I therefore laconically but heartily wish you
+all <i>that</i>, positive or relative; and this leads me to <i>mine</i>.
+Well, let me confess it (unromantic as it undoubtedly is); I
+feel there is no shirking the avowal that, stamping all things
+down into an average, and squinting at little annoyances,
+I&mdash;must I say it?&mdash;<i>am about as happy as the day is long</i>: may
+my happiness reflect a little of its light on your days,
+dearest and best of mothers! I have begun my report of health
+by an average of my spirits; I think there is more <i>&agrave; propos</i>
+in this than one might at first sight imagine. I proceed to
+the other details which differ widely from your probable
+expectations; you ask me whether I leech myself with
+conscientious regularity. Now I don't leech myself at all! My
+reason for abstaining when I first came was that I feared so
+strong a measure till my spectacles should arrive that I might
+therewithal screen and protect my exhausted blinkers. It is
+only the other day that the said barnacles arrived, and as I
+have meanwhile gone on working day after day without great
+inconvenience to my eyes, I really think I might do myself
+more harm than good by drawing blood, the more so that I am by
+no means a person of full habit that I could spare much of
+that article.</p>
+
+<p>On turning to your letter, I find the next point you touch is
+my music. I did indeed try my voice at the Hodnett's as you
+anticipated, but unfortunately I never by any chance had
+anything like a decent note in my voice during the whole time
+that I was in Florence; indeed at the very best of times it is
+the merest "fil de voix" that I have, which, however, would
+not prevent my cultivating it for my own private enjoyment,
+but for a circumstance which will astound you perhaps, but is
+nevertheless a great fact&mdash;to wit, that I can't afford it! The
+expenses of <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_141" id="PageV1_141">[141]</a></span>my pictures are far too considerable to allow of
+it this winter; next winter I hope to make up for lost time
+and still to be able to chirp some little ditty when I once
+more skim by the paternal nest. A piano I have, such a
+hurdy-gurdy! I fear, alas! I am an inveterate blockhead; I
+daily lament that you did not <i>drub</i> music into me when I was
+a child; I should then have broken my fingers in time; my
+youngsters shall most assuredly learn it with a stick in their
+minds' eye. As we were just talking of the &mdash;&mdash;s, I must
+mention that I founded my opinion less on what they say than
+on what <i>I</i> think and see; they could not either of them be
+happy if they could not have their bonnets and dresses from
+the most fashionable <i>modiste</i>, turn out drag of their own,
+and in every way be "the thing"; that they like me, I know,
+but I believe they would not have me if they liked me twice as
+much; I am not exactly poor, I admit, but I seem something
+like it in Florence, where it is the custom for young men to
+drive to the Cascine in elegant broughams or phaetons, to find
+their riding-horses at the round piazza, to prance and amble
+round the ladies, and then to drive home again in the style
+they went. But let me speak of more important things; you will
+be pleased to hear that my compositions have been highly
+approved of by all those whose opinion has weight with me.
+Cornelius said, the first time he saw them, "Ich sehe Sie sind
+weiter als alle Engl&auml;nder ausgenommen <i>Dyce</i>;" that is a great
+compliment from such a man. I have made one alteration in my
+plans, of which Papa, I think, will not disapprove; I found,
+on more accurate calculation, that, in order to paint my
+Cimabue of such a size as to be admissible to the London
+Exhibition, the figures would be far smaller than my eyes
+would tolerate; I have therefore reversed the order of things,
+and am painting it on a large scale for the great Exhibition
+in Paris (spring, '55), in which all nations are to be
+represented, and where size is rather a recommendation than an
+obstacle. My "Romeo" I shall send to London in the same year;
+it will be a foot each way smaller than Lady Cowley's
+portrait; thus I also have the advantage of giving the
+Florentine picture a size more commensurate to the
+art-historical importance of the event it represents. With
+regard to the sale of it, I hug myself with no vain delusions.
+I paint it for a name; I could not have a <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_142" id="PageV1_142">[142]</a></span>finer field than is
+offered by the great International Exhibition in question. I
+must come to a close, for I expect a model immediately, and do
+not wish to miss to-morrow morning's post. <i>La suite au
+prochain num&eacute;ro.</i></p>
+
+<p>Pray write soon, dearest mother, and tell me all I long to
+know about yourselves, the house, the furniture, your friends,
+and your dinner-party; meanwhile, having first largely helped
+yourself, pass up to all the dear ones very best love and
+kisses from your dutiful and affectionate boy,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p>(<i>On cover</i>&mdash;Mrs. Leighton,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9 Circus, Bath, England.)</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, Via Felice</span> 123,<br />
+<i>March 22, 1854</i>.<br />
+(<i>Received March 31.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;As I see no chance of finding time to
+write to you in the ordinary course of things by merely
+waiting for it, I lay down my brush for this afternoon, and
+"set to" regularly pen in hand to answer your last, dated the
+fifth (let us be business-like), but which did not reach me
+till a few days ago. According to the egotistical practice
+which you have wished me to adopt, I begin with an account of
+myself: I am very much at a loss to tell you anything of my
+eyes that shall convey to you a correct idea of their state;
+one thing is certain, which is that their weakness bears no
+regular proportion to the work done; sometimes when I do
+little or nothing my eyes feel uncomfortable, and at others,
+when I do a great deal, I suffer nothing. For instance,
+yesterday, having a great deal of work cut out for the day, I
+worked eleven hours, with barely half an hour's respite at
+twelve, and, <i>pour comble de m&eacute;faits</i>, I did what I rarely
+venture on&mdash;I read at night; and yet I feel little or no
+inconvenience. The fact is, my eyes are the humble servants of
+my head, which is particularly sensitive; at the same time I
+hesitate to adopt leeches (unless, of course, Papa adheres to
+his opinion), because I don't feel as if I were over-troubled
+with blood; what do you think? My <i>otherwise</i> health is, thank
+God, very decent. I am not a robust man, but I jog on very
+comfortably, and feel very jolly, and I am sure I have a good
+many reasons to be so. About the hours I spend inactive, I
+don't feel that so severely as I did last winter, by any
+means; in the first place, I work till five or so (from <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_143" id="PageV1_143">[143]</a></span>seven
+or eight in the morning), then, you know, I dine at six, which
+I make rather a long job; then, in the evening, instead of
+tiring my eyes as I did last winter with dancing, <i>which</i> I
+have totally forsworn (there are more "whiches" in my letter
+than in the whole tea-party on the Blocksberg in "Faust"), I
+spend nearly all my time at the house of my dear friends, the
+Sartoris, where, I assure you, to pass to another point in
+your letter, I neglect no opportunity to cultivate my poor
+unlettered mind. It is indeed my <i>only</i> opportunity, for to
+study, alas, I have neither time, health, nor eyes, and the
+hopes to which you allude, and which I myself once
+entertained, must, I fear, be given up. The worst feature in
+my mental organisation is my utter want of memory for certain
+things, a deficiency of which I am daily and painfully
+reminded by the mention in my presence of books which I have
+read and enjoyed, and which I have <i>utterly</i> forgotten. My
+only consolation I find in the hope that I shall be able to
+devote myself with double energy to the art "proprement dit,"
+and in the reflection that hardly any of the modern artists
+(alas, what a standard!), that have possessed extensive
+knowledge and varied accomplishments, have had them as a
+super-addition to the gift of art, but <i>at the expense</i> of
+their properly pictorial faculties; to every man is dealt a
+certain amount of <i>calibre</i>&mdash;in one man's brain it breaks out
+in a cauliflower of variegated bumps, in another's it flows
+into one channel and irrigates one mental tree, and "sends
+forth fruit in due season"&mdash;hem! Thus, whilst <i>I</i> paint,
+<i>others</i> shall know all about it; <i>I</i> shall be an artist, let
+<i>them</i> be connoisseurs. What did poor Haydon (for I <i>have</i>
+read the book) get by his mordant gift of satire and his
+devouring thirst for ink? He embittered old enemies, made new
+ones, estranged his friends, encouraged the fierce
+irascibility of his own temperament, allowed himself to cuddle
+the phantoms of undeserved neglect which always haunted him,
+distorted his own perceptions, and cut his throat! Without
+that pernicious gift, Haydon would not have written, the
+Academy would have hung his pictures as they deserved, for his
+early works were full of promise, they would have stood by him
+in the hour of need; had everything that he saw and heard not
+fallen in distorted images on the troubled mirror of his mind,
+he would, no doubt, have produced better works. Haydon might
+have been <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_144" id="PageV1_144">[144]</a></span>a happy man! With regard to the practical lesson to
+be drawn by myself, this painful book undoubtedly shows in a
+strong light the absurdity of <i>always</i> painting large
+pictures&mdash;a practice in which, I assure you, I have not the
+remotest idea of indulging. To one thing, however, which you
+observe, dear Mamma, I must beg to take exception, as
+involving a very important question: you say Haydon persisted
+in following the historic style, to the exclusion of pictures
+of a saleable size; now this would only avail as precedent
+against historical art on the supposition that that walk
+necessarily implies colossal proportions, than which idea
+(though Haydon seems to have entertained it) nothing can be
+more false. Is it necessary to mention Raphael's "Vision of
+Ezekiel," "Madonna della Seggiola," or a thousand other
+pictures, by him and others, which utterly confute any such
+notion? But even were it so, we must also not overlook the
+fact that the unsaleability of Haydon's pictures had its cause
+as much in their quality as in their quantity, and I will hold
+up to you, in contrast to his sad story, the case of Mr.
+Watts, who gives a sketch of the artistical character at the
+end of the autobiography, and who has as many orders for
+<i>fresco</i> as he can execute for a considerable number of years.</p></div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep145" id="imagep145"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep145.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep145.jpg" width="60%" alt="Study of Head of Woman" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF HEAD OF WOMAN AT WINDOW IN "CIMABUE'S MADONNA"<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Bath</span>, <i>April 17th</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Fred</span>,&mdash;I have left a longer interval
+than usual between this letter and my last, for your
+convenience and my advantage; that is to say, that by arriving
+close on the time for your writing to me, the contents of this
+sheet, or anything in it needing comment, may not have escaped
+your memory till no longer wanted, for, with the best possible
+wish to be contented with the epistles for which I look
+forward so anxiously, I cannot help feeling a little
+disappointed when you do not answer inquiries. I do not wish
+to be unreasonable, my darling, in my demands on your time,
+but I cannot bear that your letters should be mere unavoidable
+monthly reports, and not what mine are to you, that is, in
+intention; though I make every allowance for natural
+infirmity. Could we but have foreseen your weakness of sight,
+I should have felt a great inclination to thrash you into
+exercising your memory more than you did, though I am not at
+all sure that the result would have been satisfactory; and
+with respect to music, I am convinced you would not <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_145" id="PageV1_145">[145]</a></span>have
+made a satisfactory return for any knowledge acquired by dint
+of birch, but&mdash;if it were not useless&mdash;I would enlarge upon
+the imprudence of having neglected your father's admonitions
+at a more recent period to store your memory; remember it for
+the sake of your own young people when you are the venerable
+papa of an obstreperous youth like yourself. I think upon the
+whole it is satisfactory that the uneasiness in your eyes
+depends on your general health. Papa thinks the sensation you
+describe when drinking must be nervous, and connected with the
+narrow swallow you inherit from me, a peculiarity which has
+shown itself in four generations. We do not feel so certain as
+it would be comfortable to do that the climate of Rome is the
+one best suited to a nervous person; but of course you will
+seek a healthy change of place as soon as the heat makes it
+desirable. I must remind you of the unpleasant fact that your
+constitution very much resembles mine; remember what I have
+come to, and do not trifle with yourself; do not say to
+yourself: What a bore Mamma is! I am constantly thinking of my
+precious absent son, and long, as only a mother can, to see
+you; when I look at your picture, I feel quite wretched
+sometimes that I cannot, though you seem alive before me,
+stroke your cheek and lean my head on your chest. The other
+day we were startled by the appearance in the drawing-room of
+Andrew, Lizzy, and the girls; and the first greeting over,
+"That's my saucy Fred," burst out of your aunt's mouth; "dear
+fellow, what a likeness;" and Lina was equally admired, and we
+all agreed in deploring Gussy's absence from the wall. I wish
+I could see your studies, for I suppose you have a great many
+for your great undertaking. Models are probably cheaper than
+in Germany&mdash;are you conscious of improvement? This seems an
+odd question, but it is suggested by the fact that while Gussy
+practises most diligently, she seldom seems conscious of the
+improvement I perceive distinctly. Do you see Cornelius from
+time to time, and gain anything from him? You never mention if
+you have any friends amongst the artists distinguished in any
+way.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome</span>, <i>April 29, 1854</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I have of late, since the underpainting of my large picture
+(at which I worked like a horse) given myself rest and
+recreation in the way of several picnics in the <i>Campagna</i>
+under the auspices of <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_146" id="PageV1_146">[146]</a></span>Mesdames Sartoris and Kemble. We are a
+most jovial crew; the following are the <i>dramatis person&aelig;</i>:
+first, the two above-mentioned ladies; then Mr. Lyons, the
+English diplomatist here (whom your friend probably meant); he
+is not ambassador, nor is he in any way supposed to represent
+the English people here, he is only a sort of negotiator;
+however, a most charming man he assuredly is, funny, dry,
+jolly, imperturbably good-tempered; then Mr. Amp&egrave;re, a French
+savant, a genial, witty, amusing old gentleman as ever was;
+then Browning, the poet, a never-failing fountain of quaint
+stories and funny sayings; next Harriet Hosmer, a little
+American sculptress of great talent, the queerest,
+best-natured little chap possible; another girl, nothing
+particular, and your humble servant who, except when art is
+touched, plays the part of humble listener, in which capacity
+he makes amends for the vehemence with which he starts up when
+certain subjects are touched which relate to his own trade; in
+other things, silence, alas! becomes him, ignorant as he is,
+and having clean forgotten all he ever knew!<a name="FNanchor_27_27" id="FNanchor_27_27"></a><a href="#Footnote_27_27" class="fnanchor">[27]</a> I shall not
+be able to leave Rome more than a month in the summer, as the
+work which I have carved out for myself makes it utterly
+impossible. You must know, however, that the hot months (July
+and August) are not the dangerous ones, but September, when
+the rains set in. During that month I shall give myself a
+complete rest from work, and shall go to the baths of Lucca,
+the healthiest spot in Italy, where I shall enjoy cool air,
+country scenery, and, better than all, the society of the
+Sartoris, who are going to spend the summer there; meanwhile,
+I shall take what precautions I can; I shall live <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_147" id="PageV1_147">[147]</a></span>as the
+Italians do, getting up early, and sleeping in the middle of
+the day, and shall resume flannel, if you do not advise the
+contrary, as I see reason to believe that it is a great
+preservative against fever. As for the general climate of
+Rome, I don't give it much consideration, as there is not the
+least probability of my ever <i>residing</i> here; I think there is
+not a worse place for a rising artist to set up his abode in
+than Rome, on account of the want of emulation as compared,
+for instance, to a place like Paris, where there are hundreds
+of clever men, all hard at work, and where an artist is always
+exposed to comparisons. It is impossible for me to give you
+any decisive answer about my progress, for you know I have
+been busy all the winter drawing studies; I shall see when I
+come to the picture itself what steps I have made forwards; I
+reckon on its being the best thing I shall have done, I can
+say no more. I believe Sartoris, whose judgment in all the
+arts is excellent, considers me the most promising young man
+in Rome; but that does not mean much&mdash;we shall see!</p>
+
+<p>Of my daily life and occupations, I have little or nothing to
+say, as they are monotonous to a degree; parties, of course,
+have ceased, and I am just about to leave p.p.c.'s everywhere,
+as I don't mean to go into the world at all next year. I don't
+remember whether I told you that some little time back Mrs.
+Sartoris gave some tableaux and charades in which your humble
+servant co-operated; the whole thing was, I believe, very
+successful. The greatest treat I have had lately has been
+hearing Mrs. Kemble read on different occasions Julius C&aelig;sar,
+Hamlet, and part of Midsummer Night's Dream; I need not tell
+you how delighted I was.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p>(<i>Cover</i>&mdash;Mrs. Leighton,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Circus, Bath, England.)</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome</span>, <i>May 25, 1854</i>.<br />
+(<i>Received June 5.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Very dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;Your letter (which I received
+the day before yesterday, and should have answered the next
+day but for an engagement I had made to go into the country)
+caused me great pain; if you have known me hitherto for a
+dutiful and loving son, believe that in this case nothing has
+been further from me than the least umbrage at the advice and
+suggestions that you always offer me with kindness and
+delicacy, and that I am much distressed at the idea of having
+in any way aggravated the discomforts <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_148" id="PageV1_148">[148]</a></span>which an English winter
+make you suffer; let me rather attribute, and beg yourself to
+refer, to the depressed state of your spirits any
+misconstruction you have laid upon a letter in which, if there
+was any constraint, it arose only from a desire to answer
+satisfactorily and systematically such questions as you asked
+me; I will endeavour in future to present my report in a more
+ornamental form. The delay, too, of my last letter arose from
+a misconception on my part of your expectations, for I was
+waiting and eagerly waiting for <i>your</i> answer to intervene,
+and, considering the irregularity of Roman posts, you can
+hardly have a day on which you particularly expect to receive
+news of me. Let me hope, dear Mamma, that on these points, as
+on the others that I am going to touch, you will be able in
+future to think more cheerfully, in spite of the distorting
+medium of British fogs. I fear from the tone of alarm I detect
+in your letter that I (myself perhaps, at the time, under the
+influence of the <i>scirocco</i>) must have conveyed to you an idea
+of greater ill-health than I labour under: my eyes, certainly,
+are not strong, so that I avoid using them at nights, and I
+am, as I ever was, incorrigibly bed-loving, but this is "the
+whole front" of my ailments; meanwhile I work all day with
+little or no annoyance. I am of good cheer and contented, and
+altogether more free from rheumatism than I have been for a
+long time; that, thus deprived of the means of reading, such
+little information as I ever had should have effectually made
+its escape from a noddle that never had the capacity of fixing
+itself on any <i>one</i> thing at a time, is deplorable, but not to
+be wondered at; let us hope for a better day. Nor is spending
+the hot months of the summer here in Rome so dreadful a thing
+as it appears to your tender anxiety; with proper precautions
+and a regular life I shall no doubt go through it as well as
+so many of my friends that have tried the experiment; the more
+so that the worst part of the summer is in September and early
+October, at which period I shall be enjoying the particularly
+cool and healthy air of Bagni di Lucca. How could you be
+surprised, dear Mamma, at my having begun the pictures? did I
+not tell you the size of them? do you not know the quantity of
+figures in the composition? do you not know that it will be
+considered a piece of extraordinary rapidity if I finished
+them in time for <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_149" id="PageV1_149">[149]</a></span>the Exhibitions, <i>i.e.</i> by the beginning of
+next February? You perceive the necessity of my staying here,
+willy nilly. The Sartoris seem to you too prominent a motive
+in my desire to stay; alas! and again alas! they are off to
+Lucca in a few days, and I shall be left alone. Judge whether
+I am eager to get off, and whether anything but necessity of
+the most urgent kind will keep me here, for I am warmly
+attached to both, and her I dearly love. Be quite at ease
+about the amount of advice I can get here, I do not lack that
+if I want it; but as it is, the compositions were so
+completely sifted by Steinle before I left Frankfurt, that I
+have nothing left but the material execution, in which you
+know every artist must fumble about for himself. Cornelius
+<i>is</i> very kind and amiable to me, has been to see me twice,
+and speaks well of me behind my back; he told Mrs. Kemble
+(Fanny) that there was not another man in England that could
+paint such a picture as my "Cimabue" threatens to be, and the
+same was unhesitatingly asserted by Browning, the poet, who is
+also a connoisseur. Such details as these from my mouth savour
+of intolerable vanity; they are not meant so, and I give you
+them simply because I think they will fall pleasantly on the
+ear of the mother of the daubster. To show you the <i>revers de
+la m&eacute;daille</i> about advice from influential men, I will just
+tell you that I received the other day from Cornelius some
+advice which was diametrically opposed to that of Steinle,
+<i>arrangez vous!</i> Gamba and I are still capital friends, and he
+is making great progress, which is the well-earned fruit of
+his talent and assiduity.</p>
+
+<p>Now, dear Mamma, you see how letters come to be dry; by the
+time you have shaken off the responsibility of question
+answering, and begin to breathe a little, you have got to the
+end of time and paper, and have no margin left for a little
+dessert; the fact is, <i>your</i> only chance is this: next time
+you write, ask me no questions, and then I'll devote my
+epistle to telling you a most thrilling story which, though it
+far surpasses in strangeness the common run of works of
+fiction, is <i>perfectly and literally true</i>, as I have it
+almost from headquarters; them's your prospects!&mdash;Meanwhile,
+with very best love to all, I remain, your affectionate and
+dutiful son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep149" id="imagep149"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep149.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep149th.jpg" width="90%" alt="Complete Design for &quot;Cimabue's Madonna&quot;" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ORIGINAL SKETCH OF COMPLETE DESIGN FOR "CIMABUE'S MADONNA"<br />
+Drawn in 1853<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, Via Felice 123</span>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_150" id="PageV1_150">[150]</a></span><br />
+<i>May 29, 1854</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Friend</span>,&mdash;Delightful as it always is to me to
+receive any news of you, yet your last letter, along with
+pleasure, caused me some pain, for I could not help fearing
+that my long silence had annoyed you a little; if this should
+be indeed the case I must express my extreme regret, and beg
+you to believe that my gratitude and love can only cease when
+my memory ceases; how could it possibly be otherwise?</p>
+
+<p>You paint me a very melancholy picture of the situation in
+Frankfurt; it is certainly a most unpleasant state of things,
+all this quarrelling and dissension! When I, at this distance,
+think of such a regular hermit-like way of going on, I feel
+quite disgusted; it is fortunate that you, dear Friend, have
+in the ecstasy of creation a resource that can never fail you.
+But how comes it that Hommel and Hendschel, formerly your
+enthusiastic pupils, have now cooled down? That is very
+incomprehensible; they do not know their own interests. I
+congratulate you most heartily on the completion of your large
+picture, which I am very sorry not to have seen finished, and
+I am especially glad to hear what you tell me about the
+shield-bearer, for that breathes to me of <i>industrious study
+of nature</i>! Believe me, that you, the mature master, who still
+consents to play the part of a student, will not be without
+your reward.</p>
+
+<p>What you have written me about my work has put me into a most
+terrible dilemma, a dilemma which I am still very deep in. It
+is a presumption that I should set up <i>my</i> ideas, and a
+disobedience that I should take the advice of other friends,
+against your judgment; but I have gone so carefully into this
+manner of representation, that I beg you, dear Friend, to
+reconsider the matter, and see whether I am not right. These
+are my reasons: it seems to me that the action in my pictures,
+if ostensibly a triumph of the artist, yet, at the same time,
+as an historical event, is just as much the consecration of a
+Madonna, for which reason I (as you know) have placed the
+masterpiece which is being carried upon a small decorated
+altar; that such a solemn event probably took place on a
+church festival (as was the case with the consecration of the
+Chapel) may very well be assumed; would not such a festival in
+the <i>thirteenth century</i> be <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_151" id="PageV1_151">[151]</a></span>important enough to justify the
+presence of the bishop? But much more important than this
+question of historical probability, appears to me the
+consideration that the conception of a bishop is only made
+tangible to the general mass of spectators by certain symbolic
+articles of apparel, which are in some degree inseparable from
+it; a bishop's presence in the procession is most probable.
+Why should I not put him there? Amongst others, this opinion
+was also held by Cornelius, to whom, as an experienced
+Catholic, I naturally applied at the outset, and who told me
+candidly that he would leave it. I hope you will not accuse me
+of being too stiffnecked; in other respects I am certainly
+docile.</p>
+
+<p>Since I last wrote to you I have been fairly industrious on an
+average. I have now under-painted "Romeo and Juliet" in grey
+(grau untermalt), made both the colour sketches, and have now
+fairly got into the over-painting, or rather second
+under-painting, of "Cimabue"; but I have not been always
+within four walls; on the contrary I have profited by the
+beautiful spring weather, and have often gone out into the
+divine Campagna with a party of dear friends, male and female,
+and I need not tell you that we have enjoyed it. I wish with
+all my heart you could be with us, my dear Master. Rico, the
+ever-industrious, for he does twice as much as I, sends you
+warm greetings. I must now close. I wish I could tell rather
+than write to you how you are loved and esteemed by your
+devoted pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>Please remember me most kindly to your wife.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Frankfurt am Main,</span><br />
+<i>August 6, 1854</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Friend</span>,&mdash;You have heaped coals of fire
+upon my head, for I have not answered your last dear note,
+brought me by Andr&eacute;, and now I have received by Miss Farquhar
+the lovely study of Vincenzo's head, which you so kindly wish
+to present to me. I am almost dumfounded to find that you
+could believe I was angry with you because you have not
+written me for so long, and that you believe that the
+indignation had been ignored in my last note. That, dear
+friend, was a complete delusion, for there is nothing to which
+I am more partial than to artists' letters, and nothing to
+which I am <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_152" id="PageV1_152">[152]</a></span>more insensible than to such flattering praise as
+you lavish upon me, while I know only too well how
+unfortunately little I have deserved it. In earnest, dear
+friend, call me no more master, but rather regard me as your
+true and sincere friend, who only out of friendship for you
+and love of art, far removed from despicable dissimulation,
+faithfully shares with you his opinions and experience, and
+never regards them as the pronouncements of an oracle. I know
+very well what a difference there is between the description
+of a work of art and the sight of it; the first, at best, only
+gives one side, one part, whilst seeing places before our eyes
+the whole soul of the artist, from all sides, and then much is
+made mutually clear which in the former case appeared either
+not understood or misunderstood. Miss Farquhar could not tell
+me enough about you and your work, and greatly kindled my
+curiosity and desire to be in your <i>atelier</i> for once; I was
+only sorry that she had nothing to tell me about Gamba;
+indeed, on the whole, she knew nothing about him. If I am to
+express my thoughts of the very beautiful head of Vincenzo, it
+seems to me that Leighton ought to guard against striving for
+excessive fineness, for works of art can only be produced by
+quite the contrary method. A certain roughness must bring out
+fineness, but if everything is fine, nothing remains fine, &amp;c.
+But believe, though this head half displeases me, especially
+on account of these theories, I think it beautiful and
+masterly in drawing, and am consequently proud to possess it,
+as I am of all that I have from your hand. I thank you a
+thousand times for this fresh proof of your friendship. About
+this place, let me be silent; you are right to say that art is
+my refuge, and that I find in it my compensation for much that
+goes ill here and everywhere; I must also not allow this
+asylum to be profaned by the trifles of the very human things
+that surround us in this world.</p>
+
+<p>Greet from me Rome, Gamba, Cornelius, and all the friends who
+remember me; and to yourself, dear friend, heartfelt greetings
+from your true and unchanging friend,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Edw. Steinle.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep152" id="imagep152"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep152.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep152.jpg" width="55%" alt="Vincenzo" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"VINCENZO, THE PRETTIEST AND WICKEDEST BOY IN ROME." 1854<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Before leaving Rome Leighton received the following characteristic
+letter from Mr. Cartwright, one of his truest life-long friends:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_153" id="PageV1_153">[153]</a></span><span class="sc">Carlsbad</span>, <i>July 11, 1854</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dear Leighton</span>,&mdash;You will be astonished to see a
+letter from me. I can assure you that I have often thought of
+you, and meant to indite you an epistle in the hope of
+eliciting a reply full of Roman tale from you, and lately,
+when through Papeleu I heard of your great canvass labors, my
+yearning got a new twinge which at last has been pinched into
+expression by the start at Pollock's resuscitation. I had
+heard of his death in Paris and had mourned his fate most
+sincerely, when the first man whom I met tramping health out
+of the hot water of Carlsbad was Pollock himself. He is
+himself again every inch of him; indeed a most wonderful
+recovery; and, after deep and valorous potations of hot water,
+we take long walks in the hills. He goes from here to
+Marienbad and Prague, and means to be back in Rome by the end
+of October. And I also mean to return there. Like a true
+drunkard, I can't forswear my bottle, and I must have another
+pull at it. We shall be there, I hope, in the beginning of
+October, and I hope, my dear Leighton, that you will not
+grudge me the pleasure of letting me have a few lines, so that
+I may know whether you will be there in the winter and what
+are the changes in Rome since my time. Are the Sartorises to
+be there next winter, and where are they now? Pray answer me
+this, as I particularly wish to know where they are. I have
+heard that there were such crowds of strangers at Rome last
+winter that quarters were not to be had; and for this reason I
+wish to be there early. Do you happen to know what is the
+price of the floors in the house on the Pincio which was built
+by Bystr&ouml;m the sculptor? Next to the Trinit&agrave;, immediately
+after the sculptor's studio, there is a small house inhabited
+when I was last in Rome by some French officers (at least a
+sentinel was at the door) and years ago by Mrs. Sartoris.
+Pollock tells me it is now to be let. Would you be kind enough
+to give me any information you can about it. It is a house I
+have often coveted on account of the view. I beg your pardon
+for my coolness; I hope you will bear kindly with it; if I can
+do anything for you in Paris, command me: but anyhow pray
+write to me, if only a few lines, for in my heart I wish to
+have some news about you and old Rome. The other day I saw at
+the Louvre our old friend the very questionable <i>Vittoria
+Colonna</i> which was at Minardis. It was for Exhibition there in
+the Gallerie <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_154" id="PageV1_154">[154]</a></span>d'Apollon: what the picture is I cannot pretend
+to pronounce, but I do not like it: it is a picture in which I
+have no confidence. I think that if not a made picture, it is
+at all events a tame one. This year there was no Salon as it
+has been put off till next year's great Exhibition. Robert
+Fleury has sold a picture to the Luxembourg which is not so
+good as his former ones; but the man who I think is the most
+<i>marked</i> one of the day is Conture. Excuse my scrap, and pray
+take pity on my longing and write me, were it only <i>a line</i>. I
+should be grievously disappointed were you to refuse me the
+pleasure. I shall be <i>here till the 7th August</i>; until the
+<i>25th August</i>, after that date letters will find me Frankfurt
+Poste Restante; and after that in Paris Poste Restante. If you
+write here, put Carlsbad&mdash;B&ouml;hmen&mdash;and in a corner, <i>Austria</i>.
+And now farewell; with a real ... I am longing for a letter.
+The kindest regards to my Caff&eacute; Greco and other
+friends.&mdash;Yours most sincerely,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">W.C. Cartwright.<a name="FNanchor_28_28" id="FNanchor_28_28"></a><a href="#Footnote_28_28" class="fnanchor">[28]</a><br /></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>After his stay at the Bagni di Lucca, in the summer of 1854, Leighton
+went to Frankfort, Venice, and to Florence, returning to Rome in
+October.</p>
+
+<p>In the following letter to Steinle are sentences it might be well to
+print in finest gold, for the benefit of students who try to run
+before they walk, who aim at the freedom and glorious inevitability of
+a Velasquez touch without taking the pains to equip themselves
+worthily to enter the lists with the giants; not realising that
+skipping over the underpinning, necessary in creating any work of art,
+must result in the shakiest of edifices. The sentence refers to the
+criticism in Steinle's letter of August 6, 1854, on the drawing of
+"Vincenzo" (called by Leighton "the prettiest and wickedest boy in
+Rome") which Leighton had sent him.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, Via Felice 123</span>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_155" id="PageV1_155">[155]</a></span><br />
+<i>October 22, 1854</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As I am making a short pause to-day in my work, I cannot
+employ it better than in writing a letter to you, my very dear
+Friend. It was a very great comfort to me to see by your last
+lines that you had not construed my former long silence as a
+cooling of my friendship and gratitude, and I therefore hope
+that you will also this time meet me with the same
+forbearance. You will certainly be interested to hear, my dear
+Friend, that both my pictures are by this time fairly forward,
+and I expect to finish them within three months. How much I
+wish that you could see them here, and that I could put in the
+finishing touches under your supervision! I would give you an
+account of my work, but, bless me, what is there to <i>tell</i>
+about my picture, except that it has given me a fearful amount
+of trouble, and that in the end one perceives how
+circumstantially one has gone to work on the whole matter; the
+"Cimabue" goes to London and the "Romeo" to Paris. While I am
+speaking of my works, I take this opportunity to touch
+gratefully upon your kind remarks about the study head of
+Vincenzo, and to inform you, however, that my opinion of it
+takes rather more the form of a question than that of an
+objection. I have often considered the question of the
+self-guidance of an artist who is left to his own devices, and
+it has often struck me how many wander in evil by-paths
+through an unorganised, may I say <i>unprogressive</i>, development
+of their gifts; and now it seems to me that most of them are
+wrecked because they maturely study <i>the object to be
+attained</i>, while the <i>means</i> are not considered which should
+lead to such results. For example, a young man sees a Raphael,
+a Titian, a Rembrandt, all in their latest manner, and hears
+people say: See how broad, how full, how round, how masterly!
+And the student naturally conceives the wish that he also
+might produce broad and masterly works, and <i>so far</i> he is
+right; but from that point he goes aside. He goes home and
+<i>strives</i> and <i>strains</i> after masterly breadth; he succeeds
+(apparently), and he is lost. The soap-bubble is quickly
+blown; he rejoices in its gay colours; it flies up and breaks
+in the air. And the cause is simple; the true, genuine
+mastership is not an <i>acquired quality</i> <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_156" id="PageV1_156">[156]</a></span>but an <i>organised
+result</i>. As with art itself, so is it also with the individual
+artist. If we cast an eye over the progress of art-history, we
+see how the full, conscious, free, has developed itself out of
+the meagre, timorous, scrupulous, dry. Similarly if we compare
+the first efforts of the individual with his last, we perceive
+the same thing: place M. Angelo's "Pinta" beside the
+decorations of the Sixtine, one of Raphael's works at Perugia
+beside the "Stanzen," Rembrandt's "Le&ccedil;on d'anatomie" beside
+the "Nightwatch," and it will be evident in the most striking
+manner that not one of these men had risen by means of his
+talent to full breadth in his youth, or had been in any way
+studious to do so, but on the contrary that they have attained
+mastery by natural growth. In order, therefore, to reach the
+same altitude, the young artist must proceed in the same
+manner as his exemplars, and must endeavour so to direct his
+studies that he, according to his gifts, may achieve a similar
+result. He who would fill his threshing-floor must not
+<i>glean</i>, but rather he must <i>sow</i> that he may richly harvest;
+he who would have rare fruits all his life must plant and
+cherish the tree; even so should the young artist seek to
+plant a tree the normal fruit of which is called "artistic
+perfection." You will easily understand how by the application
+of these maxims my preliminary works go forward rather
+<i>timorously</i>. Entire conscientiousness is now the chief thing
+to me. I <i>am laying</i> the foundation on which I hope to rely
+firmly later on; I am amassing capital and am not yet in
+enjoyment of the interest. "How many objections to a couple of
+words?" you will laughingly remark; dear Friend, I must feel
+myself indeed well equipped before I permit myself to oppose
+anything against your judgment.</p>
+
+<p>Of Gamba I will say nothing, for he is going to enclose a few
+lines in this.</p>
+
+<p>I have made a trip to Florence this summer, and again
+thoroughly enjoyed the art-treasures. I think I have spoken to
+you of the wall-paintings by Giotto which were discovered two
+years ago in Santa Croce; one of them, which represents the
+death of St. Francis, is the literal prototype of the
+celebrated fresco by Ghirlandajo (on the same subject) in the
+Sta. Trinita, and I really prefer it.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_157" id="PageV1_157">[157]</a></span>Time, eyes, paper fail me, and I must close. I hope that, if
+you write to me again, you will tell me exactly what you are
+doing.&mdash;Meantime, dear Master, accept the heartfelt greeting
+of your grateful pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>Please remember me most kindly to your wife and to all my
+friends.</p></div>
+
+<p>Leighton's eye trouble having become a constant anxiety and hindrance
+to him, he resolved to consult Graefe, the great German oculist. From
+Florence, on his return journey, he writes his impressions of Berlin
+to Steinle. In this letter he repeats again the sense of happiness
+which he always experienced in Italy.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Florence, 386 Via Del Posso</span>,<br />
+<i>November 13</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Friend and Master</span>,&mdash;At last I am able to
+write to you. In the hurry and bustle of travelling, and even
+in the short sojourns that I have made here and there, it has
+been impossible for me to sit quietly down and compose a
+letter. Even to my parents I have written this morning for the
+first time since I left Vienna. But you will readily believe
+that during this time I have often travelled in thought to
+Frankfurt in loving remembrance of you, my dear Friend.</p>
+
+<p>Strange things have happened to me since I saw you. I had not
+even reached Berlin when I was informed by a "jebildeten"
+(cultivated) Prussian that Graefe, on whose account
+exclusively I was travelling to the "geistreichen" (clever)
+capital, had gone away for an indefinite period; imagine my
+dismay! Luckily on my arrival I found an old friend who was
+acquainted with the family of Geheimerath von Graefe, and who
+found out through them that Graefe must arrive at the Golden
+Lamb (Leopoldostadt) in Vienna on such and such a day. I met
+him, and had a consultation at which he examined my eyes with
+the ophthalmoscope, and told me to be of good cheer, my
+trouble was certainly obstinate but in no way dangerous, and I
+might hope <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_158" id="PageV1_158">[158]</a></span>for a complete cure. He prescribed me a course for
+Rome, which consists principally of local blood-letting and
+wearing spectacles, and will be very tedious; but I will
+gladly conform to anything in order to get my eyes back again.
+One thing is certain, since I have been in Italy they have
+been quite markedly better, which I attribute for the most
+part to the diminution of my hypochondria. Yes, since I have
+been in Italy I have become a new man; I breathe, my breast
+throbs higher; heavy clouds have rolled away from me; the sun
+shines again on my path, and my heart is once more full of
+youth and love of life; if only you were also here, dear
+Friend!</p>
+
+<p>But I must tell you something about my German travels, and I
+will begin with Berlin. There is certainly something special
+about that town. At the first glance it is somewhat imposing,
+and the prodigious quantity of new buildings, which evidently
+aim at architecture, gives (one may hold one's own opinion as
+to the taste of the buildings) the appearance of great
+artistic activity and of a widespread taste for art; but I
+have since found reason to regard this apparent love of art as
+something feigned or forced. One gets quite sick of
+<i>education</i> in Berlin; would you believe that now <i>every girl</i>
+has to pass an <i>examination as governess</i>?<a name="FNanchor_29_29" id="FNanchor_29_29"></a><a href="#Footnote_29_29" class="fnanchor">[29]</a> Kaulbach
+understands the Berliners well; in Raeginski's house a study
+of a Roman piper hangs in great honour, which he has purchased
+from the <i>great master</i> on account of a doggerel verse which
+is written on it in large letters, and runs thus:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Upon my travels in Italy,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This little boy I found, but he,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Although my brush may his form repeat,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Remains to my sorrow incomplete."<a name="FNanchor_30_30" id="FNanchor_30_30"></a><a href="#Footnote_30_30" class="fnanchor">[30]</a><br /></span>
+<span class="i13 sc">&mdash;W. Kaulbach.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noin"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_159" id="PageV1_159">[159]</a></span>Divine! eh? I knew a counterpart in the Belgian art-world.
+When I visited Gallait in Brussels some years ago, before the
+door stood a ragged, most picturesque Hungarian rat-catcher,
+who asked me if an artist did not live there. Recently I saw
+my Slav again, with a violin under his arm, in a window, very
+finely lithographed, I believe even an "artistes
+contemporains"; in the corner was "Louis Gallait pinx";
+underneath, "Art et Libert&eacute;"! Thus do pictures originate!</p>
+
+<p>In Berlin everything is valued extrinsically. One sees that
+most strikingly in the new Museum. When it is finished, it
+will be, in proportion to the means of the town in which it
+stands, the most splendid that I know; moreover, it cannot be
+denied (unsuitable as a three-quarters Greek building may be
+on the banks of the Spree) that much in the architecture is
+even very beautiful. But what is the good of it all? With the
+exception of some Egyptian antiquities, in all these lavishly
+gilded and painted rooms there are only <i>plaster casts</i>! Yes,
+and, I must not forget it, the great tea-service of Kaulbach.
+A wretched thing, made, moreover, with superfluous
+productiveness; simple allegory carried out without any fine
+sense of form, with utter denial of all individuality, and
+painted&mdash;well, of that one would rather say <i>nothing</i>; and yet
+"Kaulbach has the Hellenic art," &amp;c. &amp;c., and all the rest
+that is in the papers. One would like to exclaim with Cassius:
+"Has it come to this, ye gods!"</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately I cannot praise the Cornelian things in the
+<i>old</i> Museum much either. I must confess they displeased me
+greatly; when I consider them from a distance in their
+connection with the building, I find them disproportioned; in
+a long, very simple colonnade, built on a large scale, I
+require of a fresco painting that it shall show in form and
+colour large, quiet, plastic masses; instead of that I see
+here a gay, unquiet, confused <i>fricass&eacute;e</i> of thought and
+allegory that makes one dizzy; ideas in such profusion that
+nothing remains with the spectator; he goes away without
+having received anything; nor is the mental impression
+plastic. If, however, one goes nearer to see the execution,
+again one finds nothing pleasing&mdash;a constrained, unlovely
+drawing&mdash;positions that could only be attained by complete
+breaking on the wheel&mdash;a general appearance as if the <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_160" id="PageV1_160">[160]</a></span>figures
+had no bones, but muscles made of brick instead. The colour is
+not much better than Kaulbach's. The end-piece on the right,
+an allegorical representation of the death of man (or
+something of the kind), gives the most ordinary and at the
+same time most awkward sudden impression that I have yet seen.
+Cornelius may look at the Vatican in Rome and see if he can
+find anything like it there. Altogether the once certainly
+great artist seems to have somewhat deteriorated; the Cartoons
+at the Campo Santo are not by a long way so good as the design
+(which I find charming in parts); they are here and there,
+which greatly surprised me, disgracefully <i>out of drawing</i>;
+and then the theatrical attitudes, conventional clothes, &amp;c.
+&amp;c. In the Museum itself there are few pictures of the first
+rank, but so much the more beautiful are those by masters of
+the second rank. What a Lippi! what a Basaiti! what a Cos
+Rosetti! I was entranced; that is art, character, form,
+colour, all in beautiful harmony. The "Daughter of Titian"
+does not deserve its celebrity; it is weak and dull.</p>
+
+<p>But my paper is exhausted, as are also my eyes; I will
+therefore defer the rest to another letter, and only mention
+that in Vienna Kuppelwiesser, F&uuml;hrich, and Roesner received me
+like a son of the house, and all sent hearty greetings to you.
+Do write to me very soon, dear Friend, and keep in kind
+remembrance your grateful, devoted pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>My address is, Poste Restante, Rome.</p>
+
+<p>Please remember me most kindly to your wife, and generally to
+all friends.</p></div>
+
+<p>When tracing the ever-swaying ebb and flow in the tides of joy and
+sorrow in a life, we come to times which seem to accumulate in their
+days the whole strength of feeling and vitality of which a nature is
+capable; prominent summits that rise triumphant out of the troublous
+waves, up to which the past existence has seemed to climb, and the
+memory of which retains a dominating influence in the descent of the
+future.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;h'm&mdash;must I say it?&mdash;am just as happy as the day is <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_161" id="PageV1_161">[161]</a></span>long." So
+wrote Leighton to his mother when at the age of twenty-three he was
+spending his days in and about Rome&mdash;that wonderful Rome with her
+world of ghosts, her solemn eventful past skimmed over and made faint
+by her actual sunlit present. To Leighton that sunlit present became
+vividly, excitingly alive. Fountains of joy were springing up in the
+artist-nature, catching as they sprang golden rays from all that is
+most beautiful in youth's dominions. Leighton writes to Steinle (July
+25, 1853): "The remembrance of the beautiful time spent there (Rome)
+will be riches to me throughout my life; whatever may later befall me,
+however darkly the sky may cloud over me, there will remain on the
+horizon of the past the beautiful golden stripe, glowing, indelible;
+it will smile on me like the soft blush of even."</p>
+
+<p>When, in the late autumn of 1852, he first arrived in Rome, he had just
+stepped from the position of being one in a family to that of being an
+independent unit; and, though accompanied by his brother artist, Count
+Gamba, he felt greatly the loss of what he had left behind&mdash;the
+inspiring companionship of Steinle, compared to which nothing in Rome
+was worthy to count as an art influence. Obliged to work in a small,
+inconvenient studio, the only one obtainable&mdash;expected friends, whose
+society he valued, failing him&mdash;he felt the want of so much that he
+could hardly enjoy what he had. In those first days (as we gather from
+his letters) the Eternal City cast no fresh glamour over his spirit.</p>
+
+<p>Spring came, and the tune changed with the entrancement of
+Persephone's release in the balmy warmth of the South. The spring air
+twinkles with sunshine, and the fruit-trees are again alive with gay
+blossom, of fluttering petal, frail as the soft moth wing; the villa
+gardens are again bedecked with grand, more solid petalled
+flowers&mdash;brilliant-hued camellias&mdash;and later,&mdash;the noble magnolia's
+ivory white goblets; while the ground is carpeted with violets and
+varied-hued anemones. <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_162" id="PageV1_162">[162]</a></span>All over the wild spaces of the Campagna spring
+up grasses and lovely unchequered growth, spreading a green and golden
+fur, bristling in the bright light for miles and miles under a
+cloudless sky away to the faint blue line of mountains on the horizon.
+On one summit&mdash;golden in the sunlight&mdash;the old town of Subiaco is
+poised; on nearer slopes&mdash;summer haunts of the ancient Roman world,
+Tivoli, Frascati, Albano: the wastes of budding herbage between
+checked only here and there by some spectre of old days, some skeleton
+of a broken archway, some remnant of a ruined wall.</p>
+
+<p>It was on these strange wilds of the Roman Campagna that the life-long
+friends, Giovanni Costa and Leighton, first met. Here is the
+description of the delightful scene of their meeting, and of
+Leighton's previous introduction to Costa's work at the famous Caf&eacute;
+Greco, written by Costa after his friend's death:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"In the year 1853, the Caf&eacute; Greco at Rome was a world-renowned centre
+of art, a rendezvous for artists of all nationalities, who had flocked
+to Rome to study the history of art as well as the beauties of nature
+surrounding the sacred walls of the Eternal City.</p>
+
+<p>"At the Caf&eacute; Greco<a name="FNanchor_31_31" id="FNanchor_31_31"></a><a href="#Footnote_31_31" class="fnanchor">[31]</a> there was a certain waiter, Rafaello, a
+favourite with all, who had collected an album of sketches and
+water-colours by the most distinguished artists, such as Cornelius,
+Overbeck, Fran&ccedil;ais, B&eacute;nonville, Brouloff, B&ouml;cklin, and others, and I
+felt much flattered when I too was asked to contribute, with the
+result that I gave him the only water-colour I have ever done in my
+life. Leighton was also begged by Rafaello to do something for the
+album, and having it in his hands, he saw my work, and asked whose it
+was. <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_163" id="PageV1_163">[163]</a></span>On being told, he advised Rafaello to keep it safely, saying
+that one day it would be very valuable. When I came later to the Caf&eacute;,
+Rafaello told me how a most accomplished young Englishman, who spoke
+every language, had seen my water-colour, and all he had said about
+it. I was very proud of his criticism, and it gave me courage for the
+rest of my life.</p>
+
+<p>"That same year, in the month of May, the usual artists' picnic took
+place at Cervara, a farm in the Roman Campagna. There used to be
+donkey races, and the winner of these was always the hero of the day.
+We had halted at Tor d&eacute; Schiavi, three miles out of Rome, and half the
+distance to Cervara,<a name="FNanchor_32_32" id="FNanchor_32_32"></a><a href="#Footnote_32_32" class="fnanchor">[32]</a> for breakfast. Every one had dismounted and
+tied his beast to a paling, and all were eating merrily.</p>
+
+<p>"Suddenly one of the donkeys kicked over a beehive, and out flew the
+bees to revenge themselves on the donkeys. There were about a hundred
+of the poor beasts, but they all unloosed themselves and took to
+flight, kicking up their heels in the air&mdash;all but one little donkey,
+who was unable to free himself, and so the whole swarm fell upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"The picnic party also broke up and fled, with the exception of one
+young man, with fair, curly hair, dressed in velvet, who, slipping on
+gloves and tying a handkerchief over his face, ran to liberate the
+poor little beast. I had started to do the same, but less resolutely,
+having no gloves; so I met him as he came back, and congratulated him,
+asking him his name. And in this way I first made the acquaintance of
+Frederic Leighton, who was then about twenty-two years old; but I was
+not then aware that he was the unknown admirer of my drawing in
+Rafaello's album. I remember that day I had the great honour of
+winning the donkey race, and Leighton won the tilting at the ring with
+a flexible cane; therefore we met again when sharing the honour of
+drinking <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_164" id="PageV1_164">[164]</a></span>wine from the President's cup, and again we shook hands.
+When I heard from Count Gamba, who was a friend and fellow-student of
+Leighton's, what great talent he had, I tried to see his work and to
+improve our acquaintance; for as I felt I must be somewhat of a donkey
+myself, because of the Franciscan education I had received, and
+because I was the fourteenth in our family, I thought the
+companionship of the spirited youth would give me courage."</p>
+
+<p>And again it was on the Campagna that that choice and delightful
+company picnicked in the spring-time of the year, of which company
+Leighton wrote on April 29, 1854 (see p. 146).</p>
+
+<p>Who knows but that it was at one of these notable picnics that
+Browning was inspired to write his wonderful little poem on the
+Campagna?</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"The Champaign, with its endless fleece<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Of feathery grasses everywhere,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Silence and passion, joy and peace,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">An everlasting wash of air&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Rome's ghost since her decease.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Such life there, through such lengths of hours,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Such miracles performed in play,<br /></span>
+<span class="i1">Such letting nature have her way,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While Heaven looks from its towers."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Life was full to overflowing in those inspiring days, and Leighton was
+indeed "as happy as the day was long." Friendships grew apace. Many
+were made which were lasting, notably that with Mr. Henry Greville,
+the most intimate man-friend of Leighton's life. His friendships with
+Sir John Leslie, Mr. Cartwright, George Mason, Mr. Aitchison, Sir
+Edward Poynter, all began in those early happy days in Rome. Artists
+living there, who included this gifted brother-painter in their
+comradeship, showed more and more sympathy <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_165" id="PageV1_165">[165]</a></span>towards his work as they
+became more intimate with the delightful nature. Leighton had arrived
+so far forward on the threshold of his success that anxiety about his
+pictures was outweighed by hopeful expectancy; but it was while still
+standing on the threshold&mdash;that really most inspiring of all stages in
+the journey, during the two years from 1853 to 1855, before the great
+triumph of signal success crowned him&mdash;that we catch the happiest
+picture in Leighton's life. To use his own words, "In this world
+confident expectation is a greater blessing, almost, than fruition."</p>
+
+<p>In a letter he wrote to Fanny Kemble on February 1, 1880, Leighton
+refers to a conversation he had with her at this "outset of his
+career"&mdash;a conversation which recurred to him, he tells her, when he
+first addressed the Royal Academy students from the presidential chair
+in 1879. He offers a copy of his discourse for her acceptance, ending
+his letter by the words: "If you remember that conversation, you may
+perhaps feel some interest in reading the Lecture, of which I ask you
+to accept a copy. If you do not remember it, nevertheless accept the
+little paper for the sake of old days which were not as to-day."<a name="FNanchor_33_33" id="FNanchor_33_33"></a><a href="#Footnote_33_33" class="fnanchor">[33]</a>
+How much can a few words say! If gratified ambition could ever make an
+artist-nature happy, how transcendently happy Leighton ought to have
+been in 1880! But the fibre which strung the highest note in his
+nature never vibrated to worldly success. Though his ambition may have
+sought success, and his passion for fulfilling to the utmost his duty
+towards his fellow-creatures <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_166" id="PageV1_166">[166]</a></span>may have greatly welcomed it, he
+remained to the end of his life ever on the threshold of that kingdom,
+the possession of which could alone have satisfied what he "<i>cared for
+most</i>."</p>
+
+<p>The following letters mention the progress of the <i>opus magnum</i> to its
+completion, also of the "Romeo" picture, and his visits to Florence
+and the Bagni di Lucca. The first begins by his expressing his
+ever-growing dislike of general society.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p>[<i>Commencement missing.</i>]</p>
+
+<p>Miss &mdash;&mdash; is no less than ever, and no less agreeable, as far
+as I can judge; I have only called once as yet, I have an
+ungovernable horror of being asked to tea; my aversion to
+tea-fights, muffin-scrambles, and crumpet-conflicts, which has
+been gathering and festering for a long time, has now become
+an open wound. The more I enjoy and appreciate the society and
+intercourse of the dozen people that I care to know, the more
+tiresome I find the commerce of the others, <i>braves et
+excellentes gens du reste</i>; the Lord be merciful to the
+overwhelming insipidity of that individual whose name is
+Legion&mdash;the <i>unexceptionable</i>&mdash;the <i>highly respectable!</i> My
+great resource is, of course, Mrs. Sartoris, whom I see at
+some time or other every day, for it would be a blank day to
+me in which I did not see her; God bless her! for my dearest
+friend. I warm my very soul in the glow of her sisterly
+affection and kindness. Little baby is the same sunbeam that
+he always was; did I tell you I painted his likeness in oils
+as a surprise for his father? as a picture it is not
+unsuccessful, but any attempt at a portrait of that child is a
+profanation, and will be till we paint with the down of
+peaches and the blood of cherries, and mix our tints with
+golden sunlight; still, it pleased <i>them</i>, and that ought to
+be enough; but I am an artist as well as a friend. A very
+interesting acquaintance I have here in the shape of Rossini,
+the great Rossini! Poor Rossini, what a sad fate is his, to
+have lived to see the people on whom the glory of his splendid
+genius has shone turn away from him in forgetfulness,
+neglecting his classical <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_167" id="PageV1_167">[167]</a></span>beauties to listen to the noisy
+trivialities of a &mdash;&mdash;, who has made the Italian name in music
+a by-word of ridicule; with the music of course, the singers
+have degenerated also; a singer no longer requires to be an
+<i>artist</i>, it is no longer necessary that he or she should
+study his or her part till every note has a meaning and a
+character expressive of the words of the libretto, and
+accompanied by musical and impassioned <i>mimica</i>; no, let the
+<i>prima donna</i> only squall out her never-ending <i>fioriture</i>
+with sufficient disregard for the safety of her lungs, or the
+<i>primo tenore</i> shake the stage with a <i>la di petto</i>, and all
+is right. This is a digression, but as an artist I can't help
+taking it to heart, and wanted to have it out. Amongst Mrs.
+Sartoris' few "intimes" at this moment is a Neapolitan lady,
+la Duchessa Ravaschieri, daughter of Filangi&egrave;ri the minister,
+who has given her himself an education almost unique amongst
+Italian noblewomen, who are insipid and ignorant beyond
+anything.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Florence, H&ocirc;tel Du Nord</span>,<br />
+<i>September 20, 1854</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;I was much surprised, as we very
+naturally measure time past by the number of events that have
+taken place in it, the interval between this your last letter
+and the previous one seemed to me doubly long, for I have
+changed scene so often during these last four or five weeks,
+and have moved so much from place to place, that it seems to
+me an age since I last despatched a letter to England; from
+which you will naturally and correctly infer that it was a
+very great pleasure to me once more to see your handwriting.
+Your kind anxiety and advice about the cholera I shall
+remember when I get to Rome (which will be in a week or ten
+days), where that disease prevails, although mildly, for what
+are thirty cases a day in a town of that size? In the
+meantime, both at the baths where I have been, and at
+Florence, where I am, the cholera has not dared to show its
+face; indeed, such a prestige of salubrity attaches to the
+name of the baths of Lucca that eight days' sojourn at that
+place is considered tantamount to a "<i>quarantaine</i>!" It is a
+very strange thing, this exemption from disease, for in a
+number of the surrounding villages the number of people
+carried off has <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_168" id="PageV1_168">[168]</a></span>been frightful. As for that after
+apprehension of yours, dearest Mamma, about my being alone and
+uncared for in case of illness, I am happy to say that nothing
+can be more unfounded; I have in Mrs. Sartoris that genuine
+friend, and, especially, genuine <i>woman friend</i> that in such a
+case would leave nothing undone that you, the best of mothers,
+and my own dear sisters, would do for me. It is her habit,
+when any of her bachelor and homeless friends are poorly, to
+go and sit with them and nurse them, and do you think that I,
+who have become one of her most intimate circle, should need
+to fear neglect? In the friendship of that admirable woman I
+am rich for life. Poor thing, she has lately received a great
+blow in her own family from the sudden calamity which has
+befallen her. This shocking news reached me here, at Florence,
+where I had come on from the baths, and ascertaining that her
+husband was gone off to England to inquire into the matter,
+and that by a chance her boy's tutor was absent at the same
+time, I instantaneously went off to Lucca, where I stayed a
+week (till the return of the tutor), taking care of her boy,
+hearing him his lessons, and especially keeping him out of the
+way; in the evening I used to walk or drive with her, and to
+my infinite gratification was able to be some little comfort
+and distraction to her; my only regret in the whole business
+was that I was making no material sacrifice of my own time and
+pleasure, so that I had not the satisfaction of comforting her
+at my own expense. In adopting the resolution, which I have
+communicated to you, of retiring from society, I have taken
+into consideration all that you say, dear Mamma, and more too,
+for I feel I have of my nature a very fair share of the
+hateful worldly weakness of my country-people; still, I have
+found no sufficiently great advantage or compensation for the
+tedium of going out; the Roman <i>grand monde</i>, a small part of
+which I know, and which, had I chosen to push a little, I
+might have known all, is of no <i>use</i> whatever in reference to
+my future career; added to which I believe I told you that I
+never by any chance got introduced to anybody, so that
+whomever I know, I know by chance, or by their own wish. For
+instance, last winter I met the Duke of Wellington constantly,
+both at the Sartoris' (he is a very old friend of hers) and at
+the Farquhars', and though he <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_169" id="PageV1_169">[169]</a></span>is the most accessible of men,
+I made no attempt to make his acquaintance, and so it is with
+everybody. But for the <i>tableaux charades</i> which Mrs. S. gave
+last winter, in which I was joint-manager with herself, and
+was therefore brought into contact with her numerous
+co-operating friends, I should probably have known few or none
+of those who were at her house every week; always excepting
+our own intimate circle, to wit, Browning, Amp&egrave;re, Dr.
+Pantaleone, Lyons, Count Gozze, Duke Sermoneta, &amp;c. You know,
+when I say I shan't go out, it is in so far a <i>fa&ccedil;on de
+parler</i>, that, as I shall be at least every other day at Mrs.
+Sartoris', I shall not be at home, trying my eyes. I quite
+agree with you in thinking this business of &mdash;&mdash;'s a most
+awkward thing; I cannot understand a man having once gone into
+the army and made his profession to be honourably killed for
+his country, should not jump at the idea of going to the scene
+of war; I have felt a very strong desire to lend a hand
+myself, but one cannot drive two trades. My singing (in
+particular, and music in general) I have avoided mentioning,
+because, dear Mamma, it is a subject on which I have <i>no</i>
+reason to dwell very complacently; my first disappointment was
+finding my voice, instead of strengthening in an Italian
+climate, getting if possible weaker than it was. It is the
+merest "fil de voix." I have therefore as the onset very
+insufficient "moyens"; this is owing, not only to the
+insufficiency of my "organe," but also to an unpleasant
+visitation in the shape of swollen and irritated tonsils, the
+very ailment, I believe, under which Gussy labours. This
+symptom, which I have carried about some time, is, I fancy,
+not likely ever to leave me permanently; add to this that as
+soon as I sit down to thump with elephantine touch a most
+ordinary accompaniment, the little voice I have vanishes; thus
+between two stools ... you know the rest. Still, I am bound to
+add that Mrs. Sartoris (who could not flatter) has great
+pleasure in hearing me coo a little song or two that I know,
+and says I have what is better than voice, which is a musical
+"accent," and that (she is pleased to add) to a rather
+remarkable degree; my voice is weak and powerless, but true
+and facile. I will tell you exactly what to expect when you
+see me again. I shall be able to sit down to the piano and
+whine some half-dozen pretty little ballads, with a
+rum-tum-tum accompaniment <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_170" id="PageV1_170">[170]</a></span>of affecting simplicity. Gussy
+dreams of me as "very handsome" and "are my whiskers growing?"
+I am <i>not</i> very handsome, none of my features are really
+<i>good</i>. My whiskers <i>have</i> grown, they are undeniable, there
+is no shirking them, or getting out of the way of them; <i>I
+wear whiskers</i> though you were short-sighted; <i>but</i> they are
+modest ones; as for moustaches, the seven hairs which I have
+(and wear) are not worth mentioning, but still I have none of
+that delicacy which you profess on the subject. In my opinion,
+<i>if</i> gentlemanhood is a thing dependent on the scraping of
+four square inches of your face, and residing only in the
+well-shaved purlieus of a (probably) ugly mouth, I feel equal
+to going without it, in that shape at all events. A moustache,
+and even a beard, if kept short enough to be in keeping with a
+not very flowing costume, is both becoming and convenient, and
+I fear that the whole prestige of respectability hovering
+around Mr. and Mrs. &mdash;&mdash;, or the withering contempt of the
+irreproachable Sir John and Lady &mdash;&mdash;, would not make me
+shave, unless, indeed, I felt too hot about the chin. I have
+gone through your letter, and shall wind up with a few words
+about my doings, which, by-the-bye, might be compendiously
+characterised by one word: <i>nothing</i>. My holidays are drawing
+to a close, and I shall be in Rome, working very hard to get
+my pictures done for the Exhibitions. Meanwhile I am enjoying
+Florentine sunsets, the gorgeousness of which defies
+description. The other day, in particular, I was on the
+heights near the Miniato, I thought I had never seen anything
+like it. I remembered Papa's fondness for that spot, and
+wished he had been there to share my enjoyment; the lanes were
+cool and pearly grey; over them hung in every fantastic shape
+the rich growth of the orchards and gardens that crowned the
+lengthened walls; the olives, strangely twisted, flaming with
+a thousand tongues of fire; the wreathing vine flinging its
+emerald skirts from tree to tree; the purple wine flashing in
+the fiery grape; the stately <i>ma&iuml;s</i> flapping its arms in the
+breath of the evening; the solemn cypress; the poetic laurel;
+the joyous oleander&mdash;all glorified in the ardour of the
+setting sun, that flung its rays obliquely along the earth;
+you would have been enchanted.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, Via Felice 123</span>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_171" id="PageV1_171">[171]</a></span><br />
+<i>February 10, 1855</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Papa</span>,&mdash;I hasten to answer your kind letter and
+to thank you for the willingness you express to advance such a
+sum of money as I shall require to cover the heavy expenses I
+am incurring. I forgot to mention in my last letter that my
+picture will be directed straight to the frame-maker's who
+undertakes the exhibiting of it.</p>
+
+<p>In approaching the other points which you touch in your
+letter, I feel that my letter will unavoidably have a
+combative colouring, which I sincerely hope you will not
+misconstrue, and beg that you will consider whether the
+reasons I advance for not conforming to your suggestions are
+not sound ones. If I particularly object to accompanying my
+picture, it is because I think that the small advantages that
+might accrue from so doing would in no way make up for all I
+should lose; whatever can be done to my picture on its arrival
+in England will be kindly done for me by my friend, Mr. T.
+Gooderson, who is in the habit of receiving and varnishing
+Buckner's works on similar occasions; with respect to the
+interest to be made amongst the Academicians in behalf of my
+op. magn., I have neglected <i>that</i> on the <i>express advice</i> of
+Buckner, who has great experience in those matters and is a
+most kind and honest man; he says, such is the party spirit of
+R.A.'s, that the best chance of securing impartial treatment
+(in the case of a work of merit) is to be <i>completely unknown</i>
+to all of them, a condition which I am admirably calculated to
+fulfil. You are also perhaps not aware that my picture will
+reach England <i>five weeks</i> before the opening of the
+Exhibition, so that by accompanying it I should completely
+lose all the best part of the year here in Rome. There are a
+great number of things which I propose doing now that my
+pictures are about to be off my hands. There are here several
+very remarkable heads of which I wish to make finished
+studies, and especially also I am loth to go without having
+drawn anything from Michael Angelo and Raphael, which is one
+of the chief objects for which one comes to this city of the
+past; but, I do not hesitate to say, the principal task which
+I <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_172" id="PageV1_172">[172]</a></span>propose to myself is a half-length portrait of Mrs.
+Sartoris, to which I wish to devote my every energy that it
+may be worthy of perpetuating the features of the last Kemble;
+irrespective of the enormous artistic advantage to be derived
+from the study of so exceptional a head, you will easily
+understand my eagerness to give some tangible form to my
+gratitude towards those whose fireside has been my fireside
+for so long a time; nothing would grieve me more than missing
+so good an opportunity. I confess, too, that I wished to see a
+little more leisurely the glorious scenery that lies all round
+Rome, and which I have hitherto hardly glanced at, and partly
+indeed not seen at all. I had indeed contemplated before
+leaving Italy, making a trip to Naples, Capri, Oschia, Amalfi,
+and all the spots about which artists rave. This, however,
+will I fear be under all circumstances a financial <i>ch&acirc;teau en
+Espagne</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, Via Felice 123</span>,<br />
+<i>February 12</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Honoured and dear Friend</span>,&mdash;That you, who know me so
+well and are so well aware of how I carry your image in my
+heart, could misinterpret my silence I did not fear for a
+moment, for rather will you have thought to yourself that the
+stress of my occupations in the course of the day, and my
+incapacity to do anything at night, have hitherto prevented me
+from writing; and so it is; for, be you assured, dear Friend,
+that, as long as I pursue art, you will be ever present with
+me in the spirit, and that I shall always ascribe every
+success which I may possibly attain in the future to your wise
+counsel and your inspiriting example, for "as the twig is bent
+the tree's inclined."</p>
+
+<p>First I will tell you about my health; thank Heaven, as
+regards my general health, I have nothing to complain of; if
+not exactly strong, still I am lively and in good spirits, and
+look out upon the world quite contentedly. My eyes&mdash;well, yes,
+they might be better; otherwise I am always in a condition to
+work my seven or eight hours a day without over-exertion, in
+return for which I dare not do anything in the evenings. To
+tell the truth, my position is not an agreeable one; I am not
+bad enough to follow <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_173" id="PageV1_173">[173]</a></span>the course prescribed for me by Graefe,
+but on the other hand not well enough to be able to feel quite
+tranquil....</p>
+
+<p>Time has slipped away in stress of work since I commenced this
+letter. I throw myself again upon your goodness, dear Master,
+and beg you will not measure my love by my readiness in
+writing, for then I should certainly come off a loser. I told
+you that my affairs have pressed upon me; I have finished my
+"Cimabue." I am dreadfully disappointed, dear Friend, that I
+cannot, as I hoped, send you a photograph, but it has been
+impossible for me to have one taken, since the picture is so
+large that it could not be transported to a photographic
+loggia without fearful ado and unnecessary risk to the canvas;
+I will therefore exert myself to write you what it looks like.
+First you must know that I changed my intention as to the
+respective sizes of the two pictures, for I perceived that my
+eyes could not possibly permit the Florentine composition to
+be carried out on the proposed scale. I therefore took a
+canvas of 17-&frac12; feet (English measure), in consequence of
+which my figures have become half life size (like Raphael's
+"Madonna del Cardellino"), and do not look at all ill. The
+other picture (which I shall send to London) will be something
+over 7 feet long by 5 feet. If I am to get them both finished
+by next January, I must set to work in earnest. I have made
+the following alterations: first, those prescribed by you,
+viz. I have made the picture which is being carried larger,
+the chapel smaller, and have suppressed the flower-pots on the
+walls. A further alteration I have made by the advice of
+Cornelius; he said to me that the foremost group (the women
+strewing flowers with children) seemed to him somewhat to
+disturb the simplicity of the rest of the composition, and
+suggested that I should put in a couple of priests, especially
+as the portrait is of a Madonna and is being taken to a
+church; he further advised me, in order to prevent the picture
+from being too frieze-like, to allow this foremost group to
+walk up to the spectator. It now looks something like this:</p>
+
+<p>(Slight sketch of the design for "Cimabue's Madonna.")</p>
+
+<p>I hope with all my heart that you will approve these
+alterations. I have drawn a quantity of heads and hands, which
+are all finished, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_174" id="PageV1_174">[174]</a></span>like the "Chiaruccia" which I gave you;
+drapery is not lacking. How I regret, dear Friend, that I
+cannot show them to you. Gamba also is very industrious; he
+has made endless studies, and has also got his record ready.
+He sends you most hearty greetings. Of his diligence there is
+always plenty to tell, and you will not be surprised when I
+tell you that he has made very gratifying progress.</p>
+
+<p>I could still tell you a great deal, my dear Master, of what I
+have seen and experienced! but time and, alas! especially eyes
+compel me to be laconic, or this oft-begun letter will never
+be finished. Therefore I will only briefly narrate what
+happened to me in the imperial city; my goodness! how long ago
+that seems. My first impression, as I alighted from the train,
+was very pleasant. A lovely autumn morning, the Prater with
+its beautiful trees, the J&auml;gerheil in the sunshine, all
+together welcomed me gaily. I alighted in the Leopold suburb,
+and set off on foot the same morning in quest of Kuppelwieser,
+a cordial, charming man. Through him I became acquainted with
+F&uuml;hrich and Roesner, who both received me no less kindly. They
+all remembered with warm affection their dear comrade,
+Steinle, and sent most hearty messages to him. Of their works
+(for to you, best of friends, I write frankly) I cannot,
+candidly, speak very highly, but perhaps I might of the
+tenacious maintenance of their opinion in spite of the
+boundless, oppressive indifference of the Viennese towards
+high art. Now, the dear friends are somewhat ascetic
+representatives of their mode of thought&mdash;a mode of thought
+which can be combined, as we have seen in the great days of
+art, with the greatest charm of representation; but this
+quality is unfortunately too often absent from our friends. Of
+the two, Kuppelwieser is the less offensive; he is perhaps
+rather antiquated, but not without cleverness; F&uuml;hrich is far
+too ornamental for me, and as a painter, God save the mark!
+Good gracious! what is nature there for? What can the people
+make of all this! how is it possible that one can get so far
+in spite of a perverted training! that people do not perceive
+their fearful arrogance! They plume themselves upon piety and
+humility, and in God's beautiful creation nothing is right for
+them; do they then ever admit, these gentlemen, that they do
+not want nature any more <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_175" id="PageV1_175">[175]</a></span>because they are aware that they no
+longer know how to use her? Would they feel happy if they saw
+a Masaccio, a Ghirlandajo, a Carpaccio? But they in their
+drawings are pretentious and puffed up, but there is no
+learnedness in them, and that which God has made so lovely
+with all the brilliancy of colour, they daub with any dirt,
+and call it a picture; some even (that was still lacking)
+shrug their shoulders spitefully and mock&mdash;at the
+unattainable. And whence does all that arise? How is it that
+even sensible, clever men are so ill equipped? It is due
+solely and alone to the topsy-turvy, involved principle of
+education, to the fact that the people, while they are still
+young, labour and worry day and night at the representation of
+unrepresentable ideas, instead of drawing from nature and from
+nothing else for ever and ever amen, till they are in close
+harmony with her; that would be a soil from which the tree of
+their art could grow upwards, fresh, powerful,
+ever-herbescent; that they might not stand there in their old
+age as high, proud, upward-aspiring trunks without leaves,
+without sap. Naturally all this is not aimed at the good
+F&uuml;hrich, but in general against all those who in their
+infatuation allow themselves, behind the shield of severe
+sentiments and high efforts, to throw overboard all the
+difficulties of art. How gladly my thoughts turn away from
+such unpleasing reflections to you, dearest Friend, who take
+nature for your model in every part of your pictures, and with
+your high degree of ability are always the devoted pupil of
+<i>nature</i>! Keep, I beg you, <i>your</i> grateful pupil in
+sympathetic remembrance, and never doubt the devotion of your
+loving friend,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>Please remember me most kindly to your wife; also to my other
+friends. If you see Schalck, will you kindly say to him that I
+have received his letter, and will answer it when my eyes
+permit. I am longing to hear what pictures and drawings you
+are making! Will you forgive my silence, and write to me?</p>
+
+<p>My picture is under-painted grey-in-grey (<i>grau in grau</i>); I
+finished it in a week; it was a great effort.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, Via Felice</span>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_176" id="PageV1_176">[176]</a></span><br />
+<i>February 19, 1855</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;As the body of the letter I have just
+received is written by Papa, I have thought well to address to
+<i>him</i> the important part of mine; you will therein see all the
+business news that I have to give, and will, I know, be much
+pleased to hear that my picture has had great success here; I
+hope it may not have less in London. As the picture is of a
+jovial aspect and contains pretty faces, male and female, I
+think the public will find <i>leur affaire</i>; the "Romeo and
+Juliet" (also nearly finished) will, though perhaps a better
+picture, probably be less popular from its necessarily serious
+and dingy aspect. Dear Mamma, I am much tickled at your
+comparison between the Campagna and the environs of Bath; it
+is like saying that strawberries and cream are equal and
+perhaps superior to a haunch of wild boar! <i>l'un n'empeche pas
+l'autre</i>, but they can never be compared, nor can they answer
+the same purpose. The Sartoris are well; I am there every
+evening of my life.</p>
+
+<p>The next page is Papa's. Good-bye, dear Mamma. Best love from
+your affectionate and dutiful son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p><i>P.S.</i>&mdash;My resolution not to dance I have kept (excepting in
+the case of quadrilles), and have avoided making new
+acquaintances, as I intend next winter not to go out at all;
+but if I have no longer agitated the fantastic toe, and have
+acquired a cordial dislike to balls, I have been all the
+oftener to my dearest and best friends, the Sartoris, to whom
+I go about four times a week, and of whose sterling worth it
+is impossible to speak too warmly; at their house also I have
+made several interesting acquaintances; Fanny Kemble (as you
+know), Thackeray, Lockhart, Browning, the authors; Marochetti,
+the sculptor, and so on; as for Mrs. Sartoris, I look upon her
+as an angel, <i>ni plus ni moins</i>, and I feel terrified at the
+idea of how much more exacting she has made me for the future
+choice of a wife, by showing one what opposite excellencies a
+woman may unite in herself.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>To his Father&mdash;Part of letter missing.</i>]<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_177" id="PageV1_177">[177]</a></span></p>
+<p class="right">1855.</p>
+
+<p>It is with very great pleasure that I announce to you the
+completion of my large picture, which I have exhibited
+privately to my English friends and a crowd of artists of all
+nations. You will, I am sure, be gratified to hear that it had
+a remarkable "succ&egrave;s"; artists of whatever school seem equally
+pleased, some admiring the drawing, others the colouring. I
+hope that what I say does not savour of vanity; I simply tell
+it you from a conviction that it is agreeable to you to hear
+what people say of your son, and to anticipate in some measure
+the verdict of a larger public. As for the positive <i>value</i> of
+it, we all know what to think about <i>that</i>. It amused me to
+hear that several people compared my picture to the works of
+Maclise, and came to conclusions considerably in my favour.
+Swinton paid me the compliment of requesting to be introduced
+to me, and seemed very sincerely to admire my picture, as also
+a portfolio of leads which I have drawn at different times,
+and which are much admired by everybody.</p>
+
+<p>Of course you did perfectly right in not dreaming of
+exhibiting Isabel's likeness. Pray do not think from what I
+said about my lengthened stay in Rome, that I undervalue the
+delight of seeing you all again, but still I think that if by
+a little postponement I can have that pleasure without losing
+my spring, it would be better. My idea is to remain in Italy
+till the end of May, and then visiting Paris (to see the great
+Exhibition) on my road to get home by the middle or end of
+June, which will still leave me a long summer's holiday.</p></div>
+
+<p>This letter from his mother contains the news of Leighton's father's
+joy at the success of the picture in Rome:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>February 18, 1855.</i></p>
+
+<p>Now I think of it, you have probably some signs of spring
+about you&mdash;how enviable! My dear Fred, I did not compare the
+artistic resources of Bath with those of Rome, well knowing
+that the transparent atmosphere there imparts beauty to the
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_178" id="PageV1_178">[178]</a></span>country which, without it, might not be remarked; equally
+bright and clear the sky is not in England, but I assure you
+that many parts of the country near us and in Devonshire, and
+doubtless in many other counties, may for beauty challenge a
+comparison with many most admired spots in Italy and
+elsewhere, though the character of the landscape is different.
+Nevertheless, I shall be very glad to see again Switzerland,
+Southern Germany, &amp;c. &amp;c. Pray, dear Fred, if you do go to
+sketch in the Campagna, take care not to expose yourself to
+any disagreeable adventures with Brigands; I <i>entreat</i> you, be
+prudent. Not to tire you with repetition, I have not alluded
+to the success of your picture, but I must tell you that your
+father was radiant with joy as he read your letter and gave it
+into my hands with the words, "That <i>is</i> a satisfactory
+letter." I am curious to know <i>when</i> we shall see your Paris
+picture, and whether we shall winter in that delightful town;
+Papa and I have always wished it. I must just mention, what I
+had nearly forgotten, that a great treat is in store for the
+inhabitants of Bath, as next week Mrs. Fanny Kemble is to read
+some of Shakespeare's plays in public, with appropriate music.
+A great treat is expected. God bless you, love, I can no more.
+Our united affectionate greetings.&mdash;Your attached Mother,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">A. Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome</span>, <i>January 3, 1855</i>.<br />
+(<i>Recd. January 12.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;Let me hasten to reassure my poor
+dear progenitor on the subject of his anxieties; if I spoke
+doubtfully and despondently of my performances, it was owing
+to the lively feeling that every artist, whose ideal is beyond
+the applause of the many, must entertain of his own
+shortcomings; once and for all let me beg him never to feel
+any uneasiness on the score of mechanical processes, as in
+such cases one always has the resource of cutting the Gordian
+knot by painting over again the unsuccessful portions, an
+expedient indeed to which I have many a time been forced to
+resort; the result of such failures is called experience;
+through such failures alone one arrives at success. Nor am I
+wanting in the applause of my friends, who all speak in praise
+and encouragement of my works, and it is <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_179" id="PageV1_179">[179]</a></span>not a little
+gratifying to me to find that those whose opinions I most
+value are the first to speak favourably of my endeavours; as
+agreeable as is to me this testimony on their part, so
+indifferent am I, and must I beg you to be (for better and for
+worse) to the scribbling of pamphleteers; the self-complacent
+oracularity of these <i>pachidermata</i> is rivalled only by their
+gross ignorance of the subjects they bemaul, and the
+conventional flatness of all their views; I speak without fear
+of being considered partial, as the article which you
+communicate to me contains more of praise than of blame; it
+is, however, my practice never to accept (inwardly) the praise
+of those whose blame I don't acknowledge. I happen to have
+seen other articles from the pen of this same Mister &mdash;&mdash;, and
+know <i>&agrave; quoi m'en tenir</i>. The notice on myself I had heard of,
+but not seen. It may amuse you to hear that my draperies have
+been considered (alas!) the most successful part of my
+picture, and I am at present labouring hard to bring the
+heads, &amp;c., <i>up to them</i>! In about a fortnight, the large work
+("Cimabue," the "canvas of many feet") will be, D.V.,
+finished, with the exception of the ultimate glazes and
+retouches; by the end of February, both pictures will start
+for their respective destinations. One thing has caused me
+some annoyance and anxiety; I wrote a month ago (or more) to
+one Mr. Allen, carver and gilder, 31 Ebury Street, Pimlico,
+sending a design of my frame, and requesting him to let me
+know at once what would be the cost of such a frame, whether
+he would undertake it, and asking many questions important to
+me to know; I have received no answer; I therefore must take
+for granted that either he has not received my letter, or his
+answer to me has been lost; now, as there is no longer any
+time to correspond on the subject, I must, on the supposition
+that my letter has gone astray, send another design together
+with an unconditional order to begin at once at whatever cost;
+now I grudge the time of writing a duplicate of my old letter,
+and especially that of drawing a new diagram for his guidance.
+With regard to the price, Fripp, who recommended him to me,
+says Allen is a very respectable man, and will no way take
+advantage of my awkward position; I calculate the frame can
+hardly exceed five and twenty pounds; then there <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_180" id="PageV1_180">[180]</a></span>will be the
+bill for exhibiting the picture of which he will take charge;
+I expect that the framing, packing, sending, &amp;c., of the two
+canvases together will cost about fifty pounds "tant pis pour
+moi!"</p></div>
+
+<p class="cen">(Here the letter breaks off.)</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p>(<i>Cover</i>&mdash;Madame Leighton,<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9 Circus, Bath, England.)</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, Via Felice 123</span>,<br />
+<i>March 2, 1855</i>.<br />
+(<i>On cover&mdash;Recd. April 12.</i>)</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Papa</span>,&mdash;I received a day or two ago the kind
+letter in which you inform me of the disposition you have made
+to enable me to get the money I want, and for which I
+sincerely thank you; your letter reached me just as I was
+driving the last nail into the coffin of my large picture; the
+small had been disposed of in like manner the day before.
+Delighted as I am to have got them at last off my hands, yet I
+felt a kind of strange sorrow at seeing them nailed up in
+their narrow boxes; it was so painfully like shrouding and
+stowing away a corpse, with the exception, by-the-bye, that my
+pictures may possibly return to my bosom long before the Last
+Judgment. With regard to the success of my picture with its
+little Roman public, nearly all the praise that reached my
+ears was bestowed <i>behind my back</i>, so that whether
+intelligent or no, I have good reason to believe it was
+sincere; indeed, I should not else have said anything about
+it; Cornelius, I am sincerely sorry to say, did not see my
+daubs in their finished state; he was prevented by ill-health;
+however, all the advice he could give me I got out of him in
+the beginning, and indeed, as you know, altered about a dozen
+figures at his request; in points of material execution he is
+utterly incompetent; I am happy to say that he feels very
+kindly towards me, as indeed he told me in plain words, and
+added on one occasion, "Sie k&ouml;nnen f&uuml;r England etwas
+bedeutendes werden;" I need not tell you that as he is
+altogether without apprehension of the peculiar and very great
+merits of some of our artists, he considerably overvalues my
+(relative) value. You ask for <i>my</i> opinion of my pictures; you
+couldn't ask a more embarrassing and unsatisfactory question;
+I think, indeed, that they are very creditable works for my
+age, but I am anything but satisfied with them, and believe
+that I could paint both of them <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_181" id="PageV1_181">[181]</a></span>better now; I am particularly
+anxious that persons whom I love or esteem should think
+neither more nor less of my artistic capacity than I deserve;
+the plain truth; I am therefore very circumspect in passing a
+verdict on myself in addressing myself to such persons; I
+think, however, you may expect me to become eventually the
+best draughtsman in my country; Gibson and Miss Hosmer are, as
+you expect, amongst those who praise me, but I warn you that
+they are both utterly without an opinion in matters pictorial.
+Who is &mdash;&mdash;? He is, <i>entre nous</i>, the worst painter I ever
+saw, but also the greatest toady, in virtue of which quality
+he makes &pound;5000 a year by portraying the nobility of Great
+Britain and Ireland; however, towards me he has been very
+pleasant and nice, and so long as there is no lord in the way
+he is a sufficiently companionable person. I certainly feel
+very little desire to have my "Cimabue" hung in the little
+room you speak of, but I fear that I must take my chance with
+the rest; the fact is that although I personally have taken no
+steps in the matter, still "ces messieurs" will not be
+unprepared for my picture, because I know that old Leitch for
+one will speak to them about it and will do everything that is
+friendly; he even offered to varnish it, but <i>that</i> another
+friend of mine has already undertaken. One thing is certain,
+they can't hang it out of sight&mdash;it's too large for that. I
+must leave myself room to write afterwards to Mamma....</p>
+
+<p>...I am glad that you have made up your mind to not seeing me
+as soon as you expected; indeed I felt sure that when I told
+you all the reasons which concurred to make me prolong my
+stay, you would feel the force of them; I willingly confess,
+too, that I was most strongly biassed on the matter by my
+reluctance to part from my friends, but particularly <i>her</i>. I
+am horrified at the use you make of the words "indefinite
+time"; I shall certainly never live long anywhere without
+going to see them, and I trust that our "intimes relations"
+will not cease as long as I live. How sorry I am that I should
+not have known in time that Mrs. Kemble was to read in Bath; I
+should have liked so to introduce you to her; you no doubt
+found her reading a rare treat. How beautiful is the
+"Midsummer Night's Dream" with Mendelssohn's music! This
+reminds me of dear Gussy and <i>her</i> music; I suppose her new
+master is a good one, or she <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_182" id="PageV1_182">[182]</a></span>would not have taken him;
+generally speaking I have a sovereign dislike for the
+<i>engeance</i> of <i>pianistes</i> with their eternal jingle-tingles at
+the top of the piano, their drops of dew, their sources, their
+fairies, their bells, and the vapid runs and futile conceits
+with which they sentimentalise and torture the motive of other
+men; we have a specimen here in the shape of the
+all-fashionable &mdash;&mdash;....</p></div>
+
+<p>Referring to a lady of his acquaintance, he continues:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>She has acquired by her melancholy and sometimes haughty moods
+a character for misanthropy which she has not cared to refute;
+but, my good sir, she is DIVORCED! Poor cowards! should they
+not rather gather her to them, and "weep with her that weeps,"
+Bible-wise Pharisees! Your letter is full of thrilling events:
+children born among the Australian flocks of Mr. Donaldson;
+little &mdash;&mdash;, too, taking to herself a husband&mdash;alas for the
+Laird of (probably) Ballyshallynachurighawalymoroo! I must
+think of answering dear Gussy's note, and close with a hearty
+kiss, from your dutiful and affectionate son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p><span class="sc">Dearest Gussy</span>,&mdash;Many thanks to you for your kind note
+and for the sympathy and interest which you both offer and
+ask. How heartily sorry I am that you should still be
+persecuted by the soreness in your throat, and should be
+prevented, poor dear, from singing; you who have the rare gift
+of that which is unteachable and without which the most
+brilliant execution is dumb to the heart; I mean musical
+accent. I had hoped that we should sing together, but I fear
+that if the air of Bath has such a bad effect on the throat, I
+shall be invalided as well as yourself. What is about the
+compass of your voice? or (which is more important) in what
+<i>tessitura</i> do you sing with least discomfort? that I may see
+whether anything I sing will suit us; unfortunately most part
+of my limited <i>r&eacute;pertoire</i> consists of the first tenor part in
+quintettes and quartettes, which are not available for us two.
+I don't know whether I told you that I take a part in Mrs.
+Sartoris' musical evenings, in which I officiate as <i>primo
+tenore</i>; you may imagine how great an enjoyment this is to me.
+Dear Gussy, how I wish you could hear <i>her</i> sing! it would
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_183" id="PageV1_183">[183]</a></span>enlarge your ideas and open out your heart; I am sadly afraid
+however, that she won't winter in Paris, so that if you go
+there you must make up your mind to not meeting her; but if
+you are in England in October she may possibly be there by
+that time, and you might make her acquaintance; if I sell
+either of my pictures, and am "sur les lieux" at the time, I
+will take you and Lina to town at my own expense and introduce
+you to the dearest friend I have in the world; I long for you
+to know and love one another. You ask me whether she is like
+her sister; in <i>expression</i>, sometimes, strikingly like; in
+<i>feature</i>, not in the least. She is the image of John Kemble,
+with large aquiline nose and the most beautiful mouth in the
+world, a most harmonious head, and, like Fanny, the hair low
+down on her forehead; artistically speaking, her head and
+shoulders are the finest I ever saw with the exception only of
+Dante's; in spite of all this, many people think her barely
+good-looking, because she has no complexion, very little hair,
+and is excessively stout; <i>you</i> will be more discriminating. I
+am amused at Mamma's asking me in her letter whether I know
+why &mdash;&mdash; did not know the Sartoris! Pardi! I did not introduce
+them,&mdash;in the first place I have been obliged to make a rule
+to introduce nobody to that house, as I should otherwise
+become a nuisance; people have constantly fished for
+introductions knowing my intimacy; but the chief reason is
+that Mrs. Sartoris has the judgment and courage to ask to her
+house nobody but those she <i>likes</i> for some reason or other,
+for which reason her house is the most sociable in the world;
+her "intimes" are a complete medley, from the Duke of
+Wellington down to a poor artist with one change of boots, but
+<i>all</i> agreeable for some reason; I know that she would be kind
+to <i>any one I</i> brought to her, but I also know that the &mdash;&mdash;s
+would have been in the way and a <i>corv&eacute;e</i> to her, which fully
+accounts, &amp;c. &amp;c.</p>
+
+<p>I am delighted, dear Guss, that you have a music master to
+your heart, and that you have been considered worthy to play
+Bach's Fugues, which are indeed monstrous difficult. With
+regard to the pianistic style and the dewdrop-warbling school,
+you need not fear that <i>I</i> should throw sour grapes in your
+teeth about <i>that</i>; <i>franchement</i>, the &mdash;&mdash; after all is
+commonplace enough, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_184" id="PageV1_184">[184]</a></span>and the &mdash;&mdash;, though pretty, hardly
+deserves such an epithet as beautiful; as for the &mdash;&mdash;, it's
+just ludicrous. Did you ever hear &mdash;&mdash; piano-doodle himself?</p>
+
+<p>I was rather surprised at the judgment you pass on Fanny
+Kemble's reading; if <i>anything</i> seems at all coarse in it, it
+is occasional bits in the <i>male</i> part, and that only, after
+all, because it is <i>too</i> good and it seems discrepant to hear
+male harsh sounds proceeding from the mouth of a woman. With
+regard to her women, nothing can be more pathetic and touching
+than her Juliet, or indeed all the women I have heard her do;
+there is altogether in her style a certain amount of mannerism
+belonging to the Kemble school, but in spite of all that, it
+is quite unapproachable now and is grand in the extreme; the
+Ghost in "Hamlet" is quite a creation. You seem, like Mamma,
+to apologise almost for expressing an admiration for my
+photograph; do you think, dear, that I don't value your
+sympathy irrespectively of your art judgment? I shall send you
+soon two photographs of portraits that I am now painting; one
+of Mrs. Sartoris, the other of her little daughter May. I must
+close.&mdash;With very best love to all, I remain, your very
+affectionate brother,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The change Leighton made in his picture at the request of Cornelius,
+mentioned in his letter to his father, dated March 2, 1855, can be
+seen by comparing the pencil sketch of the complete design with the
+finished painting (see <a href="#toi">List of Illustrations</a>). It consisted in his
+making the Procession turn at the left-hand corner to face spectator,
+instead of filling in this space and giving the required grouping of
+lines partly by the foreshortened horse and its rider which we find in
+the first sketch. In the Leighton House Collection there is a fine
+study in pencil of the undraped figure of the man riding which is not
+included in the final design. There are those who remembered the
+picture when first painted in Rome, also at the Exhibitions in
+Trafalgar Square and Burlington House, who were of opinion that it was
+never seen so <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_185" id="PageV1_185">[185]</a></span>advantageously as on the occasion when the King lent it
+for exhibition in the artist's own studio in Leighton House in the
+year 1900, and many seeing it there exclaimed, "Leighton never did a
+finer thing;" and, truly, seen, as it was then, placed across the end
+of the glass studio under perfect conditions of lighting and
+surroundings, the power and originality both in the colouring and
+design of the work were very striking and impressive. Leighton's
+friends felt specially grateful to the King, for an opportunity having
+been afforded for the public to see this early work under such
+favourable and appropriate circumstances. During those months when the
+picture was shown at Leighton House, it felt as if the very spirit of
+the young artist, at the time when he was starting on his notable
+career, had returned and was haunting the home of his later years.
+From the end of the large studio, looking through the darkened passage
+connecting the two rooms, the procession verily looked alive, a
+<i>tableau vivant</i>&mdash;no mere painting.</p>
+
+<p>One of the salient virtues in the composition lies in the happy way in
+which the two central figures take a separate important position,
+without the moving on of the procession being interrupted nor their
+attitudes being in any sense forced. On the contrary, it is by their
+absorbed, modest demeanour, which contrasts with the rest of the gay
+crowd, talking, singing, and playing musical instruments as it moves
+along, that the sense of awe and reverence felt by the two artist
+spirits becomes accentuated. These recognise in this public ovation
+bestowed on the picture of their beloved "Madonna and Child" the union
+of a service offered both to Art and to Religion.</p>
+
+<p>The happiness Leighton enjoyed during the two years when this subject
+occupied his thoughts seems to have been reflected in the vigour of
+the actual painting. It was evidently finally executed with an
+exuberant feeling of satisfaction. <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_186" id="PageV1_186">[186]</a></span>Careful studies having been
+previously made for every portion, the under-painting itself was, as
+he writes to Steinle, completed in one week, and the canvas once
+attacked, there appears to have been no hitch in the process of
+completion. The happy balancing of masses, the grouping of the
+figures, the beauty of the lines throughout the crowded procession are
+admirable. The picture was admitted by competent judges to be a work
+marked by a distinct individuality, yet possessing "style," a word
+which in recent years had been associated in England with art that
+lacked vigour and originality, and which flavoured solely of obsolete
+grooves and theories. The colour is richer and purer than in
+Leighton's earliest pictures, and arranged cleverly so as to give full
+importance and value to the beautiful white costume worn by
+Cimabue.<a name="FNanchor_34_34" id="FNanchor_34_34"></a><a href="#Footnote_34_34" class="fnanchor">[34]</a> Sir William Richmond, R.A., writes: "Impressions of early
+years are not easily removed. As a boy at school I went to the R.A.
+Exhibition, and saw for the first time a work of Leighton's, the
+procession in honour <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_187" id="PageV1_187">[187]</a></span>of the picture by Cimabue in Florence, 1855. It
+stood out among the other pictures to my young eye as a work so
+complete, so noble in design, so serious in sentiment and of such
+achievement, that perforce it took me by the throat."</p>
+
+<p>Leighton sent a photograph of the picture to Steinle with a letter
+dated March 1.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, Via Felice</span> 123,<br />
+<i>March 1, 1855</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Friend</span>,&mdash;Although since my last letter I
+have had no news of you, I cannot pass by this moment, so
+important to me, without giving you intelligence of it.
+Yesterday I at last sent off both my pictures, the large one
+to London, the small one to Paris, with the consignment of the
+Roman Committee. Thank goodness, at last I have got them off
+my mind! And how sorry I am, dear Friend, that I could not put
+the finishing touches to them in your presence! Of the
+"Cimabue," I send you, in two pieces, a very bad photograph,
+but it is the <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_188" id="PageV1_188">[188]</a></span>best that could be made within four walls; from
+it you will only be able to judge generally of the grouping,
+for as regards the colour, which comes out so black in the
+photograph, in the picture it is altogether clear and light.
+You will certainly be glad to hear that this work has earned
+much praise here; I promised that you should not have to be
+ashamed of your pupil. The small picture is so dark in effect,
+that it would be impossible to photograph it; but as I suppose
+you, like all the rest of the world, will visit the great
+exhibition in Paris, you can avail yourself of the same
+opportunity to see my daub.</p>
+
+<p>Gamba is, now as ever, industrious, tireless, conscientious;
+his picture <i>also</i> will be finished in a few weeks, and will
+be a great credit to him; I only wish he had a prospect of
+selling it, but at present the sale of pictures is stagnant,
+especially in Piedmont, where the art-loving Queen-Mother has
+died. He will have to fight hard against the gigantic pedantry
+of the Turin Academy and College of Painters (<i>Malfacult&auml;t</i>),
+for he paints things exactly as he sees them in nature; God be
+with him! Of course, he sends you heartfelt greetings. Of
+other artistic doings in Rome I cannot tell you much; I think
+I have already told you that I look upon Rome as the grave of
+art; for a young artist, I mean, for whom actively suggestive
+surroundings are necessary. As regards the so-called German
+historical art, that is not much of a joke to me; when men,
+out of pure impotence, throw themselves under the shield of
+noble tendencies, in order to make mistaken efforts to imitate
+the work of other painters, they are simply ridiculous; but
+when men are endowed with fine natural gifts, and nevertheless
+out of sheer queerness and pedantry go altogether astray, then
+I only feel angry. God forgive me if I am intolerant, but
+according to my view an artist must produce his art out of his
+own heart; or he is none.</p>
+
+<p>Dear Master, I may perhaps pass through Frankfurt on my way
+back (in June); I should like beyond all things to see you
+again, you and your works that are so dear to me. Have you
+painted the "Death of Christ" which pleased me so much? Write
+to me if you have time, and tell me how things go with you.
+Keep a friendly recollection of your grateful, affectionate
+pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred. Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_189" id="PageV1_189">[189]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Frankfurt am Main</span>,<br />
+<i>March 20, 1855</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Friend</span>,&mdash;My best thanks for your dear lines of
+the 1st and for the photographs, with which you afforded me
+the greatest pleasure. I had an idea that I should receive
+this friendly remembrance, and I hope that you have meanwhile
+received my letter of the 3rd March. I know the difference in
+a photograph of a painting, and the often quite contrary
+effect of the yellow and red, too well to be deceived by a
+dark impression; the masses, their distribution, alike in the
+groups and in the light and shade, the outline of the
+background, most of the single figures, all please me very
+well, and you could not believe how much I rejoice in every
+detail in which I recognise my Leighton, and when I see how
+all these have been achieved so thoroughly by industrious
+study and artistic culture. You have indeed prepared a real
+feast for me, my good wishes in my last letter were quite the
+right ones, and the recognition which you have obtained in
+Rome was certainly well earned. I am convinced that Overbeck
+was heartily pleased with your pictures. It was perhaps my
+imagination, dear friend, when I thought from your letter that
+there was a slight cloud between us, but I think it will be
+torn away when these lines reach you. The fond idea of being
+again able to share your life and artistic work, I must
+relinquish, for I am an exile, and besides cannot make myself
+familiar with your progress as an artist in the Fatherland.
+Shall, then, your stay in Italy be ended by the journey which
+you led me to hope would bring you to see me again? But I
+forget so easily that we live in a world of renunciations, and
+that often when we believe we are disposing, we are disposed.
+My spirit and my love will always, wherever you may be, be
+with you. It occurred to me that probably our excellent Gamba
+would not send his great picture to Paris, and yet I seem to
+have heard that he intended doing so; it appears to me that
+exhibition in Paris would give the picture more importance
+than in Turin; that Gamba would triumph over the academic
+formalities in Turin, I do not doubt in the least. His
+grandmother and all his friends await him here; on a journey
+to Paris?&mdash;Now, dear <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_190" id="PageV1_190">[190]</a></span>friend, one more request. Ihl&eacute;e brought
+from Rome some photographic views, with which I and the
+friends who know Rome are truly delighted; the worthy Frau
+Rath Schlosser wishes very much to possess a selection of
+twelve, I myself would like to have at least three, will you
+be so good as to bring them with you in June, and also
+yourself take the trouble to make a really beautiful
+selection? You will oblige me thereby very greatly. I shall
+rejoice excessively to see you again, and wish much that your
+stay in Frankfurt need not be so short. Remember me cordially
+to Gamba, and give my kindest regards to Altmeister Cornelius.
+My wife thanks you for your kind remembrance, and sends many
+greetings. All friends here have bidden me send their best
+wishes to you and Gamba. Adieu, dear friend, always and
+altogether yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Edw. Steinle.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome</span>, <i>April 15, 1855</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Friend</span>,&mdash;Only a day or two after I sent
+off my letter with the photograph, I received your dear lines,
+and now I have also the letter in which you acknowledge
+receipt of mine, so that I am well off for news of you. All
+the affection and kind sympathy which you express for me has
+affected me deeply, and I look forward with sincere pleasure
+to the moment when I shall be able personally to express my
+gratitude to you; I am also most eager to see the drawings of
+the completion of which you tell me; judging by the sketches,
+I expect great things from this composition, so rich in
+imagination; I saw the first beginnings of it. That you are
+pleased with my photograph rejoices me extremely, but I am
+sorry that you have not mingled some blame with the praise;
+you say that <i>most</i> of my figures please you well; ergo, some
+of them do not; which are they? why not tell me all? do you no
+longer regard me as your pupil? From one part of your letter I
+understand that you think I have had a great deal of
+intercourse with good old Overbeck; that is not so; he and his
+followers one does not see at all unless one belongs to their
+clique; Overbeck has never been within my four walls.
+Cornelius I see less seldom, but not very often; he is a very
+charming old man, so cheerful and friendly, and is of great
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_191" id="PageV1_191">[191]</a></span>strength; for the rest, he has some little queernesses; he
+said to me once, "Yes, Nature has also her style" (!). Does
+that not bespeak a curious mental development?</p>
+
+<p>Gamba will not, as it happens, send his picture to Paris, it
+was not ready in time; meantime, it is being exhibited here in
+the Piazza del Popolo, and receives the applause it merits; he
+sends you most cordial greeting.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, indeed, the years of my "Italian Journey" are now ended!
+It seems but yesterday that we first took leave of one
+another, and you encouraged me upon my setting forth; the
+remembrance makes me sad at heart; I cannot help asking myself
+whether my expectations for these three years have been
+fulfilled: and the question remains unanswered.</p>
+
+<p>My stay in Italy will always remain a charming memory to me; a
+beautiful, irrecoverable time; the young, careless,
+independent time! I have also made some friends here who will
+always be dear to me, and to whom I particularly attribute my
+attachment to Rome.</p>
+
+<p>From an artistic point of view I am quite glad to leave Rome,
+which I, <i>for a beginner</i>, regard as the grave of art. A young
+man needs before all things the emulation of his
+contemporaries; this I lack here in the highest degree; also
+here I cannot learn my <i>trade</i>, and, notwithstanding
+Cornelius, I am of opinion that the spirit cannot work
+effectively until the hand has attained complete pliancy, and
+I cannot see what right a painter has to evade the
+difficulties of painting; Cornelius always says, "Take care
+that the hand does not become master of the spirit," and that
+sounds well enough; however, I see that, in consequence of his
+scheme of development, he has not once succeeded in painting a
+head reasonably, not once in modelling as the <i>form</i> requires;
+and that, with all his magnificent talent! Judge the tree by
+the fruit. How are the frescoes of Raphael painted and
+modelled? and the Sixtine Chapel! the lower part of the "Day
+of Judgment" is in a high degree <i>colouristic</i>
+(<i>Koloristisch</i>). <i>Those</i> people took nature straight from
+God, and were not ashamed; therefore their art was no
+galvanised mummy.</p>
+
+<p>I must close. Please remember me most kindly to your wife, and
+to my other friends. For yourself, keep in remembrance, your
+grateful and affectionate pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred. Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_192" id="PageV1_192">[192]</a></span>Steinle answers:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Frankfurt am Main</span>, <i>May 6, 1855</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Friend</span>,&mdash;Hearty thanks for your friendly
+note of April. The photograph of your picture quite pleases me
+as it is, and if I am particularly pleased with the details,
+that is to cast no discredit on the whole; for a general
+criticism the photograph does not give me sufficient
+certainty, and I must content myself, this time, with
+expressing the pleasure your always well-composed pictures
+give me. You know your picture, and can see more in the
+photograph than I. What you say about Overbeck, Cornelius, and
+Rome, I understand well, and I am in sympathy with much of it;
+but I am almost beginning to fear you, especially as I
+particularly feel how much I myself am wanting in ground-work,
+how much I myself belong to the same evolution as these two
+men. Custom, circumstances, and the tendencies of the times,
+are often mitigating facts in our judgment of these painters;
+they have fought against things of which we no longer know
+anything, and, as participators in their art, we stand, to a
+certain extent, shoulder to shoulder with them; their
+delicacies are proofs of their struggle, and the
+characteristic of youth becomes in old age principally a sign
+of weakness. Also experience has taught me not to let myself
+be deceived by what is called "cliquiness," I grant you that
+this is not an infallible judgment, which is often to be
+regretted, but people nowadays are weak, and I have found that
+cliques often have a greater tendency for good than those
+judgments which make more noise, a greater outcry than the
+fact warrants. Overbeck has always withdrawn himself too much;
+but now, dear friend, you must attack him on the subject
+before you leave Rome. Kindest regards to Gamba, to whom I
+wish a happy completion of his picture. My wife sends best
+greetings. Always and altogether yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Edw. Steinle.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>We have read in Leighton's letters the effect the "Cimabue's Madonna"
+produced on his friends in Rome, and how <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_193" id="PageV1_193">[193]</a></span>it was nailed up as "in a
+coffin" and despatched from the Eternal City, where it was destined
+never to return.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep193" id="imagep193"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep193.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep193th.jpg" width="85%" alt="CIMABUE'S 'MADONNA' CARRIED IN PROCESSION" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"CIMABUE'S 'MADONNA' CARRIED IN PROCESSION THROUGH THE STREETS OF FLORENCE." 1855<br />
+By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the Copyright<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There exists a small long envelope edged with black, stained horny
+yellow by time, the head of Queen Victoria on the postage stamp. It
+was despatched from England to Rome over fifty years ago. In the
+ardent spirit of the young artist who had been eagerly awaiting
+tidings of his first great venture, what a tumult of excitement must
+the contents of that small envelope have aroused! They brought with
+them a conclusive and triumphal end to all arguments with his father
+concerning the career Leighton had chosen; they realised the sanguine
+hopes of his beloved master, Steinle, and of his other friends; last
+not least, they gave him the means and the great happiness of helping
+his fellow-artists. To quote again from the record of one who was with
+him in Rome at the time: "My husband<a name="FNanchor_35_35" id="FNanchor_35_35"></a><a href="#Footnote_35_35" class="fnanchor">[35]</a> remembers the departure of
+his picture 'The Triumph of Cimabue,' sent with diffidence, and so,
+proportionate was the joy when news came of its success, and that the
+Queen had bought it. It was the month of May. Rome was at its
+loveliest, and Leighton's friends and brother-artists gave him a
+festal dinner to celebrate his honours. On receiving the news,
+Leighton's first act was to fly to three less successful artists and
+buy a picture from each of them. (George Mason, then still unknown,
+was one.) And so Leighton reflected his own happiness at once on
+others."</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, 123 Via Felice</span>,<br />
+<i>May 18, 1855</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear and honoured Friend</span>,&mdash;As with everything that I
+receive from you, I was delighted to get your dear lines of
+the 6th; one thing only in them grieved me a little, <i>i.e.</i>
+that what I said about the German historical painters here
+seems to have <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_194" id="PageV1_194">[194]</a></span>rather jarred upon you. Was I then so
+intolerant in my expressions? I hope not. You say that you are
+almost afraid of me. When I spoke to you so freely of the
+others, was that not a plain proof of how completely I except
+you? You assuredly know, dear Master, how and what I think of
+you, and that I ascribe entirely to you my whole &aelig;sthetic
+culture in art. Your commission to good old Overbeck I have
+executed as well as I could. I found him much more cheerful
+and less ailing than before. He received me with the greatest
+amiability; we spoke, amongst other things, of you, and I
+perceived that he had it in his mind to go soon to Germany and
+to spend a couple of weeks in Mainz; I should like to be the
+first to give you this good news.</p>
+
+<p>As for myself, dear Friend, my plans are once more quite
+upset. My father has hastily recalled me to England, and I am
+sorry to say that I must consequently give up going to
+Frankfurt. However, I have not neglected your commission. I
+have chosen the photographs, and you will receive them in the
+beginning of next month, and that by a friend of mine who will
+be passing through Frankfurt, and whom I hereby introduce to
+you. Mrs. Sartoris is my dearest friend, and the noblest,
+cleverest woman I have ever met; I need not say more to secure
+her a cordial welcome from you. She is one of the celebrated
+theatrical family of Kemble. It is now ten or eleven years
+since she left the stage, but she is still the greatest living
+cantatrice.<a name="FNanchor_36_36" id="FNanchor_36_36"></a><a href="#Footnote_36_36" class="fnanchor">[36]</a></p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_195" id="PageV1_195">[195]</a></span>You will certainly be glad to hear that on the first day of
+the Exhibition my picture was bought by the Queen.</p>
+
+<p>I am at this moment in the thick of packing; you must excuse,
+dear Friend, my ending so abruptly. I will write again from
+England.&mdash;Your grateful pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep194" id="imagep194"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep194.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep194.jpg" width="42%" alt="Letter written by Sir Charles Eastlake" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%;">Reproduction of Letter written by Sir Charles Eastlake,
+P.R.A., to Lord Leighton, announcing the fact that Queen Victoria had
+purchased his picture, "Cimabue's Madonna." 1855.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_196" id="PageV1_196">[196]</a></span>So ended the first page of Leighton's life as an artist in the Rome of
+the fifties&mdash;a very different Rome to that of the present. The
+atmosphere was still steeped in those days with a flavour belonging to
+the Papal temporal dominion, and the visible life still picturesque
+with the costumes and grandeur of medi&aelig;val customs.</p>
+
+<br />
+<hr/>
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_20_20" id="Footnote_20_20"></a><a href="#FNanchor_20_20"><span class="label">[20]</span></a> See page 83.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_21_21" id="Footnote_21_21"></a><a href="#FNanchor_21_21"><span class="label">[21]</span></a> Page 97.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_22_22" id="Footnote_22_22"></a><a href="#FNanchor_22_22"><span class="label">[22]</span></a> Page 26, "Introduction."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_23_23" id="Footnote_23_23"></a><a href="#FNanchor_23_23"><span class="label">[23]</span></a> "If the Almighty were to come before me, with absolute
+knowledge in his right hand, and perpetual striving after truth in his
+left, I would fling myself to his left, praying: Father, give! pure
+truth is thine alone."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_24_24" id="Footnote_24_24"></a><a href="#FNanchor_24_24"><span class="label">[24]</span></a> "The Well-Head" (see <a href="#toi">List of Illustrations</a>), drawn
+during Leighton's visit to Venice, and described in "Pebbles," more
+than justifies this opinion, for it may be questioned whether any
+other drawing he ever made of the kind is as perfectly beautiful.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_25_25" id="Footnote_25_25"></a><a href="#FNanchor_25_25"><span class="label">[25]</span></a> Miss Laing, afterwards Lady Nias.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_26_26" id="Footnote_26_26"></a><a href="#FNanchor_26_26"><span class="label">[26]</span></a> See Appendix. Presidential Address delivered by Sir F.
+Leighton, Bart., P.R.A., at the Art Congress, held at Liverpool,
+December 3, 1888.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_27_27" id="Footnote_27_27"></a><a href="#FNanchor_27_27"><span class="label">[27]</span></a> This modest attitude Leighton took as listener reminds
+me of the last time he saw Browning. One afternoon in the autumn of
+1888, we were sitting with Leighton and Browning in the Kensington
+studio. Browning showed us photographs of the Palazzo Rezzonico which
+he had lately given to his son. The subject turned to a discussion on
+Byron and Shelley. Often as I had heard Browning talk well, I never
+heard him converse so well as he did on that afternoon. It was no
+monologue. It was real conversation, and of the kind that inspires
+others to do also their best; but Leighton never uttered, till&mdash;when,
+after an hour or so, we rose to leave&mdash;he exclaimed, "Oh, don't! <i>do</i>
+go on," and we had to sit down again. When at last the good thing came
+to an end, Leighton conducted us downstairs to his door, where we
+parted. Browning waved a farewell from across the road, where he stood
+for a moment in front of the little cottages, while Leighton stood in
+the porch-way of his house. The next day Browning started on his last
+journey to Italy&mdash;to die in the Palazzo Rezzonico.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_28_28" id="Footnote_28_28"></a><a href="#FNanchor_28_28"><span class="label">[28]</span></a> Another old friend of Leighton's, Mr. Hamilton A&iuml;d&eacute;,
+writes: "My journal 1854-55-56 contains frequent notices of our
+excursions and long days spent on the Campagna, and on the hill-sides
+near the Bagni di Lucca, where we took out food for mind and will as
+well as for the body, and sketched while one of our party read
+aloud&mdash;and also of many Tableaux at Rome, devised by him (Leighton) to
+suit the colouring, character, and grace of certain noble ladies."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_29_29" id="Footnote_29_29"></a><a href="#FNanchor_29_29"><span class="label">[29]</span></a> It appears that Leighton had been misinformed as to
+"every girl" having to pass such an examination.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_30_30" id="Footnote_30_30"></a><a href="#FNanchor_30_30"><span class="label">[30]</span></a></p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In Italien auf meiner Wanderschaft<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hab' ich dies B&uuml;blein aufgerafft<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hab's mit dem Pinsel so hingeschrieben<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ist mir leider unvollendet geblieben.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_31_31" id="Footnote_31_31"></a><a href="#FNanchor_31_31"><span class="label">[31]</span></a> The Caf&eacute; Greco still exists, unaltered since the days
+when Leighton and Gamba lunched there every day on <i>macaroni al
+burro</i>. I visited it last May (1906), and heard from the present
+proprietor that it continues to be frequented by artists of all
+countries. He had heard of the book of sketches, and also that
+Rafaello had sold it before his death, but to whom the <i>Padrone</i> could
+not say.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_32_32" id="Footnote_32_32"></a><a href="#FNanchor_32_32"><span class="label">[32]</span></a> Of Cervara there is a pencil drawing by Leighton in the
+Leighton House Collection, in his earliest style, dated 1856.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_33_33" id="Footnote_33_33"></a><a href="#FNanchor_33_33"><span class="label">[33]</span></a> Fanny Kemble's answer to these words of Leighton's
+were:&mdash;"Thank you, my dear Sir Frederic, for the address you have been
+so good as to give me. You honour me by remembering any conversation
+you ever had with me. I remember one I had with you many years ago,
+but do not think you refer to that. You say no word, and you do well,
+upon the subject that must be uppermost in both our minds when we meet
+or hold any intercourse with each other&mdash;our thoughts must be of the
+same complexion and could hardly find any expression. Thank you again
+for your kindness.&mdash;I am affectionately, your obliged,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fanny Kemble."</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_34_34" id="Footnote_34_34"></a><a href="#FNanchor_34_34"><span class="label">[34]</span></a> Ruskin wrote the following criticism of the picture when
+it was first exhibited: "This is a very important and very beautiful
+picture. It has both sincerity and grace, and is painted on the purest
+principles of Venetian art&mdash;that is to say, on the calm acceptance of
+the whole of nature, small and great, as, in its place, deserving of
+faithful rendering. The great secret of the Venetians was their
+simplicity. They were great colourists, not because they had peculiar
+secrets about oil and colour, but because when they saw a thing red
+they painted it red, and ... when they saw it distinctly they painted
+it distinctly. In all Paul Veronese's pictures the lace borders of the
+tablecloths or fringes of the dresses are painted with just as much
+care as the faces of the principal figures; and the reader may rest
+assured that in all great Art it is so. Everything in it is done as
+well as it can be done. Thus, in the picture before us, in the
+background is the Church of San Miniato, strictly accurate in every
+detail; on top of the wall are oleanders and pinks, as carefully
+painted as the church; the architecture of the shrine on the wall is
+studied from thirteenth-century Gothic, and painted with as much care
+as the pinks; the dresses of the figures, very beautifully designed,
+are painted with as much care as the faces; that is to say, all things
+throughout with as much care as the painter could bestow. It
+necessarily follows that what is most difficult (<i>i.e.</i> the faces)
+should be comparatively the worst done. But if they are done as well
+as the painter could do them, it is all we have to ask, and modern
+artists are under a wonderful mistake in thinking that when they have
+painted faces ill, they make their pictures more valuable by painting
+the dresses worse.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">"The painting before us has been objected to because it seems broken
+up in bits. Precisely the same objection would hold, and in very
+nearly the same degree, against the best works of the Venetians. All
+faithful colourists' work, in figure-painting, has a look of sharp
+separation between part and part.... Although, however, in common with
+all other work of its class, it is marked by these sharp divisions,
+there is no confusion in its arrangement. The principal figure is
+nobly principal, not by extraordinary light, but by its own pure
+whiteness; and both the master and the young Giotto attract full
+regard by distinction of form and face. The features of the boy are
+carefully studied, and are indeed what, from the existing portraits of
+him, we know those of Giotto must have been in his youth. The head of
+the young girl who wears the garland of blue flowers is also very
+sweetly conceived."</p>
+
+<p class="noin">D.G. Rossetti wrote to his friend, William Allingham, May 11, 1855:
+"There is a big picture of Cimabue, one of his works in procession, by
+a new man, living abroad, named Leighton&mdash;a huge thing, which the
+Queen has bought; which every one talks of. The R.A.'s have been
+gasping for years for some one to back against Hunt and Millais, and
+here they have him, a fact that makes some people do the picture
+injustice in return. It was very interesting to me at first sight; but
+on looking more at it, I think there is great richness of arrangement,
+a quality which, when really existing, as it does in the best old
+masters, and perhaps hitherto in no living man&mdash;at any rate
+English&mdash;ranks among the great qualities."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_35_35" id="Footnote_35_35"></a><a href="#FNanchor_35_35"><span class="label">[35]</span></a> Sir John Leslie.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_36_36" id="Footnote_36_36"></a><a href="#FNanchor_36_36"><span class="label">[36]</span></a> Mrs. Richmond Ritchie gives a very charming account of
+her first introduction in the Rome of those days to Leighton's friend,
+the great <i>cantatrice</i>, Mrs. Sartoris, in the preface to the edition
+of "A Week in a French Country House," published in 1902. Thackeray,
+Mrs. Ritchie's father, and Charles Kemble, Mrs. Sartoris' father, had
+been old friends. Mrs. Ritchie says: "The writer's first definite
+picture of her old friend (Mrs. Sartoris) remains as a sort of
+frontispiece to many aspects and remembrances. We were all standing in
+a big Roman drawing-room with a great window to the west, and the
+colours of the room were not unlike sunset colours. There was a long
+piano with a bowl of flowers on it in the centre of the room; there
+were soft carpets to tread upon; a beautiful little boy in a white
+dress, with yellow locks all a-shine from the light of the window, was
+perched upon a low chair looking up at his mother, who with her arm
+round him stood by the chair, so that their two heads were on a level.
+She was dressed (I can see her still) in a sort of grey satin robe,
+and her beautiful proud head was turned towards the child. She seemed
+pleased to see my father, who had brought us to be introduced to her,
+and she made us welcome, then, and all that winter, to her home. In
+that distant, vivid hour (there may be others as vivid now for a new
+generation) Rome was still a medi&aelig;val city&mdash;monks in every shade of
+black and grey and brown were in the streets outside with their
+sandalled feet flapping on the pavement; cardinals passed in their
+great pantomime coaches, rolling on with accompaniment of shabby
+cocked-hats and liveries to clear a way; Americans were rare and much
+made of; English were paramount; at night oil-lamps swung in the
+darkness. Many of the ruins of the present were still in their graves
+peacefully hidden away for another generation to unearth; the new
+buildings, the streets, the gas lamps, the tramways were not. The
+Sartorises had fireplaces with huge logs burning; Mrs. Browning sat by
+her smouldering wood fire; but we in our lodging still had to light
+brazen pans of charcoal to warm ourselves if we shivered. At my
+request an old friend, who for our good fortune has kept a diary,
+opens one of his pretty vellum-bound note-books, and evokes an hour of
+those old Italian times from the summer following that Roman winter.
+He tells of a peaceful Sunday at Lucca, a place of which I have often
+heard Mrs. Sartoris speak with pleasure; Leighton and Hatty Hosmer and
+Hamilton Aid&eacute; himself are there; they are all sitting peacefully
+together on some high terrace with a distant view of the spreading
+plains, while Mrs. Sartoris reads to them out of one of her favourite
+Dr. Channing's sermons. Another page tells of a party at Ostia. 'Very
+pleasant we made ourselves in a pine wood,' says the diarist; 'I
+walked by A.S.'s <i>chaise-&agrave;-porteur</i> up the hills later in the evening.
+She talked of her past life and all its trials, and of her early
+youth.' Mrs. Ritchie in her preface also tells of this 'past life.'</p>
+
+<p class="noin">"The Rue de Clichy of which he (Thackeray) speaks was the street in
+which Miss Foster lived, under whose care both Fanny and Adelaide
+Kemble were placed, when they successively went to Paris. Then each in
+turn came out and made her mark, and each in turn married and left the
+stage for that world in which real tragedies and real comedies are
+still happening, and where men and women play their own parts
+instinctively and sing their own songs. Adelaide's short artistic
+career lasted from 1835 to 1842, long enough to impress all the
+subsequent years of her life. With all the welcoming success which was
+hers, there must have been many a moment of disillusion,
+discouragement, and suffering for a girl so original, so aristocratic
+in instinct, so quick of perception, so individual, '<i>De la boh&ecirc;me
+exquise</i>,' as some great lady once described her. The following page
+out of one of her early diaries gives a vivid picture of one side of
+her artistic life: '...Received an intimation that the company who
+are to act with me had arrived at Trieste, and would be here at eleven
+to rehearse the music. At twelve came Signor Carcano (the director of
+the music), and a dirty-looking little object, who turned out to be
+the prompter. After they had sat some time wondering what detained the
+rest, a little fusty woman, with a grey-coloured white petticoat
+dangling three inches below her gown, holding a thin shivering dog by
+a dirty pocket-handkerchief, and followed by a tall slip of a man,
+with his hair all down his back, and decorated with whiskers, beard,
+and mustachios, made her appearance. I advanced to welcome my
+Adalgisa, but without making any attempt at a return of my salutation,
+she glanced all round the room and merely said, "Come fa caldo qui!
+Non c'&egrave; nessuno ancora? Andiamo a prendere un caff&eacute;," and taking the
+arm of the hairy man retreated forthwith. Then came Signor Gallo,
+leader of the band, then the tenor, who could have gained the prize
+for unwashedness against 'em all&mdash;and after half-an-hour more waiting,
+Adalgisa and the hairy one returned, and after about half-an-hour more
+arrived my bass, and, God bless him, he came clean!</p>
+
+<p class="noin">"'We then went to work. Adalgisa could think of nothing but her dog,
+who kept up a continuous plaintive howl all the time we sang, which
+she assured me was because it liked the band accompaniment better than
+the piano, as it never made signs of disapprobation when she took it
+to rehearsals with the orchestra. She also informed me that it had
+five puppies, all of which it had nursed itself, as if Italian dogs
+were in the habit of hiring out wet nurses....'" And again&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="noin">"I can remember her describing to us one of these performances, and
+her enjoyment of the long folds of drapery as she flew across the
+stage as Norma and how she added with a sudden flash, half humour,
+half enthusiasm: 'I have everything a woman could wish for, my friends
+and my home, my husband and my children, and yet sometimes a wild
+longing comes over me to be back, if only for one hour, on the stage
+again, and living once more as I did in those early adventurous
+times.' She was standing in a beautiful room in Park Place when she
+said this. There were high carved cabinets, and worked silken
+tapestries on the walls, and a great golden carved glass over her
+head&mdash;she herself in some velvet brocaded dress stood looking not
+unlike a picture by Tintoret."</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_197" id="PageV1_197">[197]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER III<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>PENCIL DRAWINGS OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS<br />
+1850-1860</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>No attempt at an appreciation of Leighton's art would be complete were
+it not to include, and even accentuate, the distinct value of the
+exquisite drawings of flowers and leaves which he made in pencil and
+silver point between the years 1852 and 1860.<a name="FNanchor_37_37" id="FNanchor_37_37"></a><a href="#Footnote_37_37" class="fnanchor">[37]</a> As regards certain
+all-important qualities these studies are unrivalled. I was well
+acquainted with the drawings Leighton made for his pictures during the
+last twenty-five years of his life, and I had oftentimes heard Watts
+express an unbounded admiration for these; but when, looking through
+the portfolios of early drawings after Leighton's death, I came upon
+these exquisite fragments in pencil, it seemed that I had found for
+the first time the real key to the inner chamber of his genius. As
+reproductions of the beauty in line, form, and structure&mdash;the
+architecture, so to speak, of vegetation&mdash;nothing ever came closer to
+Nature revealed by a human touch through a treatment on a flat
+surface.</p>
+
+<p>On December 22, 1852, Leighton writes to his mother from Rome: "I long
+to find myself again face to face with Nature, to follow it, to watch
+it, and to copy it, closely, faithfully, ingenuously&mdash;as Ruskin
+suggests, 'choosing nothing and rejecting nothing,'" and it is in this
+spirit that he set to work when he filled sketch-books with exquisite
+studies of the flowers and plants he loved best. These records of <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_198" id="PageV1_198">[198]</a></span>the
+joy with which Nature filled his artistic temperament are to some more
+truly sympathetic than his elaborate work, for the reason that, while
+enjoying their beauty, we come in contact with the pure spirit of
+Leighton's genius unalloyed by any sense of intellectual effort. In
+his diary, "Pebbles," on August 21, 1852, Leighton writes: "Of the
+Tyrolese themselves, three qualities seem to me to characterise them,
+qualities which go well hand in hand with, and, I think it is not
+fanciful to say, are in great measure a key to, their well-known
+frankness and open-hearted honesty. I mean Piety, which shines out
+amongst them in many true things, a love for the art, which with them
+is, in fact, an outward manifestation of piety, and which is
+sufficiently displayed by the numberless scriptural subjects, painted
+or in relief, which adorn the cottages of the poorest peasants ... and
+last, not least, a love for flowers (in other words, for Nature),
+which is written in the lovely clusters of flowers which stand in
+many-hued array on the window-sills of every dwelling. The works of
+all the really great artists display that love for flowers. Raphael
+did not consider it "niggling," as some of our broad-handling moderns
+would call it, to group humble daisies round the feet of his divine
+representation of the Mother of Christ. I notice that <i>two plants</i>,
+especially, produce a beautiful effect, both of form and colour,
+against the cool grey walls; the spreading, dropping, graceful
+<i>carnation</i>, with its bluish leaves and crimson flowers, and the
+slender, antlered, thousand-blossomed <i>oleander</i>." No exact name has
+ever been given to the special creed of the artist's religion; to that
+condition of the soul which Socrates in Plato's <i>Ph&aelig;drus</i> declares has
+come to the birth as having seen most of truth together with that of
+the Philosopher, the Musician, and the Lover. The artist penetrates
+further than others can, into the mysteries of Nature's marvels as
+revealed through the eye, and he therefore comes in closer <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_199" id="PageV1_199">[199]</a></span>union
+through the sense of sight with the spirit of the artist of the
+infinite, and can gauge better the immeasurable distance which exists
+between Divine and human creation, and this is felt more distinctly,
+more reverently, when the artist simply copies Nature than when his
+own d&aelig;mon is taking a part in the inspiring of his inventions.</p>
+
+<p>Leighton writes to his mother when he first reaches Rome in 1852: "I
+wish that I had a mind, simple and unconscious, even as a child"; and
+we find the evidence in these studies by Leighton of plants and
+flowers that his wish, for the time when he was drawing them, was
+granted; no intellectual choice nor assumption of scholarly theories
+have taken part in their achievement; they are spontaneous echoes of
+Divine creations when he was "face to face with Nature," and there is
+no reflection of any teaching but hers. Nature and her child have been
+alone together. The results are unalloyed expressions of the joy he
+felt in pure impersonal revelations of beauty. They are distinguished
+because elemental, recording the birth of the ingenuous response of a
+human spirit to a superhuman perfection of workmanship. When in such
+union of spirit with Nature, the artist-soul enters his most sacred
+shrine. An ecstatic joy is kindled by wonder, admiration, adoration,
+from which joy is inspired a peremptory impulse to endeavour to
+reproduce in his human handicraft the marvels of creation. Such
+experiences result from instinctive inevitable conditions, and, coming
+from the illumination of genius, belong to a higher level than that on
+which the intellect works;<a name="FNanchor_38_38" id="FNanchor_38_38"></a><a href="#Footnote_38_38" class="fnanchor">[38]</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_200" id="PageV1_200">[200]</a></span>no temptations of the personal d&aelig;mon
+simmer behind and distort the pure vision of Nature, provoking
+suggestions which are human of the human&mdash;the desire to excel, the
+ambition to be first, the love to display individuality. That inner
+life, the very core and most vital meaning of Leighton's being, the
+life that held revelry with all Nature's beauty, had been enraptured
+through the pure innocent loveliness in the flowers. Take, for
+instance, the page where he has <i>explained</i> the cyclamen he found at
+Tivoli in October 1856, and take a cyclamen, the real flower, and
+dissect it. What precious work we find: the ribbed calyx spreading out
+from the satin sheen of the stalk to clasp the bulbous swelling at the
+root of the petals&mdash;brilliant like finest blown glass, each calyx
+fringed round with emerald green flutings&mdash;inside straw colour dashed
+with brown speckles, all this triumph of minute finish just to start
+the sail-like petals of the flower itself. What reverence and
+enthusiasm was excited in Leighton as he pored over such things is
+vouched for by this page (and others similar of different flowers),
+exquisite portraits of every view of the cyclamen; faint notes in
+writing recording the colours which his pencil failed to do.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep200" id="imagep200"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep200.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep200.jpg" width="43%" alt="STUDIES OF CYCLAMEN. Tivoli, October 1856" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDIES OF CYCLAMEN. Tivoli, October 1856<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep201" id="imagep201"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep201.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep201.jpg" width="65%" alt="WREATH OF BAY LEAVES." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">WREATH OF BAY LEAVES.<br />
+Drawn at the Bagni di Lucca, 1854. Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Referring to his journey through the Tyrol, in 1852, Leighton writes:
+"I had been dwelling with unwearied admiration on the exquisite grace
+and beauty of the details, as it were, of Nature; every little flower
+of the field had become to me a new source of delight; the very blades
+of grass appeared to me in a new light."</p>
+
+<p>Not only his artistic temperament, but also circumstances, had guided
+Leighton's instincts into the worship of beauty&mdash;beauty such as can be
+conceived alone by the artistic temperament&mdash;as the divinest element
+in creation and one to be reverenced beyond all others; and when "face
+to face" with Nature, having no desire but to record that reverence
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_201" id="PageV1_201">[201]</a></span>and worship "ingenuously," he made these incomparable drawings. They
+were done solely for the sake of the joy he felt in doing them, and
+Leighton certainly never expected any recognition of their beauty by a
+future generation. Stray leaves from a sketch-book have been collected
+and preserved in the Leighton House Collection, having been extracted
+from a mass of old dusty papers. On these pages are exquisite
+pencilled outlines of cyclamen, of a crocus, of oleander flowers, of a
+bramble branch, of sprays of bay and of plants of the agaves. They are
+dated the year after Leighton's great success, 1856, the year of his
+failure. In 1854, when he spent the summer at the Bagni di Lucca, he
+drew studies of bay-leaves twined into a wreath and festoons of the
+vine (see <a href="#toi">List of Illustrations</a> and design on cover). Three days after
+Leighton's death, in a letter to <i>The Times</i> from one who knew him, a
+reference was made to this visit to Lucca.<a name="FNanchor_39_39" id="FNanchor_39_39"></a><a href="#Footnote_39_39" class="fnanchor">[39]</a> This old acquaintance,
+who was then seeing him daily for three months, writes, "He was the
+most brilliant man I ever met." It was this brilliant entity, this
+attractive personality, who spent hours over drawing the flower of a
+pumpkin and of a "<i>faded pumpkin</i>." Professor Aitchison records how he
+found Leighton at work over this drawing.<a name="FNanchor_40_40" id="FNanchor_40_40"></a><a href="#Footnote_40_40" class="fnanchor">[40]</a> The celebrated "Lemon
+Tree," to which Professor Aitchison refers, and of which Ruskin also
+writes,<a name="FNanchor_41_41" id="FNanchor_41_41"></a><a href="#Footnote_41_41" class="fnanchor">[41]</a> though the most renowned of Leighton's drawings of plants,
+and doubtless a <i>tour de force</i>,&mdash;a wonderful achievement,&mdash;has not, I
+think, the same perfection of charm which many of the earlier, less
+complete studies possess.<a name="FNanchor_42_42" id="FNanchor_42_42"></a><a href="#Footnote_42_42" class="fnanchor">[42]</a> The sketch of a portion of a <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_202" id="PageV1_202">[202]</a></span>deciduous
+tree<a name="FNanchor_43_43" id="FNanchor_43_43"></a><a href="#Footnote_43_43" class="fnanchor">[43]</a> is perhaps a greater triumph in draughtsmanship than even the
+"Lemon Tree," because the foliage has a frailer and less definite
+aspect, and is yet reproduced with an absolute certainty of outline.
+The "Lemon Tree," drawn at Capri in 1859, was done for a purpose.
+Leighton had a feeling that the pre-Raphaelites ought not to have it
+all their own way on the score of elaborate finish and perfection in
+the drawing of detail. My first introduction to the "Lemon Tree" was
+on an occasion when Leighton and I had had an argument respecting the
+principles of the pre-Raphaelite school. He fetched the drawing from a
+corner in his studio, and, while showing it to me, said words to the
+effect that it was not only the pre-Raphaelites who reverenced the
+detail in Nature, and who thought it worth the time and labour it took
+to record the beauty in the wonderful minuti&aelig; of her structure. If
+sufficient pains were taken, any one, he maintained, who could draw at
+all ought to be able to draw the complete detail of every object set
+before him. But, for the very reason that the "Lemon Tree" was done
+with a further purpose than the mere joy the beauty of Nature excited
+in Leighton's &aelig;sthetic senses, there is not, I think, quite the same
+convincing charm in this drawing as in some other more fragmentary
+studies.</p>
+
+<p>In considering this early work by Leighton, it should be borne in
+mind, that in those years when it was executed, photography had not
+yet given the standard of a finish and perfection in actual
+delineation which outrivals every record made by human hand and eye.
+Photography has, in these later years, given the proportion and detail
+in beautiful architecture, the form of trees, plants, and flowers,
+their exquisite delicacy of structure, their grace and intricacy of
+line: all this <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_203" id="PageV1_203">[203]</a></span>has been secured and pictured for us by the camera;
+and, up to a certain point, very precious and truthful are these
+memoranda of the aspects of nature and art. Many of us remember the
+days when enthusiastic disciples of the wonderful new art of
+photography prophesied that no other would soon be needed, and that
+the draughtsman's craft would before long cease to exist. And further,
+they maintained it only required the discovery of a means to
+photograph colour for the painter's art also to be demolished.
+Artists, however, knew better. What was valuable in the records of
+photography, and what was of most intrinsic worth in the records
+created through means of the human hand and eye, were absolutely
+incomparable quantities. The treatment of nature in a photographic
+picture, however admirable and complete, must always be lacking in the
+evidence of any preference, reverence, or enthusiasm&mdash;in the sacred
+fire, in fact, which inspires the draughtsman's pencil and the
+painter's brush. Photography is indiscriminate; human art is
+selective, and is precious as it evinces and secures a choiceness in
+selection. However truthfully a photograph may record beauty of line
+and form in nature, it inevitably also records in its want of
+discrimination any facts which may exist in the view photographed;
+these counter-balance the effect of such beauty, and mar the subtle
+impression of charm which scenes in nature produce on a mind sensitive
+to beauty.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep202a" id="imagep202a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep202a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep202a.jpg" width="55%" alt="STUDY OF LEMON TREE. Capri, 1859" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF LEMON TREE. Capri, 1859<br />
+By permission of Mr. S. Pepys Cockerell<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep202b" id="imagep202b"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep202b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep202b.jpg" width="48%" alt="STUDY OF DECIDUOUS TREE." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF DECIDUOUS TREE.<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>As the vision of the artist which attracts this feeling for beauty
+focalises itself in the sight, he naturally perceives but vaguely any
+other objects before him; therefore, the facts inspired by such
+preference become accentuated, and all their surroundings subordinated
+to it. For this reason, also, what is called, somewhat erroneously,
+the sculptor's sense of line and form&mdash;the sense applying equally to
+the treatment of line and form on a flat surface as in the round&mdash;is
+not so obvious in a photograph as in a good drawing. The eye of <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_204" id="PageV1_204">[204]</a></span>one
+possessing a gift for drawing transmits to the brain the structure of
+an object, not only as it is outlined against other objects, but also
+as the different planes of which it is formed recede or advance, slant
+one way or another, curve or straighten. To a truly gifted
+draughtsman, such as Leighton, there is an absorbing interest in
+working out the forms of the objects he sees which delight his sense
+of beauty,&mdash;of guiding his pencil so that it echoes on the paper the
+gratification with which his senses are inspired through his artistic
+perceptions. The result will be&mdash;that the drawing he produces almost
+unconsciously accentuates what has delighted him most in the objects
+he is depicting, and, explaining further than does even an actual copy
+by photography the element of beauty which has inspired him, carries
+with it also an inspiring effect on the spectator: the drawing will
+have something in it which affects us as a living influence, an
+influence which the most perfect of photographs can never possess. The
+actual perspective may be absolutely correct in the photograph&mdash;so may
+be the placing on the paper of every turn and twist in a bough or a
+leaf as regards their outlines; but compared to a beautiful drawing we
+feel the want of mind behind it: no human sense has revelled in the
+intricacies of growth and foreshortening, no human eye has traced the
+exquisite grace and sweep of the curve and the happy spring of the
+shoot alive with uprising sap. Just that accentuation which
+unwittingly creeps into the human touch, denoting that the
+construction of the form has been perceived and appreciated with
+delight, is lacking. The line of a pathway rising up on the sweep of
+an upland, a line which is always so fascinatingly suggestive, does
+not lead you farther over the hill in a photograph as it does in a
+little woodcut by William Blake. Just that push and movement is
+wanting in the sense of the line which in a really fine drawing gives
+it a living quality. Another shortcoming is caused by the inevitable
+flattening of tone in a photograph. <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_205" id="PageV1_205">[205]</a></span>The brightest light does not
+detach itself, the darkest spot, to some degree always, even in the
+best print, is merged in the general shadow.</p>
+
+<div class="centered"><a name="imagep205" id="imagep205"></a>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" width="100%" summary="EARLY STUDIES OF KALMIA, OLEANDER, AND RHODODENDRON FLOWERS">
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" width="33%" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="images/imagep205c.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep205c.jpg" width="95%" alt="EARLY STUDIES OF KALMIA" /></a><br /></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="34%" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="images/imagep205b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep205b.jpg" width="100%" alt="EARLY STUDIES OF KALMIA" /></a><br /></td>
+  <td class="tdc" width="33%" style="vertical-align: bottom;"><a href="images/imagep205a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep205a.jpg" width="95%" alt="EARLY STUDIES OF KALMIA" /></a><br /></td>
+  </tr>
+  <tr>
+  <td class="tdc" colspan="3"><p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">EARLY STUDIES OF KALMIA, OLEANDER, AND RHODODENDRON FLOWERS<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p></td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<p>The idea that photography could supersede the art of the draughtsman
+soon exploded. Artists have used photography&mdash;some intelligently, as
+did Watts&mdash;many unintelligently. The illegitimate use of photography,
+the endeavour to make the lens do the work which alone the human eye
+and hand can effect, was seen in lifeless portraits, painted partly
+from the sitter, partly from a photograph. It is natural that any
+genuine artist should rebel against such cheapening of his art; and
+the deadening effects of relying on photography "to help you out" have
+brought about the result that the qualities in art which are furthest
+removed from those which it has in common with photography have been
+forced to the front, and the grammar of drawing, the groundwork of
+nature's structures which the human hand and the photographic lens can
+both record, has ceased to be considered as all-important. In
+Leighton's work this grammar was in itself developed into a fine art.
+By comparing any sketch he made of a leaf or of a flower with a
+photograph of the same, this will be evident to any eye that can
+appreciate grace and quality in drawing.</p>
+
+<p>The latest phase of using photography to help out the drawing is found
+in some modern illustrations where the lens has found the outline, the
+right placing of the scene on the paper, the right proportion and
+perspective in buildings, and the general light and shade of the scene
+for the illustrator&mdash;the human hand only coming in to give breadth of
+effect, to undo the tell-tale finish of the photograph, and to make it
+into what is called "a picture" on the lines of a Turner or a
+Whistler.</p>
+
+<p>All these were unknown ways in Leighton's youth, and to the end of his
+life he could make no use whatever of photography in his work. He took
+a kodak with him once on his <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_206" id="PageV1_206">[206]</a></span>travels, but the results were amusingly
+negative. "From the moment an artist relies on photography he does no
+good," was a statement I heard him make. Leighton believed in no short
+cuts. Enthusiasm, labour, sacrifice, renouncement,&mdash;these, and these
+alone, he maintained, can secure for the artist a worthy success.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep206a" id="imagep206a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep206a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep206a.jpg" width="43%" alt="STUDY OF A FADED FLOWER OF PUMPKIN." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF A FADED FLOWER OF PUMPKIN. Rome, 1854 <br />
+Leighton House Collection</p>
+
+<a href="images/imagep206b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep206b.jpg" width="43%" alt="STUDY OF FLOWER OF A PUMPKIN." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF FLOWER OF A PUMPKIN. Meran, 1856<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep206c" id="imagep206c"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep206c.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep206c.jpg" width="55%" alt="STUDIES OF BRANCHES OF VINE." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDIES OF BRANCHES OF VINE. Bagni di Lucca, 1854<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep207" id="imagep207"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep207.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep207.jpg" width="45%" alt="BRANCH OF VINE." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">BRANCH OF VINE. Bellosquardo, Florence, 1856<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>There are those who would define genius by describing it as the
+faculty for taking infinite pains. But obviously genius is in itself a
+power, born of inspiration, which so completely overmasters all other
+conditions in a nature, that no labour nor time is taken into account
+so long as the impelling force obtains utterance. The inborn
+conviction in a nature that it has the power to create, demolishes all
+impediments which come in the way to hinder this power from stamping
+itself into a form. The necessity of taking infinite pains is but the
+natural and inevitable consequence of the burning desire born, who
+knows how? in the spirit of those who are blessed with genius, and the
+faculty to discern how best to develop it. Leighton, by reason,
+perhaps, of the very spontaneity of his own gifts, and also of his
+extreme natural modesty, allied to the conscientiousness with which he
+carried out his feeling of duty towards his vocation, was apt to lay
+more stress on the necessity for taking pains than on the necessity of
+possessing the real source of his power of industry. He saw too often
+the fatal results of artists depending on talent to achieve what only
+talent allied to industry can perform, for him not to accentuate the
+all-importance of unceasing labour. He wrote to his elder sister with
+reference to one of these fatal results: "I have not seen that young
+man's recent work, neither do I hunger and thirst thereafter;
+twenty-one years ago, or more, his parents brought me a composition of
+his&mdash;it justified the highest hopes&mdash;it was very ambitious in its
+scope (though the work of a child), and the ambition was <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_207" id="PageV1_207">[207]</a></span>justified
+in the ability it displayed. Nothing that I could have done at his age
+approached it. I told his parents so. He ought now to have been a very
+considerable artist, to say the least&mdash;he no longer even <i>aims</i>! He
+told me a year or two ago that he had <i>ceased to design</i>! He paints
+portraits, and twists a little moustache under an eyeglass. He is
+<i>nothing</i>, as far as the world knows, and I doubt whether he is hiding
+himself under a bushel. I fear vanity and idleness have rotted out his
+talents. It is a strange and a sad case. I often quote it (without
+names) to those who show precocious gifts." His attached friend and
+fellow-Academician, Mr. Briton Rivi&egrave;re, writes of Leighton:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have always believed that his ruling passion was Duty&mdash;the keenest
+possible sense of it; to do anything he had to do as perfectly as
+possible, and to be always at his best. He was evidently a believer in
+Goethe's maxim that 'an artist who does anything, does all.' In his
+own work, in what concerned his colleagues and the outside body of
+artists, in fact in everything he did. Nothing easily or passively
+done satisfied him; but in every case the decision and action were
+brought by care and work&mdash;if possible, executed by himself; and no
+pressure of time or labour ever made him escape such personal trouble,
+or caused him to transfer it to the shoulders of another. This temper
+of mind was shown even in small matters, which so busy a man might
+well have left for others to do. I think it sometimes injured his own
+work as an artist, because, though a great artist can never be evolved
+except by years of patient work and strenuous effort to do his very
+best always, yet, on the other hand, it is often the happy, easy work
+and absolutely spontaneous effort at the moment by such a hand which
+is his very best. Such happy, easy work probably Leighton would seldom
+allow himself to do, and never would leave at the right moment, but
+would still strive to make better and more <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_208" id="PageV1_208">[208]</a></span>complete. He must still
+elaborate it and try to make it more perfect; and this it was which
+made his old friend and enthusiastic admirer, Watts, sometimes say
+"how much finer Leighton's work would be if he would admit the
+accidental into it."</p>
+
+<p>I remember once casually remarking to Leighton how much easier writing
+was than painting. He answered quickly but seriously&mdash;quite
+impressively: "Believe me, nothing is easy if it is done as well as
+you can possibly do it." This was Leighton's creed of creeds. Whatever
+genius or facilities an artist may possess, he must ignore them as
+factors in the fight. He must possess them unconsciously&mdash;the whole
+conscious effort being concentrated on surmounting difficulties, not
+on encouraging facilities.</p>
+
+<p>To return to the subject of this chapter. It would be obviously
+unreasonable to attempt to compare slight studies of plants and
+flowers, however precious, with finished important works of art such
+as "Cimabue's Madonna," "A Syracusan Bride," "Daphnephoria," "Captive
+Andromache," "The Return of Persephone," or, in fact, with any of
+Leighton's well-known paintings&mdash;or indeed with those masterly studies
+of the figure and draperies in black and white chalk, drawn for his
+pictures, or when he was seized with the beauty of an attitude while
+his model was resting. These, though executed in a few seconds, are
+true and subtle records of the perfection in the form and structure of
+the human figure, proving the existence of a knowledge and of a sense
+of beauty which Watts declared were unrivalled since the days of
+Pheidias. The later masterly studies of landscape in oil-colour which
+formerly lined the walls of his Kensington studio, in which can be so
+truly discerned the distinctive colouring and atmosphere of the
+various countries where they were painted, also are greater as
+achievements than the pencil drawings. Nevertheless, when studying
+Leighton's <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_209" id="PageV1_209">[209]</a></span>genius with a view to gauge rightly its power and also its
+limitations, it is, I maintain, essential to take into account these
+direct studies from Nature, made with the object solely of following,
+watching, and copying her faithfully, ingenuously, "choosing nothing
+and rejecting nothing," but into which crept unconsciously the
+undeniable evidence of his native gifts. As proofs of spontaneous
+power in the quality of his genius, they refute much unjust criticism
+which has been hurled at Leighton's art since his death. Sir William
+Richmond wrote<a name="FNanchor_44_44" id="FNanchor_44_44"></a><a href="#Footnote_44_44" class="fnanchor">[44]</a>:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That term of abuse and of contempt, trite now, on account of the
+mannerism of its constant adoption by ephemeral critics, and sometimes
+adopted by poorly equipped artists, 'academic,' has been most
+unjustly, in its derogatory sense, applied to Leighton's art.</p>
+
+<p>"In point of fact, it is academic, but only in the good sense of being
+highly educated, very scientific, and restrained. And in that sense it
+is a pity that there is not more of such academic art. The bad sense,
+wherein such criticism is applicable, being justly advanced towards
+work that displays no inspiration, no originality, that is correct and
+commonplace, balanced without enthusiasm, adequate without reason, and
+accurate without good taste in the choice of beautiful and expressive
+gestures, forms, and colours, and is preoccupied and narrow."</p>
+
+<p>It is probably the restraint, the science, the high education in
+Leighton's finished pictures which have provoked unsympathetic critics
+to endeavour to demolish Leighton's reputation as a great artist. To
+these, such qualities would seem to deny the existence of any
+sensitiveness, any spontaneity in his art. They have asserted that it
+is cold, dry&mdash;academic. For the reason that science, calculated
+effects, style, and high education&mdash;qualities rarely found in modern
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_210" id="PageV1_210">[210]</a></span>English art&mdash;are evident in Leighton's pictures, they conclude that
+the painter is possessed of no intuitive genius. They take essentially
+a British, a non-cosmopolitan standpoint from which to preach. They do
+not take into account the standard towards which Leighton was ever
+aiming. He may not have attained the goal towards which he worked, but
+the nature of that goal should be understood and recognised before any
+criticism on his work can pass as intelligent and just; and these
+exquisite drawings of flowers and plants come to our aid in confuting
+sterile estimates of Leighton's art, which deny any other elements but
+those which can be acquired by painstaking and teachable qualities.
+Here are records of Nature complicated by no intellectual choice, no
+academic learning, no results of high education; and what is the
+result? an undeniable evidence of the finest, most tender
+sensitiveness for beauty, resulting in a complete and perfect
+rendering of the subtlest forms of growth. When "face to face" with
+Nature, Leighton's &aelig;sthetic emotions were keen enough and
+all-sufficient to create these perfect records, as later in his life
+he created unrivalled drawings of the human figure in even more
+spontaneous and certainly more rapid strokes of his pencil, and
+landscape sketches which prove undeniably his gifts as a colourist;
+but it may be questioned whether his &aelig;sthetic emotions had as great a
+<i>staying</i> power as those qualities of heart and brain which made
+Leighton a great man, independent of the position he held as a great
+artist. His sensibilities were of the keenest; the agility and
+vitality of his brain power were quite abnormal. As Watts wrote, a
+"magnificent intellectual capacity, and an unerring and instantaneous
+spring upon the point to unravel." It seemed, however, that this
+vitality and agility did at times run away with that more abiding
+strength of &aelig;sthetic emotion which impregnates the very greatest art
+with a serenity, a sublime atmosphere,&mdash;<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_211" id="PageV1_211">[211]</a></span>an emotion which denotes a
+mood in which the artist has been steeped throughout the creation of a
+work, from the first moment he conceives it to the moment when he puts
+the last touch to the canvas, and affects the actual manipulation of
+the pigment. The above criticism applies only justly to certain of
+Leighton's works. In many of his paintings the poetic motive which
+inspired their invention,&mdash;their mental atmosphere,&mdash;governs the
+achievements throughout, though doubtless these works also would have
+had a more convincing effect as art had the surface possessed a more
+vibrating quality. Among those pictures in which form, colour, tone,
+and expression are completely dominated by their poetic meaning are
+"Lieder ohne Worte," a lovely, though youthful, work; "David;"
+"Ariadne," a picture little known, but in some respects perhaps the
+most poetic Leighton ever painted; "Summer Moon" (Watts' favourite
+Leighton), "Elisha Raising the Son of the Shunammite," "Winding the
+Skein," "Music Lesson," "Antique Juggling Girl," "D&aelig;dalus and Icarus,"
+"Helios and Rhodos," "Golden Hours," "Cymon and Iphigenia," "The
+Spirit of the Summit," "Flaming June," "Clytie" (unfinished).</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep211a" id="imagep211a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep211a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep211a.jpg" width="85%" alt="ARIADNE ABANDONED BY THESEUS" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"ARIADNE ABANDONED BY THESEUS; WATCHES FOR HIS RETURN.
+ARTEMIS RELEASES HER BY DEATH." 1868 <br />By permission of Lord Pirrie<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep211b" id="imagep211b"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep211b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep211b.jpg" width="85%" alt="ELISHA RAISING THE SON OF THE SHUNAMMITE. 1881" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">ELISHA RAISING THE SON OF THE SHUNAMMITE." 1881<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep211c" id="imagep211c"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep211c.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep211c.jpg" width="52%" alt="D&AElig;DALUS AND ICARUS." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"D&AElig;DALUS AND ICARUS." 1869<br />
+By permission of Sir Alexander Henderson<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>No aspect of his own work was a secret from Leighton. No one knew
+better than he did his own limitations, or why it was necessary to
+keep himself in hand by methods of procedure in his painting which he
+could guide by his ever present intellectual acumen. He wrote to his
+father on March 2, 1855, having just completed the two pictures,
+"Cimabue's Madonna" and "Romeo": "You ask for <i>my</i> opinion of my
+pictures; you couldn't ask a more embarrassing and unsatisfactory
+question; I think, indeed, that they are very creditable works for my
+age, but I am anything but satisfied with them, and believe that I
+could paint both of them better now. I am particularly anxious that
+persons whom I love or esteem should think neither <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_212" id="PageV1_212">[212]</a></span>more nor less of
+my artistic capacity than I deserve&mdash;<i>the plain truth</i>; I am therefore
+very circumspect in passing a verdict on myself in addressing myself
+to such persons; I think, however, you may expect me to become
+eventually the best draughtsman in my country."</p>
+
+<p>A biographer's obvious moral duty is to aim at presenting impartially
+"the plain truth," following Leighton's lead in not desiring to give
+either a more or less favourable view of his capacities as an artist
+than they deserve. On May 7, 1864, Leighton writes in a letter to his
+father and 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 <i>not</i> and
+<i>never shall have</i> 'enormous power,' though I have some 'sense of
+beauty.'" Leighton remained ever far from being contented with his own
+work. "I alone know how far I have fallen short of my ideal," he says,
+many years later, to the old acquaintance of the Lucca days. He had
+studied under the shadow of the great masters; and though never an
+imitator even of the greatest,<a name="FNanchor_45_45" id="FNanchor_45_45"></a><a href="#Footnote_45_45" class="fnanchor">[45]</a> he had set himself a standard of
+supreme excellence, more easily approached under the conditions in
+which artists worked in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
+centuries than it possibly could be in those of the nineteenth. With
+respect to his power of draughtsmanship and his natural sense of
+beauty, Leighton knew his place was among the greatest. His
+appreciation and love of colour were also far keener than those
+possessed by the average artist. He felt nevertheless that he lacked
+the inevitable and <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_213" id="PageV1_213">[213]</a></span>continuous force which alone gives "<i>enormous
+power</i>" and ease to the craftsman, when he deals with work on a large
+scale, and which carries with it the absolutely convincing effect of
+the world-renowned art of the past. Realising that the "enormous
+power" was not there because the ever conclusively propelling force
+was lacking, perhaps owing partly to the want of robust health, and
+also doubtless from the scattering of his powers in many directions to
+which he was drawn by a sense of duty, Leighton, in working out the
+designs of his large pictures, clung all the more resolutely to the
+exercise of that system which he had adopted, and which many of his
+friends&mdash;Watts and Briton Rivi&egrave;re among the number&mdash;thought tended to
+cramp his genius. He was not sufficiently sure of himself to admit the
+"accidental" into his work.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep213a" id="imagep213a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep213a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep213ath.jpg" width="90%" alt="CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE." 1888<br />
+The Corporation of Manchester<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep213b" id="imagep213b"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep213b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep213bth.jpg" width="90%" alt="STUDY IN COLOUR FOR &quot;CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE&quot;" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE." 1888<br />
+By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep214a" id="imagep214a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep214a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep214a.jpg" width="63%" alt="WEAVING THE WREATH." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"WEAVING THE WREATH." 1873<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep214b" id="imagep214b"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep214b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep214b.jpg" width="85%" alt="WINDING THE SKEIN." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"WINDING THE SKEIN." 1880<br />
+By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the Copyright<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep214c" id="imagep214c"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep214c.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep214c.jpg" width="70%" alt="MUSIC LESSON." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"MUSIC LESSON." 1877<br />
+By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the Copyright<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Some critics have, however, gone beyond the mark in emphasising this
+characteristic of Leighton's methods. One writes: "Deliberateness of
+workmanship and calculation of effect, into which inspiration of the
+moment is never allowed to enter, are the chief characteristics of the
+painter's craftsmanship. The inspiration stage was practically passed
+when he took the crayon in his hand; and to this circumstance probably
+is to be assigned the absence of realism which arrests the attention."
+This statement is contrary to many which I have heard fall from
+Leighton's own lips. He constantly drew my attention to the fact&mdash;a
+fact on which he laid great stress, and of which many models were
+witnesses&mdash;that he <i>invariably</i> recurred to Nature in the later stages
+of his pictures, in order to imbibe renewed inspiration from the
+source of all his &aelig;sthetic emotions&mdash;Nature. Any one who carefully
+studies Leighton's pictures will find evidence of this in the works
+themselves, in the accessories no less than in the principal figures.
+During the exhibition of some thirty of Leighton's finest paintings at
+Leighton House in 1900, I <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_214" id="PageV1_214">[214]</a></span>was daily more and more impressed by the
+fact that the final touches in those pictures had been inspired by the
+actual subtlety of Nature's aspects, and transmitted to the canvas by
+the artist direct from the objects before him without conscious
+calculation. Very obviously was this the case not only in the
+principal features of the design&mdash;the countenances and the hands and
+feet of the figures&mdash;but in such details as the flowers, fabrics of
+draperies, carpets, mother-of-pearl inlaying, found (for instance) in
+"A Noble Venetian Lady," "Summer Moon," "Sister's Kiss," "Weaving the
+Wreath," "Winding the Skein," "The Music Lesson," "Atalanta." In all
+these pictures exists the internal convincing evidence contradicting
+the statement that "the inspiration stage was practically past when he
+took the crayon in his hand." This, however, did not obscure in some
+of Leighton's large finished pictures undoubted evidences of
+arrangements and calculated effects, which are not over-ruled by an
+art which conceals them, by the art which disguises art,&mdash;the
+clenching force of the inevitable. The beauty of line, the grouping of
+masses, the "composition" evident in the posing of the
+figures&mdash;admirable and unlaboured as all these arrangements are&mdash;not
+infrequently lack this convincing sign of the inevitable. It is too
+obvious that they have been chosen by the intellectual taste of their
+maker. When Goethe was expatiating on Shakespeare and comparing his
+genius with his own, he said, as a proof of his own inferiority, that
+he knew well how every word was made to come in its place, but with
+Shakespeare they came without Shakespeare knowing.<a name="FNanchor_46_46" id="FNanchor_46_46"></a><a href="#Footnote_46_46" class="fnanchor">[46]</a> Leighton, like
+Goethe, was conscious that his genius could <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_215" id="PageV1_215">[215]</a></span>not vie with the
+greatest in the world&mdash;the genius he was able to appreciate as Goethe
+did Shakespeare's; but he also knew, as did Goethe, exactly the place
+his own art ought to take; he knew that in his sense of style&mdash;which,
+in its true meaning, is the echo of Nature in her choicest, noblest
+moods,&mdash;in his sense of the beauty of the human structure, in his
+power of draughtsmanship, his work was superior to that of any of his
+contemporaries in England. The fact of the greatness of Leighton's
+powers in some directions challenges a comparison between his work and
+that of the giants of old who possess enormous power in all
+directions. No one knew so well as did Leighton the place he must take
+when he entered the lists with the giants: "I have <i>not</i> and <i>never
+shall have</i> 'enormous power.'" He writes in 1856 from Paris to his
+Master, Steinle:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Paris, Rue Pigalle 21.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My good and dear Friend</span>,&mdash;Accidentally I had an idle
+morning when I received your dear letter, and therefore answer
+it immediately. With your usual modesty you put aside all that
+I say of goodness and love, but I repeat it unweariedly.
+Steinle, my good Master, if in this insincere world I have an
+unfeigned, pure feeling, it is my warm gratitude and love for
+you; and the time when I bloomed, gay and full of hope, in
+your garden will light me through life like a sunny spot in
+the past; and I yield myself to this feeling the more
+confidently, since I <i>know</i> that I am under no delusion in it.
+I have fairly strong insight, and know exactly what I owe to
+you, and for what I have to thank nature; I can already
+appraise my moderate natural gifts; but I know also that these
+gifts received <i>through you alone</i> the impression of <i>taste</i>
+that can alone make them effective, and that in your hands
+they were refined as in a furnace. An English painter seldom
+lacks fancy and invention, but <i>taste</i>, that which forms and
+embellishes the raw material, <i>that</i> is almost always wanting
+with us&mdash;and it is you I must thank for the <i>little</i> I
+possess.</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_216" id="PageV1_216">[216]</a></span>To flatter was an impossibility with Leighton. He paid every artist
+the respect of believing he desired the same sincerity shown in the
+criticism of his work that he,&mdash;Leighton,&mdash;wished when his own was
+judged, and with which he judged it himself. A remarkable feature in
+his character was the power he had of retaining so secure a hold on
+his own standards of excellence without for a moment losing his
+individual self-centre, yet at the same time possessing that of
+entering sympathetically into the view of other artists&mdash;a view often
+quite contrary to his own&mdash;and generously acknowledging every merit
+that could by any possibility be extracted from their work. Mr. Briton
+Rivi&egrave;re writes: "The intensity of his own personal belief was well
+known to himself. He once said to me, in reference to a clever picture
+which he greatly admired for some of its qualities, that he could not
+really enjoy it, owing to its careless drawing. On another occasion,
+when at Mr. Russell's sale I had bought a very vigorous study by Etty,
+and Leighton was quite enthusiastic about its colour and painting, he
+said, 'But I could not bear it on my wall, with that drawing,' and he
+laughed at himself for this strictness, and said, 'I know that I am a
+prig about drawing.' However, not only did this never blind him to the
+claims of another kind of art, but I think he was even more keen to
+recommend for approval the work of any school of painting for which,
+personally, he had no particular liking or sympathy. 'It is not
+whether you or I like it, but what it is on its own merits,' was a
+favourite warning of his to any rapid opinion expressed on a picture.
+To any one intimately acquainted with his own real views and opinions
+it was sometimes surprising to find how well he realised the
+intentions, and put himself in the place, of some artist who had
+produced something very foreign to his own point of view, and quite
+repugnant to his beliefs. This is not a <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_217" id="PageV1_217">[217]</a></span>common quality among artists,
+whose critical tolerance is often in an inverse ratio to the firmness
+of their own particular creed of art faith; and it was one of the many
+qualities which marked Leighton out as so admirably fitted for the
+Presidency."</p>
+
+<p>Leighton was, undoubtedly, an absolutely competent critic of his own
+art; and the fact that his principles had been inspired by a
+spontaneous and sincere reverence and admiration for the creations of
+artists whom time has crowned as the greatest in the world, and that
+with his critical faculty he perceived in what measure he had
+succeeded in following in their steps, enabled him to gauge with
+absolute justice the merits and shortcomings of his own work, compared
+with that of his contemporaries. Whatever those shortcomings were,
+certain it is that they did not arise from an absence of those natural
+gifts which are the outcome of emotional sensitiveness, nor from a
+want of intense feeling for the beauty of Nature, nor from a poverty
+of invention. The theory that his art was solely the result of his
+having an abnormal power of industry and of taking pains&mdash;a theory
+which has been advanced many times since Leighton's death&mdash;cannot hold
+good for a moment with those who impartially study his work from the
+beginning of his career. The spontaneity of the impulse to produce in
+every born artist is described in the following passage from
+Leighton's first discourse, when President, to the students of the
+Royal Academy, December 10, 1879, and the description is obviously
+drawn from his own personal experience: "The gift of artistic
+production manifests itself in the young in an impulse so spontaneous
+and so imperative, and is in its origin so wholly emotional and
+independent of the action of the intellect, that it at first and for
+some time entirely absorbs their energies. The student's first steps
+on the bright paths of his working life are obscured by no shadows
+save those cast by the difficulties <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_218" id="PageV1_218">[218]</a></span>of a technical nature which lie
+before him, and these difficulties, which indeed he only half
+discerns, serve rather to whet his appetite than to hamper or
+discourage him; for his heart whispers that, when he shall have
+brushed them aside, the road will be clear before him, and the
+utterance of what he feels stirring within him will be from
+thenceforward one long unchecked delight. This spirit of spontaneous,
+unquestioning rejoicing in production, which is still the privilege of
+youth, and which, even now, the very strong sometimes carry with them
+through their lives, was indeed, when Art herself was in her prime,
+the normal and constant condition of the artistic temper, and shone
+out in all artistic work. It is this spirit which gave a perennial
+freshness to Athenian Art&mdash;the serenest and most spontaneous men have
+ever seen. And when again, after many centuries, another Art was born
+out of the night of the Dark Ages, and shed its gentle light over the
+chaos of society, this spirit once more burst through it into flame.
+All forms of Art are alike fired with it. Architecture first, exulting
+in new flights of vigorous and bold creation; then Sculpture; last,
+Painting, virtually a new Art, looked out on to the world with the
+wondering delight of a child, timidly at first, but soon to fill it
+with the bright expression of its joy. Those were halcyon days; the
+questions, 'Why do I paint?' 'Why do I model?' 'Why should I build
+beautifully?' 'What&mdash;how&mdash;shall I build, model, paint?' had no
+existence in the mind of the artist. 'Why,' he might have answered,
+'does the lark soar and sing?'"</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep218a" id="imagep218a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep218a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep218a.jpg" width="60%" alt="STUDY OF SEA THISTLE." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF SEA THISTLE. Malinmore, Ireland, 1895<br />
+From Sketch-book<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep218b" id="imagep218b"></a><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_220" id="PageV1_220">[220]</a></span>
+<a href="images/imagep218b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep218b.jpg" width="50%" alt="STUDY OF SEA THISTLE." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF SEA THISTLE. Malinmore, Ireland, 1895<br />
+From Sketch-book<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Though his direct study from Nature mostly took the form, in later
+years, of sketching in oil colour views in the different countries in
+which he travelled, Leighton showed to the end of his life his great
+delight in flowers by continuing to make sketches from them. In 1895,
+at Malinmore, he was fascinated by the sea-thistle, and there are four
+pages in a sketch-book devoted to rapid sketches of the plant,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_219" id="PageV1_219">[219]</a></span><i>callantra</i>, which he made there. Notes are written on the first
+sketch indicating the colours. It is interesting to compare the early
+pencil work executed between 1850 and 1860 with that of forty years
+later. Though the handling may be different, there is the same
+complete sense and enjoyment of the wonderful architecture of plants
+and flowers obvious in both.<a name="FNanchor_47_47" id="FNanchor_47_47"></a><a href="#Footnote_47_47" class="fnanchor">[47]</a></p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep221a" id="imagep221a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep221a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep221a.jpg" width="55%" alt="RETURN OF PERSEPHONE." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"RETURN OF PERSEPHONE." 1891<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep221b" id="imagep221b"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep221b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep221b.jpg" width="52%" alt="STUDY IN COLOUR FOR RETURN OF PERSEPHONE." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "RETURN OF PERSEPHONE." 1891<br />
+By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr/>
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_37_37" id="Footnote_37_37"></a><a href="#FNanchor_37_37"><span class="label">[37]</span></a> See Appendix, Vol. II., description in Preface to
+"Catalogue of the Leighton House Collection."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_38_38" id="Footnote_38_38"></a><a href="#FNanchor_38_38"><span class="label">[38]</span></a> An artist who was a great flower lover, when relating
+her experiences, maintained that it was in the revelation, to her
+perceptions, of the infinite perfection of the structure and form of
+one flower, that she had realised in her own nature a more intimate
+recognition and response to that of the Creator of the Infinite than
+had ever been elicited by any church services or creeds, or even, in
+fact, by the most sublime scenery. In one small flower she had found
+an epitome of the wonders and beauties of all creation, so focussed as
+to be grasped closely, and responded to, from the innermost intimate
+recesses of her nature with a joy unspeakable.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_39_39" id="Footnote_39_39"></a><a href="#FNanchor_39_39"><span class="label">[39]</span></a> See Appendix, Vol. II., Preface to "Catalogue of the
+Leighton House Collection."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_40_40" id="Footnote_40_40"></a><a href="#FNanchor_40_40"><span class="label">[40]</span></a> See Appendix, Vol. II., "Lord Leighton, P.R.A., Some
+Reminiscences."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_41_41" id="Footnote_41_41"></a><a href="#FNanchor_41_41"><span class="label">[41]</span></a> Appendix, Vol. II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_42_42" id="Footnote_42_42"></a><a href="#FNanchor_42_42"><span class="label">[42]</span></a> Ruskin was mistaken in thinking that the "Lemon Tree"
+and the "Byzantine Well" are of the same date. The former drawing was
+made in 1859, the latter seven years earlier in 1852 (reproduced
+facing page 80), and is referred to in his diary, "Pebbles." I think
+this is the most beautiful drawing of the kind I have ever seen.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_43_43" id="Footnote_43_43"></a><a href="#FNanchor_43_43"><span class="label">[43]</span></a> See <a href="#toi">List of Illustrations</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_44_44" id="Footnote_44_44"></a><a href="#FNanchor_44_44"><span class="label">[44]</span></a> See Appendix, Vol. II.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_45_45" id="Footnote_45_45"></a><a href="#FNanchor_45_45"><span class="label">[45]</span></a> See letter to Steinle, page 188: "...God forgive me if
+I am intolerant; but according to my view an artist must produce his
+art out of his own heart, or he is none."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_46_46" id="Footnote_46_46"></a><a href="#FNanchor_46_46"><span class="label">[46]</span></a> "I remember hearing him (Wordsworth) say that 'Goethe's
+poetry was not inevitable enough.' The remark is striking and true; no
+line in Goethe, as Goethe said himself, but its maker knew well how it
+came there. Wordsworth is right; Goethe's poetry is not inevitable;
+not inevitable enough."&mdash;Preface to "Poems of Wordsworth," chosen and
+edited by Matthew Arnold.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_47_47" id="Footnote_47_47"></a><a href="#FNanchor_47_47"><span class="label">[47]</span></a> Knowing that Leighton was a frequenter of the Kew
+Gardens, I asked Sir W. Thiselton Dyer to write me his recollections
+of him, which he most kindly did in the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block3"><p class="right"><span class="sc">Kew</span>, <i>January 11, 1906</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Mrs. Barrington</span>,&mdash;My acquaintance with Lord
+Leighton was only beginning to ripen into intimacy when he
+unhappily died. His somewhat grand seigneur manner at first a
+little alarmed me; but when I had broken through his reserve,
+I became, like every one else, much attached to him.</p>
+
+<p>He used often to dine in evening dress at a small table behind
+a screen at the door of the coffee-room at the Athen&aelig;um. In
+the corner adjoining this is a round table known as Abraham's
+Bosom, as it was once frequented by Abraham Hayward. Here, on
+Royal Society days, we often had a lively scientific party.
+Leighton often found it impossible to keep aloof, and joined
+in the fun.</p>
+
+<p>I found Sir Frederic, as he was called, was well known to our
+men as a visitor to Kew. He used to drive down in his victoria
+in the afternoon and take a solitary walk. I only myself came
+across him once. I had taken some trouble to get a fine show
+of the old-fashioned Dutch tulips known as Bizards and
+Byblomen. I found Leighton one day absorbed in the
+enthusiastic contemplation of them. There were certain
+combinations of colour which completely fascinated him. I
+remember that he particularly admired a purplish brown with
+yellow and a reddish purple with cream-colour. Both were, I
+think, in the "key" that particularly appealed to him. He was
+very anxious to have them in his garden in London, and we gave
+him a little collection, with directions how to grow them.
+What was the result I never heard.</p>
+
+<p>I then suggested that, as it was a lovely spring day, I should
+take him a walk. He assented, and we sent his carriage round
+to the Lion Gate, nearest to Richmond. I took him through the
+Queen's Cottage grounds to show him the sheets of wild
+hyacinth. He admitted their beauty, but remarked that the
+effect was not pictorial.</p>
+
+<p>That, I think, was Leighton's point of view. With an intense
+feeling for beauty, he had little or none for Nature pure and
+simple. His art was essentially selective, and I think he took
+most pleasure at Kew in the more or less artificial products
+of the gardener's art. What he sought was subtle effects of
+form and colour. Personally, I appreciate both ways of
+treating plants. I am always at war with artists for their
+undisciplined and mostly incompetent treatment of vegetation:
+drawing and anatomy are usually defective to an instructed
+eye, such faults would be intolerable in the figure. Their
+presence robs me of much pleasure in looking at Burne-Jones'
+pictures. I imagine he mostly made his plants up out of his
+head. Ruskin, with all his talk, was both unobservant and
+careless. Millais, on the other hand, though I am not aware
+that he ever had any botanical training, by sheer force of
+insight paints plants in a way to which the most fastidious
+botanist can take no exception. One can actually botanise in
+his foreground of "Over the Hills and Far Away," yet there is
+no loss of general pictorial effect. The plant drawing of
+Albert D&uuml;rer, Holman Hunt, and Alma Tadema, though more
+studied, is absolutely satisfying to the botanist. Sir Joseph
+Hooker has always complained that the Royal Academy has never
+given any encouragement to accurate plant drawing. Yet I have
+heard Sir William Richmond say that, as a student, he made
+hundreds of careful studies of plant-form, and that he knew no
+discipline more profitable. I remember remarking to an
+Academician that I thought that in this respect the
+competition pictures of the students reached a higher standard
+than that of the average May Exhibition, and he admitted that
+that was a possible criticism.</p>
+
+<p>Leighton aimed at beauty by selection and discipline. Millais
+in his later work looked only to general effect and balance,
+but as to detail was content to faithfully reproduce, and did
+not select at all. This explains the admiration which I
+believe Millais had for Miss North's work. Both produced
+admirable results, but they were of an essentially different
+kind, though equally admirable.</p>
+
+<p>But whenever Leighton introduced plant-forms, it was
+penetrated by his characteristic thoroughness and perfect
+mastery of what he was about. I am myself a passionate admirer
+of the Gloire-de-Dijon rose. I remember telling Leighton that
+I did not think that any one had ever painted it with such
+consummate skill as he had. I am told, and quite believe it,
+that his pencil studies from plants are as fine as anything
+that has ever been done.</p>
+
+<p>Leighton rendered us a very great service on one occasion.
+Miss North's pictures were painted on paper, roughly framed,
+and simply hung by her on the brick walls of her gallery. They
+soon began to rapidly deteriorate. I appealed to L. for
+advice. I was, I confess, astonished to receive from him a
+full, precise, and business-like report, pointing out exactly
+what should be done, and who was the proper person to do it.
+The gallery was to be lined with boarding, the pictures were
+to be properly framed, cleaned, lightly varnished, and glazed.
+The report was at once accepted by the office of works, the
+work was successfully carried out, and no trouble has been
+experienced since.</p>
+
+<p>In his turn, Leighton sometimes appealed to me. This was
+notably the case when he was painting his "Persephone," which
+I frankly told him I thought was the most beautiful picture he
+had ever painted. He had been in Capri, and had seen on the
+rocks a blue flower which he wished to introduce into the
+foreground. We made out what it was, and sent him tracings
+from plates and sketches from herbarium specimens. These did
+not satisfy him, and he ultimately sent to Capri for the
+living plant. He worked hard at it, and, I do not doubt,
+produced a very beautiful piece of colour.</p>
+
+<p>That year I dined at the Academy. "Persephone" hung over
+Leighton's chair, and was the subject of one of the few really
+witty remarks I ever heard in an after-dinner speech. But then
+the speaker was Lord Justice Bowen.</p>
+
+<p>But his beautiful foreground was all gone. Leighton, and I
+think he was right, thought it destroyed the balance of his
+colour scheme, and painted it out. But I have always felt sad
+to think of the beautiful work that lay buried there.</p>
+
+<p>When he died, we felt very sad at Kew. He had always been so
+lovable and disinterested. We decided to send some tribute to
+his funeral, but to avoid what was commonplace. So we sent a
+large wreath of bay, introducing, in the place of the
+conventional berries, single snowdrop flowers. The result was
+dignified and, I think, adequate. At any rate, the
+Academicians thought so, if, as I have been told, they placed
+the wreath by the coffin on the hearse on its way to St.
+Paul's.</p>
+
+<p>I walked back with Lord Redesdale, one of Leighton's most
+intimate friends, who had come up from Batsford to attend.
+There was a great gathering at the Athen&aelig;um. I sat next
+Millais, already himself stricken with death, and whom I never
+saw again.</p>
+
+<p>I am afraid all this will not be very helpful to you, but my
+pen ran on to tell you all I could of a good, great, and brave
+man, whom it was an honour to have known.&mdash;Yours always
+sincerely,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">W.C. Thiselton Dyer.</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_221" id="PageV1_221">[221]</a></span><br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_222" id="PageV1_222">[222]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER IV<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>WATTS&mdash;SUCCESS&mdash;FAILURE<br />
+1855-1856</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>It was in the summer of 1855, in consequence of his father having
+summoned him suddenly back to England, that Leighton first became
+known as a notable person to the London world. His picture of
+"Cimabue's Madonna" had preceded him, and gave him an introduction to
+the art magnates; while the fact that the Queen had bought it of the
+young and, till then, unknown artist, raised the curiosity of those to
+whom the intrinsic value of the work was insignificant, compared to
+its having received this mark of Royal approval. Hanging on the walls
+of the Academy throughout the season and being much talked about, the
+picture, combined with the painter's charming personality, won for him
+at once a prominent position. His friends of the happy Roman days,
+however, remained the nucleus of his real intimacies. As can be
+gathered from his letters, he had already in Rome felt general society
+to be fatiguing and unremunerative, the interest in it never having
+compensated him for the physical exertion and weariness it entailed.
+Health&mdash;and a more or less stolid temperament&mdash;are requisite in order
+to combat, with any satisfaction, the wear and tear of late hours, and
+contact with mere acquaintances and strangers whose personalities
+carry with them no special interest. Leighton found no pleasure in
+such intercourse sufficient to overbalance its sterility, for he
+possessed neither robust health nor much equanimity of temperament.
+He <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_223" id="PageV1_223">[223]</a></span>could enjoy with ecstasy those things which delighted him, but
+had little of that even current of patient contentment, the normal
+condition of those who can tolerate cheerfully&mdash;and even with
+pleasure&mdash;the herding in crowds with mere acquaintances. Circumstances
+combined in making Leighton's disinclination to indiscriminate
+visiting often misunderstood. His extreme vitality when in company,
+his notable gifts as a talker and as a linguist, the high social
+standing of many of his most intimate friends, naturally gave the
+impression that he was made for the sort of success which is the aim
+of many living in the London world. That he never availed himself of
+all the opportunities that offered themselves was considered by many
+as a sign of conceit and superciliousness. Nothing could have been
+farther from the truth. That he was ambitious for Art to take her
+legitimate position on the platform of the world's highest interests
+is certain, and that he resented the position which was but too often
+accorded in England to her earnest votaries, and had a keen
+discernment in tracing evidences of self-interest and snobbish
+proclivities in those who would have patronised him, is no less
+certain; but that Leighton himself was ever personally otherwise than
+the most modest of men, all who really knew him can attest. To
+whatever class in society a man or woman might belong, whether a Royal
+or a quite humble friend&mdash;once a friend, Leighton gave of his very
+best and worthiest. No time or trouble would he spare in such service;
+though he was too eager a worker, and felt too keenly a responsibility
+towards his calling for him to allow any moment of his life to be
+frittered away by claims which were not in his eyes real or of any
+serious advantage to others.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep223" id="imagep223"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep223.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep223.jpg" width="85%" alt="CUPID WITH DOVES." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"CUPID WITH DOVES"<br />
+Decorative work with gold background. About 1880<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was during this summer that he made the personal acquaintance of
+Ruskin, Holman Hunt, Millais, and Watts. While in London he found a
+home with his mother's <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_224" id="PageV1_224">[224]</a></span>relations, Mr. and Mrs. Nash, in Montagu
+Square, for whose affectionate kindness he was ever grateful. It was
+while staying there that Watts and he first met, or rather on the
+pavement outside the house. Watts recounted how he had ridden one
+afternoon to Montagu Square, and having asked for Leighton, the artist
+himself came out to greet him. Watts was much impressed at the time,
+he said, by the extraordinary amount of vitality and nervous energy
+which Leighton seemed to possess. This acquaintance thus begun was
+continued for forty years.<a name="FNanchor_48_48" id="FNanchor_48_48"></a><a href="#Footnote_48_48" class="fnanchor">[48]</a></p>
+
+<p>As regarded Art, the supreme interest in the lives of these two famous
+painters, their relations remained intimate to the end of Leighton's
+life. Before Leighton definitely settled in London, Watts invited him
+to show his work in the studios of Little Holland House, which
+invitation he gratefully accepted. In a letter to his mother Leighton
+writes: "Watts has been exceedingly amiable to me; the studio is at my
+disposal if I want to paint there. I am still of opinion that Watts is
+a most marvellous fellow, and if he had but decent health would whip
+us all, if he does not already."</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to trace the influences which developed alike in
+Leighton and Watts, the feeling for form which in both artists is
+analogous to that of the Greek. Before going to Italy, Watts had
+studied the perfection in the work of Pheidias in the Elgin Marbles, a
+perfection rediscovered by Haydon; and a visit to Greece later only
+confirmed his conviction that the Pheidian school of sculpture made a
+higher appeal to his artistic sense than did any other. That was "<i>the
+indelible seal</i>" which, in the case of <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_225" id="PageV1_225">[225]</a></span>his brother artist, had been
+stamped on Leighton's artistic nature through the guidance of his
+master, Steinle. When Watts lived in Italy, from the year 1843 to
+1847, he found that it was the work of Orcagna and Titian that
+appealed most to his imagination, and to his sense of form and
+colour&mdash;Orcagna's great conceptions, which struck notes stranger and
+more widely suggestive than those dictated and restricted by special
+religious creeds; Titian, the glorious Titian of the Renaissance,
+whose sense and modelling had the breadth and bloom of Pheidian art,
+and whose colour was triumphant in qualities of richness and subtlety
+combined. The pure beauty in the early religious painters made a much
+slighter and less personal appeal to Watts during those four years he
+lived in Italy.</p>
+
+<p>It was in Italy, when a child of twelve, that Leighton drank a deep
+draught from the fountain-head of medi&aelig;val and modern art; and this
+established once and for all the high standard towards which he ever
+aimed. But though his true artistic preferences were aroused at this
+early age, the full and complete passion for his calling was not
+developed till he met his master some years later in Frankfort.
+Belonging to the brotherhood of Nazarenes, the early religious Italian
+art appealed more strongly than any other to Steinle; and, doubtless,
+the earnest study Leighton devoted to Duccio, Cimabue, Giotto,
+Buonfigli, Perugino, and Pinturicchio, and the delight he took in
+their work, was originally started by Steinle. The following list,
+which exists in Steinle's handwriting, of the paintings which he
+wished Leighton specially to study in Florence is evidence of this.</p>
+
+<div class="block4"><p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="cen">FLORENCE</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><i>St. Croce.</i>&mdash;The choir by Angiolo Gaddi, pupil of Giotto. The
+chapel on the right by his uncle, Taddeo Gaddi. The altar
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_226" id="PageV1_226">[226]</a></span>by Giotto himself, in the sacristy the Taddeo Gaddi, in the
+refectory the Last Supper, all by Giotto.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><i>St. Marco.</i>&mdash;Outside Fiesole, where particularly should be seen
+in the cloister-cell and choir-stalls a Last Supper by
+Ghirlandajo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><i>St. Maria Novella.</i>&mdash;The choir by Domenico Ghirlandajo, chapel
+by Giovanni and Filippo Lippi, a Madonna in marble by
+Benedetto da Majano, the great Madonna of Cimabue. The Hell
+and Paradise of Andreas Orcagna. Opposite the court of this
+chapel grey in grey by Dello and Paul Ucello; from the court
+into the Capello dei Spagnolli, to the left the picture by
+Taddeo Gaddi; all the rest by Simon Memmi.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><i>Capella di St. Francesco</i>, by Dom. Ghirlandajo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><i>St. Ambrogio.</i>&mdash;Fresco by Cosimo Rosetti.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><i>St. Spirito.</i>&mdash;Built by Brunelleschi; altar-pieces by Filippo
+Lippi and Botticelli.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><i>Al Carmine</i>, dei Massacio's.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><i>St. Miniato.</i>&mdash;Chapel by Aretino Spinello.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><i>Palazzo Riccardi.</i>&mdash;The lovely chapel by Benozzo Gozzoli.</p>
+
+<p class="hang"><i>In the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital.</i>&mdash;Beautiful
+altar-piece by Ghirlandajo.</p></div>
+
+<p>After visiting Padua, Siena, Perugia, Assisi, however, the pupil
+became a keen admirer of this early art, independently of any
+influence other than the inherent beauty, dignity, and purity of the
+feeling in the works themselves.<a name="FNanchor_49_49" id="FNanchor_49_49"></a><a href="#Footnote_49_49" class="fnanchor">[49]</a> Moreover, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_227" id="PageV1_227">[227]</a></span>the natural sympathy
+which Leighton felt for the art of Greece, discovered in this early
+Italian work records of her influence, and that, in a very striking
+manner, it was allied to that of the great ancients. In his Academy
+address of 1887 we find this alluded to in the following passage:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block3"><p>"The production, both in sculpture and painting, of the middle
+period of the thirteenth century has a character of
+transition. In painting, the works, for instance, of Cimabue
+and of Duccio are still impregnated with the Byzantine spirit,
+and occasionally reveal startling reminiscences of classic
+dignity and power, to which justice is not, I think,
+sufficiently rendered. In sculpture, the handiwork of Nicolo
+Pisano is full of the amplitude, the rhythm, and virility of
+classic Art. I see in it, indeed, the tokens of a new life in
+Art, but little sign of a new artistic form&mdash;it is not a dawn;
+it is an after-glow, strange, belated, and solemn. <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_228" id="PageV1_228">[228]</a></span>In the Art
+of Giotto and the Giottosques, the transformation is
+fulfilled. It is an art lit up with the spirit of St. Francis,
+warm with Christian love, pure with Christian purity, simple
+with Christian humility; it is the fit language of a pious
+race endowed with an exquisite instinct of the expressiveness
+of form, as form, but untrained as yet in the knowledge of the
+concrete facts of the outer world; an art fresh with the dew
+and tenderness of youth, and yet showing, together with this
+virginal quality of young life, a simple forcefulness
+prophetic of the power of its riper day. Within the outline of
+these general characteristics individuality found sufficient
+scope."</p></div>
+
+<p>Even when this transformation is fulfilled in the frescoes of Giotto,
+any intelligent study of his art at Padua and Assisi, while keeping in
+mind the manner in which Pheidias felt and treated the human form in
+his sculpture, would prove to the student how distinctly visible is
+the link between the ancient and this medi&aelig;val art; though the fact of
+the latter being fired with an ecstasy of spiritual emotion of which
+the Greek had no experience, may disguise the link where feeling in
+art is of more interest than form. There is the same detachment of one
+form from another, each being given its full expression and
+intention&mdash;which induces a feeling of simplicity and serenity in the
+greatest work. The form of the head is not smudged into the throat,
+nor the throat into the chest, nor the chest into the arms. Even in
+the smallest Greek coin or <i>intaglio</i> of the best period this separate
+individuality of form in each part of the human frame is accentuated,
+and with it a sense of size and breadth. The same fundamental
+principles also, adhered to by the great Greek workmen in their
+treatment of drapery, is to be traced in the work of Giotto.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep229a" id="imagep229a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep229a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep229atn.jpg" width="90%" alt="IDYLL." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"IDYLL." 1881<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep229b" id="imagep229b"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep229b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep229b.jpg" width="58%" alt="PORTRAIT OF MISS MABEL MILLS." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">PORTRAIT OF MISS MABEL MILLS (THE HON. MRS. GRENFELL).
+1877<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>But the great Greeks did not invent the beauty they immortalised, any
+more than did Leighton and Watts; the Pheidian school intuitively
+chose the noblest form it found <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_229" id="PageV1_229">[229]</a></span>in nature.<a name="FNanchor_50_50" id="FNanchor_50_50"></a><a href="#Footnote_50_50" class="fnanchor">[50]</a> The notable gift
+with which nature endowed the artists of the Periclean epoch consisted
+of eyes to perceive, and taste to <i>prefer</i>, the form which,
+intrinsically and most convincingly, inspires admiration in those
+imbued with the finest sense of beauty&mdash;not a gift to invent something
+new and different from nature. In like manner the gift nature bestowed
+on Leighton and Watts was the same, a perception and a preference for
+noble form; and in this choice they had been educated by legacies from
+Pheidias and his school, but only so far as these legacies induced
+them to seek and perceive in nature herself the elements of such
+nobility. In painting the magnificent head and shoulders entitled
+"Atalanta,"<a name="FNanchor_51_51" id="FNanchor_51_51"></a><a href="#Footnote_51_51" class="fnanchor">[51]</a> or the reclining figures in "Idyll,"<a name="FNanchor_52_52" id="FNanchor_52_52"></a><a href="#Footnote_52_52" class="fnanchor">[52]</a> Leighton
+copied as directly from nature as when he painted the portrait of
+"Miss Mabel Mills,"<a name="FNanchor_53_53" id="FNanchor_53_53"></a><a href="#Footnote_53_53" class="fnanchor">[53]</a> where a similar beauty of form in the throat
+existed as in Miss Jones, who sat for "Atalanta" and "Idyll." When
+Watts painted his superb "Lady with the Mirror," one of his really
+great achievements, it was the model before him whose beauty he was
+recording, though his own sense in recognising it had been further
+inspired by his study of Pheidias. We need not go out of England to
+find types which are as completely noble as are those in the most
+inspiring art ever created, but the sense as a <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_230" id="PageV1_230">[230]</a></span>rule is wanting in
+English artists to select and to prefer such nobility.</p>
+
+<p>Leighton writes to a friend in 1879:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"I have just remembered a circumstance which might be worth
+mentioning: I painted pictures in <i>an out-of-door top light</i>
+and with realistic aims (of course, subordinate to style) in
+the old Frankfurt days before I came over here, and long
+before I heard of 'modern' ideas in painting. In this,
+perhaps, more than in anything, the boy was the father of the
+man, for it is still the corner-stone of my faith that Art is
+not a corpse, but a living thing, and that the highest respect
+for the old masters, who are and will remain supreme, does not
+lie in doing as they did, but as men of their strength would
+do if they were now (oh, <i>derisim</i>!) amongst us."</p></div>
+
+<p>Leighton taught Watts to appreciate the Greek inheritance to be found
+in early Italian art; and I have frequently heard Watts comment on the
+evidence of this legacy in Giotto's work. Watts, by ventilating the
+results of his studies of Pheidian art with Leighton, and analysing
+the elemental principles on which it was grounded, aided his brother
+artist in securing a faster hold on the sources of his individual
+preferences.</p>
+
+<p>No two characters could have been more dissimilar than those of Watts
+and Leighton, no two men could have led more different external lives;
+Leighton's great and varied gifts requiring for their full exercise
+the whole area of life's stage, Watts' genius demanding seclusion, and
+days undisturbed by friction with the outer world. Watts' first and
+great object in life was to preserve his work, and to bequeath it to
+his country, which he, happily for his country, was enabled to do;
+Leighton's object was to complete a work as far as industry and his
+gifts would enable him to complete it, then&mdash;as he would say&mdash;"to get
+rid of it and never see it again; but try to do better next time"! The
+one was frank, free, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_231" id="PageV1_231">[231]</a></span>courageous; the other almost morbidly
+self-depreciative, sensitive, and timid. All the same, no two workmen
+could have had more sympathy with one another in their true aims and
+aspirations, or more mutual admiration for each other's artistic
+gifts.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep230a" id="imagep230a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep230a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep230a.jpg" width="32%" alt="VENUS DISROBING FOR THE BATH." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"VENUS DISROBING FOR THE BATH." 1867<br />
+By permission of Sir A. Henderson, Bart.<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep230b" id="imagep230b"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep230b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep230b.jpg" width="39%" alt="PHRYNE AT ELEUSIS." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"PHRYNE AT ELEUSIS." 1882<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Watts, to his credit, had from his first acquaintance with Leighton
+discerned that "the unusual position" which Leighton undoubtedly held
+from his first appearance in the London world to the day of his death,
+was due to the possession of unusual gifts, exercised in a very
+unusually generous and public-spirited manner, and not to reasons
+invented by those who were envious of this prominent position.</p>
+
+<p>Watts wrote to Leighton after they became neighbours in Kensington:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"I have been worrying myself by fancying you rather
+misunderstood the drift of my observations respecting the
+value of social consideration to a professional man, that I
+meant to imply you sold your pictures in consequence of the
+unusual position you undoubtedly hold; knowing me and my
+opinions as you do, you could hardly think so, yet poets and
+artists are proverbially sensitive beings. I know I am myself
+to a degree that could hardly be imagined, though not with
+regard to opinion of my work; I am resigned, if not contented,
+to preserve what I can do for posterity, conscious that no
+other judgment can really be worth anything; I am very often
+unhappy, thinking that after all the best I can do may not be
+worthy of being brought before the great tribunal at all; but
+I do not allow myself to brood over the subject more than I
+can help. However, I do not attempt to deaden the keen dread I
+have of giving pain or offence, and am really miserable when I
+think I have done so, or been unjust; I don't think I am often
+the latter, but I may by clumsiness fall into the former
+regrettable position. I should grieve indeed if any word or
+deed of mine should ever be offensive to you, for you know me
+to be always yours most sincerely,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">"Signor."</p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_232" id="PageV1_232">[232]</a></span>Immediately on his arrival from Italy Leighton paid a visit to his
+family at Bath, arriving on May 24. He returned to London shortly
+after, where his family joined him on June 15, and the introduction so
+long desired by Leighton took place between his parents and sisters
+and his great friends, Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris. In December 1854
+Leighton's mother had written: "How delightful to see you again, and
+perhaps we may spend the next winter together, but of that I am
+uncertain. In England we shall not be, and both Papa and I incline to
+Paris, but Gussy has an anxious desire to go to Berlin. The Sartoris'
+being in Paris would be a strong inducement to us to go there, as we
+very much wish to make your friends' acquaintance, and we should most
+likely meet at their house agreeable people. I am exceedingly sorry I
+overlooked Mrs. Sartoris' friendly message, which I have since
+discovered in your former letter. Pray offer her my best compliments,
+and assure her I consider her great kindness to you gives her a claim
+upon my sympathy, and I shall rejoice to have an opportunity of giving
+her this assurance in person."</p>
+
+<p>In February his mother wrote: "I hope you will not long be separated
+from your friends the Sartoris when you leave Rome. We all sincerely
+desire to become acquainted with the valued friends of whom we hear so
+much."</p>
+
+<p>Later his father wrote: "With regard to your reasons for remaining at
+Rome during the spring, you have this time at least the best of the
+argument. If there were no other than your wish to give more tangible
+form to your gratitude to your kind friends, the Sartoris, it would be
+sufficient, to say nothing of the drawings from M. Angelo and
+Raphael."</p>
+
+<p>And in the same cover his mother says: "I feel, with your father,
+great satisfaction at your undertaking a likeness of Mrs. Sartoris&mdash;I
+hope it may prove a satisfactory one. <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_233" id="PageV1_233">[233]</a></span>Give our love to Mrs.
+Sartoris." Leighton's younger sister kept a diary in those days.
+Written in this are notes which describe the keen appreciation which
+she and her family felt for her brother's friends. "In fact she is, as
+Fred says, an angel. She seems very fond of him, as she might be of a
+younger brother.... She is very stout, high coloured, and has little
+hair. But the shape of her mouth is very fine, the modulations of her
+voice in speaking are exquisite. She is a creature who can never age,
+and before whose attractions those of younger and prettier women must
+always pale." "August 1855.&mdash;Fred returned to Bath to stay with us a
+little while. Beautiful drives together. So generous in giving me
+several volumes of poetry." "Sept.&mdash;Left us to go to Paris."</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep233" id="imagep233"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep233.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep233.jpg" width="42%" alt="PORTRAIT OF MRS. ADELAIDE SARTORIS." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">PORTRAIT OF MRS. ADELAIDE SARTORIS<br />
+Drawn by Lord Leighton for her friend Lady Bloomfield, 1867<br />
+By permission of the Hon. Mrs. Sartoris<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>While in London Leighton wrote the following to his master, Steinle:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">10 Maddox Street, Bond Street,<br />
+London, 1855.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Friend</span>,&mdash;At last I am able to write to
+you again. When I sent off my last letter to you I was busily
+packing for my journey; now I have been already six weeks in
+England, and it seems a year since I left Rome. I scarcely
+need tell you, dearest Friend, that at first, in this London
+hurly-burly, I hardly knew whether I was standing on my head
+or my heels: I will not say that this condition has not had a
+certain charm. I have made several acquaintances, have been
+cordially received, and have had considerably more praise for
+my picture than it deserves. However, I have already set
+seriously to work again, and expect shortly to commence upon a
+new composition. It is a real grief to me, dear Master, to
+have to work without your guidance.</p>
+
+<p>My <i>succ&egrave;s</i>, here in London, which, for a beginner, has been
+extraordinarily great, fills me with anxiety and apprehension;
+I am always thinking, "What can you exhibit next year that
+will <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_234" id="PageV1_234">[234]</a></span>fulfil the expectations of the public?" When I have
+settled anything definitely, I shall report to my master in
+Frankfurt.</p>
+
+<p>Now, however, as regards the photographs. Owing to unforeseen
+circumstances, Mrs. Sartoris (whom I introduced to you in my
+last letter) was obliged to alter the plans of her journey,
+and will not leave this for Germany until the middle of
+September. What now? Will you wait so long, or shall I seek an
+opportunity to send you your seven things?</p>
+
+<p>And now, my Friend, how are you occupied? Do you still sparkle
+with beautiful inventions? Tell me all that you are doing. I
+had a delightful surprise recently when I saw your long
+expected "Court Scene" in Paris; it is a charming composition.
+I tell you nothing of the great Paris Exhibition, for you
+naturally will not neglect to see a thing so excessively
+interesting; it throws light upon a great many things. If only
+you could come in September! then we could meet again and
+renew old times a little; it would be very delightful. I
+should like extremely to arrange something of the kind with
+you; we should certainly agree very well.</p>
+
+<p>Remember me most kindly to your wife and my old friends in
+Frankfurt, and keep in mind your loving pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In a letter to his mother, before she arrived in London, Leighton
+refers to Ruskin's criticism when comparing his "Cimabue's Madonna" to
+Millais' "Rescue":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right sc">London.</p>
+
+<p>I do wonder at the critics: will they never let "the cat die"?
+What Ruskin means by Millais' picture being "greater" than
+mine, is that the joy of a mother over her rescued children is
+a higher order of emotion than any expressed in my picture. I
+wish people would remember St. Paul on the subject of hateful
+comparisons: "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory
+of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star
+differeth from another star in glory."</p>
+
+<p>I spent last night an evening that Gussy would have envied me.
+We (I and the Sartoris and one or two others) were at Hall&eacute;'s,
+who is the most charming fellow in the world.</p></div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep234" id="imagep234"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep234.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep234.jpg" width="85%" alt="STUDY FOR PORTION OF FRIEZE, &quot;MUSIC&quot;" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY FOR PORTION OF FRIEZE, "MUSIC"<br />
+(not carried out in final design). 1883<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_235" id="PageV1_235">[235]</a></span>Having sent his "Romeo" picture to Paris, Leighton was not quite
+unknown to the art world when he arrived there in September 1855. The
+"Cimabue's Madonna," hanging on the walls of the Royal Academy in
+London, and this picture being shown at the great International
+Exhibition in France, he can fairly be said to have entered at the age
+of twenty-four the arena where he competed with the first artists in
+Europe. By a mistake the "Romeo" picture was hung in the Roman instead
+of the English section in the International Exhibition. The following
+extract appeared in a publication at the time, and gives the unbiassed
+criticism of one who was unknown to Leighton:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"Strange it may seem, but such is the fact, that of the
+thirteen canvasses she (Rome) has sent on this occasion to
+sustain her credit, that which for intrinsic merit takes the
+lead&mdash;in which soul for expression and true artistic feeling
+are conspicuous, is due to the pencil of an
+Englishman&mdash;Frederic Leighton, <i>n&eacute; &agrave; Scarborough, &eacute;l&egrave;ve de
+Mons. Edouard Steinle de Frankfort</i>. The subject of this
+picture&mdash;and it is a fine one&mdash;is the reconciliation of the
+Houses of Montagu and Capulet over the bodies of Romeo and
+Juliet. Let us hope that his native country may hear and see
+more of so promising an artist as Mr. Leighton."</p></div>
+
+<p>And again:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>"When these lines were written on the other side of the
+Channel, Mr. Leighton had already sent his 'pencil's' first
+representation to the Royal Academy, causing therein not a
+little surprise, fluttering the dovecots in Corioli. We beg he
+will construe our sincere anticipations into a hearty
+welcome."</p></div>
+
+<p>In the early days of September 1855, Leighton was in Paris preparing
+to settle in for a winter's hard work. The following letters to his
+mother and father and to Steinle were written soon after his arrival.
+In that to Steinle, Leighton <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_236" id="PageV1_236">[236]</a></span>alludes to the serious work he has
+before him, in painting "The Triumph of Music":&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">H&ocirc;tel Canterbury, Rue de la Paix</span>,<br />
+<i>Sunday, 1855.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;Though I have, of course, nothing to
+tell you yet, still, as it is Sunday morning, I send you a few
+lines as a token of continued vegetation. Paris is bright and
+warm and sunny, and contrasts incredibly with the murkiness of
+London. I have already set to work to look for a studio, but
+shall have great difficulty in finding one, and shall have to
+pay about 1500 francs per annum <i>unfurnished</i>; my furniture I
+shall of course hire, not buy&mdash;<i>ci vuol pazienza</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">H&ocirc;tel Canterbury</span>,<br />
+<i>Saturday, 1855</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Papa</span>,&mdash;When one has bad news to swallow, there
+is nothing like taking the bull by the horns and engulphing
+the dose at once: this is the bull to be swallowed, horns and
+all. I have, after great trouble and manifold inquiries, taken
+<i>the only</i> studio that at all suited me, and for that I give
+<i>unfurnished</i> 150 francs a month. It is enormous, but
+unavoidable; nor have I been at a disadvantage from being an
+Englishman, for two artists of my acquaintance, one a
+<i>Parisian</i> just returning from Rome, the other a Frankfurter,
+have seen precisely the <i>same</i>, and only the same, studios as
+I did. It is the dearth of studios and the great demand for
+them that makes the price so high. Those who have had studios
+some time of course pay very much less, others put up with
+little holes far too small to paint a picture of any size.
+Carlo Perugini is painting in the studio of a friend, and that
+is a strip not large enough for one person. There was only
+<i>one</i> studio which I could for a moment think of besides this
+one I have taken, and that costs infinitely less; but not only
+was it too small&mdash;it had been built <i>this</i> summer, and is not
+yet finished painting, feels cold and damp, and would no doubt
+have laid me up with the rheumatism.</p>
+
+<p>I have been advised and actually assisted in everything by
+H&eacute;bert, who is a friend as well as an old acquaintance, and
+than whom nobody knows the resources of Paris better. He <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_237" id="PageV1_237">[237]</a></span>took
+me about to get my furniture, &amp;c., and I am happy to say that
+I have bought everything, including ample bedroom and table
+linen, crockery, and knives, spoons, &amp;c., all under &pound;30. I
+have quite a little <i>fond de m&eacute;nage</i>; this is the only cheap
+thing I have done in Paris, everything is exactly as dear as
+London. It certainly <i>is</i> lucky I sold my picture.</p>
+
+<p>My frame cost, with time and trouble of exhibition, 320
+francs.</p></div>
+
+<p class="cen">[Portion of letter to his father.]</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">21 Rue Pigalle</span>, <i>Tuesday</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I have nothing whatever to tell you, except that I have just
+finished a head of Carlo Perugini (for myself), which is the
+best thing of the kind I ever did. It has not interfered with
+my picture, but has stopped up unavoidable gaps. I have got H.
+Wilson<a name="FNanchor_54_54" id="FNanchor_54_54"></a><a href="#Footnote_54_54" class="fnanchor">[54]</a> to teach me the Conture Method&mdash;<i>&agrave; fin d'avoir tat&eacute;
+&agrave; tout</i>. Conture paints well in spite of his method, which
+might easily lead to superficial mannerism. The best <i>dodge</i>
+is to be a devil of a clever fellow.</p>
+
+<p>Will you do me a <i>great</i> favour&mdash;for my friend H&eacute;bert, to whom
+I am under great obligations? If you can get me for him <i>any</i>
+Greek classic (if Homer, all the better) in the <i>same edition</i>
+as my <i>Brumek's Anacreon</i> with <i>Latin notes</i>, I shall be much
+obliged. H&eacute;bert wants very much to have any such work.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">21 Rue Pigalle, Paris</span>,<br />
+<i>Saturday, September 29, 1855</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Friend</span>,&mdash;At last I find the long-desired
+opportunity to send you the photographs; our old Gamba has
+undertaken to convey them to you. How I envy him the pleasure
+of seeing you again, dear Master! You, on your side, will
+certainly have great pleasure in seeing your old pupil again.
+He is just the same as ever; rather more of a beard, and
+broader shouldered, but still quite the old Gamba. He will be
+able to tell you that we have cherished your memory with love
+and reverence, and are always proud to call ourselves your
+pupils.</p>
+
+<p>I should like to describe to you what I am painting now, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_238" id="PageV1_238">[238]</a></span>but
+the subject I have chosen is such an absolute matter of
+sentiment, that your imagination might well paint something
+quite different, in comparison with which my picture might
+subsequently suffer; I would rather wait until I can send you
+a photograph. It is a picture with only four figures, but
+life-size. I stand in alarm before the blank canvas. One
+learns gradually to understand that one really can do nothing.</p>
+
+<p>The photographs in the portofolio with my writing on them are
+yours; I hope they will please you. You must accept them as a
+little memento of my Italian hobbledehoy-hood.</p>
+
+<p>Remember me respectfully to Madame Steinle, to my other
+friends "tante cose."</p>
+
+<p>Keep me in remembrance.&mdash;Your grateful pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Again to Steinle he writes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right sc">Paris, Rue Pigalle 21.</p>
+
+<p>No one could sympathise better than I with your melancholy
+loneliness in the hermitage of Frankfurt; in that air an
+artist breathes with difficulty; I confess I should be
+entirely paralysed by the lack of models and other resources
+in Frankfurt; one all too easily loses sight of the infinite
+importance of a complete material representation, which is
+always the special mark of the <i>artist</i>; I often see with
+amazement how even quite clever people behave in this respect.
+It has quite a plausible sound if one says (such a fellow as
+Strauch, for example), "Away with materialism! Pfui! The great
+artist is he who has the most ideas!" Stop, my little man! do
+you not feel what a store of artistic cowardice lies behind
+your words? Ah, behind so broad a shield you can elude all the
+difficulties of your work! He who has the most <i>ideas</i> is
+first only as the greatest <i>poet</i> or even <i>philosopher</i>! He
+only is an <i>artist</i> who can <i>set</i> his ideas <i>forth</i>. <i>Art</i>
+means the power to do; undoubtedly the idea is the source, the
+achieved is art; but an <i>idea</i> completely <i>embodied</i> can no
+more exist without the <i>artist</i> power than a thousand ideas
+that are only muddled away by agitated incapacity!</p>
+
+<p>I gladly let myself go on such matters to you, for I know that
+we are of one mind regarding them, and it does one good to
+pour out one's heart a little for once.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_239" id="PageV1_239">[239]</a></span>I hear, with particular interest, that you are painting the
+little picture of the Madonna that you composed twenty-three
+years ago in the diligence when you were travelling to Italy;
+it is a very good thing. I imagine a lovely landscape in the
+background; an oleander, rich in starry bloom; grey olives and
+stately cypresses wave in the distance; soft violets nestle on
+the bank of the cool water, and gaze with earnest eyes out of
+the whispering grass. On the still bosom of the stream sleep
+white blossoms, which have flown down when the winds breathed
+on the limes, and see, in a secret nook in the shade of the
+lovely <i>Himmelsglocken</i>, the strawberry bed from which the
+black-eyed John will peep at the treasures. Above, in the
+branches, many-coloured birds frolic, and chase one another,
+and flit through the grove, in harmonious, song-rich flight.
+And the Madonna! how tenderly and lovingly she looks down upon
+the two playing children! Have I described your picture?</p>
+
+<p>In order to send it to England (and how delighted I should be
+to see it) you should, so much I know from personal
+experience, cause your picture to reach the Royal Academy
+(without fail) on the first of April; I believe that influence
+is no use at all, for the Academicians are very autocratic; I
+will, however, obtain all the information in good time. I, who
+was even more totally unknown in England than you, have
+refrained, by the advice of my friends, from applying to <i>any</i>
+person, and have left my pictures entirely to themselves.</p>
+
+<p>Now I must close this immoderately long letter. It seems not
+impossible to me that I may pass through Frankfurt next
+spring, then we will have a good long gossip together, won't
+we?</p>
+
+<p>Till then, keep in warm remembrance your English pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It is clear that Paris lacked the charm which Italy had for Leighton.
+Parisians have been compared to the Greeks with respect to the
+peculiarly <i>fin</i> and agile manner in which they can exercise their
+intellects; and so far Leighton might have been expected to fit in
+happily and with enjoyment to himself into their life. But though he
+felt a great respect <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_240" id="PageV1_240">[240]</a></span>and admiration for the genuine artistic sense
+which the French undoubtedly possess as a nation, Leighton, no less as
+a man than as an artist, was more Greek than is any typical Parisian.
+He viewed the beauty of nature from a less circumscribed standpoint,
+his emotions were excited with a more ingenuous spontaneity and less
+from a <i>parti-pris</i> attitude than, as a rule, are those of the French
+artist. Paris was too artificial to appeal strongly to Leighton's
+taste. As with the Greeks, grace and charm in the form of living as in
+Art was a necessity to his well-being; but he found more natural
+expression of such grace and charm in the unsophisticated Italian than
+among the artificial and more highly finished manners of the
+Parisians. We never read of the eager longing to be in France that
+Leighton's letters show when it was a question of a return to Italy.
+Also Paris does not appear to have suited his health. He writes to his
+mother after living there some weeks:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">21 Rue Pigalle</span>, <i>Sunday, 21</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;I observe in a general way that the
+climate of Paris is very exciting to my nerves&mdash;infinitely
+more than Rome. The life I lead is one of unprecedented
+regularity and absence of any kind of excess, yet sometimes in
+the evening, when I have lit my lamp and my fire and sit down
+to work, I can neither play, nor read, nor draw, nor do
+anything for five minutes together for sheer restlessness and
+fidgets. That sleep, too, that used to be the corner-stone of
+my accomplishments and the pillar of my strength, is not by
+any means what it was&mdash;<i>non sum qualis eram!</i></p>
+
+<p>The Sartoris have not changed their plans more than five or
+six dozen times since you saw them. They are now staying in
+the country with the Marquise de l'Aigle, Edward's sister.
+They will be here at the beginning of November and stay
+<i>three</i> months&mdash;ooray! Lady Cowley is, I believe, not yet come
+back. I see a great deal of Herbert Wilson here. He has with
+him, too, an arch-brick of a friend, a naval captain whom I
+like most particularly. I am painting his head for practice
+and for him&mdash;he is a fine specimen of an English sailor.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_241" id="PageV1_241">[241]</a></span>About learning by heart, don't you think it will be a great
+waste of my very little eyesight to read the same thing over
+and over again until I know it?</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">21 Rue Pigalle</span>, <i>October 26</i>.</p>
+
+<p>My health, to return to the eternal refrain, is just what it
+was. I shall find very little difficulty in giving up coffee
+or tea after dinner, as I never take either; indeed, of late I
+have given up wine, beer, gin, and other spirituous liquors as
+utterly exciting and damnable. Nothing makes me sleep as I
+used except going to bed late, and as I am always either
+sleepy, tired, or fidgety in the evening, I very seldom get
+beyond ten o'clock.</p>
+
+<p>Carlo Perugini, whom I saw to-day, sends "tante cose" to his
+cousin. He is a charming boy, most gentlemanlike, and has that
+peculiar childlike simplicity which belongs to none but
+Italians.</p></div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep241" id="imagep241"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep241.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep241tn.jpg" width="85%" alt="SKETCH IN WATER COLOUR FOR TABLEAUX VIVANTS" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">SKETCH IN WATER COLOUR FOR TABLEAUX VIVANTS,<br />
+"THE ECHOES OF HELLAS."<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Leighton's friendship with Brock and the French sculptor Dalou began
+in these autumn days of 1855. He also made the acquaintance of
+Whistler, whose etchings he admired greatly. The work of Jean Fran&ccedil;ois
+Millet also delighted him no less than that of Corot.</p>
+
+<p>His sister's diary contains the following notes: "November 25.&mdash;We
+arrived at Paris. Our dear, handsome Fred was here to meet us.
+December 1.&mdash;Fred comes to see us daily, though sometimes only for
+five minutes. He is pale and coughs a good deal; it makes us uneasy.
+He often comes to dinner. Presents to us on New Year's day. Took me to
+the Conservatoire. Always generous. We went often to Mrs. Sartoris in
+the evening."</p>
+
+<p>It was in Paris that Leighton probably first enjoyed to the full the
+culture of his instincts for the drama. Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris remained
+in Paris during the winter and spring, and Mr. Henry Greville arrived
+there on February 28th, 1856.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_242" id="PageV1_242">[242]</a></span>Extracts from his published diaries give a picture of the <i>milieu</i> in
+which Leighton's hours of relaxation from work were spent:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">27 Rue Du Faubourg St. Honor&eacute;</span>,<br />
+<i>Saturday, March 1, 1856</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I left London on Thursday with Flahault and Charles, and after
+a smooth passage slept at Boulogne and came on here yesterday.
+After dining <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> with the excellent doctor (the
+Hollands dined out), I went to Adelaide Sartoris', where I
+found Herbert Wilson, Leighton, and other young and
+good-looking artists, and some ladies whom I did not know, and
+amongst them Madame Kalergi, a niece of Nesselrode, a tall,
+large, white-looking woman, who has a reputation for
+cleverness and a great talent on the pianoforte. This morning
+I went to Leighton's studio, and saw his drawings, which are
+full of genius.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Thursday, March 6.</i></p>
+
+<p>Heard in the morning that Covent Garden theatre was burnt at
+seven yesterday morning, and went to announce the event to
+Mario. In the evening, with Adelaide Sartoris and Leighton, to
+Ristori's rentr&eacute;e in "Mirrha." She acted more finely than
+ever, and I was enchanted with her wonderful beauty and
+classic grace: her tenderness, in this part especially, is
+indescribable. Adelaide Sartoris had never seen her before,
+and was as much delighted as astonished at the performance.
+The audience was in a frenzy of enthusiasm, and yet I do not
+believe half the people present understood Italian.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Friday, March 20.</i></p>
+
+<p>I went last night with Adelaide Sartoris and Leighton to see
+Ristori in Alfieri's play of "Rosmunda."</p>
+
+<p>In reading it I was convinced I should be bored by so inflated
+a rhodomontade, and that the part of Rosmunda, being one of
+unmitigated fury and violence, was unsuited to an actress
+whose chief merit seemed to consist in her power of
+delineating the gentler passions. I was therefore but little
+prepared for the wonderful effect she produced upon me and on
+the audience. The play is horrible and offensive, but her
+manner of rendering this odious part is nothing short of
+sublime. Her beauty in the costume of the sixth century is
+beyond all description, and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_243" id="PageV1_243">[243]</a></span>manner in which she varies
+the phases of the same passions of hatred and vengeance, and
+the prodigious power of the whole impersonation, are
+marvellous. Her acting of the scene in the third act, when she
+tells Ildevaldo that Amalchilde loves Romalda, is about the
+best thing I have seen her do; and the last act, in which she
+murders her rival, and the way in which she seizes her and
+drags her up the steps, is like a whirlwind sweeping
+everything before it; too terrible almost to witness, and
+prevented my sleeping all night.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Monday, March 24.</i></p>
+
+<p>In the evening I went (as I generally do) to Adelaide
+Sartoris', where I found Bickerton Lyons, French, and
+Leighton. This latter is a singularly gifted youth. Besides
+his talent for painting and drawing, which is already at
+twenty-five very remarkable, and likely, if he lives, to place
+him in the highest rank of modern artists, he appears endowed
+with an extraordinary facility for anything he attempts to do.
+He speaks many foreign languages with remarkable fluency, and
+almost without accent; he is possessed of much musical
+intelligence, and on matters connected with the art which he
+has made his particular study and profession his information
+is very extensive&mdash;and, I am told by others, better able to
+judge than myself, that this is the case. With all these
+qualities, natural and acquired, I never saw a more amiable or
+single-hearted youth.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Wednesday, March 26.</i></p>
+
+<p>Went with the Sartoris's, Montfort, and Leighton to the Palais
+Bourbon to see Morny's pictures&mdash;a charming collection. The
+Emperor had just sent him two beautiful pieces of Beauvais
+tapestry&mdash;marvellous specimens of that manufacture; in return,
+I suppose, for his speech of the other day, with which his
+Majesty was highly pleased.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Wednesday, April 2, 1856.</i></p>
+
+<p>In the morning, with Adelaide Sartoris, Browning the poet,
+Cartwright, and Leighton, to the Pourtal&egrave;s Gallery&mdash;a charming
+collection. The pictures that most pleased me were a Paul
+Veronese, a Rembrandt, and a Greuze. There is also a fine
+collection of Raphael ware&mdash;glass and bronzes. Pourtal&egrave;s has
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_244" id="PageV1_244">[244]</a></span>ordered by will that this collection should remain intact for
+ten years, and then to be sold to the highest bidder.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Wednesday, April 9, 1856.</i></p>
+
+<p>Last night, after a dinner given by a Lady Monson to Adelaide
+Sartoris, Leighton, and myself, at Philippe's, we adjourned to
+the first representation of the Italian translation of
+Legouv&eacute;'s play of "Medea"&mdash;that in which Rachel refused, after
+attending rehearsals, to act the principal part, and about
+which there was a trial. Great curiosity was shown about this
+performance, and there was a great scramble for places; and,
+although inserts for nearly three weeks, we were fobbed off
+with very bad seats in the orchestra. The play had great
+success, and that of Ristori was prodigious, but not greater
+than she deserved. The part is most arduous, full of
+transitions, and almost always on the full stretch. Her
+costume was most picturesque, having been designed by
+Sch&aelig;ffer, and she looked like a figure on an Etruscan vase;
+and in no play that I have yet seen her in does she produce
+more effect than in certain passages of "Medea." The audience
+was wound up to a pitch of frantic enthusiasm. I am always
+astonished at the effect she produces on the mass of the
+audience, when I know how few there are who really can follow
+the play. But, whether by means of her countenance, voice, or
+gestures, she contrives to make all the nuances of her acting
+felt by the public. I expect when she comes to London she will
+find a vast difference between this excitable and sympathetic
+audience and that stupid, flat collection of would-be
+fashionables who will <i>promener leurs ennuis</i> at her
+performances.</p></div>
+
+<p>Before his family had arrived in Paris the subject of the Orpheus
+entitled "The Triumph of Music," to which Leighton was devoting
+himself, was criticised by his father, which criticism Leighton
+answered in the following letter:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>I do not think honestly that the choice of a mythological
+subject like Orpheus shows the least poverty of invention, a
+quality, I take it, much more manifested in the manner of
+treatment than in the choice of a moment.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_245" id="PageV1_245">[245]</a></span>About fiddles, I <i>know</i> that the ancients had <i>none</i>; it is an
+anachronism which I commit with my eyes open, because I
+believe that the picture will go home to the spectator much
+more forcibly in that shape.</p></div>
+
+<p>To his mother he writes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right sc">Rue Pigalle.</p>
+
+<p>I have seen Scheffer,<a name="FNanchor_55_55" id="FNanchor_55_55"></a><a href="#Footnote_55_55" class="fnanchor">[55]</a> who is cordiality itself to me;
+Robert Fleury, ditto, and I have further made the acquaintance
+of Ingres, who, though sometimes bearish beyond measure, was
+by a piece of luck exceedingly courteous the day I was
+presented to him. He has just finished a beautiful figure of
+Nymph, which I was able to admire loudly and sincerely. I have
+also been to Troyon, who was polite.</p>
+
+<p>I am fiddling away at the preliminaries of my pictures, a
+disjointed and desultory period through which one has to wade
+to get at one's large canvas.</p>
+
+<p>The Sartoris are of course, as ever, my stronghold and
+comfort.</p>
+
+<p>Your loving boy,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>I have sent the sketch of my "Orpheus" to Ruskin, and don't
+yet know his opinion of that particular thing, but I feel
+about that, that as a <i>now</i> responsible artist, it is my
+<i>duty</i> to do things exactly as I feel them and to abide by
+them, risking criticisms and cavillings of every kind. I must
+be <i>myself</i> for better and for worse; this truth, which I feel
+strongly myself, has been corroborated by the opinions of
+Fanny Kemble, Mr. Sartoris and Mrs. Sartoris, all at different
+times, and quite spontaneously expressed. In haste.&mdash;Your
+dutiful and affectionate son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The question naturally arises, considering the sequence of the history
+of the Orpheus picture, <i>was</i> Leighton <i>himself</i> when he painted "The
+Triumph of Music"? I have studied <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_246" id="PageV1_246">[246]</a></span>his work from the commencement to
+the close of his artistic career, and this picture remains the unique
+example, in my opinion, when he was <i>not</i> himself; the only picture
+which does not carry out the principle he thought of all importance.
+It does not evince "sincerity of emotion." The feeling and intention
+of the work when first conceived had been absolutely sincere; but,
+when it came to the performance, spontaneity had failed. It seems to
+have been painted when he was overshadowed by an influence which was
+alien to his real artistic sense, and is a further proof that Paris
+was an entirely unsympathetic atmosphere to him. The picture appears
+to me to be in feeling unreal, stagey&mdash;not to say, ridiculous. That
+Leighton, after the first bitterness of his failure was over, shared
+somewhat the same view of it is certain; for shortly after the Academy
+Exhibition of 1856 was over he took it off the stretcher, rolled it
+up, and consigned it to oblivion during his lifetime in the dark
+recess of a cellar.</p>
+
+<p>Notes in Mr. Henry Greville's Diary, dated April 24th and Tuesday, May
+6th, run as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">London</span>, <i>April 24</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Went yesterday to Colnaghi's to see Leighton's picture of
+"Romeo and Juliet," with which I was much pleased. Colnaghi
+tells me it is much admired, and said, "Young Leighton will,
+one day, be a very great man."</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Tuesday, May 6.</i></p>
+
+<p>A letter from Leighton, in answer to mine preparing him for
+the failure of his picture in the Exhibition, says: "Whatever
+I may have felt about my little bankruptcy, there is no fear
+of its disabling me for work, for if I am impressionable I am
+also obstinate; and, with God's will, I will one day stride
+over the necks of the penny-a-liners, that they may not have
+the triumph of having bawled me down before I have had time to
+be heard."</p></div>
+
+<p>In April Leighton's family left Paris to travel in Switzerland. The
+following letters to his mother show the spirit in which Leighton met
+his artistic disaster.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_247" id="PageV1_247">[247]</a></span><i>May 7.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;I received your two kind letters in
+due time, and answer them on the second day you fixed, having
+in the interval had time to hear about the fate of my picture;
+but first let me say, dear mamma, that you need never fear my
+misinterpreting or taking awry any kind advice that your love
+and solicitude may dictate to you. I am reading as much as
+ever my eyes will allow&mdash;indeed, you are strangely mistaken in
+thinking I don't see the necessity of reading. I assure you
+that it is a perpetual mortification to me to feel how little
+I know, but I stand unfortunately at such a disadvantage owing
+to the weakness of my eyes and my unprecedented absence of
+mind; however, I shall do what I can, and hope for the best.</p>
+
+<p>Dearest Mamma, I did not expect to write a <i>consolatory</i> note
+to you to inaugurate your journey, but I am sorry to say that
+I am in that painful position. My picture, which has been
+exceedingly badly hung, so that one can scarcely see half of
+it (indeed I believe only the figure of Orpheus), is an
+<i>entire failure</i>; the papers have abused, the public does not
+care for it, in fact it is a "fiasco." Ruskin (who likes the
+"Romeo" very much) is disappointed with "Orpheus," tho' he
+says of course a man like me can't do anything that has not
+great merits, and that I am to attach no importance to the
+malicious articles written by venal critics. Now, dearest
+Mother, look upon this&mdash;you and Papa, who takes so
+affectionate an interest in my welfare&mdash;look upon this, as I
+do, as a fortunate occurrence; consider what an edge and a
+zest I get for my future efforts, and what an incentive I have
+to exert myself to put down the venomous jargon of envious
+people&mdash;next year, tho' the Academicians may think that they
+have cowed me, I shall very probably not exhibit; but the year
+after, God willing, they shall feel the weight of my hand in a
+way that will surprise them. The more they abuse, the better
+I'll paint&mdash;industry against spite&mdash;I will have a pull for it.
+Dear Henry Greville behaves to me like an angel; he writes
+<i>every day</i>, and sends me the <i>Times</i> regularly. Mrs.
+Sartoris, too, writes very often. You will be glad to hear
+that my prospects about models are rather brighter than they
+were; I have found two or three that will be useful.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_248" id="PageV1_248">[248]</a></span><span class="sc">Paris</span>, <i>Sunday</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Although my letter (and I am afraid a very unpleasant one)
+must have reached you as soon as the other was fairly out of
+the house, yet I write a line in answer to all the kind and
+considerate things you wrote in the idea I might be ill or
+irritable. I value your kind solicitude, dear Mamma, as much
+as you can wish, I assure you, and should indeed be heartily
+sorry in any way to give you pain or make you in any way
+unhappy&mdash;and talking of that, dear Mamma, I sincerely hope you
+have completely got over your first annoyance about my fiasco,
+which, except of course in a pecuniary point of view, is in
+point of fact a fortunate event for my future progress, in the
+<i>&eacute;lan</i> it gives to my application and particularly to my
+obstinacy. I am very busy now at "Pan" and "Venus," but have
+not decided what I shall do next year. I think it is very
+characteristic of the critics that they <i>none</i> of them mention
+"Romeo and Juliet," which is, I know, universally liked. Dear
+Mamma, never fear, your boy will walk over all that&mdash;depend
+upon it. How does Papa take it? How the girls?&mdash;Give to all my
+best love, and believe me, your very devoted son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p class="right"><i>Tuesday, 1856.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Papa</span>,&mdash;In the hope that I should receive to-day
+Ruskin's pamphlet on the Institution, I delayed until now
+answering your kind letter. It has, however, not arrived, and
+as there is great uncertainty whether it really is already
+published or no, I think it better not to keep you longer
+without news from me. The criticisms in the papers are, as far
+as I can judge, partly from the little I have read and partly
+from what my friends tell me, singularly injudicious, leaving
+almost entirely untouched the really vulnerable parts of the
+picture, and attacking almost exclusively that which is least
+objectionable&mdash;the execution.</p>
+
+<p>Ruskin does not much like the picture, and prefers the "Romeo"
+considerably, but he will write of course in a serious spirit
+and like an intelligent man. I have just made the acquaintance
+of Robert Fleury&mdash;the best French colourist, in my
+opinion&mdash;and he received me with the greatest kindness and
+simplicity, showing all that he had, and explaining anything
+that I wished <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_249" id="PageV1_249">[249]</a></span>to know; this is a valuable acquaintance which
+I owe to Montfort. I have made the acquaintance of a highly
+talented young German genre painter of whom I had heard in
+Frankfurt; he is my age, and paints with greater facility, but
+my talent is of a higher order I think. Ary Scheffer has been
+very amiable and pleasant to me about my fiasco, telling me
+what he went through himself, and telling me to think nothing
+of it. I sent to Wild shortly after you left, and was able to
+render him a little service in the way of some Venetian
+costumes, still I hesitate to ask him to introduce me to Paul
+Delaroche. We shall see about all that next autumn when I come
+back from Italy, when the Viardots will also introduce me to
+Delacroix.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>Pan and Venus are progressing <i>tout doucement</i>.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>I have written to Watts to ask his leave to put my pictures in
+his studio (Pan and Venus) in Little Holland House. I read
+carefully all you said, dear Mamma, about the critics, &amp;c. &amp;c.
+I honestly think that my ill-luck is in no way attributable to
+over-hurrying. Those things in my picture which were really
+most open to discussion, I did all with my eyes open and
+deliberately, and they were the only ones that the discerning
+scribblers seem not to have noticed. Again, with regard to the
+said critics, I think, dear Mamma, you see things "en noir."
+<i>Who reports</i> me to have sneered at &mdash;&mdash;? I did internally, as
+I do at all snobs. However, I have long since banished the
+whole subject. If ever I attain real excellence, the public
+will in the long run find it out; and if they don't pay me
+they will at least acknowledge me, especially when the
+pre-Raphaelite "engouement" has calmed a little. In a
+fortnight I shall go to England; by that time Pan and Venus
+will be done, and I think they promise well. I am very anxious
+to get to London. I mean to enjoy it very much&mdash;take my fill,
+and then go for a short time to Italy to renew my profession
+of faith before Raphael and Michael Angelo. I am very glad to
+hear that you are enjoying yourselves, and that you remember
+me in the midst of your jonquils and anemones.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<hr/>
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_48_48" id="Footnote_48_48"></a><a href="#FNanchor_48_48"><span class="label">[48]</span></a> Watts wrote at the time Leighton died that he had
+enjoyed an uninterrupted friendship with him of forty-five years. This
+was evidently a slight miscalculation. We read in one of Leighton's
+letters to his mother from Rome that Watts had called on him, but that
+he had missed seeing him, and Watts certainly spoke to me of this
+interview on the pavement of Montagu Square in 1855 as the first he
+had had with Leighton.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_49_49" id="Footnote_49_49"></a><a href="#FNanchor_49_49"><span class="label">[49]</span></a> In a letter from his mother, December 22, 1854, she
+quotes an extract from the <i>Morning Post</i>, written by a critic who had
+been visiting the studios in Rome, and who alludes to Leighton's
+sympathy with Giotto. It reads to-day as quaint and curiously
+antiquated as do Knight's scornful criticisms on the Elgin Marbles.
+Mrs. Leighton writes: "One sentence in your letter has set your dear
+father on the horns of anxiety. You tell us we are not to expect too
+much from your pictures, and remind us 'that the path which leads to
+success, &amp;c. &amp;c.' Now, Papa fancies that you had underpainted your
+canvas and were not satisfied with the result, and that was the cause
+of your writing less hopefully than usual. We have been wishing much
+to hear what your progress was; knowing the subject of each picture,
+we should have understood if you had reported progress. In case you
+are in want of a little encouragement, I must tell you the other day
+Papa enters the drawing-room with a radiant face. He held in his hand
+a piece of paper, and requesting my attention, he read me its
+contents, which I copy for you, and which I found were taken from a
+column in the <i>Morning Post</i> devoted to criticisms on artists and
+their works chiefly, I believe, on the Continent, but of that I am not
+quite sure. 'I next called on Mr. Leighton, who is employed on a
+canvas of many feet. His subject is'&mdash;then follows the description,
+after which he adds: 'Mr. Leighton will become a great artist if he
+advances as he has begun. His drawing is admirable, much better than
+that of English artists generally. Some of the figures are Giottoish
+in the treatment of the drapery, which is scarcely pardonable, because
+drapery fell flowingly about the human body in Giotto's time as well
+as now. Why imitate the uncomfortable line of that conventional rag?
+It is, however, unfair to judge of anything beyond drawing and
+composition in the present state of this picture, which is an
+extraordinary work for so young a man.' Remarks more or less
+favourable were made on several other artists, but nothing like what
+you have just read. Do you know this critic? I need not tell you how
+highly we appreciate this gentleman's sagacity; but jokes apart, Papa
+was rather puzzled at such a criticism about the drapery of some of
+the figures, because you excel in such folds, so it seems to us odd
+that you should skimp any of your figures. The same column contains
+observations on the subject of 'High Art' and large historical
+pictures, or rather comments on those made by young students, such
+indeed as I have heard you make, that I could almost have fancied the
+author was answering your remarks. We were rather startled to read in
+your letter that you find you had better not use the interests of a
+professional man to facilitate the admission of your picture into the
+Exhibition of the Royal Academy, but trust to its merits for that
+result, as we are told the Exhibition in question is, strictly
+speaking, a private affair for the works of the members only and such
+as they choose to admit, which explains perhaps the complaints of
+rejection one has read of from time to time. I hope your picture may
+be kindly judged and well hung."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_50_50" id="Footnote_50_50"></a><a href="#FNanchor_50_50"><span class="label">[50]</span></a> On a first visit to Athens I was struck by the
+extraordinary insignificance and want of beauty in the Levantines of
+mixed race who crowded the streets; nowhere seemed there a trace left
+among the inhabitants of the town of the type of Greek beauty. When
+travelling a few days later to Colonna, while the train stopped at a
+station on the lower slopes of Hymettus, I saw two men hurrying
+through the adjacent olive groves to catch it. They were dressed in
+the Greek costume of the provinces&mdash;an embroidered waistcoat cut low
+leaving the throat bare, the short white plaited skirt, and the heavy
+cloak falling from one shoulder. Either of these men might have sat to
+Pheidias for the Theseus. Both were more magnificent in form than any
+statue ever made. Doubtless, in the days of her ancient glory, Greece
+contained a far larger proportion of inhabitants who were beautiful
+than are to be found now; nevertheless Pheidias without a doubt had to
+exercise his gift of selecting the best, no less than did Leighton and
+Watts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_51_51" id="Footnote_51_51"></a><a href="#FNanchor_51_51"><span class="label">[51]</span></a> See <a href="#toi">List of Illustrations</a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_52_52" id="Footnote_52_52"></a><a href="#FNanchor_52_52"><span class="label">[52]</span></a> Ibid.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_53_53" id="Footnote_53_53"></a><a href="#FNanchor_53_53"><span class="label">[53]</span></a> Ibid.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_54_54" id="Footnote_54_54"></a><a href="#FNanchor_54_54"><span class="label">[54]</span></a> Mr. Herbert Wilson.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_55_55" id="Footnote_55_55"></a><a href="#FNanchor_55_55"><span class="label">[55]</span></a> The story is that on Leighton's expressing his gratitude
+at receiving a visit from him (Ary Scheffer), he replied, "If I did
+not attach considerable importance to your talent, I should not have
+mounted three flights of stairs to see you."</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_250" id="PageV1_250">[250]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER V<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>FRIENDS</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>Leighton's friendships were very salient, vivid interests to him among
+the varied occupations of his life. In any complete picture of his
+personality these must take a prominence only secondary to his passion
+for Art and Beauty,&mdash;and for "his second home,"&mdash;the land that had
+cast such a strange spell and charm over him from the early days of
+childhood,&mdash;to his love for his family, and his reverent devotion to
+his master, Steinle, and to Mrs. Sartoris. To these two inspiring
+friends and teachers he declared he owed what he prized most in life,
+namely, a development of those gifts and qualities which enabled him
+to be of service to his generation.</p>
+
+<p>"I have always believed that his ruling passion was <i>Duty</i>&mdash;the
+keenest possible sense of it," Mr. Briton Rivi&egrave;re writes. The
+influences which were the most precious to Leighton were assuredly
+those which enabled him to extend his own influence in the highest and
+widest direction, and fulfil exhaustively his duty to his
+fellow-creatures. Every moment of his life was real and earnest to
+him. Every moment had a purpose&mdash;ever before him was the urgent
+imperative necessity he felt of being <i>faithful</i>: faithful in every
+detail as in decisive final aims. If an epithet had to be attached to
+his name, epitomising Leighton's salient characteristics, the most
+appropriate would surely be "Leighton the faithful."</p>
+
+<p>Many among those who are dead,&mdash;also among the now living, found in
+him their best friend. The letters written to <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_251" id="PageV1_251">[251]</a></span>him by Mr. Henry
+Greville, and those that Leighton wrote to Mr. Hanson Walker are good
+examples, among the many that have been preserved, showing the very
+prominent place his friends took in Leighton's life. In the first we
+trace the tender affection he inspired in the hearts of his
+intimates,<a name="FNanchor_56_56" id="FNanchor_56_56"></a><a href="#Footnote_56_56" class="fnanchor">[56]</a> and in the second the ardent manner in which Leighton
+would help artists younger than himself, and how with a parental
+solicitude he would do his best to forward their true interests.<a name="FNanchor_57_57" id="FNanchor_57_57"></a><a href="#Footnote_57_57" class="fnanchor">[57]</a></p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep251" id="imagep251"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep251.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep251.jpg" width="52%" alt="STUDY OF HEAD FOR &quot;LIEDER OHNE WORTE.&quot;" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF HEAD FOR "LIEDER OHNE WORTE." 1860<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following letters from Mr. Henry Greville were written on
+Leighton's return to Paris, after he had run over to London to place
+the "Romeo" picture which had been in the Paris International
+Exhibition with Colnaghi, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_252" id="PageV1_252">[252]</a></span>after "The Triumph of Music" had been
+sent in to the Academy.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">London</span>, <i>April 25</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Fay</span>,&mdash;You are rather a bad boy not to have given
+either Ad. or me a <i>signe de vie</i>, but as I have not seen her
+to-day, she may have heard from you. We both want to do so
+<i>very</i> much, so pray write <span class="sc">me</span> a line directly. I only
+do so to-day to say that at my suggestion Ad. and I rushed off
+yesterday again to Colnaghi to find out if the Queen or Albert
+knew of your picture being at his shop; and if not, to ask him
+to let them know it, if he could do so with propriety. He said
+he would at once send the picture to B. Palace, as he was in
+the habit of doing other works; though he did not think that
+it was likely they would buy another picture of yours, he
+admitted that it might be advantageous to you that they should
+see it. He again praised the picture greatly, and told us that
+it was universally admired. My sister prefers it infinitely to
+"Cimabue" in all respects, but the fact is, the subject is
+more attractive to English people than the other. I have
+nothing else to tell you. I am <i>very</i> seedy with an affection
+of the bronchial tubes, and very low, and would give anything
+to see you, my dear boy, but must have patience till the
+pleasant moment of having you under my roof arrives. You will
+be glad to hear that my mother is better. I have not seen
+Ellesmere, as he was at the Review, but you may depend on my
+not forgetting your interests. The said Review was a most
+glorious spectacle, and they had a splendid day for it. I am
+starved to death here, and Ad. and I do nothing but grumble.
+She and I dined <i>t&ecirc;te-&agrave;-t&ecirc;te</i> last night, and slept and
+coughed through the evening with the occasional intermission
+of talking of you&mdash;you old Fay! To-night I am going with her
+to Eli, though I ought to be in my bed. Theo is ill and can't
+come, and Fanny reads. Oh! that you were to be with us! Tell
+me if you would object to a <span class="sc">very</span> slight gold frame to
+the drawings&mdash;merely a <i>line</i>, because, as my rooms are all
+white, and that everything in them has gilt, the drawings want
+a sort of background&mdash;which this slight frame would give them.
+Tell me what you think. I don't mean to hang up my Vintage,
+but keep it near me on an <i>easle</i> (how do you spell it?).
+Charley, being highly coloured, looks <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_253" id="PageV1_253">[253]</a></span>lovely, and don't want
+any frame&mdash;nasty Charley! Now pray write and tell me all about
+yourself&mdash;and the <i>moddles</i>&mdash;and how you <i>are</i>&mdash;and how you
+get on&mdash;and what you do. Don't drag off to dull parties, but
+go to bed early.</p>
+
+<p>God bless you. Amami, ne ho gran bisogno. Colnaghi said he had
+heard from one Cooper a very good report of "Orpheus."</p>
+
+<p class="right">H.</p>
+
+<p>How have the photographs turned out? I like your portrait less
+now that you are away&mdash;but it can't be helped, it is better
+than none, but it looks so sad. I have hung you and Ad. up
+side by side in sweet companionship in my dressing-room, so
+that I may see you both the first thing on waking.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">London</span>, <i>April 26th</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Bimbo</span>,&mdash;You have made us pass some very
+anxious hours, as the telegraph which I sent off at seven this
+morning will have testified, though it will also have
+surprised and perhaps alarmed you until you read its contents.
+The fact is, <i>I</i> thought it odd that we did not hear from you,
+yesterday at all events, as I felt sure you would have written
+immediately on getting our joint note from Boulogne,
+Wednesday, and certainly on the following day. However, I felt
+sanguine that on going to dine at 79, I should find that Ad.
+had heard from you, but, on the contrary, I found her full of
+anxiety at no letter, imagining every species of cause for
+your silence, which she said was so very unlike you, that I
+directly caught the same state of worry, and we determined
+that I should telegraph the first thing this morning to know
+if you were ill, or if anything had happened. I never slept
+all night, and of course had worked myself, with her
+assistance, into a wretched state of anxiety about you&mdash;when
+at nine your letter arrived, and a blessed relief it was. I
+should not probably have been in such a state, had Adelaide
+not been convinced that illness or some catastrophe had
+prevented your writing, because, she said, your <i>wont</i> was to
+do so immediately on parting with her, and she could account
+for it in no other way. In short, dear Fay, we were very
+foolish; but I assure you our folly met its own punishment by
+the anxiety, and which spoilt our "Eli" entirely. Poor Fay! I
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_254" id="PageV1_254">[254]</a></span>daresay you little thought that we were tormenting ourselves
+about you, and I, for one, shall try and not do so any more.
+Your letter is like yourself&mdash;dear and kind. With regard to
+the enclosure, my opinion is that you would not do wisely or
+handsomely by Colnaghi to withdraw your picture from his
+keeping, unless he <i>wished</i> to get rid of it to make room for
+the supposed exhibition of drawings; moreover, my own opinion
+is that you would not do well to exhibit at the Crystal
+Palace. I have no faith in that institution, and I think it
+will be a pity to rob your studio of the "Pan" and "Venus" for
+that purpose; but as I do not consider myself a good judge of
+these matters or competent to advise you, I think I should be
+very much guided by what other artists of the same standing as
+yourself think and do in the matter, and before deciding or
+answering Mr. Magwood, I should write to Buckner or any one
+else competent to advise you and ask their opinion. I don't
+know what Sister Adelaide will say, but I have sent her your
+letter and the enclosure, and she will probably write to you
+on the subject. You are <i>too</i> dear and nice about my mother. I
+fear that before you come she will have left London, and I
+don't think you would like to paint her, because her sweet
+face is entirely hidden by the shade she is obliged to wear
+over her poor eyes; but <i>you</i> know whether I should like her
+portrait painted by you! But, dear Fay, you are too lavish of
+your time on others, and do not think enough of yourself. Here
+I was interrupted by a visit from Adelaide, overjoyed at
+hearing all is well with you, and agreeing entirely with me
+<i>in re</i> C. Palace, Colnaghi, &amp;c. She says if C. wishes the
+picture to be removed, it is for him to express that wish and
+not you, that a better order of people go to him than those
+who frequent the C.P., that he is well-disposed towards you,
+and that it is advisable you should keep him as your friend.</p>
+
+<p>We think Mogford's reference useless, being a foreigner, and
+we are certain that unless <i>Millais</i> and others of the same
+class exhibit at the C.P., you had best have nothing to do
+with it. I took Ad. up to your room, and she says you will be
+<i>comfy</i> in it; and she saw your nice face, patted it, and
+said, "Dear Fay, but it looks so sad!" She thinks both
+drawings will be better <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_255" id="PageV1_255">[255]</a></span>for a slight gilt <i>rim</i>, but I won't
+put it on without your leave. I am so glad you are leading a
+wholesome life, and getting the b. who planted you, rather
+than dawdle proudly, and be without a good <i>moddle</i>. I have
+nothing to say, dear Bimbo, and you will have had enough of
+me. I am very bad with an ulcerated throat, cough, and
+inflamed bronchia, and altogether below par. I have seen
+hardly anybody since I came. Adelaide would have been pleased
+with "Eli," had she been in a vein where pleasure was
+possible. Pauline sang to perfection the lovely music allotted
+to her. And now, dearest Bimbo, God bless you. Write very
+often, if only a <i>line</i>, as it is comfortable to hear that all
+is well with you&mdash;that is always the news I most wish to get;
+and tell me how the pictures progress, and your real state of
+mind about them.&mdash;Your old and loving Babbo,</p>
+
+<p class="right">H.</p>
+
+<p>I send back Mogford. Penelope B. (Bentinck) tells me that the
+great judge, George, condescends to approve "Romeo" mightily!!</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">London</span>, <i>Monday, April 28th</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear good Fay</span>,&mdash;Cartwright was wrong about the
+telegraph, but as our anxiety was removed by your letter, I
+did not expect you to send me one. Knowing how likely you were
+to write, supposing you to be well, you may imagine that we
+were not a little anxious at getting no sign of life from you,
+in return for our daily letters, and I never could have
+guessed that the Boulogne letter would only have reached you
+on Saturday! However, all is well that ends well, but we
+passed a very disagreeable day and night, and it was <i>because</i>
+we did <i>not</i> think you capable of putting off writing that we
+fussed and worried ourselves about you&mdash;foolishly, dear Fay,
+no doubt. I am very seedy and confined to the house by throat,
+bronchia, unceasing cough, swelled glands, bad eyes&mdash;and
+should not inflict myself and ailments upon you, but that it
+is a solace and a comfort to <i>causer avec "mon petit
+dernier"</i>&mdash;a cognomen which smiles <span class="fakesc">upon</span> me&mdash;and made
+<i>me</i> smile. Sister Adelaide tea'd with me last night <i>en t&ecirc;te
+&agrave; t&ecirc;te</i>. Fanny was grand, and would not come in, though she
+dropped her sister at my door, because (she said) I had not
+said <i>to</i> her that I wished <i>for</i> her! I was so little <i>en
+train</i> that I was not sorry to have only Adelaide, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_256" id="PageV1_256">[256]</a></span>and we
+<i>did</i> more than once say how we wished Fay was eating the
+muffin destined for the proud Fanny. Adelaide has just been
+here, and brought me your dear letter. I don't see any
+<i>present</i> prospect of the fire of my affliction being
+extinguished or allowed to grow dim, so you may make your mind
+easy on that score, excellent Fay. I feel for your loneliness,
+and know what a contrast it must present with the sweet
+fellowship we have held together so unceasingly for those last
+two months. The only thing you gain by the loss of your people
+is more time, and a later repast. I don't doubt poor Mamma
+being unhappy at leaving you, her true and only Benjamin, and
+for an indefinite time. I can judge by what I felt at parting
+with <i>mon petit dernier</i>, and <i>with</i> the hope of so soon
+greeting him again. No, Fay, I won't have the Charley drawing,
+and I won't have you do anything more for any one but
+yourself, knowing as I do all the things you have on hand&mdash;and
+<i>&agrave; propos</i> of <i>that</i>, I must tell you that I have endeavoured
+to put another iron in the fire <i>in re</i> fresco. I asked Lady
+Abercorn, who is my dearest friend, to speak to Lord Aberdeen
+(her father-in-law) who is on the Committee of Taste, or
+whatever it is called, first about your picture at Colnaghi's
+and then of you generally as desirous of painting in fresco,
+and as of one whose studies have been that way directed, in
+whom I take a great interest; but I made her understand that
+it was no <i>job</i> I wanted done, or that I asked any favour, but
+merely I wished it to be known that Leighton, a very rising
+artist, would like to be employed in that line, if an occasion
+presented itself. Lady A. understood me exactly and being very
+sympathetic immediately conceived an interest for my <i>petit
+dernier</i> (I wish you were my son, Fay!) and said if she did
+not see Lord Aberdeen very soon she would write to him.
+Neither I nor Adelaide know where Windsor and Newton live, so
+you had best write straight to him to send the colours you
+want. I think I <i>must</i> put just a <i>baguette d'or</i> on the
+drawings, and when you see them on my walls I don't think you
+will disapprove. With regard to Cartwright, Adelaide says
+Jules Sartoris has got a place called Tusmore. I should advise
+him to lose no time in advertising it both in the newspaper
+and by different agents in town and country. I should think it
+was a place <i>sure</i> to be let, from its convenient distance
+from London and other advantages. There is no news here.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_257" id="PageV1_257">[257]</a></span><span class="sc">London</span>, <i>May 6th</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Fay</span>,&mdash;Your letter is a relief and a comfort.
+It is both to me to see you take this disagreeable business so
+manfully, so wisely, and to think that instead of being cast
+down, your energies will only be aroused by this stupid and
+unjust criticism. In this case it may, then, well be said,
+"Sweet are the uses of adversity." As to all the other papers,
+I can't pretend to say what they may have written, but the
+<i>Leader</i> is one of no repute, and, as Ruskin said to Adelaide
+this morning, it don't <span class="sc">really</span> signify <i>what</i> they
+write; in the long run talent and genius must prevail, as
+yours will, dear Fay, if it please God to grant you, as I
+fervently pray, health and strength. She is going to write to
+you, and will tell you all Ruskin said, and also what she
+thinks of the Exhibition in general and your picture in
+particular, which, I hear, is infamously placed&mdash;that is, in
+so bad a light that only <i>Orpheus</i> is visible. Passing, I must
+tell you that Edward (Sartoris) came to see me yesterday, and
+the <i>first</i> thing he said on entering the room was, "Well, I
+don't think Leighton's picture looks bad. Orpheus's drapery is
+too yellow, but it don't look amiss at all." This was rather
+much for him, eh? He likes "Autumn Leaves," and he praised the
+"Leslie" (which Adelaide says is all very well, but "slaty").
+Landseer is beautiful&mdash;but E. (Edward Sartoris) was <i>sous le
+charme</i>, having sat next him at dinner at Marochetti's, when
+he told me L. was as much <i>aux petits soins</i> for him as if he
+had been the loveliest of females. I am so glad about the
+models, and if I don't hear from you as often shall know why.
+I am also glad you dine with Cartwright and Co., but <i>how</i> you
+<i>can</i> dandle a nasty, doughy, puffy, bread-and-butter smelling
+thing called a baby! Pah! a baby is my horror and aversion.
+Never do it again&mdash;not even by your own. I could not have
+dandled even my Bimbo without a grimace. Well done! old
+hideous &mdash;&mdash;; if she promise not to act herself, I'll take a
+box for her next benefit. She is the <i>&acirc;me damn&eacute;e</i> of Macready,
+so that her verdict surprises me. I expect she will begin
+imitating her, and have Medea translated&mdash;horrible idea! Read
+Ellesmere's speech; it is very pretty, and the whole debate is
+interesting, but Derby and Co. don't cut a good figure at all.
+I am getting better now, and dined with my parent <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_258" id="PageV1_258">[258]</a></span>yesterday,
+but can't go out in daytime for fear of eyes and throat, the
+wind is so cold. Of course I read your letter to Ad. (Adelaide
+Sartoris). (I think you had best now write straight to her,
+because as I am soon hoping to be out, and have no one to send
+so far, your letters will get to her quicker and more surely
+by post.)</p>
+
+<p>You must be very careful, and take time to weigh well and
+consider the subjects of your future pictures. I think the
+Mermaid might be both interesting and effective well carried
+out, and you might also perhaps paint some subject from some
+one of the Italian poets&mdash;Tasso, Ariosto, Boccaccio&mdash;for your
+own satisfaction. God bless you! my dear boy. I am longing to
+see you again already. Tell me how the models answer and how
+you get on. <i>Don't</i> call Brackley <i>de</i>. They are removed to
+the Meurice. If you don't find them, write to her and offer to
+go with her (saying at my suggestion) to the Louvre.&mdash;Love
+your old Babbo,</p>
+
+<p class="right">H.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Later in the summer Mr. Greville wrote:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right">1856, <span class="sc">Hatchford</span>, <i>Thursday</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dear Boy</span>,&mdash;I do sympathise with your disgust at
+the same time that I think you have acted very <i>l&eacute;g&egrave;rement</i>
+about your pictures, and, in fact, taken no trouble or heed
+about them. <i>You should have seen to it all yourself before
+you left London</i>, or have given directions to Watts, to which
+he would have attended, instead of leaving him in total
+ignorance as to what you meant or wished, and which picture or
+if both were to go. I kept perpetually telling you to see
+after this business and to be more <i>exact</i> in it, but you see
+now the consequence of not attending to things more carefully.
+You had better write a curt letter to Greene, reminding him
+that you <i>had</i> given written directions (as you say) that it
+was your "<i>Pan</i>" that was to be removed, and that you made no
+mention of the "Venus" (what has he done with her?), and again
+asking him (since he had not replied to the query) whether he
+had got the "Romeo." I shan't be in London until to-morrow
+night late, and as you are to be there on Monday there will be
+no use in my going to Greene, but I can <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_259" id="PageV1_259">[259]</a></span>do so on Saturday if
+you wish it. I have had an answer from Ellesmere's secretary,
+to whom I wrote to go and see if your pictures were well hung,
+to say that the Exhibition only opens in first week of
+September,<a name="FNanchor_58_58" id="FNanchor_58_58"></a><a href="#Footnote_58_58" class="fnanchor">[58]</a> but that he has a friend who is an influential
+member of the hanging committee, and that he will speak to him
+in favour of yours being put into a good light. I heard from
+Adelaide yesterday that she will be in town on Monday and will
+dine us. I hoped you would have stayed (and she too) all
+Tuesday and gone away on Wednesday morning, so that we might
+have spent two evenings together, and I am disappointed. I
+shall go to Scotland on Wednesday, and am sorry to have
+settled to do so. I suppose you know Alfred Sartoris marries
+Miss Barrington&mdash;an alliance which will enchant Aunt &mdash;&mdash;, as
+the young lady is "The Honourable," and allied to several
+marquesses and earls.&mdash;Addio, caro, your ever affectionate &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; H.</p>
+
+<p><i>P.S.</i>&mdash;Write again by all means to Greene asking <i>what has
+become of the "Venus,"</i> and also whether the "Romeo" has or
+<i>not</i> been sent to Manchester&mdash;whether you employ him or not,
+you have a right to know what he has done with your property.
+Write a line to Queen Street to-morrow to say at what time you
+will be there on Monday that I may not be out of the way.</p>
+
+<p>Rain has come, but it is still deliciously warm and fine in
+the intervals.</p></div>
+
+<p>Later in the same year Mr. Greville wrote:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">London</span>, <i>August 26, 1856</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dearest Fay</span>,&mdash;I have just got your letter of
+Saturday 23rd from Frankfort, and as you state therein that
+you were to leave that place on Monday, and that the letters
+which I sent to Malet for you could only reach him on that
+morning, it is next to certain that they will not have reached
+you. I requested him, in the event of your having left
+Frankfort, or in his failing to find you out, to send them on
+to the <i>p. restante</i> at Venice, and you will probably find
+them there together with this letter, but I think it best also
+to send you the originals for fear of accident, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_260" id="PageV1_260">[260]</a></span>as it is
+desirable that you should write to Mr. Harrison yourself.<a name="FNanchor_59_59" id="FNanchor_59_59"></a><a href="#Footnote_59_59" class="fnanchor">[59]</a>
+In the meanwhile, I have told him that when I knew your
+address I would apprize him of it, and in a few days I shall
+write and say that you are at Venice; but I don't think he
+will write to you any more, but that he will expect to know
+<i>when you are likely to return</i>. Having got so far, it of
+course is out of the question that you should think of, or for
+a moment be expected to return on purpose, and I think it most
+likely you will be able to get Watts to go and look at the
+picture, in case the matter should be pressing; but I think it
+will be best that you offer to return to England before you
+settle at Paris, and whenever your present tour (which I told
+Mr. Harrison was one for artistic purposes) shall be ended. It
+will be a great bore having to come back even then, on
+purpose. I am sorry you did not get the letters at Frankfort;
+on the whole though, perhaps they would only have worried you
+and have made you <i>hesitate</i> as to <i>returning</i>, and which
+perhaps you might have thought <i>shorter</i> and less troublesome
+than having to come back by-and-bye. However, it is very
+probable you may get Watts to do what is necessary, and that
+you may be saved the expense and bore of another journey here
+in the autumn. Adelaide and I contemplated the possibility of
+your coming over at once from Frankfort, and we both
+deprecated the idea, though we privately said how intensely
+glad we should be to see you&mdash;selfish as it might be; and it
+was arranged that I was to telegraph to her to Tunbridge where
+she is gone to-day. Thanks, you dear boy, for your letter just
+received. I can understand your pleasure at finding yourself
+in your old haunts again, with your old friend and master to
+whom you owe so much. It is a great comfort to me to find that
+he likes your drawings, though I never doubted his doing so. I
+was amused by your account of the Pimp and Ballerina, whose
+modesty seems to have attracted you more than that of the
+Russian Princess. Since writing to you last I have done but
+little. I am come into town this morning expecting to find
+Ffrench, but he has not turned up. I saw <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_261" id="PageV1_261">[261]</a></span>Sister A.<a name="FNanchor_60_60" id="FNanchor_60_60"></a><a href="#Footnote_60_60" class="fnanchor">[60]</a>
+yesterday on her way through, but my visit was spoilt by the
+&mdash;&mdash; Girls and Cigala, who (as he never made love to me)
+appears to me merely a <i>bon sabreur</i> and horse fancier. You
+know my opinion of the young ladies, who, <i>par parenth&egrave;se</i>,
+adore you. I am still at H. (Holland) House, and shall remain
+there until Friday, when I come to dine with Adelaide, and
+shall then go to Hatchford until I repair to Worsley&mdash;my
+sister will be established there before long. Yesterday,
+Ellesmere's secretary sent me a letter to say that the gent.
+of the hanging committee "would take care that Mr. Leighton's
+pictures were placed in the most favourable position."<a name="FNanchor_61_61" id="FNanchor_61_61"></a><a href="#Footnote_61_61" class="fnanchor">[61]</a> So
+let us hope for the best. I must tell you that Vic. is come
+home, and is now opposite to me, and that she looks admirably
+well. We have had heaps of people at H. House at dinner almost
+every day. Marochetti came yesterday. He is full of the
+subject of colouring statues, and has just taken to Osborne
+two busts which the Queen was to present to-day to P. Albert
+for his birthday. Marochetti <i>traite d'imb&eacute;ciles</i> all the
+English sculptors who cannot yet take in this "undoubted
+fact." He says Gibson is the only one who admits it, but even
+he will not go Marochetti's lengths. Watts is (you know) at
+Malvern, and the doctor thought him decidedly better before he
+went, and that he may get into tolerable health. I think he is
+to be at Malvern three weeks. John Leslie's wedding is at this
+moment proceeding; he has almost settled to buy Lady C.
+Lascelles' house at Campden Hill, which will be a capital
+position for his studio, and another Sunday lounge for you
+next year. Next year! (<i>eheu fugaces!</i>) a long time to wait to
+see you again under my roof, you very dear boy. I always think
+this dispersing time so melancholy. I wonder if I shall hear
+from you before Venice. Oh yes, of course, you will write
+wherever you stop. Mind and tell me about your studies, and
+what you see and do&mdash;above all things take care of your
+health, and don't catch fever by working in the sun, &amp;c.
+Charles says he can't think where your hat box can be&mdash;he is
+in ecstasies with your old trousers, which have come out
+brand <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_262" id="PageV1_262">[262]</a></span>new and a capital fit! You would be quite envious if
+you could see them.</p>
+
+<p>Good-bye, best of Fays. I shall send this letter off and write
+another in a few days. I will mark <i>outside</i> the dates of my
+letters (and <span class="sc">pray</span>, mind and always date yours&mdash;you
+never do) so that you will know which to open first. God bless
+you, you dear <i>good</i> fellow.&mdash;Love your fond old,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Babbo.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">London</span>, <i>Thursday, August 28</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Fay</span>,&mdash;One line to say that this afternoon
+your letter of Sunday with the enclosed for Harrison reached
+me. It is a relief to me that you <i>got</i> the letters, and I
+think your answer does very well, but as it had no cover, and
+that I was obliged to send it in my own name to Harrison, I
+added, what <i>you</i> had better have done, that if necessary you
+could easily come over the beginning of November, and I rather
+hope they will accept that offer, as by that time the Court
+will have returned from Scotland (perhaps to Windsor though),
+and you might have a chance of being brought into contact with
+Albert, and you would jabber good German to him and win his
+heart, which <i>may</i> be valuable to you. With regard to Watts,
+he said he should be too happy to do <i>anything</i> for you, but
+he wished you to be thrown with Albert. He (Watts) is better
+and has left Malvern. I got yesterday the <i>Manchester
+Guardian</i>, with a sort of preliminary list of the pictures
+which are to be opened to the private view to-morrow. They
+were not then all hung, but they mention the "Romeo" as in a
+conspicuous place&mdash;a sombre picture, but the Romeo and Juliet
+finely conceived&mdash;or something to that effect. You shall hear
+all about it. I have got little Ffrench till Saturday, when I
+go to Hatchford and he home. I expect Adelaide to-morrow&mdash;we
+dine with her, and I <i>fear</i> shall have &mdash;&mdash;, which will be a
+potent bore. There is of course no other news. Penelope
+Bentinck has produced a huge boy, and is quite well. John
+Leslie's marriage went off without any tears, and he made a
+very good "neat and appropriate."</p>
+
+<p>God bless you, my very dear boy&mdash;you are not so fond of me as
+I am of you&mdash;be sure of it. Take care of yourself, and write
+to and love your old</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Babbino.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_263" id="PageV1_263">[263]</a></span>Tell me all about your studies, as they interest me, and don't
+forget to put me up to some pretty cheap gilt-moulding for my
+frame.</p>
+
+<p>Adelaide was pleased and touched at your seeing about her
+pictures. Fay, she is devotedly attached to you&mdash;you may be
+sure of it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Hatchford</span>, <i>September 9</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dearest Fay</span>,&mdash;I am going to begin a letter to you
+which I can only send when I know where to direct to you, for
+after Venice (from whence I have not heard from you yet) you
+have given me no address. I hope to hear that you got all mine
+sent to that place, and particularly the one enclosing a copy
+of Phipps' letter to me in which he tells me it is the Queen's
+wish that you come over here on your return to Paris. I got
+your letter from Meran on Thursday last, and I sent it off to
+Adelaide by that post, enjoining her to let me have it back by
+the next, since which I have never had a line from her, and at
+last grew so alarmed that I wrote to Anne to ask what had
+happened, and that I could not but fear Ad. had been sent for
+to Edward<a name="FNanchor_62_62" id="FNanchor_62_62"></a><a href="#Footnote_62_62" class="fnanchor">[62]</a> in Ireland. To this letter I got <i>no</i> reply, and
+I have been in great suspense and anxiety till this morning,
+when sure enough my surmise proved correct, and I got a few
+lines from Adelaide herself from Muckross, whither she arrived
+on Saturday, having left Warnford the day before, they having
+sent for her. She has, I do not doubt, written to you and told
+you that she found him neither dead or dying, but in a low,
+bilious fever, having been in bed a week, and the doctor not
+giving much hope of a speedy recovery. She, however, intends
+to move him as soon as it is possible, but it may be some time
+first, and of course their plans are more or less uncertain,
+and mine of meeting them in London at an end, as I shall be
+gone to Worsley before they can be in town. It is, however, a
+mercy that this illness is not even more serious than it is.
+When I heard his account of himself as I passed through
+London, I wondered that she was not more alarmed, but I did
+not tell her how serious the case appeared to me, and as it
+has proved; and when I did not hear from her, I immediately
+guessed what had occurred. She found <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_264" id="PageV1_264">[264]</a></span>Fordwich there, and says
+the place appeared a Paradise, and now that she is easy about
+Edward, perhaps she won't mind spending the time there instead
+of Warnford. Only, the boy was to go to Eton on the 11th, and
+I don't know how they will manage that. I have written to Ad.
+to-day, and have sent her a volume I received this morning
+from Fanny Kemble. The letter would interest you, but is too
+bulky to send. She speaks of you in a way that pleases me and
+would gratify your vanity in every respect, and describes you
+as one of the most interesting people she ever met, and hopes
+that your art may be an unceasing source of fame, profit, and
+delight to you. I will keep the letter and show it to you when
+I have the happiness of seeing you, my dear Fay. When Sarah
+leaves her she is to begin reading in the West, and I suspect
+that will answer better to her than the girl's society! Dear
+Fay, my sister writes to me that she and Brackley went into
+Manchester to see your pictures. I will transcribe what she
+says: "They are pretty well placed, but the 'Romeo' is so dark
+a picture it is difficult to see, and the lighting of the
+gallery has something of the defect of that at B. House. The
+'Pan' and 'Venus' seem to me to be very good pictures. <i>B.
+considers them improper.</i> I like the 'Pan' the best. There are
+not many good pictures in the Exhibition." To this I replied
+that I was much diverted by Brackley's prudishness, but that
+if such personages were to be painted, it was not possible to
+clothe them in crinoline or in green gauze drawers such as
+Bomba imposed upon his Ballerina. It makes me so sick, all
+that cant about impropriety, but there is so much of it as to
+make the sale of "nude figures" very improbable, and therefore
+I hope you will turn your thoughts entirely to well-covered
+limbs, and paint no more <i>Venuses</i> for some time to come. I
+trust you will devote all your energies to the Romeo, Dalilah
+and Syren, and if you have any spare time, that you will do
+our Friar Lawrence. I forget if I told you that Miss Kaye saw
+your portrait of yourself, and says it is quite a <i>libel</i> on
+your physiognomy. Why <i>did</i> you make yourself so pinched and
+sad-looking, Fay?</p>
+
+<p><i>September 12.</i>&mdash;Your letter from Venice of 5th reached me
+this morning. I feel sure you will not have got my long
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_265" id="PageV1_265">[265]</a></span>letter directed there on the 5th and enclosing Phipps' answer,
+so I had better transcribe it: "It would be very desirable
+that Mr. L. should run over from Paris when there to see
+exactly what is the damage done to his picture, and I will
+have nothing done to it in the meantime, but care shall be
+taken that the injury shall not be increased. Mr. L. does not
+state in his letter where an answer would reach him, and if
+you are in communication with him perhaps you would have the
+kindness to mention to him what Her Majesty's wishes on this
+subject are." So, you see, my dear boy, you <i>must</i> come, and
+perhaps it may not be time so wasted, as I shall try and find
+out when the Queen comes back from Scotland, so that if
+possible you may time your arrival accordingly. The P. of
+Wales is going to see the manufactories at Manchester, and
+they are going to ask him to Worsley, I believe. Only fancy
+those brutes at Warnford never sending me Adelaide's letter
+written to me the morning of her hastening off to Ireland a
+week ago until to-day! Too bad. She wrote in great distress of
+mind and evidently hardly expected to find Edward<a name="FNanchor_63_63" id="FNanchor_63_63"></a><a href="#Footnote_63_63" class="fnanchor">[63]</a> alive,
+as she did not believe the telegraph which said he was better,
+thinking that if it were so they would not have sent for her.
+You dear boy, I am so glad you enjoy your Venice&mdash;which is all
+very pretty no doubt, but I hate stinks and fleas&mdash;and they
+abound there. I hate wobbling in a boat and walking in dirty
+alleys, so I don't envy you at all. Have you fallen in with
+either of the new married couples, Wilson or Leslie? Fay, it
+is well you should come and see me, for I don't think there is
+much chance of my going to Paris. The Hollands are going to
+Naples, as the wall of their house at Paris has been damaged
+by the pulling down of the next house and has to be rebuilt,
+and I shall have no money to pay for lodging and food. There
+are long lists of the pictures the Queen and others are to
+send to the great Manchester Exhibition next year&mdash;I think
+twenty at least from the Royal Galleries, and Ellesmere sends
+eight or ten. I see that Eastlake is at Rome, so you may fall
+in with him there. I conclude my next letter must be directed
+there. You should recollect to give your address <i>d'avance</i>.
+The second post has just <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_266" id="PageV1_266">[266]</a></span>brought me the enclosed, which, as
+she says she don't write to you, I send (though it will cost a
+fortune), knowing that it will gladden your eyes to see her
+hand. She loves you dearly as I do, Fay! Your Meran letters
+are very pretty, and I wish I could see that place. Good-bye,
+and God bless you. We have lovely weather&mdash;not one bad day
+since I have been here. Go and see the Villa Salviate. What
+have you done with Steinle&mdash;what heard of Gamba? Love.&mdash;Your
+old loving father,</p>
+
+<p class="right">H.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Enclosed is one from Mrs. Sartoris to Mr. Greville, which he sends on
+to Leighton.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Muckross, Killarney.</span></p>
+
+<p>Many thanks. I got a letter too this morning, which I send you
+with your own&mdash;let me have mine back. E. (Edward Sartoris) is
+certainly a little better, thank God&mdash;still in bed though. He
+hopes perhaps to get off next Saturday&mdash;this appears to me
+nothing short of impossible&mdash;Monday I should think the very
+soonest for such a move. This place is divinely beautiful, I
+see, but I go out very little, and what with the shock I
+received before starting, and the fatigue of my rapid journey,
+and the anxiety about him, I feel incapable of receiving any
+<i>impression</i> from the place. I seem to acknowledge its beauty,
+but I cannot get even a momentary enjoyment out of it at
+present. The <i>hosts</i> are very kind. Herbert always was an
+excellent fellow. I cannot write to Fay, for with all the
+delay caused by his letter having had to follow me here, my
+answer would no longer catch him at Venice, and I do not know
+where he next pitches his tent. Dear boy! he seems very
+happy&mdash;God bless him and keep him so!</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Muckross</span>, <i>Tuesday, 9th</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Hatchford</span>, <i>September 22</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Fay</span>,&mdash;The enclosed reached me to-day having
+first been sent to Ebury Street.<a name="FNanchor_64_64" id="FNanchor_64_64"></a><a href="#Footnote_64_64" class="fnanchor">[64]</a> I think it best to send
+it to you that you may reflect on what you will do, though it
+seems to me that with the exception of the "Cimabue" you have
+<i>no</i> picture you could send to this Exhibition. If you wish to
+be represented by <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_267" id="PageV1_267">[267]</a></span>that work, I conclude you would have to ask
+permission of the Queen to send it there, and this should be
+done through "The Honourable Colonel Phipps," or Mr. Harrison,
+his secretary. This permission would of course be granted at
+once. When Charles told me in my bed this morning that a
+letter had come for you from Manchester, I fondly hoped it was
+to announce sale of one or other of your pictures! I wrote
+yesterday, and have nothing more to say to-day but that I am
+better, though still seedy. We have got the equinoctial gales
+with rain. I fancy we, France and England, are going to recall
+our missions from Naples, if Bomba don't give in, and send
+squadrons of ships. But what then? I don't suppose we mean to
+bombard the town. But he will do <i>just enough</i> to give us a
+pretence for holding our hand, and matters will then resume
+their ordinary course, and the K. of the two Sicilies be
+governed just as it was before. Our position is a very
+ticklish one in this affair. I long to hear whether you saw
+Pasta&mdash;and anything more than the waddle, the red face and
+beard. Mind and answer my questions. I should tell you that
+amongst your papers that came from Manchester they sent P.
+Albert's letter to Ellesmere, and the long prospectus too, but
+there is no use in forwarding it to you&mdash;this will already
+cost a fortune, but I think it best to send it. When is it you
+expect to be here? How long do you stay at home?&mdash;Addio,
+carissimo,</p>
+
+<p class="right">H.G.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">London</span>, <i>September 29</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dearest Fay</span>,&mdash;Here I am, sleeping in London on my
+way to Worsley to-morrow morning, and I have got my M&egrave;re
+Augusta occupying your room; the first <i>female</i> I have ever
+housed or fed, and it will be a rehearsal for Sister Ad. I
+have just missed her, as she went to the station as I left it,
+but I found a letter from her just returned from putting the
+boy to school; it is a bore that I missed her, as I shall not
+see her for an age. Edward has been committing all sorts of
+follies and is again confined to his room, but is better. He
+ought to come to London and consult a clever man, or he will
+be very ill, as he was once before. What a fellow you are
+never to say a word about Pasta to me! Of course Mrs. Siddons
+had a magnificent <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_268" id="PageV1_268">[268]</a></span>eye and brow&mdash;who said she had not?&mdash;and
+was a glorious actress, but I should always have preferred
+Reston. What did Pasta say of <i>her</i>? You are wrong about P.
+not being <i>powerful</i>&mdash;she was <i>tremendous</i>; her voice was one
+of immense power&mdash;almost coarse at times, but prodigious, and
+her <i>gestes</i> sublime from grace and strength. Dear Fay, I have
+measured the frame; it is twelve inches wide and fourteen
+long. Now do find me a pretty cheap cro&ucirc;te. I have seen no one
+in London but Lady Shelburne, who said there was no news. She
+disapproves, like me, of the policy with regard to Naples, and
+I think we shall find by-and-by a great reaction <i>l&agrave; dessus</i>.
+By-the-bye, when at Rome go and hear the opera Verdi has been
+composing for that place on the story of Adrienne, and tell me
+all about it. He wrote formerly such pretty melodies, and is a
+clever fellow. I don't know what Adelaide will do about going
+to Germany, but I hope give it up, as for many reasons it
+appears to me at this moment to be a foolish scheme.</p>
+
+<p>Good-night, you dear boy. I can't frank this, as it is late,
+and I don't know how, so you must pay this time. Write soon,
+and <i>answer</i> my letters.</p>
+
+<p>I don't quite understand what it is you are doing in Italy
+except amuse yourself. Is there any other &mdash;&mdash;? How long will
+it be before I see you?&mdash;Addio, caro caro, tanto tanto,</p>
+
+<p class="right">H.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>On the death of Lady Ellesmere, his sister, in answer to Leighton's
+letter of sympathy Mr. Greville writes&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Hatchford</span>, <i>Wednesday</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dearest Fay</span>,&mdash;In my affliction, I have one
+consolation&mdash;and it is such events as these that prove it&mdash;I
+am rich in friends, more so, much more than I deserve&mdash;and
+amongst them there is no one whose unselfish love I prize more
+than yours.</p>
+
+<p>Dear Fay, I <i>know</i> you feel for me, and I am grateful.</p>
+
+<p>God bless you for it.&mdash;Your affectionate</p>
+
+<p class="right">H.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>A short note to his father from Leighton announces the death of this
+dear friend in December 1872.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Athen&aelig;um Club, Pall Mall, S.W.</span>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_269" id="PageV1_269">[269]</a></span><br />
+<i>Friday</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dear Papa</span>,&mdash;I lost last night one of my oldest and
+dearest friends&mdash;Henry Greville; he died without much
+suffering, and looks this morning calm and beautiful in his
+rest. You know what I lose in him.&mdash;Your affectionate son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Among many letters of the kind, preciously preserved by those who owe
+much to Leighton, the following notes, addressed to his young friend
+"Johnny" (Mr. John Hanson Walker), may be found interesting as
+exemplifying the trouble which Leighton would take in helping young
+artists, and with what kindness, sincerity, and delicacy he tendered
+his advice and assistance. None of these letters are dated.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right sc">The Athen&aelig;um.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dear Johnny</span>,&mdash;I write one line in haste to say how
+sorry I am to hear that your health has been unsatisfactory of
+late. I earnestly trust you won't disregard your doctor's
+advice, and that you will, <i>at any sacrifice</i>, do something to
+recover strength, even though a long sea voyage were
+necessary. Health is the <i>first</i> thing. Talk it over with Miss
+Nan; if her love is as sincere as you believe, and I don't for
+a moment doubt it, she will give you the same advice.</p>
+
+<p>For myself, I begin to think my studio will never be ready. I
+have not done a stroke of work. I <i>hope</i> at the end of next
+week I shall be at it again.</p>
+
+<p>In October I am off to Rome.&mdash;Yours sincerely,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.<br />
+2 Holland Park Road,<br />
+Addison Road, Kensington.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right sc">Athen&aelig;um Club,<br />
+Pall Mall, S.W.</p>
+
+<p>Supposing a proper price were given, should you care to copy
+(for a man of position) a portrait by Sir William Beechey and
+one or two by Sir Thomas Lawrence? I am not asking you to do
+it for a moment, I merely want to know whether you would
+<i>care</i> to do the work; <i>if</i> so, please let me know what you
+would ask.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_270" id="PageV1_270">[270]</a></span>I have seen Mr. Greville to-day, and he begs me to tell you
+that the Countess Grey will be glad if you can undertake for
+her, for the sum of <i>&pound;10</i>, a copy of a portrait of Lady
+Charlotte Greville. The picture is now with the Countess of
+Ellesmere, Mr. Greville's sister, and shall be sent to you
+wherever you wish, if you will let me know at once. Is it to
+go to Great Castle Street? Lady Ellesmere will be extremely
+obliged if you will not keep the picture a moment longer than
+you absolutely require it to make a good copy; the portrait is
+that of her mother, and she is extremely loth to part with it,
+even for a time. Please send me a line in answer to this, and
+believe me always.</p>
+
+<p><i>Thursday.</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>The picture will be duly sent to you.</p>
+
+<p>I have another matter for your consideration: Mr. Greville
+wants to know if you can think of any good picture (Sir Joshua
+or Gainsborough would be best) that would make a good
+companion to the one he has already bought of you; if you
+could suggest anything suitable, he would give you the
+commission. I am very glad you should have encouragement, but
+I trust you will not flag in your zeal about more important
+studies.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>I send you the money from Mr. Greville for the portrait of his
+mother. I am very glad you should have this new commission,
+but you must thank <i>him, not me</i>, for it was entirely his idea
+and desire. He is indeed one of the kindest and best men
+possible. I look on him myself as a second father.</p>
+
+<p>To save time, I shall make arrangements for you to work in my
+studio on the <i>4 first</i> days of January, if you can manage it.
+I shall be out of town, and you will have the place all to
+yourself.</p>
+
+<p>I wish you a happy Xmas and New Year, and remain.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right sc">Warnford Court,<br />
+Bishops Waltham.</p>
+
+<p>You will forgive me, I am sure, for not writing to you to
+thank you for your letter, received some weeks back; but the
+fact is I have been so very busy as to make writing a matter
+of very great difficulty. I heard from your father not long
+ago that you have been <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_271" id="PageV1_271">[271]</a></span>very fortunate in getting capital
+commissions for portraits where you have been staying. I am
+very glad indeed to hear it, and trust sincerely that you feel
+you are progressing as steadily in proficiency as in
+prosperity. To the commissions you have had in the country, I
+have one to add here. Mr. Henry Greville wishes you to paint
+for him a copy of a head of a relation of his&mdash;I believe, of
+poor Lady Ellesmere, his sister, whose recent death has been
+such a terrible grief to him. You will, I am sure, be glad to
+undertake this painting, even though it may not in itself be
+very interesting. The size is a sort of oval kit-cat, not
+large. He proposes to offer you ten pounds for it.</p>
+
+<p>How is Miss Nan? I hope you have good accounts of her, and
+that all goes smoothly between you.</p>
+
+<p>I send this to Bath to be forwarded, as I don't know your
+present whereabouts.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p><span class="sc">Dear Johnny</span>,&mdash;I am just off to Paris, and write one
+line in hot haste to thank you for yours, and to say that I am
+delighted to hear you are conscious of progress. Come back as
+soon as you can <i>conveniently</i>, please, because Mr. Greville
+has <i>borrowed</i> Lady Ellesmere's portrait for you to copy, and
+wants to return it as soon as possible to the Duke of
+Devonshire.</p>
+
+<p>Come and see me when you return, and believe me, with kind
+regards to Miss Nan,&mdash;Yours always,</p>
+
+<p class="right">F.L.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right sc">2 Holland Park Road,<br />
+Kensington, W.</p>
+
+<p>I want very much, before they have quite disappeared, to get
+for myself and for a friend a couple of old-fashioned country
+bumpkins' smocks; you know the sort of thing. Do you chance to
+know any one in any of the villages about Bath who could pick
+up a couple? I should like a brown one (<i>NOT a white Sunday
+one</i>) and a green one, and that they should <i>not</i> be
+washed&mdash;well worn, untidy things. If you saw your way to
+getting me such garments, I should be very grateful, but don't
+<i>trouble</i> about it.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>If you have leisure to think of anything but Miss Nan just at
+present, will you do me a favour? Will you get for me a
+peasant's <i>wide-awake</i>, in shape like the one I painted in
+your <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_272" id="PageV1_272">[272]</a></span>portrait, only really <i>old</i> and <i>soiled</i> and <i>stained</i>;
+bought, in fact, if possible, off a bumpkin's head? Can you do
+this for me, and either send it or bring it if you are about
+to return shortly? I will pay you when we meet.</p>
+
+<p>When is the wedding to be? or is it already over? I wish you
+all happiness and prosperity, and remain with kind
+remembrances to Miss (or Mrs.) Nan,&mdash;Yours truly,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>I hope you can read this; my hands are so cold I can scarcely
+hold the pen.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>Mr. Greville has very kindly desired me to give you another
+commission, this time a larger one. He wants you to copy from
+my large picture the group of women carrying flowers, the size
+of the original.<a name="FNanchor_65_65" id="FNanchor_65_65"></a><a href="#Footnote_65_65" class="fnanchor">[65]</a> He offers you &pound;25 for it. If you are
+disposed, as I have no doubt you will be, I would, if I were
+you, write him a line of thanks for the kind interest he shows
+in you. In great haste.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>One line in a great hurry to say that I am delighted to hear
+that you have got in to the life school at the Royal Academy,
+and to thank you for the photo., which is capital.</p>
+
+<p>I have not touched my Venus since you went away. I have been a
+good deal out of town myself, and have spent most of my time
+in finishing the two large decorative figures, which have now
+gone home. I am sorry you did not see them.</p>
+
+<p>Come as soon as you can to begin Mr. Greville's picture.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>I leave town Saturday next, and shall not see you till
+Saturday the 6th July, so I write a line to say that you will
+set to work by yourself; the maid will light you a fire and
+give you the key of the studio.</p>
+
+<p>I have written direct to Gatwell to order the canvas, or it
+would not have been ready in time. You are to paint the group
+full size. <i>Trace it</i> to get it quite accurate. Put the head
+of the centre figure, the woman in <i>yellow</i>, about four inches
+or four and <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_273" id="PageV1_273">[273]</a></span>a half inches from the top of the canvas; that
+will give you all the rest. <i>Leave out</i> the little <i>child
+sitting</i>. Go slap at the colour, vigorously but <i>NOT quick</i>.
+The slower you work, if you work with energy, the sooner you
+get through, and the better the result.</p>
+
+<p>I hope you are enjoying yourself.</p></div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep273" id="imagep273"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep273.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep273.jpg" width="60%" alt="PORTRAIT OF MRS. HANSON WALKER" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">PORTRAIT OF MRS. HANSON WALKER<br />
+By permission of Mr. Hanson Walker<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>Although I certainly think it is a pity to exhibit too soon,
+nevertheless I think that your particular situation just now
+does justify you in doing so, as long as you confine yourself
+to the Suffolk Street Gallery. I sincerely hope you may sell
+your pictures.</p>
+
+<p>With kind regards to Mrs. Nan and love to my god-child, I am,
+in haste, yours always,</p>
+
+<p class="right">F.L.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>I can't quite make out the price as written in your note, so
+to avoid mistakes I send blank cheque, which pray fill in
+yourself.</p>
+
+<p>Just off&mdash;good-bye.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>26th December.</i></p>
+
+<p>I have got your note and enclose little cheque. This is as it
+should be. It is absurd that because I am an old friend, you
+should be a loser by me in time and pocket.</p>
+
+<p>With a merry Xmas and New Year to you and Nan, I remain, in
+haste, yours sincerely,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">2 Holland Park Road</span>, <i>Monday</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Many thanks for your letter. I have had absolutely no time to
+answer sooner, and now can only do so most briefly. I am
+extremely glad to hear of the success of your labours at
+Dorchester, and think you are very right to take for yourself
+and "Mrs. Nan" a refreshing little holiday on the hills.</p>
+
+<p>I will begin the portrait next week,<a name="FNanchor_66_66" id="FNanchor_66_66"></a><a href="#Footnote_66_66" class="fnanchor">[66]</a> when you return, at
+which time also I hope to show you some under-painted work
+which I think may interest you. I shall certainly call and see
+your screen. It will no doubt be a very useful bit of
+"property" to you.</p>
+
+<p>Remember me very kindly to your wife.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p><span class="sc">My dear Johnny</span>,&mdash;I am much obliged to you for your<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_274" id="PageV1_274">[274]</a></span>
+letter, telling me of your doings in the country. I think you
+will do wisely in going to the Isle of Wight to paint
+landscape; the danger of copying the old masters too
+exclusively, as you have been forced to do lately, is that one
+is apt to fall into mannerism by trying to see Nature with the
+eyes of others; painting landscape direct from Nature is the
+best possible corrective against this tendency.</p>
+
+<p>I shall be glad to see you and what you have done on your
+return, if you are here before the 20th or 22nd August; if
+not, we shall meet in October, when I return from the East.</p>
+
+<p>I am working away at my picture, which will be under-painted
+before I leave England.</p>
+
+<p>I wish you joy of your summer trip, and remain, yours very
+truly,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>6th September.</i></p>
+
+<p>I have just got your letter, and scribble a line in haste (for
+I am very busy) to say that you are wholly at liberty to do
+whatever you choose with Nan's picture, and that I am glad for
+your sake that people like it. I am also much pleased to hear
+that you have an interesting portrait on the easel, in which
+you see progress and improvement in the matter of breadth and
+light and subordination of half tints; nothing is more
+important in painting; I think that after accuracy and
+refinement of form, it is the quality you should most strive
+for. I am myself tolerably well, but not by any means
+brilliantly. I have got to work at a few small heads, which
+you will see before long.</p>
+
+<p>In haste, with love to Nan and the children.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Lynton</span>, <i>Saturday</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I have just received your note, and hear with sincere regret
+that you have not been prospering lately in your affairs. I am
+in great difficulty as to what I can do for you in the matter
+of the Curatorship. If it were only a question of testifying
+to your character, zeal, industry, &amp;c. &amp;c., I should have real
+pleasure in giving you that testimony in the highest and
+fullest degree. But, my dear Johnny, if I am not very much
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_275" id="PageV1_275">[275]</a></span>mistaken, the Curator is expected to be able when required to
+<i>advise and direct the pupils</i>, and I cannot in candour
+conceal from you that your age and experience do not appear to
+me yet to qualify you for that part of the duties. If it were
+not so, why does the candidate send in some of his works for
+inspection? You must not be angry with me, Johnny; you know I
+have always spoken the plain truth to you, and am always ready
+and desirous to help you when it is in my power. I should be
+only too glad to think of your obtaining some post that should
+relieve you from all immediate pecuniary care. Give my love to
+your wife and children, and believe me always, yours most
+sincerely,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p><i>P.S.</i>&mdash;I shall be back on Wednesday or Thursday.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Sunday.</i></p>
+
+<p>In case any alteration should have been made in the
+arrangements of the Schools during my absence, and that
+<i>teaching</i> is not expected as part of the duties of a curator,
+I send you a letter to the Council, as I should be sorry you
+lost any fair chance by my absence.</p>
+
+<p>You heard from me no doubt yesterday.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Care of</i> <span class="sc">Mrs. Walker</span>,<br />
+<span class="sc">Nealinmore, Glen Columbkille</span>,<br />
+<span class="sc">Co. Donegal</span>.<br />
+<i>15th.</i></p>
+
+<p>I have got your note, in regard to which I feel some little
+embarrassment. I am, as you know, always pleased when it is in
+my power to be of any use to you, and I should therefore wish
+to help you in this matter concerning which you write. I own,
+however, to having some hesitation in asking this favour of
+Mr. Hodgson, because I fear that the granting of it would be a
+source of a good deal of inconvenience to him, and he might,
+out of his old friendship, be put in an awkward position; he
+would be equally loth to say "yes" or "no." The picture hangs
+in his dining-room, <i>and cannot possibly be moved</i>. The copy
+would be a lengthy affair, for there is an enormous amount of
+work in the group you speak of, and you would <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_276" id="PageV1_276">[276]</a></span>have,
+therefore, to be established for a long time in a room which
+is in daily use by the family. I do not at all say that he
+might not grant the favour you ask, but I own I feel that <i>I</i>
+cannot, discreetly, ask it of him. I am sure you will not
+misinterpret my declining, and I shall be very sincerely glad
+if you yourself succeed in your direct appeal.</p>
+
+<p>I trust you and yours are thriving, and that you have not
+suffered lately from your leg.</p>
+
+<p>This is a wild, wind-swept corner of Ireland in which I am
+staying, and abounding in matter for studying, especially rock
+forms, but the inconstancy of the weather puts sketching
+almost out of the question.</p>
+
+<p>This is a matter of comparative indifference to me, as I came
+here purposely for rest, and not for work.</p>
+
+<p>Give my love to Nan and the chicks.&mdash;Sincerely yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>Do you know of any one who would do a life-size <i>copy</i> of a
+portrait of the Queen in robes for the sum of <i>&pound;100</i>? I have
+been asked to inquire. It is, I believe, for Chelsea Hospital.
+In former days it might have been worth <i>your</i> while; now it
+no longer is, it would not pay you; but you perhaps know of
+some less prosperous artist who would undertake it, and who
+would do it <i>well</i>&mdash;for of course that is expected.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">2 Holland Park Road,<br />
+Kensington, W.</span><br />
+(<i>Postmark, Mar. 9. 82.</i>)</p>
+
+<p>I am absolutely <i>ashamed</i> to rob you, but you offer me the
+drawing so kindly that I can't possibly refuse it; I am
+delighted with it, only you must let me give you a little
+drawing some day in return. With very best thanks.</p></div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep276a" id="imagep276a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep276a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep276a.jpg" width="45%" alt="STUDY OF GROUP FOR CEILING IN MUSIC ROOM" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY OF GROUP FOR CEILING IN MUSIC ROOM<br />
+Executed for Mr. Marquand, New York, 1886<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep276b" id="imagep276b"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep276b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep276b.jpg" width="45%" alt="FIRST SKETCH OF GROUP FOR MR. MARQUAND'S CEILING" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">FIRST SKETCH OF GROUP FOR MR. MARQUAND'S CEILING IN MUSIC ROOM, NEW YORK<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following letter was written when Mr. Hanson Walker was in
+America. In it Leighton refers to the ceiling he painted for Mr.
+Marquand (see <a href="#toi">List of Illustrations</a>):&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">2 Holland Park Road,<br />
+Kensington, W.</span>,<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_277" id="PageV1_277">[277]</a></span><br />
+<i>12th February 1887</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Johnnie</span>,&mdash;I was very glad to get your letter
+giving so very satisfactory an account of yourself and your
+doings. I had already heard of your prosperity in a general
+way from Nan, who came to see me before starting, but who told
+me also how lonely you felt. It must have been a great joy to
+you to see her again, and it will be a still greater when you
+see the (<i>fourteen?</i>) youngsters about you once more; you
+will, like everybody who crosses the water, bring back a very
+pleasant recollection of American kindness and hospitality,
+and, I am glad to think, also a good pocketful of money. I
+hope it will bring you luck here. I am glad that Mr. Marquand
+has made you welcome to his house, which I understand is very
+beautiful. I know his Vandyke well; it belonged to an
+acquaintance of mine, Lord Methuen, who has a number of
+beautiful things at Corsham. It is one of the finest I know,
+and stands quite in the front rank of Vandykes. The Turner
+also I know, a rare favourite of mine. But of the Rembrandt I
+know nothing. I am glad, too, you thought my "ceiling" looked
+well. I hope he has introduced <i>a little gold in the rafters</i>
+to <i>bind</i> the paintings to the ceiling itself. Give my love to
+Nan, and believe me, with all good wishes, sincerely yours,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>Please remember me to the Marquands and to your friends the
+Osbornes.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<hr/>
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_56_56" id="Footnote_56_56"></a><a href="#FNanchor_56_56"><span class="label">[56]</span></a> Owing to the kindness of Mr. Greville's niece and
+executor, Alice, Countess of Strafford, I am able to quote extracts
+from his letters to Leighton in this "Life." Unfortunately the letters
+from Leighton to Mr. Greville cannot be found, though, as we know,
+many were written. During his first visit to Algiers in 1857, Leighton
+wrote to his mother: "The fact is that as besides corresponding with
+you I write often to Mrs. Sartoris, and still oftener to Henry
+Greville, and having continually much the same to tell all of you, I
+often cannot remember to whom I have written what."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_57_57" id="Footnote_57_57"></a><a href="#FNanchor_57_57"><span class="label">[57]</span></a> It was when visiting his family at Bath that he first
+saw Hanson Walker, the "Johnny" of the letters and of the pictures.
+Leighton was much taken with the picturesque beauty of the boy's head,
+and made various studies from it. A pencil study he made from his head
+(see <a href="#toi">List of Illustrations</a>) he used as a study for his picture "Lieder
+ohne Worte." Having discovered that his sitter had a natural taste for
+drawing, Leighton advised "Johnny's" father to let him become an
+artist. This led to the boy being sent to learn drawing at the School
+of Art in Bath. When Leighton returned to London after it had been
+decided that "Johnny" was to study drawing, the young student received
+one day to his surprise a large case. On opening it he found to his
+delight a cast from the antique, a drawing-board, paper, charcoal,
+chalks, in fact, all the utensils wanted by a beginner wishing to work
+seriously at Art. Never to the end of his life did Leighton's interest
+in his pupil flag. Never was he too busy to do a kindness to him or
+his. Perhaps the early and somewhat romantic marriage which "Johnny"
+made with a lady for whom Leighton felt from the earliest days of the
+wedded life a very sincere regard, and the charming children who soon
+made a pretty cluster round their parents, and were always a delight
+to Leighton, cemented the friendly interest. The head of "Nan" (Mrs.
+Hanson Walker&mdash;see <a href="#toi">List of Illustrations</a>), painted as a wedding
+present to "Johnny," is one among the happiest of Leighton's
+portraits. It is broad in treatment, and fair and very pure in colour,
+and as a likeness was considered perfect.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_58_58" id="Footnote_58_58"></a><a href="#FNanchor_58_58"><span class="label">[58]</span></a> Yearly Exhibition at Manchester.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_59_59" id="Footnote_59_59"></a><a href="#FNanchor_59_59"><span class="label">[59]</span></a> This correspondence refers to the "Cimabue's Madonna" at
+Buckingham Palace. Small holes in the canvas having appeared, the
+authorities were anxious that Leighton should inspect the picture, and
+take steps to prevent further mischief.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_60_60" id="Footnote_60_60"></a><a href="#FNanchor_60_60"><span class="label">[60]</span></a> Mrs. Sartoris.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_61_61" id="Footnote_61_61"></a><a href="#FNanchor_61_61"><span class="label">[61]</span></a> In the Yearly Exhibition at Manchester, where Leighton
+sent the "Romeo," "Pan," and the "Venus."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_62_62" id="Footnote_62_62"></a><a href="#FNanchor_62_62"><span class="label">[62]</span></a> Mr. Edward Sartoris.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_63_63" id="Footnote_63_63"></a><a href="#FNanchor_63_63"><span class="label">[63]</span></a> Mr. Edward Sartoris.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_64_64" id="Footnote_64_64"></a><a href="#FNanchor_64_64"><span class="label">[64]</span></a> Papers relating to the great Manchester Exhibition held
+in 1857.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_65_65" id="Footnote_65_65"></a><a href="#FNanchor_65_65"><span class="label">[65]</span></a> "A Syracusan Bride."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_66_66" id="Footnote_66_66"></a><a href="#FNanchor_66_66"><span class="label">[66]</span></a> The portrait of Mrs. Hanson Walker, which Leighton
+painted as a wedding present for his young friend.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a><hr />
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_278" id="PageV1_278">[278]</a></span><br />
+
+<h3>CHAPTER VI<span class="totoc"><a href="#toc">ToC</a></span></h3>
+
+<h4>STEINLE AND ITALY AGAIN&mdash;FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE EAST, 1856-1858</h4>
+<br />
+
+<p>In Mr. Henry Greville's diary we find the following entry:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Thursday, July 24th, 1856.</i></p>
+
+<p>Went on Monday to Hatchford with Leighton, and passed all
+Tuesday with him and Mrs. Sartoris on St. George's Hills. The
+day was enchanting, and the Hills in their greatest beauty.</p></div>
+
+<p>Before leaving London in 1856 Leighton wrote to his mother:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">London</span>, <i>Wednesday, 1856</i>.</p>
+
+<p>As my stay in London is drawing to a close, and nobody 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 &pound;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 passport in order, and then be off
+double quick to Italy. I am longing to get to work again; I
+am <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_279" id="PageV1_279">[279]</a></span>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!</p></div>
+
+<p>From Bath he wrote to Steinle:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">9 Circus, Bath</span>,<br />
+<i>August 2, 1856</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Friend</span>,&mdash;In about ten days I expect, on
+my way to Italy, whither I go on a short student journey, to
+pass 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.</p>
+
+<p>The rest verbally&mdash;I have sadly forgotten my German.</p>
+
+<p>Hoping to meet very soon, dear master.&mdash;Think of your pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Bath. 9 Circus</span><br />
+(<i>later</i>).</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Master</span>,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>I had intended to go <i>vi&acirc;</i> Milan for the sake of quickness,
+but I will go direct through the Tyrol to Venice.</p>
+
+<p>If all goes well, I will arrive in Frankfurt on the 23rd of
+this month; does that fit in with your plans?</p>
+
+<p>How delighted I am to see you again, my good Master!</p>
+
+<p>To our speedy meeting!&mdash;Your grateful pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Leighton had felt his failure keenly, though, with his usual
+consideration, he had tried to lessen the disadvantages of it <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_280" id="PageV1_280">[280]</a></span>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&mdash;Leighton the actualist. He
+had a firm faith that in the <i>actual</i> 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:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>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&mdash;the Vatican of St. Peter, the
+Courts of St. Onofrio, the Villa Pamfili&mdash;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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_281" id="PageV1_281">[281]</a></span>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&mdash;"the sparrow among the beans" ("Triton
+among the minnows")&mdash;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,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Steinle.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>He travelled there <i>vi&acirc;</i> Frankfort to see Steinle, with whom he went
+to Meran, thence to Venice and Florence, then on to Rome.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Frankfurt, Brauseler Hof</span>,<br />
+<i>August 24</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;Being at last in Frankfurt, and
+having seen Steinle and his works, and, <i>en revanche</i>, 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 Finsterm&uuml;nz 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_282" id="PageV1_282">[282]</a></span>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&mdash;write Venice p. restante.</p>
+
+<p>God bless you, dear Mamma. Remember the boy.</p>
+
+<br />
+
+<p>I have had such a letter from Henry (Mr. Henry Greville);
+there never was anything like the tenderness of it&mdash;you would
+have been just enchanted.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Venice</span>, <i>September 6</i>.</p>
+
+<p>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 <i>a week</i>, and this
+accounts for my being rather behindhand with this letter.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>I lived <i>comme les poules</i>. 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_283" id="PageV1_283">[283]</a></span>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.</p></div>
+
+<p>Writing of his delight in being again in Italy he adds:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>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 Titian 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 <i>all</i> boats, and now I must close. I will write to you
+again from Florence, and I hope with a better pen. God bless
+you, Mammy, give my love to all from your loving boy.</p></div>
+
+<p>To his father Leighton writes:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Florence, H&ocirc;tel du Nord</span>,<br />
+<i>25th September 1856</i>.</p>
+
+<p>About my pictures<a name="FNanchor_67_67" id="FNanchor_67_67"></a><a href="#Footnote_67_67" class="fnanchor">[67]</a> I have heard (for Henry makes the
+Ellesmeres keep him <i>au courant</i>, 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 <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_284" id="PageV1_284">[284]</a></span>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 <i>must</i>
+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 <i>pro</i>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?</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Florence</span>, <i>28th September</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Friend</span>,&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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 noble
+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 gods alone know when I shall see
+them.</p>
+
+<p>On Wednesday I go to Rome, where I hope to see Rico; <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_285" id="PageV1_285">[285]</a></span>if only
+I could take <i>you</i> 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,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p><i>P.S.</i>&mdash;My stay in Rome will (alas!) only be very short, for I
+am unexpectedly obliged to go soon to London, confound
+it!&mdash;instead of a month, <i>ten</i> days! <i>Povero me!</i></p></div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep285" id="imagep285"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep285.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep285.jpg" width="70%" alt="CA' D'ORO, VENICE. WATER COLOUR" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">CA' D'ORO, VENICE. WATER COLOUR. 1856<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Florence</span>, <i>11th October 1856</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mammy</span>,&mdash;I wonder whether you are coming to
+Florence, and, if so, how long you are going to stay. I
+suppose you will go to the H&ocirc;tel du Nord as in old times&mdash;I go
+there invariably, and write now from my own particular room. I
+wrote to you last from Venice, where I spent ten days in a
+very satisfactory manner between work and <i>fl&acirc;nerie</i> of an
+artistic description&mdash;indeed I <i>fl&acirc;ned</i> this time with more
+advantage than hitherto, for I went more closely than I had
+yet done into the <i>architecture</i> of Venice, studying the
+different masters, their different styles and relative merit;
+I need not say that I found this extremely interesting. Fred
+Cockerell, a young architect friend of mine, was there with
+Villers Lister, another very nice boy, a London acquaintance
+of mine. We were a great deal together, and they accompanied
+me to Padua, where I left them doing <i>Giotto</i>, which I would
+most willingly have done myself if I had not been hard pressed
+for time. In the painting line I only made one sketch, a
+Bonifazio of the first water, which will figure very
+satisfactorily on my studio wall; it took me a good deal of
+time, and is on the whole, I think, very fair. In Florence I
+have had one or two great disappointments which have rather
+diminished my enjoyment of this loveliest place. I expected
+confidently to find both Browning and his wife and Lyons.
+Neither of them are here, the former not having yet returned
+from the North, and the latter having been called home to see
+his father, who is very ailing. I have seen the Fenzis, who
+received me with their wonted cordiality, and am going to-day
+to call on the Maquays. I am here too short a time to work,
+beyond a pencil sketch or two, and am off for dear old Rome on
+Friday <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_286" id="PageV1_286">[286]</a></span>morning as ever is. I shall stay there till I find a
+studio, which I hope won't be long, and shall then rush off to
+Cervara in the mountains to paint.</p>
+
+<p>Good-bye, Mammikins. Give my best love to all, and believe me
+your loving boy,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>In Rome Leighton received the following from his friend Mr.
+Cartwright:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Aynhoe</span>, <i>September 26, 1856</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dear Leighton</span>,&mdash;Truly was I delighted with your
+letter, so that in spite of my "nature to" I gulped my huff,
+though I was like to choke; but self-interest is a wonderful
+smoothener, and as I want you to do something for me I mean to
+behave myself. Leighton, by the squints which you shot over my
+park from your outspread umbrella, by those you are hereafter
+to shoot, by Tokay cup and venison hash&mdash;by anything you like,
+I want you to belumber yourself with some ripe <i>stone
+pinecones</i>, and a hundred cork acorns. I have found a <i>true</i>
+legitimate stone pine about forty to fifty feet high on my
+property, and as for the cork trees you have seen the one in
+my garden, and therefore, I do not see why I should not have a
+lot in the park. They can only be raised from acorns. Now,
+<i>if</i> you could take steps to get me <i>these</i> things&mdash;God! I
+don't know what I would not do for you, and how would we enjoy
+it in years to come to watch the growth of our trees. It is a
+<i>national</i> object. You may have some difficulty in getting the
+acorns and cones; Pantaleone or Erhardt might perhaps mention
+to you some gardener who would procure them. <i>You</i> know
+probably the trees would get to be called L. pines and
+Leighton oaks, which is one way to immortality if Orpheus and
+Eurydices won't help you. I wrote to Mason about the pines; by
+all means <i>make</i> him answer, the exertion will do him good, he
+<i>wants</i> exercise, and therefore don't get on with his work. My
+God! when I came in at twelve to-day he was not up!</p>
+
+<p>How I envy you at Rome when I think of it; how would I <i>enjoy</i>
+being there, and yet I can't help thinking of &mdash;&mdash;'s death at
+the same time. Remember me to little Cornhill and every Roman
+who remembers me. Write Poste Restante, Paris. I go there, I
+believe, next week, but <i>where</i> I shall be the winter &mdash;&mdash;?
+Forster <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_287" id="PageV1_287">[287]</a></span>is in the Westminster&mdash;be d&mdash;&mdash;d to it for stale wine
+that it is. As for Mason, make him write, and believe me,
+yours affectionately,</p>
+
+<p class="right">W.C.C.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome</span>, <i>October 14, 1856</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;I have delayed writing to you for a
+few days in the hope of finding a letter from you in answer to
+my last; however, as the posts here are frightfully irregular,
+and I think it very possible your answer may have been lost, I
+wait no longer. I enclose two little criticisms on my "Romeo"
+and "Venus," which will I think please Papa and you, and which
+were sent me through Mrs. Sartoris by Henry Greville.<a name="FNanchor_68_68" id="FNanchor_68_68"></a><a href="#Footnote_68_68" class="fnanchor">[68]</a>
+There is, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_288" id="PageV1_288">[288]</a></span>however, not the remotest chance of my selling them
+at Manchester, and I am considering where to show them next. I
+am trying here in Rome (where I shall stay till the end of
+October) <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_289" id="PageV1_289">[289]</a></span>to make up by rigid economy for the expense
+inevitably incurred by living at inns all the way here. I
+can't tell you what a delight it was to me to see this dear
+old place again. Everything is so unaltered since I left it,
+that I felt on returning exactly as if I was coming home from
+a drive instead of a lengthened absence. The frescoes which I
+knew so well were as new to me again from their colossal
+grandeur, and I wished I could spend a month or so exclusively
+copying in the Sixtina. My picture, though not well <i>seen</i>, is
+not particularly badly <i>hung</i>, but it can only be seen from a
+distance, so that the expressions are almost entirely lost; it
+does not look so well as in my studio. The Pre-Raphaelites are
+very striking, full of talent and industry, but unpleasant to
+the eye. Meanwhile they have the day. Colnaghi told me that he
+<i>thought</i> he could sell "Romeo" if I made the price <i>four
+hundred</i>, and said I could do it without derogating, as it
+went through his, a dealer's, hands. I consulted Henry and
+Mrs. S., who strongly advised me to follow his advice. I have
+done so. May it bring me luck. If the remarks you quote, dear
+Mamma, are meant to apply to my relation with Mrs. Sartoris, I
+can only say, that as I have derived from her more moral
+improvement and refinement (you know it), and from her circle
+more intellectual advantage than from <i>all my other
+acquaintances</i> put together twice over, I can't join with Mrs.
+Whatshername in apprehending "a great number of
+inconveniences."</p></div>
+
+<p>In a later letter Leighton announces the sale of the "Romeo"
+picture:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>The "Romeo," which had the best place in the Exhibition, has
+been sold for &pound;400, which to me represents <i>&pound;360</i> after
+deduction of percentage. They have in a most slovenly way sold
+my picture for pounds though marked <i>guineas</i>, they want to
+know if I claimed the difference; as they have behaved without
+sufficient <i>&eacute;gard</i> about other things also, I have directed
+the secretary in England to say that I should like the error
+to be rectified, though I do <i>not</i> wish the sale to be
+cancelled on that account if it be too late. I don't want to
+miss the money of course, but I have no idea of such
+negligence on their part.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_290" id="PageV1_290">[290]</a></span>You see, dear Mamma, that my little pension to Lud has become,
+for this year at least, so easy that I have scarcely any merit
+left.</p></div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right sc">19 Queen Street, Mayfair.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;Having arrived in London, and been to
+the Palace to see my picture, I hasten both to tell you the
+result of my inspection and to answer your very kind letter to
+Paris which, like an ass that I am, I have neglected to bring
+with me. The damage to my picture is trifling and easily
+remediable, having arisen in no way from the precarious nature
+of paint or varnish, but from a faulty canvas, and probable
+rough usage in moving. I shall set all right in a few days;
+the holes or raw places are in the sky, and luckily not near
+the faces. I have not yet seen Colonel Phipps, and am waiting
+for further instructions; the Court I shall of course not see,
+as it is at Windsor.</p>
+
+<p>I don't remember whether I told you that I got an invitation
+from Manchester to exhibit next spring, and having nothing to
+send but "Cimabue," have respectfully applied to the Queen
+through Colonel Phipps to obtain it of her for that occasion.</p>
+
+<p>I am truly sorry not to see you all but as you say, I can't
+afford it; indeed, I write now partly to ask Papa to send me
+some money, the &pound;50 he gave me in the middle of August when I
+started are not only gone, but scarcely took me back to Paris,
+and but for Petre, whom I met coming back from Naples, and who
+lent me a trifle with most friendly alacrity, I should have
+been frightfully pinched; the first part of my journey being
+all travelling, and hotel life was very dear. In Rome,
+however, I lived for nothing, and sailed from Civita Vecchia
+to Marseilles "before the mast," a thing I will never do again
+if I can help it, but which enabled me just to get home to
+Paris within a few francs of the &pound;50. Meanwhile I have no
+hesitation in saying that I never spent three months more
+profitably or more agreeably. I suppose Papa kindly paid my
+last quarter as I asked him, but not having received your
+letter I don't in reality know.</p>
+
+<p>P. Delaroche is dead, I am sorry to say. Going through Paris I
+went to see Rob. Fleury, who with characteristic kindness put
+me up to several dodges in picture-restoring with a reference
+to "Cimabue"&mdash;invaluable information.</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_291" id="PageV1_291">[291]</a></span>After doing what was required to the Buckingham Palace picture,
+Leighton returned to Paris, where he wrote the following to Steinle:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">21 Rue Pigale</span>, <i>1st December</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Friend and Master</span>,&mdash;I read with real distress
+the sad news of your severe loss, but sincere and deep as is
+my sympathy, I pass on in silence, for in such an hour of
+trial there is but one comfort for you, and that not from man.</p>
+
+<p>I should no doubt have come back to you from Rome in the
+beginning of October, but I had to go to England, where I
+spent three weeks, and am consequently now just established
+again in Paris. My Italian journey afforded me in every way
+the greatest pleasure and edification, and I seem now for the
+first to have grasped the greatness of the Campagna and the
+giant loftiness of Michael Angelo; still the dear old town,
+now as ever, is quite unchanged. The good Cornelius is so
+cheerful and friendly that it is a real pleasure; he has
+finished some works which have much beauty in the design, but,
+quite in confidence, they are nevertheless a trifle "solite
+cose," and much too weakly drawn: from a man who makes claims
+to style, one expects something more of solidity. Cornelius is
+a richly and powerfully endowed man, but he does the young
+generation no good; if young people would only look at work of
+Michael Angelo's! I except the sculptor Willig, he is a famous
+fellow, and also an agreeable man. I was glad to meet Gamba
+again, but unfortunately I did not see any work of his.</p>
+
+<p>Dear Friend, in spite of all my efforts I could nowhere find
+the right garment for your composition, and learnt only after
+a long search what is properly the official dress; I learnt at
+last from the custodian of the Sixtina, who inquired from the
+head "Ceremoniere," that the cardinal in these days wears the
+Cappa Magna <i>pavonazza</i>, not the <i>red</i>.<a name="FNanchor_69_69" id="FNanchor_69_69"></a><a href="#Footnote_69_69" class="fnanchor">[69]</a> The costume
+therefore <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_292" id="PageV1_292">[292]</a></span>is: purple undergarment, <i>lace shirt</i> (rochetto),
+cappa magna of violet <i>cloth</i> (those in the <i>Charwache</i> will
+wear no <i>silk</i>), black shoes, four-cornered hood, and gloves
+with the ring; I enclose a drawing of the real confessional in
+St. Peter's Church; I hope it may be of use to you. Dear
+master, how can you possibly <i>excuse</i> yourself for closing
+your letter with a word of true and wise advice! You know that
+I owe to you, and to no one else, the whole of my serious
+education, and am proud of it.</p>
+
+<p>If you do not get the work at Cologne, it will be a downright
+infamy and a dirtiness without parallel; but I hope for the
+best.</p>
+
+<p>How I should like to see your "Marriage at Cana."</p>
+
+<p>Keep in remembrance your loving pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><i>Saturday, 9th May 1857.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My dear Friend and Master</span>,&mdash;Your letter, just
+received, has given me intense pleasure. Your constant and
+affectionate remembrance of a pupil who is under so many
+obligations to you, rejoices my heart. On this occasion,
+however, your letter was particularly welcome, because I had
+already begun to worry myself a little about your long
+silence, and was almost afraid you might imagine that I had
+not exerted myself sufficiently in the matter of your
+cardinal.</p>
+
+<p>But first of all I offer my best congratulations on the
+completion of the Cologne affair, and on the splendid field
+which is offered to you also in M&uuml;nster. At last you have work
+which is worthy of your abilities and your efforts, and will
+give them scope. With such employment I must not regret that I
+shall not have the pleasure of seeing you again in Paris. That
+I have not seen the "Marriage of Cana" is, I candidly confess,
+a source of regret to me; I know the design of the
+composition, and should have liked extremely to have seen how
+it has turned out. When shall I see one of your works again?</p>
+
+<p>What shall I tell you about myself, my dear friend? I am
+getting on with my pictures, and have now got them all three
+into a fairly forward state of <i>under</i>-painting; completion,
+however, will only be reached in the course of next winter,
+for I intend to execute them with minute care. I have
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_293" id="PageV1_293">[293]</a></span>simplified my method of painting, and foresworn all <i>tricks</i>.
+I endeavour to advance from the beginning as much as possible,
+and equally try to mix the right tint, and slowly and
+carefully to put it on the right spot, and <i>always</i> with the
+model before me; what does not exactly suit has to be adapted;
+one can derive benefit from every head. Schwind says that he
+cannot work from models, they <i>worry</i> him! a splendid teacher
+for his pupils! nature worries every one at first, but one
+must so discipline oneself that, instead of checking and
+hindering, she shall illuminate and help, and solve all
+doubts. Has Schwind, with his splendid and varied gifts, ever
+been able to model a head with a brush? Those who place the
+brush behind the pencil, under the pretence that <i>form</i> is
+before all things, make a very great mistake. Form <i>is
+certainly</i> <span class="fakesc">all</span> <i>important</i>; one cannot study it
+enough; <i>but</i> the greater part of <i>form</i> falls within the
+province of the tabooed <i>brush</i>. The everlasting hobby of
+<i>contour</i> (which belongs to the drawing material) is first the
+<i>place</i> where the <i>form</i> comes in; what, however, reveals true
+knowledge of form, is a powerful, organic, refined finish of
+modelling, full of feeling and knowledge&mdash;and that is the
+affair of the brush (<i>Pinsel</i>).</p>
+
+<p>You see I have again begun discoursing, my dear Master; you
+must excuse all this silly talk, and ascribe it to the
+pleasure I feel whenever I enjoy intercourse with you, even if
+only by letter. How much we have already talked over together!</p>
+
+<p>And now adieu, dear Friend. Rest assured that you have not
+wasted your affection on an ungrateful man, and keep always in
+remembrance&mdash;Your faithful pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>Please remember me most kindly to your wife.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know of any work of mine that has appeared in an
+illustrated paper&mdash;Louie has been dreaming.</p></div>
+
+<p>Three interesting letters to Steinle belong to the following year. In
+the second Leighton states that he is about to start for Algiers.
+After his arrival there he writes to his mother describing the place.
+Notwithstanding the difficulty he found in drawing the natives of
+Algiers, owing <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_294" id="PageV1_294">[294]</a></span>to their shyness and to their prejudices, Leighton
+succeeded while there in making drawings which rank among his very
+best; in fact, in certain qualities no others he ever drew can be said
+to equal them. To quote Mr. Pepys Cockerell (<i>Nineteenth Century</i>,
+November 1896):&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I do not believe that more perfect drawings, better defined or more
+entirely realised, than these studies of heads of Moors, camels, &amp;c.,
+were ever executed by the hand of man."</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately the paper Leighton used was of the kind which becomes
+injured by time. The brown stains which now disfigure the sheets and
+the faint tone of the pencilling make it impossible to reproduce these
+drawings with any worthy result, but some of the original sketches can
+be seen in the Leighton House Collection.</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Rome, 11 Via Della Purificazione</span>,<br />
+<i>March 3, 1857</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Master</span>,&mdash;Heartiest thanks for your kind
+lines of the 3rd of last month.</p>
+
+<p>I hear with the greatest interest that your cartoon is now
+finished, and that you expect to get to the wall next year.
+How I envy you this great work! I cannot deny that I rejoice a
+little, secretly, that you are tied down to <i>buon</i> fresco, for
+I have a passion (unfortunately an altogether unsatisfied one)
+for this material. You may be quite sure that if it is in any
+way possible for me, I shall make a little excursion to
+Cologne in order to offer my humble assistance; nothing could
+be more delightful to me.</p>
+
+<p>Some works of yours have just come to Rome; illustrations to a
+prayer-book, engraved (I believe) by Keller. When did you make
+these charming drawings? The one with the blossoming staff and
+the little Madonna is quite specially sympathetic to me. The
+things are, however, engraved without feeling or delicacy.</p>
+
+<p>With what you say about the advantage of growing older I
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_295" id="PageV1_295">[295]</a></span>quite agree, and I am in a certain respect anxious for the
+time when I shall find my <i>niveau</i>, and shall be able to work
+with more peace and equanimity. I have been for some time in a
+very painful position&mdash;I feel so humbly my incapacity even
+from afar off to approach the entrancing beauty of nature,
+that I have not the courage to embark upon any large work. For
+some time I have scarcely composed at all; partly, it is true,
+because I have no time, but partly also because I do not feel
+myself in a position to embody an idea properly. I know that
+such a condition is morbid, and hope to extricate myself from
+it in time. It arises also partly from the fact that my
+<i>individuality</i> is not yet sufficiently developed; I see it
+coming, but it takes a very long time. I know already, on the
+smallest computation, <i>what</i> I want, but I do not know <i>how</i> I
+am to accomplish it.</p>
+
+<p>I went recently to see Cornelius, who is always genial and
+charming. He is drawing on one of the Redelli for the Campo
+Santo. Rich and spirited in invention and arrangement, the
+form in <i>details</i>, however, is very badly drawn&mdash;heads that
+are unpermissible; he treats God's nature quite cavalierly. I
+saw at his house a composition by a certain W&ouml;redle (or some
+such name) of Vienna, a pupil of F&uuml;hrich, the subject taken
+from the Apocalypse: "There shall be wonders." Above, the
+Saviour, in the usual attitude, with the usual flowing
+garment; to the right and left, Mary and John, in their
+respective usual attitudes; at their feet four angels blowing
+trumpets, by Cornelius; in the background a number of comets;
+lying about in the middle and foreground, a quantity of
+figures, which have been collected from different works of
+Cornelius', strike convulsive attitudes on the floor; for the
+rest, the whole is constructed with appalling academic
+execution and lifelessness. Cornelius seemed to think it quite
+right; I consider it difficult, with reverence and love, to
+complete the head of one girl; for that reason I am not fond
+of going to him, for although personally he is extremely
+sympathetic to me, I cannot help feeling that I do not fit in
+with him, and am obliged to dissemble. But you must be quite
+weary of this chattering letter, dear Master; I will close.
+Remember me most kindly to your wife and children, and rely
+always upon the friendship of your grateful pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_296" id="PageV1_296">[296]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="right"><i>Thursday, September 3, 1857.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Friend and Master</span>,&mdash;I was, as usual, most
+delighted to receive your cordial letter of 21st August; I am
+touched by your constant friendship, but also somewhat ashamed
+that you should treat your much indebted pupil almost as an
+equal and counsellor. I have the greatest desire to see your
+second cartoon, but I am very much afraid that this year it
+will be quite impossible, for I am going on a journey in quite
+the opposite direction; I am shortly going to Africa, partly
+to make some landscape studies, but also to make acquaintance
+with that very interesting race, but <i>not</i> in order to become
+a painter of Bedouins. It was my intention, as I am starting
+immediately, not to write till I came back, in order that I
+might have something to tell you; however, the following has
+suddenly made me change my mind; the fat, affected,
+tailor-like, civil-spoken little Jew visited me recently and
+told me you want to make inquiries about wall painting, and
+that I might tell you, if I was writing, that Conture has just
+gone away. This impelled me to write immediately. Will you
+forgive me, for old friendship's sake, if I put in a word
+here, to which you need not give the smallest attention? I
+want to protest vehemently, dear Master, against all
+<i>oil</i>-painting on <i>walls</i>; and that, not because fresco
+painting has sufficed for the greatest works of the greatest
+masters, but on account of the <i>positive disadvantages</i> of
+oils. How, in effect, do the two materials stand to one
+another? Fresco is certainly the one material for monuments.
+First, because it is the most suitable for a broad, massy,
+imposing <i>form</i>, for in no material can one pursue form so
+completely <i>without losing colour</i>; secondly, because by no
+other method can one attain such masterly, earnest, quiet,
+virile effect in colour; thirdly, however, and principally,
+because fresco <i>is visible from all points alike</i>, this
+advantage is immeasurable for architectural art. What, on the
+other hand, are the advantages of oil? Only one occurs to me
+and that is quite illusory, <i>i.e.</i> you have a wider range of
+colour; but all the colours that an oil palette has in advance
+of fresco are, for fresco, superfluous if not pernicious.
+Superfluous, because the broken, fine grey tones <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_297" id="PageV1_297">[297]</a></span>which have
+such an infinite charm in easel pictures, and which counteract
+the otherwise too great brilliance of the material, are quite
+superfluous in a painting where <i>all tones</i> are dull and
+solid. Pernicious, where they would be applicable, because
+they might mar the majestic peace of the work. And then it
+should be remembered that the limited scale of the fresco
+palette, so <i>far as it extends</i>, is unsurpassable for glow and
+atmosphere and strength. Titian's frescoes at Padua in the
+Tenola St. Antonio rival his oil-paintings in colour. M.
+Angelo's "Madonna in the Last Judgment" might (for colour) be
+by Tintoretto, and many figures on this glorious wall are as
+glowing as Titian's! As regards the disadvantages of
+oil-painting, I can only say that they often blister in the
+shadows, and that one can <i>only see them from one point of
+view</i>. I know very well that fresco is exposed to damp, but
+one can, indeed one must, have one's wall examined before one
+begins to work, and if it is well dried and "drained" there is
+no danger; at the worst, one can cover one's wall with sheets
+of lead; it has been discovered that this was often done in
+Pompeii. Or one can also (there are instances) paint upon a
+specially prepared canvas away from the wall. But you know all
+this better than I. Have you forgiven me, dear Friend? I could
+not forbear from saying this, and rely upon your indulgence.</p>
+
+<p>Do not allow Schl&ouml;sser to mislead you about my work. I daub on
+steadily, but am by a very long way not contented.</p>
+
+<p>I send these lines to Frankfurt in the hope that they will be
+forwarded to you.</p>
+
+<p>I shall stay some weeks in Algiers&mdash;can I do anything for you?
+in that case send me a line. Till the <i>1st October</i> a letter
+will find me; address, Poste Restante, Algiers.</p>
+
+<p>All good luck be with you on your holidays, and may you gain
+the desired strength.</p>
+
+<p>Keep in remembrance your loving pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>21 Rue Pigalle.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Algiers</span>, <i>Friday, 18th</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;I arrived here only last Monday, as
+the little delay about the money made me lose the boat by
+which <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_298" id="PageV1_298">[298]</a></span>I intended to sail; having, however, nothing in my
+studio that was dry enough or otherwise fit to work on, I left
+Paris all the same and visited Avignon, N&icirc;mes, and Arles, most
+interesting towns which I had long desired to see. Avignon
+reminded me so vividly of certain parts of Rome that it was
+all I could do not to take a place for Civita Vecchia and
+succumb to my longing desire to see Italy once more.</p>
+
+<p>I have not the least idea (especially in this hot weather) how
+to describe to you this strange and picturesque town in which
+I have taken up my temporary quarters; everything where the
+African element has been preserved is so entirely new, so
+unlike anything that you have seen, that I see no chance of
+putting before your mind any living image of the thing. Before
+going further I may as well tell you, dearest Mammy, that
+although it is very hot I am perfectly well and have an
+enormous appetite. I walk from six to eight hours every day,
+and bathe regularly in the sea.</p>
+
+<p>Algiers occupies one horn of a most beautiful bay, thickly
+studded with villas and farms, and reminding one greatly of
+Italy. The aspect of the town, however, shows you at once, and
+from a great distance, that you are in no European land. You
+must know that oriental houses have no roofs, but are
+surmounted by terraces, that they have no windows, the rooms
+being lit from the inner court, and that they are painted
+three times a year of the purest white, so that on approaching
+Algiers, rising as it does steeply up the hillside, it looks
+from the sea and under an African sun like a pyramid of
+alabaster or marble, or, as some poet or other has said of it,
+like a swan about to spread her wings. The effect of this
+whiteness glittering out from the green and purple hills and
+hanging over a dark-blue sea is really most beautiful;
+unfortunately, however, the whole of the lower part of the
+town that runs along the port has been so completely
+Europeanized that, but for a rather pretty mosque on the
+waterside, you might fancy you were at Havre or any other
+French seaport town. As soon, however, as you get up into the
+Arab town, your illusions are not only restored but enhanced,
+for assuredly nothing could be more perfectly picturesque and
+striking than the steep, tortuous streets that climb up to
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_299" id="PageV1_299">[299]</a></span>Casbah, or fortress, at the top of the town. The upper
+storeys of the houses jut out into the street in such a manner
+that they constantly meet, forming an archway underneath, and
+yet the streets are never dark, from the dazzling whiteness of
+all the walls, which reflect the light in every direction and
+gild and brighten the darkest corners. Fancy, in the midst of
+all this gleaming white, the gorgeous effect produced by the
+varied colours of oriental costumes and complexion: the
+copper-coloured Arabs, the sallow Jews, the ebony negroes; and
+then the frequent display of every kind of fruit&mdash;crimson
+tomatoes and purple aubergines, emerald and golden melons,
+glowing oranges, luminous green grapes, and to relieve the
+blaze of ardent colour, the tender ivory tones of the
+tuberose, and the soft milk-white jessamine. I don't think a
+colourist could have a more precious lesson than seeing this
+place; you see in half-an-hour a sufficient number of fine
+harmonies to set you up for a year. Not less striking than the
+display of colour is the variety of types and costumes. Arabs
+of the desert, with their lofty bearing and ample drapery, the
+tattered, brawny Kabyles, the richly dressed Jewesses, the
+negresses, dressed in long indigo-coloured draperies, and with
+bracelets of horn round their ankles; in fact, you cannot
+imagine a greater medley than is presented by a street in the
+Arab quarter of the town. It has this drawback, that in the
+midst of such an <i>embarras de richesses</i>, I don't know how I
+shall ever be able to work; as yet I have not seen a pencil
+even, indeed I have not been off my feet since I arrived, and
+my head is in a perfect muddle. I spend next week in the
+interior of the country, and when I come back I shall have a
+fortnight in which I hope to do something. Getting anybody to
+sit here is exceedingly difficult, and costs mints. The price
+of living here is the same as Paris, but anything at all extra
+is very dear; a horse or a cab to get to some place beyond a
+walk is very expensive, and my consumption of drink (lemonade,
+coffee, &amp;c., for pure water is not wholesome here) from six in
+the morning till bedtime is something incredible. Good-bye,
+dearest Mother, I will write a longer letter next time. I have
+no news from India. Best love to all, from your most
+affectionate boy.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_300" id="PageV1_300">[300]</a></span>If you hear from Lina, <i>mind</i> you let me know, as I am most
+anxious for news.</p>
+
+<p>I am so sorry the ink is so pale. I have written over half the
+letter, but it is not much use; next time I will have darker
+ink.</p></div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep299" id="imagep299"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep299.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep299.jpg" width="40%" alt="SKETCH IN OILS. ALGIERS." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">SKETCH IN OILS. ALGIERS. 1895<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Algiers</span>, <i>Monday 29, 1857</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;Poor Lina,<a name="FNanchor_70_70" id="FNanchor_70_70"></a><a href="#Footnote_70_70" class="fnanchor">[70]</a> what a state of
+wretched suspense and terror she must live in! what a
+frightful crisis it is! God grant all may end well. Have you
+heard lately? Pray let me know whatever you can; at this
+distance I can get only the most salient facts, and am most
+eager to hear some more circumstantial account of the progress
+of affairs. Poor Sutherland, I often think of his kind grey
+eyes and manly carriage; what a harassing, anxious life he
+must lead!</p>
+
+<p>Before I go any further I must ensure saying a thing that I
+have been intending to tell for some time past, and which has
+always been driven out of my head by the more immediate
+subject of my letter. I am by no means certain that I have not
+already mentioned it; I wish to be quite certain. The fact is
+that as besides corresponding with you I write often to Mrs.
+Sartoris, and still oftener to Henry Greville, and have
+continually much the same to tell all of you, I often cannot
+remember to whom I have written what, and I am therefore
+uncertain whether I told you that Romeo and Juliet and Pan and
+Venus are by this time exciting (let us hope) the admiration
+of the citizens of America at the town of Philadelphia. It
+costs me nothing at all either to send or to fetch, and the
+percentage is ten per cent. I sent them off the end of last
+month, just before leaving Paris for Africa. Tom Taylor is on
+the committee, and I think the speculation may turn out good,
+particularly if Mrs. Kemble, who is in America now, takes an
+interest in them.</p>
+
+<p>Putting aside all question of anxiety and sorrow, I am
+delighted with my visit to Algiers. I feel that, though I have
+as yet been unable to touch a pencil, I have already taken a
+great deal of new stuff, and if I were to leave Africa with an
+empty sketch-book, I should still return to my easel improved
+in knowledge <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_301" id="PageV1_301">[301]</a></span>of form and combination of colours. Still it is
+a great mortification to me to see such fine types around me
+without any means of getting them to sit, an operation to
+which they have an insuperable objection; if it were not
+vexatious, it would be quite amusing to see how they slink
+away when they perceive you are trying to sketch them.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, one of my great desires was to see if possible a
+Moorish <i>int&eacute;rieur</i>; and in this, though it is difficult to
+achieve, I have been very fortunate, through the
+instrumentality of a young native, with whom I became
+accidentally acquainted. I have made the acquaintance of one
+Achmet, son of Ali Pasha, a decayed native gentleman, now
+holding office in the French customs, but once very well to do
+in the world. I have been twice to his house, which I may as
+well describe to you, as it is a type of all Moorish houses in
+this part of the world. The whole of the centre of the
+building is taken up by a little <i>cortile</i>, open to the sky
+and surrounded by two storeys of arcades of a graceful shape,
+on to which the rooms open as in Greek houses. These arcades
+are painted pure white, and are relieved by fillets of
+coloured porcelain tiles that have a most original and
+charming effect; the first-floor gallery is closed in by a
+breast-high balustrade, elegantly carved and painted blue or
+green; the top of the house is invariably an open terrace,
+adorned with flowers and shrubs. The rooms, I said, open on
+the corridors and have no windows (except little peeping
+holes) on to the street; they are consequently always wrapped
+in a sort of clear, cool, reflected twilight that is
+inexpressibly delightful and soothing in hot, glaring weather.
+Each room takes up one side of the house, and is therefore a
+long narrow strip; immediately opposite the door is an alcove,
+containing a raised, handsomely cushioned and carpeted divan,
+and ornamented invariably with three florid gilt
+looking-glasses. At the foot of the raised divan is another
+lower one for those who like low seats; other such divans run
+along the wall, and a few highly wrought, embossed chests and
+other oriental articles of furniture complete the decoration
+of the room. In such a room Achmet Oulid received us, putting
+before us delicious hot coffee in tiny cups with filagree
+stands, a delightful kind of peach jam, and the pipe of peace.
+You would have laughed to see your <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_302" id="PageV1_302">[302]</a></span>son lolling on a Turkey
+carpet and puffing away at a long pipe. Our host has the
+dearest little daughter, ten years old, whom by a great
+stretch of courtesy we were allowed to see. By-the-bye, nearly
+all Arab children are lovely, and look great darlings in their
+Turkish dress.</p>
+
+<p>My paper is coming to an end and the boat does not wait, so I
+close. I shall write you another letter before I leave this
+and tell you more of what I have done and seen.</p>
+
+<p>Good-bye, dearest Mammy.</p></div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep301" id="imagep301"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep301.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep301.jpg" width="40%" alt="SKETCH IN OILS. ALGIERS." /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">SKETCH IN OILS. ALGIERS. 1895<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Leighton refers to this visit in a letter to Mrs. Mark Pattison
+(1879), who was about to write an account of his art. "This visit made
+a deep impression on me; I have loved 'The East,' as it is called,
+ever since. By-the-bye, I drew here my (almost) only large
+water-colour drawing 'A Negro Festival' (the picture Leighton always
+referred to as 'The Niggers'), which was thought very well of by my
+friends."</p>
+
+<p>To his sister in India he wrote:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p>Since I last wrote I have spent a month or six weeks in
+Algeria, and have opened an acquaintance with the East which I
+hope to keep up, not only from the pleasure but from the
+instruction I have derived from even a short visit. My next
+journey, however, will be to the old, original cradle of
+Western Art&mdash;to Egypt, which country, as I shall visit it
+under widely different circumstances from what you did, poor
+dear, and I trust in much better health, will of course strike
+me in a very different manner. There are many things in the
+Arab quarter in Algiers which will probably stand comparison
+with Cairo, but besides that, Egypt has far more physiognomy
+as a country than the coast of Algeria. I am anxious to study
+the Egyptian type, which is truly grand and wonderful.
+However, these are plans for a tolerably remote day, as I
+shall spend my next winter in my dear, dear old Rome, to which
+I am attached beyond measure; indeed, Italy altogether has a
+hold on my heart that no other country ever can have (except,
+of course, my own); and although, as I just now said, I was
+most delighted with Africa, <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_303" id="PageV1_303">[303]</a></span>and have not a moment to look
+back to that was not agreeable, yet there is an intimate
+little corner in my affections into which it could never
+penetrate. If I am as faithful to my wife as I am to the
+places I love, I shall do very well. What the first impression
+of an Eastern country is, you already know by experience as
+far as the mere aspect goes, but to understand my sensations
+you must translate your own into a far brighter key. In my
+case everything was for me: a decent passage, a glorious day,
+a light heart, and a firm determination to enjoy myself; to
+this add that more rapid apprehension of what is beautiful
+which belongs to an artist's eye, and is the natural
+consequence of the constant exercise and cultivation of that
+faculty.</p>
+
+<p>I saw in Algiers many things that interested me, very much <i>du
+point de vue m&oelig;urs f&ecirc;tes</i>, with strange music on queer
+instruments, odd dances, odder singing. The music of the Moors
+is altogether very strange; it is monotonous in the extreme,
+fitful, and sometimes apparently without any kind of shape,
+and yet there is something very characteristic and almost
+attaching about it. This applies only to instrumental music,
+for as for the voice, they seem to consider it only as a
+shriller instrument, using always at full pitch, with neck
+outstretched and eyes half shut, always from the throat and
+always higher than they can go. It is very strange that a
+nation which attained once so high a pitch of civilisation,
+should either never have known or have entirely forgotten that
+the human voice is capable of inflection, and what an
+all-powerful vehicle it may be made of every passionate
+sentiment or soothing influence. However, much the same thing
+is noticeable in the peasants near Rome, whose songs consist
+(within a definite shape) of long-sustained chest notes that
+are peculiar in the extreme, and though often harsh seem to be
+wonderfully in harmony with the long unbroken lines of the
+Campagna.</p>
+
+<p><i>&Agrave; propos</i> of chanting, I saw a very striking thing one day in
+Algiers, in the shape of a Rhapsodist, who recited, with an
+uncouth instrumental accompaniment, a long string of strophes
+describing (I am told) the life and deeds of some hero; it was
+exactly what a recital of the Homeric poems must have been
+amongst the early Greeks. The Homer stood up in the midst of a
+motley and most picturesque group of breathless listeners, and
+chanted, with a sort <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_304" id="PageV1_304">[304]</a></span>of animated monotony, verses of about
+two lines each, heightening the colour of his tale by
+gesticulations. After each strophe the music struck in,
+consisting of two queerly shaped tambours and a shrill flute.
+After the performance, or rather, during the pauses, money was
+collected in the tambourines. Homer (if he ever lived) no
+doubt did the same.</p></div>
+
+<p>On his return to Paris Leighton wrote to Steinle:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Paris</span>, <i>October 22, 1857</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">My very dear Friend</span>,&mdash;Since I know your industry
+better than any one else, and also know that at this moment
+you are quite particularly busy, I cannot be surprised that
+you have not answered my letter of last month; however, some
+warm expressions slipped from me in that letter which you may
+perhaps have taken amiss; lest this should be indeed the case,
+I hasten, my dear Master, to make you an ample apology and to
+beg you not to take amiss what I may have said too hastily;
+but if it is not so, do send me a short note that my doubt may
+be solved; for it is an excessively painful idea to me that a
+single word from my mouth should have displeased you.</p>
+
+<p>I have just come back from Africa, where I have spent some
+weeks with extreme pleasure, and, I believe, not without great
+benefit; indeed, I might say that an artist cannot perfect his
+sense of form so well anywhere as in the East; the types of
+characteristic stamp which meet one's eye at every step are a
+wonder to see, and of the simple grandeur of the costumes one
+can form no previous conception&mdash;one sees real Michael Angelos
+running about the streets.</p>
+
+<p>I have done little or almost nothing, for one cannot possibly
+induce the Arabs to sit; however, I believe I have learnt a
+great deal by my observations; I have already made a
+resolution to become acquainted with the Egyptian race in the
+near future. But now I must see to it that I produce something
+this winter, for time goes bye with giant strides, and will
+not be called back again.</p>
+
+<p>And you, my dear friend? what are you working at now? How <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_305" id="PageV1_305">[305]</a></span>I
+should like to see your second cartoon! but unfortunately that
+is one of the impossibilities. What has happened about the
+church you were to paint? Has anything been settled? Once more
+I beg you to write me a few lines to assure me that you are
+not angry at my indiscretion.</p>
+
+<p>Please remember me most kindly to your wife. And keep in
+kindly remembrance, your grateful pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>And again:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><i>Translation.</i>]</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Paris, 21 Rue Pigalle</span>,<br />
+<i>November 2, 1857</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Friend and Master</span>,&mdash;All my best thanks for your
+kind letter, and for the enclosed photograph of your splendid
+cartoon; there is no need for me to tell you how greatly this
+has rejoiced and delighted me; by now you know that beforehand
+regarding every work of Steinle's (Steinleischen Arbeit), and
+in no work more than in this do I recognise the fulness and
+the brilliance of your fancy; meanwhile (as is only human) my
+joy is a trifle damped by the overwhelming desire to know the
+complete composition, and then to see the original itself. How
+glad I am that at last you have a worthy task!</p>
+
+<p>It was a great relief to me to find that you did not take
+amiss what I wrote about wall painting, and that you quite
+understood that I could only become so wrathful regarding a
+matter which interests me in the highest degree. I wish with
+all my heart that you may discover something which will fill
+all requirements, while at the same time, as a bigoted
+frescoist, I shake my head a little at your heresy. You will
+certainly find me dreadfully stiff-necked, dear Friend! That
+is because lately I have seen fresco painting much nearer, and
+have compared it with oil painting directly beside it; I
+cannot deny that in colour I find it immeasurably more frank
+and stronger than its oil-neighbour, which appears muddy and
+dull next it. True, Cennini mentions wall painting, but only
+supplementarily, and after he has written at length of <i>buon
+peseo</i>. I certainly fall into his views again!</p>
+
+<p>Now, adieu, my dear friend; once more all my best thanks; <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_306" id="PageV1_306">[306]</a></span>you
+may rely upon it, that the very first thing of mine that is
+photographed shall immediately find its way to you at
+Frankfurt; meantime, I candidly confess to you that I am quite
+terribly dissatisfied with my performances, and could only
+submit a hasty work to you.</p>
+
+<p>Think often of your most devoted pupil,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+
+<p>(Written below by Steinle)<br />
+&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Answered, 4th June 1858.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>The following letters, dated 30th November 1857, Paris, refer to Mrs.
+Orr's narrow escape from Aurungabad, owing to the fidelity of Sheik
+Boran Bukh, in the time of the Mutiny. It is a good example of the
+ease with which Leighton threw himself into the atmosphere of a
+situation. It reads like the writing of an Oriental!</p>
+
+<div class="block1"><p><span class="sc">Most valued Friend</span>,&mdash;The report of your gallant and
+generous conduct towards my sister and the companions of her
+flight has reached my ears, not only by private letters but
+also through several of the first English newspapers. From one
+end of this country to another, Englishmen have read the
+account of your loyal bearing, and from one end of the country
+to the other there has been but one voice to praise and to
+admire it; for uprightness and fidelity are precious in the
+eyes of all Englishmen, and honour and courage are to them as
+the breath of life; but <i>my</i> feelings towards you are
+naturally doubly warm and grateful, for to your care and
+vigilance I owe the safety of a most precious and valued life,
+that of a beloved sister. It is to express to you this
+gratitude that I now write, and also to beg you to accept as a
+small token of my regard a shawl which I send together with
+this letter, and which will be as a sign to cement our new
+friendship. Wear it in remembrance of that perilous night at
+Aurungabad, and in wearing it remember that on that night your
+fidelity won for you many new friends, and amongst the truest
+and most sincere count the brother of Mrs. Orr,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred Leighton.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="cen"><i>To</i> <span class="sc">Frederick Leighton</span>, Esq., &amp;c. &amp;c.<span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_307" id="PageV1_307">[307]</a></span></p>
+
+<p  class="right"><span class="sc">Aurungabad</span>, <i>13th July 1858</i>.</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Most respected Sir</span>,&mdash;I beg to return you my humble
+and hearty thanks for your kindness in having sent me a
+revolving pistol, which was highly admired by all who saw it.
+I cannot be sufficiently thankful to your invaluable kindness.
+I shall not part with it till death, but keep it as a
+remembrance of your high estimation of me your unworthy
+servant, and ever pray for your and family's welfare and
+happiness.</p>
+
+<p>I feel very uneasy in not hearing from Captain Orr since he
+left us; I beg you will kindly let me know how he is getting
+on, as I hear that he is not altogether very well. I was very
+anxious to accompany him, and he agreed to take me, but on
+second consideration he changed his mind. I hope some day or
+other to be able to see you and family by God's grace.</p>
+
+<p>I conclude, sir, with my humble respects and good wishes to
+self and family. Hoping all's well.&mdash;I am, Sir, your most
+obedient and grateful servant,</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span class="sc">Sheik Boran Bukh</span>, <i>Silladar</i>.</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p class="right"><i>Thursday.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dear Papa</span>,&mdash;In accordance with your request,
+yesterday received, I enclose an envelope for B.B., on which
+perhaps you will be so good as to add his rank, whatever that
+may be&mdash;I believe Subahdar. I am glad the letter is right, and
+knowing your great epistolary facilities, I don't feel as
+sorry as I ought to have interfered with your design. I don't
+think it will fall heavily on you.</p>
+
+<p>I have a great favour to ask of you; and I feel sure you won't
+grudge it me, as it concerns a man whose house is a second
+home to me: Cartwright&mdash;indefatigable as he is, he keeps
+constantly on the alert for any vacancy in Parliament, and is
+in frequent communication with Hayter on the subject. Now the
+representation of <i>Scarborough</i> has just become vacant, and I
+should take it as the greatest kindness if you would write <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_308" id="PageV1_308">[308]</a></span>to
+that great friend of yours in that town (a banker&mdash;whose name
+I, if I were to sit on my head, I could not remember; but you
+know), mentioning Cartwright as a great friend and most
+appropriate man. He (your friend) is sure to be very
+influential amongst the townsfolk. I should wish you to say
+this: state who Cartwright is, his family, place (Aynhoe Park,
+Brackley), his relations <i>with Hayter the Whipper-in</i> (that he
+may not appear <i>tomb&eacute; des nues</i>), and the following creed:
+Pledge himself to Reform Bill with extension of franchise;
+considers the Educational question amongst the most important
+of the day; wants a thorough inquiry into India and Indian
+affairs (government), and is prepared to support Lord
+Palmerston's administration. All this is very important to
+mention, because <i>all his relations</i> are hot Tories. Also, in
+case your friend should accept the suggestion and want to
+communicate <i>at once</i> Cartwright, give his (C.'s) direction in
+Paris, <i>No. 5 Rue Roqu&eacute;pine</i>. Will you do this for me?</p>
+
+<p>Please give dear Mamma a wigging for expressing no pleasure at
+the prospect I hinted at of running over to Bath for a day or
+two in the winter; tell her if she does not behave better I
+won't come. I would write at greater length, but my model is
+waiting, and I have no time.&mdash;With anticipated thanks, your
+affectionate son,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was in the year 1857 that Leighton painted the beautiful figure of
+"Salome, the Daughter of Herodias," which apparently was never
+exhibited in any exhibition of his works till that of 1897. A sketch
+(see <a href="#toi">List of Illustrations</a>) made for the picture is in the Leighton
+House Collection, also other drawings of dancing figures sketched in
+Algiers.</p>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep308" id="imagep308"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep308.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep308.jpg" width="52%" alt="STUDY FOR &quot;SALOME, THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS.&quot;" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">STUDY FOR "SALOME, THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS." 1857<br />
+Leighton House Collection<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<p>To his mother he wrote in the beginning of 1858:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="block1">
+<p><span class="sc">Monday</span>, <i>Jan. 1858</i>.<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class="sc">Dearest Mamma</span>,&mdash;Many thanks for your nice long
+letter, which I had been anxiously expecting not only for news
+of yourself but to <span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_309" id="PageV1_309">[309]</a></span>hear what tidings had reached you from
+India. I am so glad dear Lina continues tolerably well
+considering her position. I can fully understand how
+dreadfully anxious poor Sutherland must have been the whole
+time about her. I mean to write to her myself without delay.
+Will you please let me have her present direction, as I don't
+know it? How kind Sutherland is to have remembered at such a
+moment about my tigerskin! What an excellent and thoughtful
+creature he must be! The extract from Brig. Stuart's despatch
+is most gratifying and satisfactory, but I want to see it in
+print; where is it published? can't you somehow get it and let
+me have it? I have the greatest desire to possess it in that
+shape. What a nice letter Booran Buckh's is. I am afraid that
+about the regiment returning to Aurungabad is a hope not very
+likely to be realised. There is still a frightful deal to do
+in Oude. Sir Colin wants men sadly, and cavalry is
+particularly precious.</p>
+
+<p>Mario's <i>&eacute;trenne</i> cost me a pound, it was the least I could
+do. Let me reassure you, dear Mamma, about my behaviour to
+that amiable creature. I have been at his house often since,
+and am sure he is not in the least hurt; as for his thinking I
+was proud about his being an actor, that is so out of the
+question that I could not help laughing when I read the
+passage in your letter. In the first place, he would never
+dream of suspecting me of such a piece of vulgarity, and in
+the next, actor or no, he still is Count Candia, and therefore
+more than my equal in rank.</p>
+
+<p>I hope I may be with you somewhere about the 6th or 7th
+February, and should stay till the 10th or 11th. It would be
+humbug to say that I should not rather find you alone than in
+a whirlpool of funereal gaieties; but, however, I am at your
+disposal; do with me as you wish. I have been suffering very
+much of late from tooth and face ache. I am rather better now,
+thanks to, or in spite of, hom&oelig;opathy.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Cowley I have never found in yet. The Embassy parties
+have not begun yet. I go out almost every evening, but only in
+a circle of four or five houses. I can't stay at home, my eyes
+are too weak to do anything, I am sorry to say; I have not
+opened a book this winter. The Hollands are going to Naples,
+to my great regret; they were very kind; poor Lady Holland has
+only just recovered from a very serious illness.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="PageV1_310" id="PageV1_310">[310]</a></span>You tell me to bring over my Algerine sketches, but I have
+very little to show, a few scratches only of types; my two
+principal studies are <i>in oils</i>; I can't well take those over.
+I am working away at my pictures as well as the pitch-dark
+weather allows (which is very badly); however, I hope they may
+turn out well. The silent Sartoris said to-day he thought my
+Juliet picture "safe to succeed."</p>
+
+<p>Good-bye, dear Mamma; best love to all from your most affect.
+boy,</p>
+
+<p class="right sc">Fred.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>END OF VOL. I</h4>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<h4>Printed by <span class="sc">Ballantyne</span>, <span class="sc">Hanson &amp; Co.</span><br />
+Edinburgh &amp; London</h4>
+
+
+<br />
+<hr/>
+<br />
+
+<h4>FOOTNOTES:</h4>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_67_67" id="Footnote_67_67"></a><a href="#FNanchor_67_67"><span class="label">[67]</span></a> "Romeo," "Pan," and "Venus," being then exhibited at the
+yearly autumn Exhibition at Manchester.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_68_68" id="Footnote_68_68"></a><a href="#FNanchor_68_68"><span class="label">[68]</span></a> "368. <i>From Keats' Ode to Pan, in the 'Endymion'</i>: F.
+Leighton.&mdash;Flesh painting is the grand test. With the majority of
+artists the attempt results in a something very much resembling tinted
+marble. Not so Mr. Leighton. This enchanting creation of his mind
+glows with the rich warm hues of life; and the sweeping outline which
+gives such beauty to the female form is preserved with subdued
+definiteness. The background is a fine piece of mellow autumnal
+tinting.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">"<i>The Royal Institution.</i>&mdash;In the second room will be found one of the
+very best, if not the best picture in the exhibition, No. 183,
+'Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets,' by F. Leighton.
+Whatever its other merits or faults may be, it tells the sad story
+clearly and forcibly. The scene is 'the tomb of all the Capulets,' and
+the moment chosen by the artist is when the heads of the rival houses,
+standing by the dead bodies of those in whom all their hopes had been
+centred, agree to lay by their ancient feuds, and clasp their hands in
+sign of future friendship.</p>
+
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">"'<i>Capulet</i>&mdash;O brother Montague, give me thy hand:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">This is my daughter's jointure, for no more</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Can I demand.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;"><i>Montague</i>&mdash;But I can give thee more:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">For I will raise her statue in pure gold:</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">That while Verona by that name is known</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">There shall no figure at such rate be set,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">As that of true and faithful Juliet.'</span><br />
+
+<p class="noin">In the foreground are the bodies of the lovers, placed on a bier.
+Juliet has thrown herself upon the body of Romeo, her hands clasped
+around his neck, and her cheek touching his. In that position, typical
+of her undying love, the fatal potion has done its work. Lady Capulet,
+in a paroxysm of maternal grief, has thrown herself on her knees at
+the foot of the bier; behind her is the Friar. Opposite the spectator
+are old Capulet and Montague, their aged forms bowed with grief, in
+the act of reconciliation. These are the principal figures. The
+Prince, attendants, &amp;c., fill up, without crowding, the picture. The
+gloom of the ancient monument is capitally rendered, the colouring is
+harmonious, and the disposition of the figures careful and dramatic.
+The artist has admirably discriminated the characters of the two aged
+noblemen. Readers of Shakespeare will not need to be reminded of the
+distinction which the dramatist has made between the two. Montague
+appears only in the first and last acts, but displays great
+resolution, accompanied by a noble moderation, in the brawl commenced
+by the retainers of each of the houses. The language put into his
+mouth is noble and poetical, especially in concluding his account of
+the black and portentous humour which had overtaken his son.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'But he, his own affection's counsellor,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is to himself,&mdash;I will not say&mdash;how true,&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But to himself so secret and so close,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">So far from sounding and discovery<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">As is the bud, bit with an envious worm,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noin">No such language as this is ever given to old Capulet. On the
+contrary, he is fussy, shallow, and pretentious. Even the Nurse snubs
+him. In the first act he rushes out frantically calling for his sword,
+to which Lady Capulet replies&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'A crutch, a crutch!&mdash;why call you for a sword?'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noin">And the Nurse on another occasion says&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'Go, go, you cot quean, go,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Get you to bed; faith you will be sick to-morrow<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">For this night's watching.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noin">The artist has finely distinguished the two men; there is no mistaking
+them. On the other hand, if we may 'hint a fall' or two, we should
+say, that the faces of the lovers are too livid and corpse-like. They
+are but newly dead, and the artist would have been truer to nature and
+increased the beauty of his picture if he had allowed some of the
+beauty of life to linger around them. The attitude of the Friar, too,
+with elevated arms and appalled look, is not in harmony with the grand
+composure of his demeanour at all other times, the noble motives from
+which he had acted, and that sanctity of character which induces the
+Prince to say to him, after his explanatory speech&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"'We still have known thee for a holy man.'<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p class="noin">With all drawbacks, however, this is a noble picture; and if our
+readers will turn to the scene in the play and refresh their memories
+before going to the Institution, they will, we think, agree with us in
+ranking it as a successful Shakesperian illustration&mdash;high praise, but
+deserved."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_69_69" id="Footnote_69_69"></a><a href="#FNanchor_69_69"><span class="label">[69]</span></a> Among the drawings sold by the Fine Art Society in 1897
+was a very striking and interesting sketch in water-colour by Steinle.
+The subject was a peasant confessing to a Cardinal. May be it was the
+sketch for this picture for which Steinle asked Leighton to help him
+respecting the cardinal's costume.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p class="noin"><a name="Footnote_70_70" id="Footnote_70_70"></a><a href="#FNanchor_70_70"><span class="label">[70]</span></a> Mrs. S. Orr was in India, the Mutiny taking place at
+that time.</p></div>
+
+<br />
+<br />
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310a" id="imagep310a"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310a.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310a.jpg" width="48%" alt="BLIND SCHOLAR AND DAUGHTER" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"BLIND SCHOLAR AND DAUGHTER"<br />
+No. 1. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310b" id="imagep310b"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310b.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310b.jpg" width="46%" alt="NELLO'S SHOP: &quot;SUPPOSE YOU LET ME LOOK AT MYSELF&quot;" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">NELLO'S SHOP: "SUPPOSE YOU LET ME LOOK AT MYSELF"<br />
+No. 2. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310c" id="imagep310c"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310c.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310c.jpg" width="48%" alt="THE FIRST KEY" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"THE FIRST KEY"<br />
+No. 5. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310d" id="imagep310d"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310d.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310d.jpg" width="75%" alt="THE PEASANTS' FAIR" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"THE PEASANTS' FAIR"<br />
+No. 6. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310e" id="imagep310e"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310e.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310e.jpg" width="75%" alt="THE DYING MESSAGE" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"THE DYING MESSAGE"<br />
+No. 7. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310f" id="imagep310f"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310f.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310f.jpg" width="75%" alt="FLORENTINE JOKE" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"FLORENTINE JOKE"<br />
+No. 8. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310g" id="imagep310g"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310g.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310g.jpg" width="46%" alt="THE ESCAPED PRISONER" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"THE ESCAPED PRISONER"<br />
+No. 9. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310h" id="imagep310h"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310h.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310h.jpg" width="75%" alt="NICCOLO AT WORK" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"NICCOLO AT WORK"<br />
+No. 10. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310i" id="imagep310i"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310i.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310i.jpg" width="75%" alt="YOU DIDN'T THINK" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"YOU DIDN'T THINK"<br />
+No. 11. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310j" id="imagep310j"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310j.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310j.jpg" width="46%" alt="FATHER, I WILL BE GUIDED" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"FATHER, I WILL BE GUIDED"<br />
+No. 13. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310k" id="imagep310k"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310k.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310k.jpg" width="45%" alt="THE VISIBLE MADONNA" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"THE VISIBLE MADONNA"<br />
+No. 15. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310l" id="imagep310l"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310l.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310l.jpg" width="45%" alt="DANGEROUS COLLEAGUES" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"DANGEROUS COLLEAGUES"<br />
+No. 16. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310m" id="imagep310m"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310m.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310m.jpg" width="75%" alt="MONNA BRIGIDA" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"MONNA BRIGIDA"<br />
+No. 17. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310n" id="imagep310n"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310n.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310n.jpg" width="48%" alt="BUT YOU WILL HELP" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"BUT YOU WILL HELP"<br />
+No. 18. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310o" id="imagep310o"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310o.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310o.jpg" width="75%" alt="DRIFTING" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"DRIFTING"<br />
+No. 20. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<div class="img"><a name="imagep310p" id="imagep310p"></a>
+<a href="images/imagep310p.jpg">
+<img border="0" src="images/imagep310p.jpg" width="75%" alt="WILL HIS EYES OPEN?" /></a><br />
+<p class="cen" style="margin-top: .2em;">"WILL HIS EYES OPEN?"<br />
+No. 21. "Romola"<span class="totoi"><a href="#toi">ToList</a></span></p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+<div class="tr">
+<p class="cen"><a name="TN" id="TN"></a>Typographical errors corrected in text:</p>
+<br />
+Page xviii: &nbsp;Spagniola replaced with Spagnola<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;63: &nbsp;Middelburg replaced with Middelburgh<br />
+Page &nbsp;&nbsp;69: antlered replaced with anthered<br />
+Page 136: &nbsp;Spagniola replaced with Spagnola<br />
+Page 160: &nbsp;Kuppelwiesser replaced with Kuppelwieser<br />
+Page 153: &nbsp;volorous replaced with valorous<br />
+Page 190: &nbsp;Sclosser replaced with Schlosser<br />
+Page 198: &nbsp;antlered replaced with anthered<br />
+Page 210: &nbsp;"magnificent intellectual capacity, and unerring and instantaneous
+spring upon the point to unravel." replaced with "magnificent intellectual capacity, and an unerring and instantaneous
+spring upon the point to unravel." (see "Reminiscences of G.F. Watts" by Mrs. Russell Barringtong, page 193.)<br />
+Page 226: &nbsp;Spagnolli replaced with Spagnola<br />
+Page 261: &nbsp;"bran new" replaced with "brand new"<br />
+Page 272: &nbsp;"He offers you &pound;25 for if" replaced with "He offers you &pound;25 for it"<br />
+Page 273: &nbsp;"your sincerely" replaced with "yours sincerely"<br />
+Page 291: &nbsp;Pigale replaced with Pigalle<br />
+<br />
+
+Footnote 10: &nbsp;Sain-Damien replaced with Saint-Damien; l'envalussait replaced with l'envahissait; and,
+remplet replaced with remplit<br />
+Footnote 36: &nbsp;Caranco replaced with Carcano (see Adelaide Sartoris' book "A Week in a French Country-House" page xxx.)<br />
+
+
+
+<p class="noin">Note that the names I'Anson and Ffrench are legitimate surnames.</p>
+
+<p class="noin">Frankfort a/M. is the abbreviation for Frankfurt am Main,
+(in English 'Frankfort on the Main') a city on the Main River, Germany.</p>
+</div>
+
+<br />
+<hr />
+<br />
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic
+Leighton, by Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, LETTERS OF FREDERICK LEIGHTON ***
+
+***** This file should be named 35934-h.htm or 35934-h.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/3/35934/
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+
+</pre>
+
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/35934-h/images/cover.jpg b/35934-h/images/cover.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..05690a2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/cover.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/deco.jpg b/35934-h/images/deco.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8537a27
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/deco.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/frontis.jpg b/35934-h/images/frontis.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3dab3bc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/frontis.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep001.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep001.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9a54880
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep001.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep017a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep017a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9c23c3c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep017a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep017b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep017b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0329f30
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep017b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep019.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep019.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f534ecd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep019.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep027.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep027.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d3bfe7d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep027.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep028.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep028.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1ac8f98
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep028.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep033.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep033.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9674e69
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep033.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep037a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep037a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f937210
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep037a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep037b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep037b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8c668fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep037b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep043.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep043.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c88d0b8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep043.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep048.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep048.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..419f9e6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep048.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep055.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep055.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..819d2f7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep055.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep056.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep056.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de65abf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep056.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep069a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep069a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6e6a7d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep069a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep069b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep069b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1342c88
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep069b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep081.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep081.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..725a691
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep081.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep098.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep098.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..347b91b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep098.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep112.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep112.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cda588f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep112.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep116.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep116.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f05082b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep116.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep138.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep138.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a3fe0b7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep138.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep145.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep145.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ace10dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep145.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep149.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep149.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..06cf460
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep149.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep149th.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep149th.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bdcec6a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep149th.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep152.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep152.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..52e547b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep152.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep193.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep193.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c4312ea
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep193.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep193th.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep193th.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..af236f1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep193th.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep194.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep194.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e9eaaa8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep194.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep200.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep200.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e230296
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep200.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep201.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep201.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c98926d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep201.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep202a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep202a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1b80e03
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep202a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep202b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep202b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..015e855
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep202b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep205a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep205a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..148cb96
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep205a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep205b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep205b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a8c7f3a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep205b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep205c.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep205c.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..922704a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep205c.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep206a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep206a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fac18fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep206a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep206b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep206b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..cb7e8f5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep206b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep206c.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep206c.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5fa1fd2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep206c.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep207.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep207.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..faeba49
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep207.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep211a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep211a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7124035
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep211a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep211b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep211b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..57d6474
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep211b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep211c.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep211c.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ef7d03b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep211c.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep213a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep213a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4478357
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep213a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep213ath.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep213ath.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c19bf44
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep213ath.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep213b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep213b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..923e57c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep213b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep213bth.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep213bth.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2ab55df
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep213bth.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep214a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep214a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a595f48
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep214a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep214b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep214b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c45dd89
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep214b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep214c.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep214c.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..12305e1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep214c.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep218a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep218a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..916ef1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep218a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep218b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep218b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e67935c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep218b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep221a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep221a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..664463a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep221a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep221b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep221b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f49c6ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep221b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep223.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep223.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..a2c44d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep223.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep229a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep229a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2a098e0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep229a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep229atn.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep229atn.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0a5d5cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep229atn.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep229b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep229b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5bb3823
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep229b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep230a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep230a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6de65bd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep230a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep230b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep230b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e755474
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep230b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep233.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep233.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..671f0ee
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep233.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep234.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep234.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3fd485b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep234.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep241.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep241.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..00ae3da
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep241.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep241tn.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep241tn.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3945c4d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep241tn.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep251.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep251.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..d7c5fa8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep251.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep273.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep273.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..de438e3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep273.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep276a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep276a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..17baec5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep276a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep276b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep276b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..1c120b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep276b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep285.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep285.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..06d7d7f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep285.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep299.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep299.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..b77febc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep299.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep301.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep301.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..92dd041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep301.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep308.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep308.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..71250d7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep308.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310a.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310a.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f5dbe06
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310a.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310b.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310b.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..42486ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310b.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310c.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310c.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e29a0fc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310c.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310d.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310d.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9038a66
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310d.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310e.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310e.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bd4b8ed
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310e.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310f.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310f.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..0e7e21f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310f.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310g.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310g.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8741798
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310g.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310h.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310h.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..aec8881
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310h.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310i.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310i.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f6599ac
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310i.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310j.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310j.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4db09cb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310j.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310k.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310k.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..49e8a1a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310k.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310l.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310l.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6d7632c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310l.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310m.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310m.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..27249b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310m.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310n.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310n.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..3bfbaec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310n.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310o.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310o.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9f88cf0
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310o.jpg
diff --git a/35934-h/images/imagep310p.jpg b/35934-h/images/imagep310p.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..89c29f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934-h/images/imagep310p.jpg
diff --git a/35934.txt b/35934.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..92010a3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13255 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic
+Leighton, by Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton
+       Volume I
+
+Author: Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+Release Date: May 20, 2011 [EBook #35934]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, LETTERS OF FREDERICK LEIGHTON ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Transcriber's Note:                                       |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has     |
+    | been preserved.                                           |
+    |                                                           |
+    | The Errata on page xxiii have been incorporated into      |
+    | this e-book.                                              |
+    |                                                           |
+    | The Illustration list has one image out of sequence.      |
+    |                                                           |
+    | Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. For     |
+    | a complete list, please see the end of this document.     |
+    |                                                           |
+    +-----------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+    [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+  The Life, Letters and Work of
+  Frederic Baron Leighton
+  Of Stretton
+
+  VOL. I
+
+
+
+
+    "_If any man should be constantly penetrated with a gift
+    bestowed on him, it is the artist who has realised as his
+    share a genuine love for nature; for his enjoyment, if he
+    puts his gift to usury, increases with the days of his life._"
+
+
+    "_Every man who has received a gift, ought to feel and act as
+    if he was a field in which a seed was planted that others
+    might gather the harvest._"
+
+                                        _FREDERIC LEIGHTON._
+
+    _August 1852._
+
+
+
+
+  The Life, Letters and
+  Work of
+  Frederic Leighton
+
+  BY
+
+  MRS. RUSSELL BARRINGTON
+
+  AUTHOR OF "REMINISCENCES OF G.F. WATTS," ETC. ETC.
+
+  IN TWO VOLUMES
+
+  VOL. I
+
+  LONDON
+  GEORGE ALLEN, RUSKIN HOUSE
+  1906
+
+  [All rights reserved]
+
+
+
+
+  Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+  At the Ballantyne Press
+
+    [Illustration: EARLY PORTRAIT OF LORD LEIGHTON
+    From the Painting by G.F. Watts (Photogravure)
+    By permission of the Hon. Lady Leighton-Warren and Sir Bryan
+    Leighton, Bart.]
+
+
+
+
+    TO ALL WHO HOLD DEAR THE
+    MEMORY OF FREDERIC LEIGHTON
+    THIS BOOK IS INSCRIBED WITH
+    THE AUTHOR'S APOLOGIES FOR
+    ITS VERY MANY SHORTCOMINGS
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+Ten years and more have passed since Leighton died, yet it is still
+difficult to get sufficiently far away, to take in the whole of his
+life and being in their just proportion to the world in which he
+lived.
+
+When we are in Rome, hemmed in by narrow streets, St. Peter's is
+invisible; once across that wonderful Campagna and mounting the slopes
+of Frascati, there, like a huge pearl gleaming in the light, rises the
+dome of the Mother Church. As distance gives the true relation between
+a lofty building and its suburbs, so time alone can decide the height
+of the pedestal on which to place the great.
+
+The day after Leighton's death Watts wrote to me:--
+
+"...The loss to the world is so great that I almost feel ashamed to
+let my personal grief have so large a place.
+
+"I am glad you knew him so well. I am glad for any one who knew him.
+No one will ever know such another, alas! alas! alas!
+
+"I am glad you have enjoyed the friendship of one of the greatest men
+of any time."
+
+This is the estimate of a great artist who knew Leighton for forty
+years, and for many of those years enjoyed daily intercourse with him.
+
+A few like Watts required no length of time before forming a right
+estimate of Leighton. They not only knew him to be great, but knew why
+he was great. Undoubtedly as a draughtsman Leighton was unrivalled;
+but bearing in mind his English contemporaries--Watts, Millais, Holman
+Hunt, Rossetti, and Burne-Jones--it is not as a painter that even his
+truest friends would claim for him his right to the exceptional
+position he undoubtedly occupied.
+
+What was it that gave Leighton this position? He himself was the very
+last to claim it as a right. His creed and his practice were ever to
+fight against the weaknesses of his nature rather than to rejoice in
+its strength. For assuredly, however strong the intellect, beautiful
+the character, brilliant the vitality, and fine the intuitive
+instincts, a man may yet have within his nature foibles in common with
+the herd. The difference is, that in the truly great the unworthier
+side of nature is viewed as unworthy--is fought against and banished
+like the plague.
+
+"A good man is wise, not because all his desires are wise, but because
+his reasonable soul masters unwise desires and is itself wise.
+
+"He is courageous, because he knows when to fight, and does so under
+control of reason.
+
+"He is temperate, because his pluck and his desires unite in giving
+the first place to the reasonable soul; and finally, he is just,
+because each principle is in its place and stops there."
+
+In a letter to his mother when he was twenty-three Leighton wrote: "I
+feel I have of my nature a very fair share of the hateful worldly
+weakness of my country people;" adding, "Still, I have found no
+sufficiently great advantage or compensation for the tedium of going
+out." Again, three years later, after describing to his sister the
+delight he felt in the beauty he found in Algiers, he wrote: "And yet
+what I have said of my feelings, though _literally true_, does not
+give you an exactly true notion; for, together with, and as it were
+behind, so much pleasurable emotion, there is always that other
+strange second man in me, calm, observant, critical, unmoved,
+blase--odious!
+
+"He is a shadow that walks with me, a sort of nineteenth-century
+canker of doubt and discretion; it's very, very seldom that I forget
+his loathsome presence. What cheering things I find to say!"
+
+Doubtless Leighton had within him the possibilities of becoming a
+worldling, and also of becoming a cynic. He overrode and banished the
+first as despicable, the second as hideous.
+
+But it is not in the wisdom that--Socrates-like--steered his life by
+reason, that we find the adequate answer to the question, "Why was
+Leighton the prominent entity he was?" Diverse as were his natural
+gifts and his power of achievement on various lines, he differed
+radically from that modern development--the all-round man, who has no
+concentrated fire as a centre to illumine his life, but develops all
+his capacities so that they shall shine forth equally on certain high
+levels. From childhood Leighton had one overriding passion, and from
+this sprang the will-force and vitality which throughout his life
+succeeded in bringing his intentions to fruition. Whatsoever his hand
+found worthy to do at all, he did with the whole might of his great
+nature. Still even that would not adequately answer the question. His
+greatness truly lay in the fact that the choice he made of what was
+worth doing was never limited by personal interests. He impelled the
+force of his powers for the welfare of others, and for the causes
+beneficial to others, as much or more than to those matters which
+concerned himself alone. Hence his true greatness and his great
+fame--for AEschylus is right: "The good will prevail."
+
+A sense of duty--"the keenest possible sense of it," to use Mr.
+Briton Riviere's words--which was the keynote of all Leighton's
+actions, was impelled in the first instance by a feeling of gratitude
+for the joy with which beauty in nature and art had steeped his being
+from a child; a deep well of happiness, a constant companion, ever
+springing up in his heart, which he craved that others should share
+with him. This happiness gave sweetness to his life, lovableness to
+his character, irresistible power to his control. Leighton's was truly
+a life of praise and gratitude for the joys nature had bestowed on
+him. He had a pleasant way of making the truth prevail. The
+description by Marcus Aurelius of his "third man" applies well to the
+character of Leighton.
+
+"One man, when he has done a service to another, is ready to set it
+down to his account as a favour conferred. Another is not ready to do
+this, but still in his own mind he thinks of the man as his debtor,
+and he knows what he has done. A third in a manner does not even know
+what he has done, but he is like a vine which has produced grapes, and
+seeks for nothing more after it has once produced its proper fruit. As
+a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee
+when it has made the honey, so a man, when he has done a good act,
+does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to
+another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season."
+
+Leighton's work in every direction was complete work, because his mind
+grasped completely the proportion and aspect of everything he
+undertook. His inborn affection for, and sympathy with, his
+fellow-creatures impelled him to feel that the area of self-interest,
+however gifted that self might be, was too restricted for him to find
+full completeness therein. This could only be attained by working with
+and for others. Such feelings and doctrines are common in religious
+and philanthropic men; but in the ego of the modern artist there is
+generally something which seems to demand a concentration of attention
+on his own ego in order to develop his gifts as an artist. The
+attitude of Leighton towards his own work, and towards that of others,
+was essentially contrary to this concentration.
+
+In his letters to his mother, and to his master, Eduard von Steinle,
+are found the bases on which the superstructure of his after career
+rested, the underpinning of that monumental feature of the Victorian
+era--namely, in unflagging industry, in ever striving to make his life
+worthy of the beauty and dignity of his vocation as an artist, and in
+ever endeavouring to make his work an adequate exponent of "the
+mysterious treasure that was laid up in his heart": his passion for
+beauty.
+
+In my attempt to write Leighton's life I have purposely devoted more
+space to the earlier than to the later years of his career as an
+artist. With an artist more than with others is it specially true that
+the boy is father to the man; and if Leighton's example is in any way
+to benefit students of art, the early struggles, the failures, more
+even than the successes, will teach the lesson that there is no short
+cut on the road which has to be travelled even by the most gifted.
+From the family letters and those to his master, which are, with a few
+exceptions, given in full, it will also be seen that, however high was
+the pedestal on which Leighton placed his mistress Art, he felt keenly
+likewise the beauty of his family relationships, and a deep, grateful
+affection for the master who had given him his start on the road to
+fame.
+
+If this endeavour to present a true picture of Leighton the man has
+any value, it is owing mainly to the fact that Mrs. Matthews has
+placed at my disposal the family and other letters in her
+possession,--an act which demands the thanks of all those who are
+interested in the fame of her brother.
+
+I also wish to acknowledge with gratitude the considerate kindness of
+several of Leighton's friends in contributing "notes" and letters,
+which are of true value in bringing before the public a right view of
+the man and of the artist. First and foremost among these contributors
+must be placed Dr. von Steinle, son of Professor Eduard von Steinle of
+Frankfort-on-Main, the beloved master to whom Leighton in 1879
+referred as "_the indelible seal_," when writing of those who had
+influenced him most for good. The first letter of the correspondence
+which was carried on between the master and pupil, and preserved
+preciously by each, is dated August 31, 1852, the last 1883. Only
+second in interest to this correspondence, which discloses Leighton's
+intimate feelings and aspirations as an artist, are the notes supplied
+by Mr. Briton Riviere, R.A.--notes which could only have been written
+by one whose own nature in many ways was closely attuned to that of
+Leighton's, and which give the intimate aspect of Leighton as an
+official. "It would be difficult for any one," writes Mr. Briton
+Riviere, "to give in a short space any adequate account of a character
+so full and complex as Leighton's." And indeed it would require a
+great deal more than two volumes even to touch on all the events of
+this eventful life, which might further illustrate Leighton's
+character; but Mr. Briton Riviere has noted certain salient
+characteristics of his friend with a sympathy, and a fine touch, which
+I think will prove of very rare interest in this record. The tribute
+to Leighton of Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, R.A. (from a sculptor's point of
+view), carries great weight, and gives also, as does that of another
+old comrade in the Artists' Volunteer Corps, an appreciative account of
+Leighton as the soldier. To these, to Lady Loch, the Hon. Mrs. Alfred
+Sartoris, Sir William Richmond, R.A., Mr. Walter Crane, Mr. Alfred
+East, P.R.B.A., I offer my thanks for so kindly contributing notes
+which help to solve the problems presented by "a character so full and
+so complex." For courteous permission to publish letters I wish to
+express my thanks to Alice, Countess of Strafford, the executor of Mr.
+Henry Greville, who was one of, if not the most intimate of the
+friends who loved Leighton; the Hon. Mrs. Leigh, Mrs. Fanny Kemble's
+daughter and executor; the Right Hon. Sir Charles Dilke, executor of
+Mrs. Mark Pattison (afterwards Lady Dilke); the Right Hon. John
+Morley, Dr. von Steinle, Mr. John Hanson Walker, Mr. Cartwright, Mr.
+Robert Barrett Browning, Professor Church, Mr. T.C. Horsfall, and Mrs.
+Street, daughter of the late Mr. Henry Wells, R.A.; the executor of
+George Eliot, Mrs. Charles Lewes; and the executors of John Ruskin.
+There are many other letters and notes of interest which have been
+preserved by Mrs. Matthews, but which cannot be inserted for want of
+space. Among these are affectionate notes from Joachim, Burne-Jones,
+Hebert, Robert Fleury, Meissonier, Gerome, Tullio Massarani; also
+friendly letters from Cardinal Manning, Viscount Wolseley, Sarah
+Bernhardt, John Tyndall, Froude, Anthony Trollope, Sir John Gilbert,
+Lady Waterford, and Lord Strangford. A number of letters exist from
+members of the Royal Family to Leighton, all evincing alike admiration
+for the artist and an affectionate appreciation of the man.
+
+In these pages there will be found a repetition of several sentences.
+This is intentional. Watts would often remark, "A really wise and true
+saying can't be repeated too often"; and in Leighton's letters are
+several tallying with this description, which it would be a pity to
+detach from their own context, and yet which are also required
+elsewhere to enforce the argument.
+
+As regards the kindness shown in allowing reproductions of pictures,
+I have to tender my loyal gratitude to the Queen for the gracious loan
+of the picture presented to her Majesty by Leighton; also to the
+Prince of Wales for allowing the "Head of a Girl," given to his Royal
+Highness as a wedding present by the artist, to be reproduced in these
+pages.
+
+Other owners of pictures to whom I proffer also my warm thanks are
+Lord Armstrong, Lord Pirrie, the Rt. Hon. Joseph Chamberlain, the Hon.
+Lady Leighton-Warren, Sir Bryan Leighton, the Hon. Mrs. Sartoris, Sir
+Elliot Lees, Sir Alexander Henderson, Mr. E. and Miss I'Anson, Mr. S.
+Pepys Cockerell, Mr. T. Blake Wirgman, Mrs. Stewart Hodgson, Mr.
+Hanson Walker, Mrs. Henry Joachim, Mrs. Stephenson Clarke, Mrs. C.E.
+Lees, Mrs. James Watney, Mr. Hodges, Mrs. Charles Lewes, Mr. H.S.
+Mendelssohn, Mr. Phillipson, and Dr. von Steinle.
+
+Also to the Fine Art Society, the Berlin Photographic Co., Messrs.
+Agnew & Son, Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi, Messrs. Henry Graves, Messrs.
+Lefevre, Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co., and the directors of the
+Leicester Galleries.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                                  PAGE
+  INTRODUCTION                                                       1
+
+  CHAPTER I
+  ANTECEDENTS AND SCHOOL DAYS, 1830-1852                            34
+
+  CHAPTER II
+  ROME, 1852-1855                                                   91
+
+  CHAPTER III
+  PENCIL DRAWINGS OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS, 1850-1860                 197
+
+  CHAPTER IV
+  WATTS--SUCCESS--FAILURE, 1855-1856                               222
+
+  CHAPTER V
+  FRIENDS                                                          250
+
+  CHAPTER VI
+  STEINLE AND ITALY AGAIN--FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE EAST,
+    1856-1858                                                      278
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+VOLUME I
+
+
+   1. DESIGN FOR REVERSE OF THE JUBILEE MEDALLION                Cover
+      Executed for Her Majesty Queen Victoria's Government,
+      1887.
+
+   2. CROWN OF BAY LEAVES                                          "
+      From Drawing made by Lord Leighton at the Bagni de Lucca,
+      1854.
+
+   3. PORTRAIT OF LORD LEIGHTON BY G.F. WATTS, ABOUT 1863
+      By kind permission of the Hon. Lady LEIGHTON-WARREN      To face
+      and Sir BRYAN LEIGHTON, Bart. (_Photogravure_)        Dedication
+
+   4. HEAD OF YOUNG GIRL                                To face page 1
+      By the gracious permission of HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.
+
+   5. PORTRAITS OF LORD LEIGHTON'S FATHER AND MOTHER WHEN YOUNG     17
+      From Miniatures.
+
+   6. EARLY PAINTING OF BOY SAVING A BABY FROM THE CLUTCHES OF AN
+      EAGLE (_Colour_)                                              19
+
+   7. PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR EDUARD VON STEINLE                      27
+      By kind permission of his Son, DOCTOR VON STEINLE.
+
+   8. PORTRAIT OF MRS. SARTORIS, 1856                               28
+
+   9. CRYPT UNDER ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL WHERE BARRY, SIR JOSHUA
+      REYNOLDS, TURNER, AND LORD LEIGHTON WERE BURIED               33
+
+  10. PORTRAITS OF LORD LEIGHTON AND HIS YOUNGER SISTER, MRS.
+      MATTHEWS                                                      37
+      Drawn by him when a boy.
+
+  11. EARLY COMIC DRAWING MADE IN FRANKFURT                         43
+      By kind permission of Mr. JOHN HANSON WALKER.
+
+  12. PORTRAIT OF MR. I'ANSON, LORD LEIGHTON'S GREAT-UNCLE, 1850    48
+      By kind permission of Mr. E. and Miss I'ANSON.
+
+  13. THE DEATH OF BRUNELLESCHI, 1851                               55
+      By kind permission of Doctor VON STEINLE.
+
+  14. THE PLAGUE IN FLORENCE, 1851                                  56
+
+  15. STUDIES OF BRANCHES OF FIG AND BRAMBLE                        69
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  16. STUDY OF BYZANTINE WELL HEAD, VENICE, 1852                    81
+      By kind permission of Mr. S. PEPYS COCKERELL.
+
+  17. FROM PENCIL DRAWING OF MODEL, ROME, 1853. "COSTUME DI
+      PROCIDA"                                                      98
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  18. HEAD OF MODEL USED FOR FIGURE IN CIMABUE'S MADONNA,
+      ERRONEOUSLY STATED TO HAVE BEEN THE PORTRAIT OF LORD
+      LEIGHTON, 1853                                               112
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  19. SKETCH OF SUBIACO, 1853                                      116
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  20. HEAD OF VINCENZO, 1854                                       152
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  21. COPY IN PENCIL OF THE PORTRAITS OF GIOTTO, CIMABUE, MEMMI,
+      AND TADDEO GADDI                                             138
+      From the Capella Spagnola, Sta. Maria Novella, Florence,
+      1853. Leighton House Collection.
+
+  22. STUDY OF WOMAN'S HEAD FOR FIGURE AT THE WINDOW--CIMABUE'S
+      MADONNA, 1854 (_Photogravure_)                               145
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  23. ORIGINAL SKETCH IN PENCIL AND CHINESE WHITE FOR CIMABUE'S
+      MADONNA, 1853                                                149
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  24. CIMABUE'S MADONNA, 1855                                      193
+      By kind permission of the FINE ART SOCIETY.
+
+  25. FACSIMILE OF LETTER FROM SIR CHARLES EASTLAKE, ANNOUNCING
+      THAT QUEEN VICTORIA HAD PURCHASED CIMABUE'S MADONNA, MAY
+      3, 1855                                                      194
+
+  26. STUDY OF CYCLAMEN, 1856                                      200
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  27. WREATH OF BAY LEAVES, 1854                                   201
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  28. STUDY OF A LEMON TREE--CAPRI, 1859                           202
+      By kind permission of Mr. S. PEPYS COCKERELL.
+
+  29. STUDY OF BRANCHES OF A DECIDUOUS TREE                        202
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  30. EARLY STUDIES OF KALMIA LATIFOLIA, OLEANDER, AND
+      RHODODENDRON FLOWERS                                         205
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  31. STUDIES OF PUMPKIN FLOWERS                                   206
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  32. STUDY OF VINE, 1854--BAGNI DI LUCCA                          206
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  33. STUDIES OF VINE LEAVES, "BELLOSGUARDO," SEPT. 1856           207
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  34. "ARIADNE ABANDONED BY THESEUS--DEATH RELEASES HER." 1868
+      (_Photogravure_)                                             211
+      By kind permission of LORD PIRRIE.
+
+  35. "ELISHA RAISING THE SON OF THE SHUNAMMITE," 1881             211
+      (_Photogravure_)
+
+  36. "DAEDALUS AND ICARUS," 1869 (_Photogravure_)                  211
+      By kind permission of Sir ALEXANDER HENDERSON, Bart.
+
+  37. "CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE," 1888 (_Photogravure_)                  213
+      By kind permission of the BERLIN PHOTOGRAPHIC CO.
+
+  38. STUDY IN OILS FOR "CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE" (_Colour_)            213
+      By kind permission of Mrs. STEWART HODGSON
+
+  39. "WEAVING THE WREATH," 1873                                   214
+
+  40. "WINDING THE SKEIN"                                          214
+      By kind permission of the FINE ART SOCIETY.
+
+  41. "THE MUSIC LESSON," 1877                                     214
+      By kind permission of the FINE ART SOCIETY.
+
+  42. STUDIES OF SEA THISTLE, MALINMORE                            218
+      From Sketch Book, 1895.
+
+  43. STUDIES OF SEA THISTLE, MALINMORE                            218
+      From Sketch Book, 1895.
+
+  44. "RETURN OF PERSEPHONE" (_Photogravure_)                      221
+      Corporation of Leeds.
+
+  45. STUDY IN OILS FOR "RETURN OF PERSEPHONE" (_Colour_)          221
+      By kind permission of Mrs. STEWART HODGSON.
+
+  46. FROM DECORATIVE PAINTING ON GOLD BACKGROUND OF CUPID WITH
+      DOVES                                                        223
+
+  47. "IDYLL," 1881 (_Photogravure_)                               229
+
+  48. PORTRAIT OF MISS MABEL MILLS, 1877                           229
+
+  49. "VENUS DISROBING FOR THE BATH," 1867                         230
+      By kind permission of Sir A. HENDERSON, Bart.
+
+  50. PHRYNE AT ELEUSIS, 1882                                      230
+
+  51. PORTRAIT OF MRS. ADELAIDE SARTORIS, DRAWN FOR HER FRIEND,
+      LADY BLOOMFIELD, 1867                                        233
+      By kind permission of the Hon. Mrs. SARTORIS.
+
+  52. STUDY FOR PORTION OF FRIEZE, "MUSIC" (NOT CARRIED OUT IN
+      FINAL DESIGN). 1883                                          234
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  53. FROM SKETCH IN WATER COLOUR FOR TABLEAUX VIVANTS,
+      "THE ECHOES OF HELLAS" (_Colour_)                            241
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  54. STUDY FROM MR. JOHN HANSON WALKER, WHEN A BOY, FOR
+      "LIEDER OHNE WORTE," 1860                                    251
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  55. PORTRAIT OF MRS. JOHN HANSON WALKER, PAINTED AS A WEDDING
+      PRESENT TO HER HUSBAND, 1867 (_Colour_)                      273
+      By kind permission of Mr. WALKER.
+
+  56. FIGURES FOR CEILING FOR MUSIC ROOM, PREVIOUS TO THE DRAPERY
+      BEING ADDED, 1886                                            276
+
+  57. ORIGINAL SKETCH IN CHARCOAL OF DANCING FIGURES FOR THE SAME,
+      1886                                                         276
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  58. WATER COLOUR DRAWING OF THE CA' D'ORO, VENICE                285
+      (_Colour_)
+
+  59. VIEW IN ALGIERS (_Colour_)                                   299
+
+  60. VIEW IN ALGIERS (_Colour_)                                   301
+
+  61. SKETCH FOR "SALOME, THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS," 1857          308
+      Leighton House Collection.
+
+  62. SIXTEEN SCENES IN FLORENCE--ILLUSTRATIONS TO "ROMOLA"  Beginning
+      By kind permission of Mrs. CHARLES LEWES.               page 310
+
+      1. BLIND SCHOLAR AND DAUGHTER.
+      2. "SUPPOSE YOU LET ME LOOK AT MYSELF;" NELLO'S SHOP.
+      5. "THE FIRST KEY."
+      6. PEASANTS' FAIR.
+      7. THE DYING MESSAGE.
+      8. FLORENTINE JOKE.
+      9. THE ESCAPED PRISONER.
+     10. NICCOLO AT WORK.
+     11. "YOU DIDN'T THINK."
+     13. "FATHER, I WILL BE GUIDED."
+     15. THE VISIBLE MADONNA.
+     16. DANGEROUS COLLEAGUES.
+     17. "MONNA BRIGIDA."
+     18. "BUT YOU WILL HELP."
+     20. "DRIFTING."
+     21. "WILL HIS EYES OPEN?"
+
+
+    [Illustration: HEAD PRESENTED TO THE QUEEN BY LORD LEIGHTON
+    By permission of Her Majesty the Queen]
+
+
+
+
+ERRATA
+
+
+Motto facing Title-page, line 3, _for_ "from," _read_ "for."
+Page  xx, No. 49, _for_ "Figures for Ceiling, &c.," _read_
+          "By kind permission of Sir A. Henderson, Bart."
+Page  31, line 7, _for_ "at all," _read_ "to all."
+Page  60, omit note.
+Page  67, line 31, _for_ "unscorched," _read_ "sunscorched."
+Page 103, line 31, _for_ "worse that," _read_ "worse than."
+Page 127, line 16, _for_ "Wasash," _read_ "Warsash."
+Page 169, line 8, _for_ "Pantaleoni," _read_ "Pantaleone."
+Page 197, note, _for_ "Vol. I.," _read_ "Vol. II."
+Page 213, lines 6, 7, _for_ "owing ... from," _read_ "owing ... to."
+Page 265, note. The reference number should be to "Edward," instead
+          of to "Adelaide."
+Page 296, line 17, _for_ "Couture," _read_ "Conture."
+
+
+
+
+THE LIFE OF LORD LEIGHTON
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In 1860, when Leighton, at the age of thirty, definitely settled in
+England, art was alive in two distinctly new directions. Ruskin was
+writing, the Pre-Raphaelites were painting, and Prince Albert, besides
+encouraging individual painters and sculptors, had, through his fine
+taste and the exercise of his patronage in every branch of art,
+developed an interest in good design as it can be carried out in
+manufactures and various crafts. Leighton followed the Prince
+Consort's initiatory lead; and, by showing the same cultured and
+catholic zeal in her welfare, was enabled to continue and develop
+Prince Albert's important work, thereby widening and elevating the
+whole outlook of art in England.
+
+It has at times been asserted that Leighton was greater as a President
+of the Royal Academy than he was as a painter. It would be truer, I
+think, to say that it was because he was so great as an artist in the
+highest, widest meaning of the word, so sincere a workman, that he
+stands unrivalled as a President. In a letter to a friend, dated May
+1888, ten years after he had been elected President, he wrote, "I am a
+workman first and an official afterwards," and it was, I believe,
+because he carried into his official duties the true artist's warmth,
+sincerity, and zeal for his special vocation, that his influence as an
+official was never deadened by theoretic red-tapeism, nor by secondary
+or side issues. Leighton ever flew straight to the mark, and the mark
+he aimed at in his presidential work was ever the highest essential
+point from the view he also took as an artist. His official duties,
+carried out with so great an amount of scrupulous conscientiousness,
+would have gone far to fill the entire life of an ordinary human
+being; yet these duties were, to the last, subordinated in his
+personal existence to his self-imposed duties as a painter and a
+sculptor.
+
+The words, "I am a workman first and an official afterwards,"
+epitomise the creed of his life. From earliest childhood art had cast
+over Leighton's nature a glamour which made his heart-service to her
+the great passion of his life. His "great nature" had in it many
+sources of stirring interest and of pure delights, which he enjoyed
+keenly; but nothing came in sight, so to speak, which ever for a
+moment seriously challenged a rivalry with the salient ruling passion.
+His character, as it developed, wound itself round it; his strongest
+sense of duty focalised itself in its service; his ambition ever was
+more inspired and stimulated by a devotion to the best interests of
+art than by any purely personal incentive. Leighton was an artist of
+that true type in whom no influence whatsoever can deter or slacken
+incessant zeal for work. In the deepest recesses of his nature burnt
+the unquenchable fire, the paramount longing to follow in Nature's
+footsteps, and to create things of beauty. Among the many loyal
+servants who have dutifully worshipped at the shrine of art, never was
+there one who more completely devoted the best that was in him to her
+service.
+
+"Va! your human talk and doings are a tame jest; the only passionate
+life is in form and colour."[1]
+
+Leighton's nature may be viewed from three aspects. Though each aspect
+is apparently detached from the others, it would be impossible to
+record a true portrait were the three not kept in view while
+attempting to draw the picture.
+
+First, there was Leighton, the great man, the public servant, gifted
+with exceptional powers of intellect and character, who attained the
+highest social position ever reached by an English artist; the
+Leighton the world knew, whose sway was paramount in the many councils
+and assemblies to which he belonged no less than when fulfilling his
+duties as President of the Royal Academy, and whose helpfulness and
+zeal in promoting the extension of a knowledge and appreciation of
+English art in foreign countries and in the colonies became
+proverbial. Lady Loch tells of his invaluable help in the efforts she
+and her husband made to encourage art, while the late Lord Loch was
+Governor of the Isle of Man, of Victoria, and of Cape Colony. "I feel
+it would be impossible," she writes, "to convey in a few words what a
+wonderful friend Frederic Leighton was to my husband from the time he
+first knew him,[2] forty years before Leighton's death, and to myself
+from the time we married. He was always ready to help us at every
+turn. Any deserving artist whom we sent to him would be certain to
+find in him a friend. When we arranged the very small Art Exhibition
+in the Isle of Man, you could hardly imagine with what energy and
+thoughtfulness he entered into the matter, impressing upon us all the
+steps that we ought to take in order to secure its success, even to
+the details, such as packing and insuring the pictures. He himself
+sent us pictures for the Exhibition, and guided our judgment in
+admiring and caring for those which were best and most to be valued,
+with a paternal care and zeal not describable. Again, when we were in
+Australia, and the great International Centennial Exhibition in
+Melbourne took place in 1888, Frederic Leighton selected such a good
+collection of pictures that they simply were the saving of the
+Exhibition financially--they attracted such continuous crowds of
+visitors. Subsequently, when an exhibition of ceramic work was asked
+for in Melbourne, and Henry Loch wrote to consult his friend, amidst
+all Frederic Leighton's important work and duties, he rushed about and
+secured a most interesting collection of all kinds of china and
+pottery, which was greatly appreciated by the Australians. Again, in
+1892, he formed a Fine Art Committee, consisting of himself, who was
+appointed Chairman, Sir Charles Mills, Sir Donald Currie, M.P., Mr.
+W.W. Ouless, R.A., Mr. Colin Hunter, A.R.A., Mr. Frank Walton, and Mr.
+Prange, to select pictures to send for exhibition at Kimberley.
+Besides a picture lent by Queen Victoria, at Leighton's request, of
+the portraits of herself and the royal family by Winterhalter, and
+four by Leighton, which he lent, the Committee secured 181 pictures,
+though not without great difficulty, Leighton told us, because the
+artists were afraid their works would be injured by the burning sun,
+the sandstorms, and the rough journey up from the Cape. Owing,
+however, to Leighton's untiring exertions, a very interesting and
+successful exhibition took place in this then little known town of our
+English colony in Africa."
+
+On the day Leighton died, Watts, his near neighbour and
+fellow-workman, in a letter to a friend, wrote that he had enjoyed "an
+uninterrupted and affectionate friendship of five-and-forty years"
+with Leighton. He continues: "No one will ever know such another. A
+magnificent intellectual capacity, an unerring and instantaneous
+spring upon the point to unravel, a generosity, a sympathy, a tact, a
+lovable and sweet reasonableness, yet no weakness. For my own
+part--and I tell you, life can never be the same to me again--my own
+grief is merged in the sense I have of the appalling loss to the
+nation; it seems to me to be no less."[3] Later, Watts wished it
+recorded that Leighton's character was the most beautiful he had ever
+known. This tribute from the great veteran artist, thirteen years
+Leighton's senior, but who outlived him more than eight years, was
+echoed far and wide by many at the time of Leighton's death. To his
+powers and influence, exercised in the Royal Academy as a body and to
+the members individually, Mr. Briton Riviere, the painter, and Mr.
+Hamo Thornycroft, the sculptor, give the following appreciative
+tributes.
+
+Mr. Briton Riviere writes:--
+
+"To begin with, I never really knew him--though we had met several
+times before--until I began to serve upon the Council with him very
+soon after his election as President. This at once brought us into
+very intimate relations, and a very few meetings convinced me that his
+opinions and actions on that body were invariably regulated by a true
+spirit of absolute justice and fairness to all, and that if he had his
+own particular art beliefs--which he certainly had, for art was to him
+almost a religion, and his own particular belief almost a creed--he
+never allowed it to bias him in the least. Indeed, I have never worked
+with any one who exhibited a broader or more catholic spirit of
+tolerance, even sympathy with all schools, however diverse from his
+own, only demanding honesty and sincerity should be the basis of each
+kind of work.
+
+"I have always felt that no one, who had heard only his elaborately
+prepared speeches, knew his real power as a speaker.
+
+"He was a master of time. I do not think he ever failed to keep an
+appointment almost to the minute. He was seldom much too early, but
+never too late.
+
+"He was an ideal president for any institution, and after serving
+under him for many years, I cannot think of any one faculty which a
+president should possess, which Leighton wanted."
+
+Mr. Hamo Thornycroft writes:--
+
+"My earliest recollection of Leighton was in 1869, when, with several
+other young art students, I went to his studio. He had promised to
+criticise the designs we had made from Morris' 'Life and Death of
+Jason.' This he did most admirably, it seemed to me, and most
+sympathetically, devoting considerable time to each; and I came away
+encouraged and a sworn devotee of the great man.
+
+"For the next few years, I had the benefit of his teaching at the
+Academy Schools, where he was most energetic as a visitor, and took
+the greatest pains to help the students. He was, moreover, an
+_inspiring_ master. Besides doing much for the school of sculpture,
+till then much neglected, he started a custom of giving a certain time
+to the study of drapery on the living model. His knowledge in this
+department and his excellent method were a new element in the training
+in the schools, and soon had a salutary effect upon the work done by
+the students. His influence, through the Academy Schools, upon the
+younger generation of sculptors was very great. There can be no doubt
+whatever that the rapid advance made in the art of sculpture during
+the last thirty years was to a considerable extent due to the sympathy
+and the interest which Leighton gave to it.
+
+"Leighton, as is well known, carefully prepared his important
+speeches, like many great speakers; but I never saw him fail, or even
+hesitate, when called upon to speak unexpectedly. At meetings of the
+Academy Council or at the general assemblies, his summing up and his
+weighing of the arguments brought forward by members in course of
+discussion was always masterly, just and eloquent. He had such a great
+sense of proportion, and detected what was the essence and the
+essential part of a speaker's argument."
+
+At a meeting held in Leighton's studio, after his death in May 1896,
+for the purpose of furthering the scheme of preserving the house for
+the nation as a memorial to the great artist, the sculptor, Mr.
+Alfred Gilbert, R.A., on rising to speak, said he felt too much on the
+occasion to be able to make a speech, adding, "I can only say that all
+I know, and all the little I have been able to do as a sculptor, I owe
+to Leighton."
+
+In a letter, dated February 9, 1896, Watts again writes: "I delighted
+in shaping a splendid career of incalculable benefit to his
+(Leighton's) epoch. His abilities, his persuasiveness, the peculiar
+range of his cultivation, would have fitted him to accompany a
+delicate embassy, where his efficiency would have been made evident,
+establishing a right to be entrusted with the like as its head; I
+believe something of this and more, if there could be more, was for
+him in the future. You know, I always looked forward to his seat in
+the House of Lords. That came about, and I believe the rest was but a
+question of time. Feeling this, you can understand that my own grief
+seems to me to be selfish. I am glad you enjoyed the friendship of one
+of the greatest men of any time."
+
+In the speech which the King, then Prince of Wales, made at the first
+banquet held after Leighton's death, on May 1, 1897, His Majesty
+referred to the late President in the following words:--
+
+"All of us in the room, and I especially, must miss one whose eloquent
+voice was so often heard at this banquet--a voice, alas! now hushed
+for ever. It is unnecessary, as it would be almost impertinent in me,
+to hold forth in praise of the merits and virtues of Lord Leighton.
+They are known to you all. He has left a great name behind him, and he
+himself will be regretted not only by the great artistic world, but by
+the whole nation. I myself had the advantage of knowing him for a
+great number of years--ever since I was a boy--and I need hardly say
+how deeply I deplore the fact that he can be no more in our midst. But
+his name will be cherished and honoured throughout the country."
+
+It is not necessary to dwell more lengthily on this salient aspect of
+Leighton. During his lifetime it was public property, the great name
+he has left is evidence sufficient to coming generations.
+
+Secondly, as portrayed chiefly by his human qualities, there was the
+aspect of Leighton as his family and his friends knew him; the beloved
+Leighton, the delightful companion, the charming personality, the
+being whose brilliant vitality brought a mental stimulus into all
+intercourse with him. The Leighton _qui savait vivre_ perhaps better
+than did ever any other conspicuous, overworked servant of the public;
+an active, positive influence, radiating strength and sunshine by his
+presence; and playing the game--whatever game it was--better than even
+the experts in special games. In that which perhaps he played best,
+lay his remarkable social power. Leighton had a deep-rooted and
+ingenuous sincerity of nature, and never for a moment lost his
+self-centre; yet he had the rare gift of unlocking the side most
+worthy to be unlocked in the nature of his companion of the moment. He
+had the power of evolving out of most people he met something that was
+real and of interest. Never giving himself away, he yet managed to
+meet other individualities on any ground that existed which could by
+any possibility be made a mutual ground. Though generosity itself in
+believing the best of every one, and at times entrapped by the wily,
+anything like flattery was a vice in his eyes. He neither gave himself
+away, nor induced others to give themselves away while in his company,
+and would always abstain from obtruding his opinions, modestly
+withholding judgment where he saw neither a duty nor a distinct reason
+to pronounce.
+
+Perhaps the strongest mark of Leighton's true distinction lay in the
+fact that, notwithstanding his reserve on all matters of deep feeling,
+notwithstanding his love of form in the living of life as in the
+creating of art, notwithstanding the perpetually shifting and urgent
+claims which, as a public man and a prominent social entity, were
+being continually forced upon him, the inner entity, the real
+Leighton, remained to the end a child of nature. No need was there for
+him to gauge the proportionate merit of the various conflicting
+influences that played on his complicated life; his own instinctive
+preferences clenched the matter indubitably, asserting that the
+noblest grace and the finest taste lay in the spontaneous and the
+natural. When Watts wished it recorded that Leighton's nature was the
+most beautiful he had ever known, he referred, I think, more specially
+to that lovable, kind-hearted ingenuousness and noble simplicity which
+were its deepest roots, notwithstanding a life of conflicts,
+ambitions, and unparalleled success. There are among those who most
+honour and love Leighton's memory, and who felt most keenly his loss,
+poor and unsuccessful artists and students, of whom the world has
+never heard, but to whom the great President gave of his very best in
+advice and sympathy.[4] He never posed, though he was an adept in
+catching the atmosphere of a situation, however new and foreign to
+his usual beat such a situation might be. Scrupulous in his attitude
+of reverence towards his vocation as an artist, _ever_ most scrupulous
+to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, the inner core of
+the nature remained simple and unstained by worldliness.
+
+Then there was the third aspect of Leighton, the Leighton at times
+half-hidden from himself; the yearning, unsatisfied spirit, which,
+though subject at times to great elevations of delight, at others was
+also the victim of profound depressions and a sense of loneliness--a
+state of being born out of that strange, only half-explained region
+whence proceed all intuitive faculties. Such states are referred to
+occasionally in his letters to his mother, and we find their influence
+recorded at intervals in his art. In 1849, on a sketch of Giotto when
+a boy, are written in the corner the words "Sehnsucht"; in 1865, there
+is the David, "Oh, that I had wings like a dove; for then would I fly
+away and be at rest"; in 1894, the "Spirit of the Summit"--these are
+all alike expressions of the home-sickness that yearned for an abiding
+resting-place not found in the conditions of this world. "Oh, what a
+disappointing world it is!" were words he uttered shortly before his
+death. In 1894, when at Bayreuth, a friend was congratulating him on
+his ever fortunate star having even there easily overcome the
+difficulties of the crowd. Leighton, passing over the immediate
+question, answered with a striking serious sadness, "I have not _ever_
+got what I most wanted in this world."
+
+No mind was ever more explicit to itself in its mental working, than
+was his with regard to matters which the intellect can investigate and
+solve. His judgment could never be warped by reason of an insufficient
+brain apparatus with which to judge himself and others impartially.
+But Leighton was a great man, beyond being the one who owned "a
+magnificent intellectual capacity." The qualities he possessed, which
+made him a prominent entity who influenced the interests of the world
+at large, secured for him a footing on that higher level where human
+nature breathes a finer, more rarefied atmosphere than that in which
+the intellect alone disports itself; a level from which can be viewed
+the just proportion existing between the truly great and the truly
+little. Selfishness disappears in a nature such as Leighton possessed,
+when that level is reached. The necessity for self-sacrifice forces
+itself so peremptorily, that there is no struggle to be gone through
+in exercising it. For instance--notwithstanding the absorbing nature
+of his occupations and the intense devotion he felt towards his
+vocation as an artist, when it was a question of the country needing a
+reserve force for her army to draw on in case of war--a need which is
+at this present moment insisted on by Lord Roberts with such zealous
+earnestness--Leighton at once seized the importance of the question,
+and, at whatever sacrifice to his own more personal interests,
+enlisted as a volunteer, and mastered the art and duties of soldiering
+so completely that many officers in the regular army envied his
+knowledge and efficiency.
+
+The following is an appreciation by an old comrade in the Artists'
+Volunteer Corps:--
+
+"The names of those who first enrolled themselves to form the Artists'
+Volunteer Corps in 1860 is a record of considerable interest in
+itself, and calls back many reminiscences connected with art. Leighton
+joined May 10, 1860, and was in a few days given his commission as
+ensign.
+
+"Probably the very character of the first recruits tended to prevent
+that expansion and accession of numbers without which no military body
+can flourish. Lord Bury, the first commandant, became the Colonel of
+the Civil Service Rifles; and whatever attention may have been given
+to firing and detailed training, the early appearances of the
+'Artists' in public at reviews was, as a rule, as a company or two
+attached to the Civil Service Rifle Corps.
+
+"Events, however, brought a change in the command, and Leighton
+having, not without hesitation, accepted it, set himself at once to
+introduce reforms. The Captains, he announced, were to be responsible
+each for the command and drill of his company. He, to carry out before
+promotion as Major Commanding a duty which the previous laxity had
+never required of him, learned the company drill by heart and went
+through the whole complicated system then existing, on a single
+evening under trying circumstances in very insufficient space.
+Reorganisation did not rapidly fill the ranks, and there was much hard
+work to be done before the Artists' Corps appeared as a completed
+eight-company battalion, and took its place among the best of the
+Volunteer Corps of the Metropolis. The personality of the Commander
+did very much to achieve this result, and Leighton became
+Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant in 1876.
+
+"Next to his duty to his Art and to the Royal Academy, as he was ever
+careful to say, he esteemed his duty in the Corps. Busy man, with his
+time mapped out more than most, he was always accessible and ready to
+give the necessary time to those who had access to him on the Corps
+business. He never appeared on parade without previous study of the
+drill to be gone through, while his tact, energy, and personal charm
+were brought out and used at those social meetings with officers and
+with men which do so much to build up the tone of a volunteer body.
+
+"Of camps and duties in the tented field he took his part cheerfully.
+He shared the hardship of the early experience of the detachment at
+the Dartmoor Manoeuvres, where, camping on the barren hills above the
+lower level of the mist, the extemporised commissariat followed with
+difficulty, and the officers consoled themselves for the roughness of
+their fare by the consumption of marmalade, which happened to be
+supplied in bulk, and had to clean their knives in the sand to make
+some show for the entertainment of the Brigadier at such dinner as
+could be had.
+
+"Regarding volunteering so earnestly as he did, the reports of the
+Inspecting Officers would appear of great importance in Leighton's
+eyes. On one occasion paragraphs had appeared in the papers about the
+Corps which probably gave some umbrage to the authorities. The
+Inspecting Officer kept the battalion an unconscionable time at drill,
+changed the command, fell out the Staff Sergeants, yet all went well.
+At length, with Leighton again in command, and a word imperfectly
+heard, the square walked outwards in four directions. The confusion
+was put to rights, and the well-prepared speech from the Inspecting
+Officer as to the importance of battalion drills, &c., followed. It
+was quite a pleasure to point out to the distressed Leighton that the
+whole was manifestly a 'put up thing.'
+
+"The answer he received on another occasion admitted of no
+misinterpretation. Riding with the Officer after the inspection, and
+anxious to know whether in his opinion he was really doing any good
+work by his volunteering, Leighton asked whether the Officer would be
+willing to take the battalion he had just inspected under fire, and
+received the laconic reply, 'Yes, sir, hell fire.'
+
+"On Leighton's election as President of the Academy, his twenty-five
+years active service in the Corps ceased in 1883. All the time that
+the history of the volunteering of the nineteenth century is known,
+his name will be associated with the Artists' Corps to the honour of
+both."
+
+Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, R.A., also adds his tribute in the following
+lines:--
+
+"I should think that few Commanding Officers of Volunteer Regiments
+could surpass Colonel Leighton in efficiency. His wonderful knowledge
+of infantry drill, and the decision with which he gave the word of
+command, made it very easy for the men in the ranks to obey him; and
+the quickness of eye with which he detected an error in any movement
+frequently saved confusion in the ranks on a field day. The Artists'
+Corps soon became one of the smartest in London. I well remember how
+efficiently he commanded the Volunteer Battalion in the Army
+Manoeuvres on Dartmoor in 1876, when for a fortnight of almost
+continuous rain on that wild moorland he kept us all happy and full of
+respect for him by his fine soldierly example. His thoroughness and
+kindness were constant. After a soaking wet night he would come down
+the line of tents in the early morning distributing some unheard-of
+luxury, such as a couple of new-laid eggs to each man, which he had
+managed to have sent from some outlying village."
+
+Besides the obvious results of a complex and astonishingly
+comprehensive nature, there were also phases in Leighton's life which
+were the outcome on that side of his being half hidden to himself.
+
+Most of us have dual natures, not only in the sense that good and bad
+reside within us simultaneously, but we have also a less definable
+duality of nature; nature's original creature being one thing, and the
+creature developed by the conditions it meets with in its journey
+through life, another. Each acts and reacts on the other. We meet the
+conditions forced upon us in life from the point of our own
+individualities. On the other hand, the original creature gets twisted
+by circumstances and the influence of other personalities, and becomes
+partially altered into a different person. This backwards and forwards
+swaying of the influence of nature and circumstances helps to make
+life the intricate business it is. In the case of highly gifted human
+beings there seem to be further complications, arising chiefly,
+perhaps, from the fact that these form so small a minority. Very
+subtle and undefinable is the effect of such gifts on the character
+and nature of those possessing them, for nature herself maintains a
+kind of secrecy and endows her favoured ones with but a half
+consciousness in respect of them. She gives to the artist and to the
+poet the something, unshared with the ordinary mortal, which controls
+the inner core of his being, and which is another quantity to be
+allowed for in his contact with his fellows. It initiates his most
+passionate, peremptory conditions of temperament, yet it remains
+partially veiled to himself, in so far that he cannot explain it, nor
+give it its right place, any more than the lover can explain the
+glamour which is spread over life by an overpowering first love. When
+Plato classes the souls of the philosopher, the artist, the musician,
+and the lover together[5] as having been born to see most of truth, he
+recognises the same inspired instinctive quality in the artist as in
+the lover. In the artist is linked, as part of its separateness from
+the rest of the community, the inseparable shyness of the lover.
+Anything is better than to expose the sacred, indescribable treasure
+to the indifferent stare of the uninitiated. We find every sort of
+ruse adopted by lovers and artists to avoid being forced into
+explicitness on so tender, so intimate a passion; so convincing to its
+possessor, so impossible of full explanation to those who possess it
+not. The necessity to give it a clear outline is only forced when a
+danger arises of the lover being robbed of his mistress, the artist of
+his vocation; then the will, propelled by the all-conquering love,
+asserts itself, and difficulties have to succumb before it.
+
+Such was the result of opposition in Leighton's case. From early
+childhood he was known to care for nothing so much as for drawing, and
+his talent attracted notice and pleased his family, every
+encouragement being given him by his parents in his studies. It was
+only when, as a boy of twelve, he viewed art as the serious work of
+his future life, and when this view was met by the authorities as one
+not to be encouraged, that the strong passion of his nature asserted
+its rights. Clearly in opposition are planted the firmest roots of
+those inevitable developments which make the great of the world great.
+In Leighton was nurtured that sense of responsibility towards his
+vocation, so salient a characteristic throughout his career, partly by
+his father's attitude towards the worship of his nature for beauty and
+for her exponent art. To prove that his self-chosen labour was no mere
+play work, no mere avoiding the hard work of life and the duller paths
+of service generally recognised only as of serious use to mankind, for
+a game which was a mere pleasure, was a strong additional incentive to
+Leighton's own high aspirations, inspiring him yet more to treat the
+development of his gifts as a moral responsibility. He considered it
+almost in the light of a debt owing to those to whom he was attached
+by strong family affection, that he should prove good his cause.
+Though he fought and overcame, having once won his point, he did his
+utmost to satisfy his father's ambition for him, and to be "eminent."
+
+On August 5, 1879, he wrote to Mrs. Mark Pattison, who was compiling
+notes for an article on his life: "My father, of his own impulse, sat
+down to write a few jottings, which I cannot resist sending you,
+because I was touched at the thought in this kind old man of eighty.
+_He_, by the way, _is_ a fine scholar, and was, at his best, a man of
+exceptional intellectual powers. My desire to be an artist dates as
+far back as my memory, and was wholly spontaneous, or rather
+unprompted. My parents surrounded me with every facility to learn
+drawing, but, as I have told you, _strongly_ discountenanced the idea
+of my being an artist unless I could be eminent in art."
+
+    [Illustration: LORD LEIGHTON'S FATHER
+                   LORD LEIGHTON'S MOTHER
+    From Miniatures, by permission of Mr. H.S. Mendelssohn]
+
+Still--though to excel was Leighton's aim, in order to satisfy his
+father's and also his own ambition--within the hidden recesses of that
+aim lay the reverent, more single-hearted worship for his mistress
+Art--seldom unveiled, it would seem, when with his father, to whose
+purely intellectual and philosophical attitude of mind it would not
+have appealed. Those alone possessed the key to that inner sanctuary
+who did not need the key; who wanted no introduction, and were not
+merely sympathisers, but native inhabitants. There is a freemasonry
+between the inmates of these places remote from the world's usual
+habitations, and these, naturally, have a horror of vaunting the
+possession of a sacred ground to the outsider, the uninitiated. Many
+of Leighton's most intimate acquaintances gathered no clue, through
+their knowledge of him, of the existence of the secluded spot. Dr.
+Leighton's influence, however, non-artistic as was his nature,
+stimulated his son's natural mental elasticity, encouraging a
+comprehensive and unprejudiced view of life and people, a view which
+marked Leighton's undertakings with a stamp of nobility and
+distinction throughout his career. Yet further--the intellectual
+training he received in youth probably enlarged, in some respects, the
+areas of the sacred sanctuary itself, enabling Leighton, when he was
+the servant of the public and possessing wide influence and patronage,
+not only to exercise power with the qualities which spring from a high
+intellectual development, but to mellow with wisdom the guidance of
+the yet higher sympathies of the heart, when helping those staggering
+along the road which he himself had travelled over with such success.
+To many, however, especially to those possessing the artistic
+temperament, it must always remain, to say the least, a questionable
+advantage to a student of art that his intellectual faculties should
+be forced forward at the expense of the development of his more
+emotional and ingenuous instincts, at the age when sensitiveness to
+receive impressions is keenest, and when such impressions have the
+most lasting power in moulding the future tendencies of his nature.
+Certainly the effects of a development of critical and analytical
+faculties is apt to prove a damper to those ecstasies of enthusiasm
+which inspire the most convincing conceptions in art. When first
+starting and facing seriously his independent career alone, Leighton
+writes to his mother: "I wish that I had a mind, simple and
+unconscious as a child." Again, writing to his elder sister from
+Algiers in 1857, after describing the delightful impression produced
+by a first visit to an Eastern country, he adds: "And yet what I have
+said of my feelings, though _literally true_, does not give you an
+exactly true notion, for together with, and as it were behind, so much
+pleasurable emotion, there is always that other strange second man in
+me, calm, observant, critical, unmoved, blase--odious! He is a shadow
+that walks with me, a sort of nineteenth-century canker of doubt and
+dissection; it's very, very seldom that I forget his loathsome
+presence. What cheering things I find to say!"
+
+Allied to the third, more intimate aspect of his nature were phases in
+Leighton's feelings when heart would seem to conquer head. He would at
+times indulge in what might almost be designated as a self-imposed
+blindness, when he would allow of no criticism by himself or others of
+the cause or person in question. An enthusiastic, unselfish devotion,
+a sense of chivalry or pity, would override his normally
+clear-sighted, intellectual acumen. Having set his belief and
+admiration to one tune, faithful loyalty--and maybe a certain amount
+of obstinacy--would bind him fast in an adherence to the same.
+
+    [Illustration: EARLY PICTURE OF BOY RESCUING SLEEPING BABY
+    FROM EAGLE
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+Belonging also to the intuitive, more emotional side of his nature,
+was the curiously strong influence places exercised over him, certain
+localities affecting him and exciting his sympathies with a strong
+power.
+
+In 1857 he wrote to his elder sister: "If I am as faithful to my wife
+as I am to the places I love, I shall do very well!"
+
+In order to seize fully Leighton's complete individuality, an
+understanding of Italy, his "second home," is perhaps necessary--a
+conception of the nature of the unsophisticated Italian life which
+fascinated him so greatly when as yet no invasion had been made of
+cosmopolitan, so-called civilisation. As a magnet, Italy drew Leighton
+to her.[6] Under the influence of her radiant beauty, breathing such a
+life of charm and colour beneath sunlit skies, he felt the sources of
+happiness in his own nature expand and his powers ripen. In the
+fertility of her soil, the vitality of her people, the superb quality
+of her art--fine and gracious in its perfection, and distributed
+generously throughout the length and breadth of her land--he
+experienced influences which intensified his emotions and vivified his
+imagination. The child-like charm of her people, so spontaneously
+happy, enjoying the ease and assurance of nature's own aristocracy,
+because enjoying nature's generous gifts with unabashed fulness of
+sensation, in whom are non-existent those sensibilities which create
+self-consciousness, restraint, and an absence of self-confidence,
+aroused in Leighton an interest deeper than mere pleasure. It was to
+him like the joy of a yearning satisfied, as of those who, having had
+their lot cast for years with aliens and foreigners, find themselves
+again with their own kith and kin, surrounded by the native atmosphere
+which had lent such enchantment to childhood. Again and again he
+returned to Italy to be made happy, to be revived, to be strengthened
+by her. Her influence became kneaded into his very being, not only
+nourishing his sense of beauty and rendering more complete the artist
+nature within him, but touching the sources from which his artist
+temperament sprang, inspiring his very personality and changing it
+into one which was certainly not typically English. His rapid
+utterance, his picturesque gesture, his very appearance, were not
+emphatically English.[7]
+
+Certain Englishmen who knew Leighton but slightly felt out of sympathy
+with him for this reason, experiencing a difficulty in recognising him
+as one of themselves. It was, however, only on the surface that a
+difference existed. Once intimate with Leighton, he was ever found to
+be _au fond_ English of the English. After the age of thirty it was in
+England Leighton fought the serious battle of life--Italy was but the
+playground, though a playground of such fascination to him that the
+glamour of it was spread over the working hours no less than over the
+holidays. In these days we have to go into the smaller towns and
+villages to discover the typical Italian characteristics; but when
+Leighton, as a child, was taken from the gloom of Bloomsbury to this,
+to him a magic world,--syndicates, building-companies, tramways, and
+modern things generally, had not as yet invaded either Rome or
+Florence. When grown up and master of his own actions, he wandered
+into unsophisticated haunts--villages and towns off the beaten tracks,
+where with abnormal facility he learned the distinctive _patois_ of
+every district, listening with delight to local folk-songs, and
+watching the peasants and the aborigines of the soil. In early
+sketch-books we find records of visits to Albano, Tivoli, Cervaro,
+Subiaco, San Giuminiano, and to even smaller and less known villages
+in Tuscany and Veneziano, where he enjoyed the unalloyed flavour of
+Italy and her people. Those who pay only flying visits to the country
+after they are grown up would find a difficulty perhaps in realising
+what Italy was to Leighton; but any one visiting for a few weeks even
+such a well-known place as Albano, without other preoccupation than to
+watch the natives and wander in the beautiful scenery to the sound of
+the many flowing fountains, could still catch something of the true
+national spirit which fascinated him so greatly. The typical Britisher
+might regard the ways of these natives of the _Provincia di Roma_ as
+irrational, idle, semi-savage. Doubtless the streets and piazzas
+abound in noisy inhabitants, gesticulating with wild dramatic fervour,
+who appear to have otherwise little to do in life but to loiter and
+"look on"; sociable groups of women sit round the doorways knitting;
+but it is the talk, accompanied by excited action, which is engrossing
+them. Charmingly pretty children are playing everywhere--idle,
+troublesome, but so happy! To the accompanying sound of running
+waters,--night and day,--cries, yells, and songs ring out through the
+ancient little town.[8] High up on the side of the mountains it
+overlooks the Roman Campagna, the tragic strangeness of those
+land-waves rolling away, flattened and stretched out, for miles and
+miles, under the dome of light and shadowing cloud, a network of
+bright gleams and violet lakelets, to the far-off brilliant shine on
+the sea limit.[9] This noise, dramatic action, gesticulation, all
+ending apparently in nothing in particular, but filling the little
+town with such amazing vitality--what is it all about? The typical
+Englishman does not know--does not care to know, despising the whole
+thing as beneath his notice. But Leighton knew well what it meant.
+From experiences in his own nature he realised that it was but an
+innocent outlet, through voice and gesture, of an excitement resulting
+from an imperative dramatic instinct, a vital force in the emotional
+nature of the Italian. He recognised the necessity for such an outlet
+in such temperaments through his sympathy with the glad exuberance of
+physical vitality enjoyed in this sunlit land; anti-puritan though it
+may be, this exuberance is none the less pure and innocent.
+
+The holy Saint Francis in his ecstasies of spiritual illumination
+would, it is said, break out into song from the natural impulse to
+find an outlet and to throw off the excess of excitement, that
+thrilled through his being.[10]
+
+Leighton knew that to suppress the vitality which needs such an outlet
+was to minimise the forces necessary for life's best work. He himself,
+in the working of his mind, was possessed of a magnificent facility--a
+facility which left the strength of his emotions fresh and free, to
+enjoy the ecstasies of admiration and delight which the choice gifts
+of nature and art had given him; but there are many among modern men
+and women, taught by much reading, who overweight their physical
+vitality in the effort to develop intellect and to forward
+self-interest, till all simple physical enjoyment is lost, and the
+natural man becomes repressed into a mental machine incapable of any
+spontaneous emotions of joy, and blunt to the fine aroma of life's
+keen and pure pleasures--
+
+    "My nature is subdued to what it works in."
+
+To Leighton the simple joyous child of nature, in the form of the
+unsophisticated Italian, was a preferable being. To the end of his
+life he retained much of the child in his own nature, and had ever an
+inborn sympathy with the love for children so evident everywhere in
+unspoilt Italy; for the gracious caressing of them by the poorest of
+the poor--old men in the veriest tatters and rags showing a complete
+and beautiful submission to the dominating charms of babyhood.
+
+The memory of the hideous, gruesome stories of baby-farming in England
+strikes indeed a contrast with the scenes that abound at every turn
+in any old, dirty, picturesque Italian village, and assuredly settles
+the question, Is our English development of civilisation an unalloyed
+benefit?
+
+As a contrast to the definite, explicit German development of his
+intellectual machinery, Leighton had special sympathy with the
+emotional spontaneity of the Italian race; also as a contrast to the
+selective and finely poised conclusions to be worked out in theories
+of composition learnt from his beloved master Steinle, arose a special
+admiration for the casual, unpremeditated, inevitable grace and charm
+in the manners and gestures of this southern people. What laboured
+theories so often failed to achieve, nature here was always doing in
+her most careless moods.
+
+In considering the intimate aspect of Leighton's nature, and the
+interweaving of the original fabric with the forces developed by the
+circumstances he encountered, the influence of Italy must assuredly be
+given a very distinct prominence. From her and her people he acquired
+courage in the exercise of his intuitive preferences, also a
+development of that rapid and direct insight so inborn in her
+children. Like the lizards that dart with such lightning speed across
+her sun-scorched walls and over the gnarled bark of the weird olive
+tree, the perceptions of the typical Italian are swift, and fly
+straight to the mark. In the Italian, however, this vividness of
+perception is mostly expended in ejaculation and dramatic gesture,
+which,--subsiding,--leaves a state of indolence and nonchalance,
+untroubled by any mental exertion. In Leighton the rapidity with which
+his perceptions seized the core of truth was backed by an intellectual
+activity of extraordinary power, by which he worked his intuitive
+sensibilities into the interests which guided the solid aims of his
+life.
+
+Probably no Englishman ever approached the Greek of the Periclean
+period so nearly as did Leighton, for the reason that he possessed
+that combination of intellectual and emotional power in a like rare
+degree. The human beings who achieve most as active workers in the
+world, are doubtless those in whom can be traced a capacity for making
+apparently incompatible forces pull together towards a desired end.
+Leighton succeeded in allying two distinct developments in his nature;
+and by, so to say, putting these into double harness and driving them
+together, acquired an advantage which few other artists, if any, have
+possessed since the time of the Greeks.
+
+But, being essentially English as well as Greek-like, Leighton pushed
+this combination of powers to a moral issue. He held as his creed of
+creeds that the mission of Art was to act as a lever in the uplifting
+of the human race, not by going beyond her own domain, but by
+directing the sense of beauty with which her true priesthood must ever
+be endowed, in order to eliminate from man his more brutal tendencies,
+to refine and perfect his insight into nature, and to develop his
+delight in her perfection. He held that, the stronger the emotional
+force in an artist, the stronger the sense of responsibility should
+be; the more he should seek to express it in a manner which would
+elevate rather than deprave. In his picture of "Cymon and Iphigenia,"
+Leighton expressed the main dogma of his belief. In sentences towards
+the end of his second address to the Royal Academy students in the
+year 1881, he eloquently describes the complex and deep nature of
+those aesthetic emotions whence spring the Arts:--
+
+"It is not, it cannot be, the foremost duty of Art to seek to embody
+that which it cannot adequately present, and to enter into a
+competition in which it is doomed to inevitable defeat.
+
+"On the other hand, there is a field in which she has no rival. We
+have within us the faculty for a range of emotions of vast compass, of
+exquisite subtlety, and of irresistible force, to which Art and Art
+alone amongst human forms of expression has a key; these then, and no
+others, are the chords which it is her appointed duty to strike; and
+Form, Colour, and the contrasts of Light and Shade are the agents
+through which it is given to her to set them in motion. Her duty is,
+therefore, to awaken those sensations directly emotional and
+indirectly intellectual, which can be communicated only through the
+sense of sight, to the delight of which she has primarily to minister.
+And the dignity of these sensations lies in this, that they are
+inseparably connected by association of ideas, with a range of
+perceptions and feelings of infinite variety and scope. They come
+fraught with dim complex memories of all the ever-shifting spectacle
+of inanimate creation, and of the more deeply stirring phenomena of
+life; of the storm and the lull, the splendour and the darkness of the
+outer world; of the storm and the lull, the splendour and the darkness
+of the changeful and transitory lives of men. Nay, so closely overlaid
+is the simple aesthetic sensation with elements of ethic or
+intellectual emotion by these constant and manifold accretions of
+associated ideas, that it is difficult to conceive of it independently
+of this precious overgrowth.... The most sensitively religious mind
+may indeed rest satisfied in the consciousness that it is not on the
+wings of abstract thought alone that we rise to the highest moods of
+contemplation, or to the most chastened moral temper; and assuredly
+Arts which have for their chief task to reveal the inmost springs of
+Beauty in the created world, to display all the pomp of the teeming
+earth, and all the pageant of those heavens of which we are told that
+they declare the Glory of God, are not the least eloquent witnesses to
+the might and to the majesty of the mysterious and eternal Fountain of
+all good things."
+
+Not only could no attempt be approximately made at giving a real and
+vivid picture of Leighton's remarkable personality were not the three
+aspects of his nature taken into account, but also if the influences
+which affected him strongly during those years when his genius and
+character were being developed were not also considered. His
+conscious nature and feelings, during the first thirty years of his
+life, can be best traced in his letters, notably in those to his
+mother. It is easy to recognise, in reading his mother's letters to
+him, from whom he inherits the warm tender generosity which made his
+nature so lovable.
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF PROFESSOR EDOUARD STEINLE
+    Drawn by Himself]
+
+When at Frankfort, in 1845, he first became acquainted with the most
+"indelible" influence of his life in that inner sanctuary in which he
+had hitherto been a lonely inmate. Seven years later, in the Diary he
+calls "Pebbles," written for his mother, when, fully fledged, he
+leaves the nest to battle alone on the field of life, he pays a
+tribute of unqualified affection and gratitude to his master, Steinle,
+who first unlocked the door to Leighton's full consciousness of the
+depth of his devotion for his calling (see pp. 61 and 62).
+
+In 1879, the year after Leighton was elected President of the Royal
+Academy, in the same letter to Mrs. Mark Pattison already quoted from,
+he writes, respecting the influences which affected his art
+development: "For _bad_ by Florentine Academy, for good, far beyond
+all others, by Steinle, a noble-minded, single-hearted artist, _s'il
+en fut_. Technically, I learnt (later) much from Robert Fleury, but
+being very receptive and prone to admire, I have learnt, and still do,
+from innumerable artists, big and small. Steinle's is, however, the
+_indelible seal_. The _thoroughness_ of all the great old masters is
+so pervading a quality that I look upon them all as forming one
+aristocracy."
+
+During the first year when he settled in Rome, in the beginning of
+1853, he made the acquaintance of Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris. Leighton's
+friendship with Mrs. Sartoris (Adelaide Kemble), many years his
+senior, and one who had ever viewed her art as a singer from the
+purest and highest aspect, became a strong and elevating influence in
+his life. Professor Giovanni Costa (the "Nino" of the letters), one
+of Leighton's most intimate friends from the year 1853 to the end in
+1896, wrote of Mrs. Sartoris, referring to the early days in Rome from
+1853 to 1856:[11] "The greatest influence on the life of Frederic
+Leighton was exerted by Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris (Miss Adelaide Kemble),
+who had the mind of a great artist. Mr. Sartoris was one of the
+greatest critics of art, and Mrs. Sartoris had a most elevated and
+serene nature."
+
+This great friendship with Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris brought with it many
+others, notably those of Robert Browning and of Mr. Henry Greville.
+Some years later, Leighton writes of Mr. Henry Greville, in a letter
+to his pupil and friend, Mr. John Walker: "He is indeed one of the
+kindest and best men possible, I look on him myself as a second
+father"; and Henry Greville in a letter to Leighton writes: "I wish
+you were my son, Fay"--Fay being the name given to Leighton by his
+inner circle of intimates, and certainly a stroke of genius in the one
+who invented it. Writing from Frankfort to his mother, where he
+returned to show his works to Steinle after his family had finally
+migrated to Bath and he to Rome, he says: "I have had such a letter
+from Henry (Henry Greville); there never was anything like the
+tenderness of it. You would have been just enchanted."
+
+The friendship with Mrs. Sartoris only ended with her death in 1879,
+the year after Leighton was elected President of the Royal Academy.
+Being then close upon fifty, deeply sensible of the grave
+responsibilities involved by his new position, Leighton entered on a
+fresh phase in his career. As president of the centre of national
+living art, this phase involved a serious view being taken of the
+interests of art such as could be encouraged by a public body. Also as
+one who had been helped and encouraged by personal friendship and
+influence to work out the best in him, with his ever eager and
+generous nature he felt anxious to hand on the help he had received by
+devoting a like sympathy to the individual interests of other workers.
+His field of action had become enlarged, and he rose with consummate
+ability to the fulfilment of the duties this larger area entailed on
+him. Not only by his biennial addresses to the students of the Royal
+Academy, but by the speeches delivered spontaneously at the councils
+and elsewhere, when no preparation would have been possible, his fame
+as an orator was established. Many there are who have heard the
+impromptu speeches he made, who can vouch, as do Mr. Briton Riviere
+and Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, that these were just as fine in language and
+excellent in the concise form in which the words were made to convey
+the intended meaning, as those which Leighton had carefully prepared
+beforehand, and possessed, moreover, the charm of an unlaboured
+effort.
+
+    [Illustration: FROM DRAWING OF ADELAIDE SARTORIS
+    Paris, 1856]
+
+The seventeen years, during which Leighton was President of the Royal
+Academy, and prominent in every direction as the leader of the art of
+his country, were not without saddening influences. His duties
+necessitated contact with many varieties of human nature, some far
+from sympathetic to him. The contrast between his own disinterested
+reverence for beauty, moral and physical, with the indifference
+displayed by many of his brother artists towards his own high aims and
+aspirations, forced itself more and more on Leighton as the optimistic
+fervour and enthusiasm of youth waned with years and failing health.
+He had to face the depressing fact that selfish motives are the ruling
+factors with most men, even with those who ostensibly follow the
+calling of beauty. Much of the joyousness of his spirit was lessened
+accordingly, though his "sweet reasonableness," to quote Watts' truly
+suggestive words, never deserted him. This prevented any bitterness or
+resentment from finding permanent location in his nature. Another
+source of distress arose from the fact that his great position
+aroused the jealousy of the envious. However exceptional his tact,
+however truly heartfelt his consideration for others, no virtues could
+stand against the vice of being so pre-eminently successful in the
+eyes of the envious, whose vanity alone placed them in their own
+estimation on a level with the great.
+
+Nothing perhaps excites so rampant a jealousy in unappreciative and
+envious natures, as does the unexplainable charm of a delightful
+personality. It aggravates the dull and envious beyond measure to see
+a being thus endowed galloping over the ground in all directions with
+ease, there being in their eyes no sufficient explanation for the
+pace. Such success is viewed by the envious as a kind of trick, some
+witchery of fascination, which deludes the world into bestowing
+unmerited advantages on the conjuror. Those, on the contrary, who can
+appreciate a transcendent and delightful personality, recognise it as
+the convincing grace of the power of uncommon gifts flashing their
+radiance into the intercourse of every-day life, modestly ignored as
+conscious possessions but inevitably sparkling out in any human
+intercourse, and from a social point of view making the greatest among
+us the servants of all.
+
+Jealousy fights with hidden weapons. What man or woman ever
+acknowledged being jealous? The passion is disguised. Hence the
+hideous sins that follow in its wake: ingratitude, treachery,
+calumnies, are called into the service to blacken the offending
+object. Bacon says of envy: "It is also the vilest affection, and the
+most depraved; for which cause it is the proper attribute of the
+devil, who is called _the envious man, that soweth tares amongst the
+wheat by night_, as it always cometh to pass that envy worketh
+subtilly, and in the dark; and to the prejudice of good things, such
+as is the wheat."
+
+Leighton suffered from the jealousy of the envious, though in most
+cases the open expression of it was smothered during his life by
+reason of his power and position. Besides being tender-hearted and
+easily hurt at any feeling of hostility shown against him, he
+cordially hated any phase of the ugly.
+
+In the spring of 1895 Leighton said to a friend: "My one constant
+prayer is that I should not live beyond seventy." His great dread was
+to be a burden to any one--to cease to be useful to all. His wish was
+more than fulfilled. He passed onward five years before the allotted
+three score and ten.
+
+Many there were who felt with Watts that life was indeed darkened; "a
+great light was extinguished," a beloved friend was no longer amongst
+them to help, encourage, and brighten the days. To a wide social
+circle, a personality, rare in its charm and endowments, differing
+from all others, had passed off the stage. It was as if, amid the
+sober brown and grey plumage of our quiet-coloured English birds,
+through the mists and fogs of our northern clime, there had sped
+across the page of our nineteenth century history the flight of some
+brilliant-hued flamingo, emitting flashes of light and colour on his
+way.
+
+To the wide public a power and a control, noble and distinguished in
+its quality, had ceased to rule over the art interests of the country.
+Last, but not least, to his "brothers and sisters," as Leighton called
+all earnest students and artists, it was as if a strong support, a
+centre of impelling force, an inspiration towards the best and highest
+in art, had been suddenly swept away.
+
+On the day of his funeral, a friend, whose husband had known him from
+the commencement to the end of the brilliant career, wrote the
+following notes:--[12]
+
+"Lord Leighton's funeral to-day was as brilliant as his life, and we
+came home from the majestic ceremony at St. Paul's Cathedral feeling
+that his kind and gracious spirit would have rejoiced--for all he
+loved and honoured in life were there mourning for the loss of their
+gifted and genial friend. As the procession moved slowly into the
+Cathedral the crimson and golden pall was Venetian in its brilliancy,
+and the long branch of palm spoke touchingly of pain over and the
+conquest won. Music, the sister Art he so devoutly worshipped, lifted
+up her voice in pathetic accents to the dome of the vast Cathedral,
+striving to re-echo the solemnity and grief around.
+
+"Dear gracious Leighton, how vividly my husband recalled his earliest
+impressions of him, the handsome young artist at Rome. Visions arise
+in the mind of joyous days in his second home there, the cultured and
+hospitable house of Adelaide Sartoris, which formed the happy
+background of Leighton's life. He remembered the departure of his
+picture 'The Triumph of Cimabue,' sent with diffidence, and so,
+proportionate was the joy when news came of its success, and that the
+Queen had bought it. It was the month of May. Rome was at its
+loveliest, and Leighton's friends and brother artists gave him a
+festal dinner to celebrate his honours. On receiving the news,
+Leighton's first act was to fly to three less successful artists and
+buy a picture from each of them (George Mason, then still unknown, was
+one), and so Leighton reflected his own happiness at once on others.
+To-day as we viewed the distinguished (in the best sense of the term)
+mourners, it seemed an epitome of all his social and artistic life. He
+never forgot an old friend, and not one was absent to-day. The men
+around his coffin all looked heartily sad. It was only when those
+peaceful words came, 'We give Thee hearty thanks, for that it hath
+pleased Thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this
+sinful world,' that we remembered the agony of his last three days on
+earth, and we could be glad for our dear friend that it was past. We
+could give hearty thanks, but it was for him and him alone, for we
+turn with heavy hearts to our homes, feeling that with Frederic
+Leighton ever so much kindness, love, and colour has gone out of the
+world."
+
+    [Illustration: CRYPT UNDER ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, WHERE BARRY,
+    SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, TURNER, AND LORD LEIGHTON WERE BURIED
+    From a photo, by permission of Messrs. S.B. Bolas & Co.]
+
+Attached to the wreath which lay on his coffin were the lines written
+by our Queen:--
+
+    "Life's race well run,
+     Life's work well done,
+     Life's crown well won,
+     Now comes rest."
+
+In Leighton's own letters, more than is possible in any other written
+words, will be traced those qualities of character and feeling which
+guided the rare gifts nature had bestowed. These, used with unstinting
+generosity for the benefit of others, established for our national art
+a position, cosmopolitan in its influence, never previously attained
+by English painting and sculpture, and of which it may be fairly
+hoped, future generations, no less than the present, may reap the
+benefit.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[1] George Eliot--"Romola."
+
+[2] Lord Loch's cousin, Colonel Sutherland Orr, married Leighton's
+elder sister in the year 1857.
+
+[3] Quoted in G.F. Watts' "Reminiscences."
+
+[4] An incident, one out of many that tell of Leighton's hearty, eager
+helpfulness, happened on one of the evenings at the Academy, after the
+prizes had been given away. A student was passing through the first
+room, on his way to the entrance. He looked the picture of dejection
+and disappointed wretchedness, poorly and shabbily dressed, and
+slinking away as if he wished to pass out of the place unnoticed.
+Millais and Leighton, walking arm in arm, came along, pictures of
+prosperity. Leighton caught sight of the poor, downcast student.
+Leaving Millais, he darted across the vestibule to him, and, taking the
+student's arm, drew him back into the first room, and made him sit down
+on the ottoman beside him. Putting his arm on the top of the ottoman,
+and resting his head on his hand, Leighton began to talk as he alone
+could talk; pouring forth volumes of earnest, rapid utterances, as if
+everything in the world depended on his words conveying what he wanted
+them to convey. He went on and on. The shabby figure gradually seemed
+to pull itself together, and, at last, when they both rose, he seemed
+to have become another creature. Leighton shook hands with him, and the
+youth went on his way rejoicing. It is certain that if other help than
+advice were needed, it was given. But it was the extraordinary zest and
+vitality which Leighton put into his help which made it unlike any
+other. He fought every one's cause even better than others fight their
+own.
+
+[5] In Plato's "Phaedrus," Socrates says: "The soul, which has seen
+most of trouble, shall come to the birth as a philosopher, or artist,
+or musician, or lover; that which has seen truth in the second degree,
+shall be a righteous king, or warrior, or lord; the soul which is of
+the third class, shall be a politician, or economist, or trader; the
+fourth, shall be a lover of gymnastic toils, or a physician; the fifth,
+a prophet, or hierophant; to the sixth, a poet or imitator will be
+'appropriate'; to the seventh, the life of an artisan, or husbandman;
+to the eighth, that of a sophist, or demagogue; to the ninth, that of a
+tyrant; all these are states of probation, in which he who lives
+righteously, improves, and he who lives unrighteously, deteriorates his
+lot."
+
+[6] He wrote to his sister in 1857 from Algiers: "I shall spend my next
+winter in my dear, dear old Rome, to which I am attached beyond
+measure; indeed, Italy altogether has a hold on my heart that no other
+country ever can have (except, of course, my own), and although, as I
+just now said, I was most delighted with Africa, and have not a moment
+to look back to that was not agreeable, yet there is an intimate little
+corner in my affections into which it could never penetrate." And later
+he wrote in a letter to his mother: "I have so often been to Italy, and
+so often written to you from thence, that it seems quite a platitude to
+tell you how much I enjoy it, and what a keen delight I felt again this
+time when I once more trod the soil of this wonderful country; indeed,
+by the time you get this you will already yourself be in full enjoyment
+of its pleasures, and though naturally you cannot feel one tittle of my
+attachment and yearning affection for it, yet you will have all the
+physical delights of sun and serene skies and a good share of the
+wonder and admiration at the inexhaustible natural beauties of this
+garden of the world. I came through Switzerland this time, but as quick
+as a shot, as I was in a hurry to get _home_ to Italy."
+
+[7] Du Maurier, who took much interest in tracing indications of
+various racial distinctions in the remarkable people of his time, was
+troubled on this point. He was convinced that in Leighton existed
+indications of foreign or Jewish blood, but was quite unable to
+discover any facts in support of this theory.
+
+[8] Leighton wrote in a letter to his sister from Algiers of the
+strange sounds which the Moors emit, adding: "Much the same sort of
+thing is noticeable in the peasants near Rome, whose songs consist
+(within a definite shape) of long-sustained chest notes that are
+peculiar in the extreme, and though often harsh, seem to be wonderfully
+in harmony with the long unbroken lines of the Campagna."
+
+[9] On December 1, 1856, Leighton writes to Steinle: "My Italian
+journey afforded me in every way the greatest pleasure and edification,
+and I seem now for the first time to have grasped the greatness of the
+Campagna and the giant loftiness of Michael Angelo."
+
+[10] "Apres de pareilles emotions, il avait besoin d'etre seul, de
+savourer sa joie, de chanter sa liberte definitivement conquise, sur
+tous les sentiers le long desquels il avait tant gemi, tant lutte.
+
+"Il ne voulut donc pas retourner immediatement a Saint-Damien. Sortant
+de la cite par la porte la plus voisine, il s'enfonca dans les sentiers
+deserts qui grimpent sur les flancs du Mont Subasio. On etait aux tout
+premiers jours du printemps. Il y avait encore ca et la de grandes
+fondrieres de neige, mais sous les ardeurs du soleil de mars l'hiver
+semblait s'avouer vaincu. Au sein de cette harmonie, mysterieuse et
+troublante, le coeur de Francois vibrait delicieusement, tout son etre
+se calmait et s'exaltait; l'ame des choses le caressait doucement et
+lui versait l'apaisement. Un bonheur inconnu l'envahissait; pour
+celebrer sa victoire et sa liberte, il remplit bientot toute la foret
+du bruit de ses chants.
+
+"Les emotions trop douces ou trop profondes pour pouvoir etre exprimees
+dans la langue ordinaire, l'homme les chante."--_Vie de S. Francois
+d'Assise, par Paul Sabatier._
+
+[11] "Notes on Lord Leighton," _Cornhill Magazine_, March 1897.
+
+[12] The _Morning Post_ of February 4, 1896.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+ANTECEDENTS AND SCHOOL DAYS
+
+1830-1852
+
+
+Some light is thrown on Leighton's ancestry by the following letter,
+written by Sir Baldwyn Leighton to Sir Albert Woods, Garter, at the
+time when a peerage was bestowed on Frederic Leighton. It deals with
+the question of associating the name of Stretton with the Barony.
+
+                                        "TABLEY HOUSE, KNUTSFORD,
+                                              _January 10, 1896._
+
+    "DEAR SIR,--In answer to yours of January 9, I beg to say that
+    there are two places called Stretton in the County of Salop;
+    one, now known as Church Stretton, having become a small town,
+    was formerly in the possession of my family through the
+    marriage of John de Leighton, my lineal ancestor, with the
+    daughter and heiress of William Cambray of Stretton in the
+    fourteenth century, whose arms we still quarter (see Herald's
+    Visitation for Shropshire). This no longer belongs to me,
+    having been mortgaged and sold by Sir Thomas Leighton, Kt.
+    Banneret, temp. Hen. VIII. But there is another Stretton in
+    the parish of Alderbury with Cardeston which does still belong
+    to me, and has always belonged to the family from time
+    immemorial. I have been in communication with Sir Frederic
+    Leighton on the subject, and it _is_ my wish that he should
+    adopt the supplemental title of Stretton. According to a
+    pedigree made out by a Shropshire antiquarian some thirty
+    years ago, Sir Frederic's branch descends from the younger son
+    of the John de Leighton who married the Cambray heiress, and
+    who was admitted burgess of Shrewsbury in 1465. Therefore I
+    am of opinion that it _is_ a very proper supplemental title
+    for Sir Frederic to assume.--I remain, yours, &c.,
+
+                                               "BALDWYN LEIGHTON.
+
+   "To Sir ALBERT WOODS, Garter."
+
+In 1862, Leighton writes to his mother:--
+
+"You must know that I received some time back a letter from the _Rev.
+Wm. Leighton_ (address, _Luciefelde, Shrewsbury_) asking me very
+politely to give him whatever information I could about our family, as
+he was making a pedigree of the Leighton family, and was anxious to
+find out something about a branch that had settled and been lost sight
+of in London. I answered that I regretted I could give him no definite
+information on the subject, beyond our belief that we were of a
+younger branch of the Shropshire Leightons, whose arms and crest we
+bore, that I knew personally nothing of my family further back than my
+grandfather, telling him who and what he was. I ended by referring him
+_to Papa_, to whom I immediately wrote, telling him the nature of Mr.
+Leighton's request, and begging him to write to him at once in case he
+could give him any clue that might facilitate his researches. I then
+received a second, and very interesting, letter from Mr. L. telling me
+that he had found in Yorkshire some Leightons (I forget the Christian
+names, but not Robert) who claimed to descend from the Shropshire
+stock, and whose crest differed from the Leighton crest exactly as
+ours does, _i.e._ in the _forward_ expansion of the right wing of the
+Wyvern; a peculiarity, by the by, which did not appear to be of weight
+with him. There was more in this letter which I don't clearly
+remember, but nothing establishing our claim; this letter I
+immediately forwarded to you, and since then both myself and Mr.
+Leighton have been waiting to hear from Papa."
+
+The conclusion arrived at from these inquiries was--that, three or
+four hundred years ago, the descendants of John de Leighton and the
+Cambray heiress migrated from Shropshire to Yorkshire, and that
+Leighton's grandfather, Sir James Leighton, court physician to the
+Emperor Nicholas of Russia, was a descendant of this branch. Dr.
+Leighton, the artist's father, married the daughter of George Augustus
+Nash of Edmonton. He and his wife, early in their married life, went
+to St. Petersburg, and it was supposed that he would probably succeed
+his father as court physician to the Czar, who favoured Sir James
+Leighton with his intimacy; but the climate of St. Petersburg not
+suiting Mrs. Leighton's health, they remained there but a few years.
+It was at St. Petersburg that the two eldest children were born,
+Fanny, who died young, and Alexandra, the god-child of the Empress
+Alexandra, who became Mrs. Sutherland Orr. From St. Petersburg, the
+family moved to Scarborough, and it was at Scarborough, on December 3,
+1830, that the most famous member of the Leighton family was born. The
+question as to which was the actual house in which the event took
+place was satisfactorily settled at the time when Leighton was raised
+to the peerage, in letters which appeared in the press,--one
+containing the testimony of Mrs. Anne Thorley, who was in Dr.
+Leighton's service for three years with the family at Scarborough, and
+for two years after they moved to London. She affirms that Leighton
+was born in the house in Brunswick Terrace, now numbered 13, but which
+at that time consisted only of three houses. Mrs. Thorley adds,
+"Fred's mother was a splendid lady--such a good one with her children,
+and most affectionate."
+
+A second son named James, who died in his infancy, was also born at
+Scarborough, and five years after the birth of Leighton his younger
+sister Augusta, now Mrs. Matthews, was born in London.
+
+    [Illustration: Lord Leighton when a Boy
+    From a Portrait by Himself
+    By permission of Mr. H.S. Mendelssohn]
+
+    [Illustration: Lord Leighton's younger Sister when a Child
+    From a Drawing by Lord Leighton
+    By permission of Mr. H.S. Mendelssohn]
+
+Dr. Leighton had every prospect of excelling among those most
+distinguished in his profession. Deafness, however, by which he was
+unfortunately attacked about that time, made it impossible for him to
+practise any longer as a physician. Deprived of his active work, he
+turned his attention to more abstract lines of study, and to
+philosophy.
+
+In 1840, Mrs. Leighton, after a severe illness, required a drier
+climate than that of England, and the family travelled on the
+Continent, visiting Germany, Switzerland, and Italy.
+
+Family annals record the delight with which Leighton, the boy of ten,
+enjoyed the beauty of nature in Switzerland, the flowers and
+everything he saw in the land of mountains. When he reached Rome, the
+buildings, the fountains, the ruins, the models awaiting hire on the
+Piazza di Spagna, fascinated him, and he filled many sketch-books with
+records of all the picturesque scenes that struck him as so new and
+wonderful. From earliest days, drawing was Leighton's greatest
+amusement, and he had it always in his own mind that he would be an
+artist and nothing else. When in Rome, he was allowed to study drawing
+under Signor Meli, but his father insisted on other lessons being
+carried on with regularity and industry. We hear of his elder sister
+and Leighton learning Latin together from a young priest. Dr. Leighton
+had a commanding intelligence, and made his will felt. As with many
+fond fathers who centre their chief interest on an only son, and
+foster thoughts of a notable future for him, Dr. Leighton seems to
+have felt that the greater his interest and affection, the greater
+must be the exercise of strict discipline over his boy. Leighton
+received, to say the least, a stern upbringing from his father,
+mitigated, however, by the greatest tenderness from his mother. The
+boy's will respecting his future career proved sufficient for the
+occasion, and he had reason to be thankful that the general knowledge,
+which Dr. Leighton insisted on his acquiring, was instilled at so
+early an age. From the time he was ten years old he was made to study
+the classics, and at twelve he spoke French and Italian as fluently as
+English. Dr. Leighton had himself taught the boy anatomy, ever
+cherishing the hope that he would, when he came to years of
+discretion, renounce the idea of being an artist, and follow in the
+footsteps of his father and grandfather by becoming a doctor. In
+either case a knowledge of anatomy was thought necessary, and, in
+after years, Leighton declared he knew much more anatomy when he was
+fourteen than he did when he was President of the Royal Academy. "I
+owe," he said, "my knowledge to my father. He would teach me the names
+of the bones and the muscles. He would show them to me in action and
+in repose; then I would have to draw them from memory; until my memory
+drawing was perfect, he would not let it pass."
+
+The family returned to England for the summer of 1841, spending it at
+the paternal grandfather's country house at Greenford; and during the
+following winter Leighton studied at the University College School in
+London. Mrs. Leighton's health again declined in England, and the
+family migrated to Germany, the country chosen by Dr. Leighton as that
+in which the education of the children could be best carried forward.
+Leighton studied under tutors at Berlin, it being only in his spare
+moments that he found time to sketch, or to visit the galleries. Then
+followed a move to Frankfort, and thence to Florence. There he was
+allowed to enter the studio of Bezzuoli and Servolini, celebrated
+artists in Florence, but of whose real greatness Leighton, even at
+that early age, entertained his doubts. It was in Florence that the
+father's will had finally to submit to the son's passion for his
+vocation. Dr. Leighton was too wise to allow prejudice to affect his
+serious actions. He could no longer blind himself to the fact, that
+this desire to be an artist was a vital matter with his son. He felt
+it would be wrong to try and override the boy's desires without
+seeking the opinion of an expert on art matters as to whether there
+was any probability of Leighton excelling. He therefore took him and
+his drawings to Hiram Powers, the sculptor, for the verdict to be
+given. The well-known conversation took place after Powers had
+examined the work.
+
+"Shall I make him a painter?" asked Dr. Leighton.
+
+"Sir, you cannot help yourself; nature has made him one already,"
+answered the sculptor.
+
+"What can he hope for, if I let him prepare for this career?"
+
+"Let him aim at the highest," answered Powers; "he will be certain to
+get there."
+
+Leighton had won: he had now to prove good his cause. Even though
+theoretically his father had given in, he yet hoped that, as years
+went on, a change in his boy's views might come about; but he was
+allowed to work at the Accademia delle belle Arti, under Bezzuoli and
+Servolini, and besides continuing his study of anatomy with his
+father, Leighton attended classes in the hospital under Zanetti. Of
+this time in Florence, one of his life-long friends, Professor Costa,
+writes: "I knew, both from himself and from his fellow-students, that
+at the age of fourteen Leighton studied at the Academy of Florence
+under Bezzuoli and Servolini, who at this time (1842) had a great
+reputation. They were celebrated Florentines, excellent good men, but
+they could give but little light to this star, which was to become one
+of the first magnitude. Leighton, from his innate kindness, loved and
+esteemed his old masters much, though not agreeing in the judgment of
+his fellow-students that they should be considered on the same level
+as the ancient Florentines. 'And who have you,' said Leighton one day
+to a certain Bettino (who is still living), 'who resembles your
+ancient masters?' And Bettino answered, 'We have still to-day our
+great Michael Angelos, and Raffaels, in Bezzuoli, in Servolini, in
+Ciseri.' But this boy of twelve years old could not believe this, and
+one fine day got into the diligence, and left the Academy of Florence
+to return to England. Although the diligence went at a great pace, his
+fellow-students followed it on foot, running behind it, crying, 'Come
+back, Inglesino! come back, Inglesino! come back,' so much was he
+loved and respected. He did come back, in fact, many times to Italy,
+which he considered as his second fatherland."
+
+It was, however, at Frankfort, where the family settled in 1843, that
+Leighton fell under the real, living art influence of his life, in the
+person of Steinle. Leighton described this artist later as "an
+intensely fervent Catholic, a man of most striking personality, and of
+most courtly manners." In the temperament of this religious Catholic
+was united a fervour of feeling with a pure severity in the style of
+his art which belonged to the school of the Nazarenes, of which
+Steinle was a follower, Overbeck and Pfuehler having led the way. A
+spiritual ardour and spontaneity placed Steinle on a higher level as
+an artist than that on which the rest of the brotherhood stood.
+Leighton, boy as he was, at once realised in his master the existence
+of that "sincerity of emotion,"--to use his own words when preaching,
+nearly forty years later, to the Royal Academy students; a quality
+ever considered by him as an essential attribute of the true
+artist-nature--of that inner vision of the religious poet, of that
+finer fibre of temperament which endowed art in Leighton's eyes with
+higher qualities than science or philosophy alone could ever include.
+Steinle viewed art with the reverence and nobility of feeling which
+accorded with those aspirations that had been hinted to the boy's
+nature in his best moments, but which had had no sufficiently clear,
+decisive outline to inspire hitherto his actual performances. In
+Steinle's work he found the positive expression of those aspirations;
+there, in such art, was an absolute confutation of the creed that art
+was but a pleasant recreation, having no backbone in it to influence
+the serious work of the world; the creed which meant that, if taken up
+as a profession, it led but to the making of money by amusing the
+aesthetic sense of the public in a superficial manner. The view taken
+by the magnates--the "Barbarians" of the time--was, that unless a
+painter were a Raphael, a Titian, or a Reynolds, his position was
+little removed from that of the second-rate actor or the dancer. It
+was not the profession, but the individual prominence in it which
+alone saved the situation. In Steinle, Leighton found an exponent of
+art, who reverenced the vocation of art itself as one which should be
+sanctified by the purest aims and the highest aspirations.
+
+In the nature of one who exercises a strong influence over another is
+often found the real clue to the nature influenced. Circumstances had
+led Leighton to be reserved with regard to his deepest feelings
+respecting art, but with Steinle that reserve vanished. Under the
+influence of this master he realised an adequate cause for this
+deep-rooted, peremptory passion. Steinle's nature explains that of his
+pupil; for Leighton was, in an intimate sense, introduced to a full
+knowledge of his own self by Steinle. This influence, to use his own
+words, written more than thirty years later, was the "indelible seal,"
+because it made Leighton one with himself. The impress was given which
+steadied the whole nature. There was no vagueness of aim, no swaying
+to and fro, after he had once made Steinle his master. The religious
+nature also of the German artist had thrown a certain spell over him.
+Leighton possessed ever the most beautiful of all qualities--the power
+of feeling enthusiasm, of loving unselfishly, and generously _adoring_
+what he admired most. Fortunate, it may possibly have been, that his
+father's strict training developed his splendid intellectual powers at
+an early age; fortunate it certainly was, that, when emancipated from
+other trammels, he entered the service of art under an influence so
+pure, so vital in spiritual passion as was that of Steinle.
+
+However, it was not till Leighton reached the age of seventeen that he
+was allowed to give his time uninterruptedly to the study of art. At
+that age he had acquired sufficient knowledge of the classics and of
+the general lines of knowledge even to satisfy his father. He had also
+completely mastered the German, French, and Italian languages. The
+vitality of his brain was almost abnormal, otherwise his constitution
+was not strong. Constantly such phrases as "I am not ill, but I am
+never well" occur in his letters, and he suffered from weakness and
+heat, also from "blots" in his eyes, perhaps the result of scarlet
+fever, which he had as a child. His school days seem to have had their
+_mauvais moments_. When he was fifteen, his parents and elder sister
+went to England, leaving him and his little sister at school during
+their holidays. The love for his mother, and his longing to be with
+her, is told in the following pathetic appeal:--
+
+                                                 "FRANKFORT A/M.,
+                                         _Friday, June 26, 1845._
+
+    "[DEAR MAMMA],--Your letter, which I have just received,
+    caused me the greatest pleasure, for I have been anxiously
+    expecting it for three long days. I am very pleased to hear
+    that Lina is getting stronger, though slowly, and hope that
+    Hampstead will agree with her and you better than London. I am
+    very sorry to hear that you are not very well. I hope that the
+    country will refresh Papa after all his fatigues. I need not
+    tell you that I was very unhappy when I heard what you said
+    about my going to England; ever since I have been here, from
+    the time I wake to the time I go to bed, I think of London;
+    the other night, indeed, I went in my dream to see the new
+    British Museum. However, if there is nothing to be done....
+    From Hampstead you can see London, and there is the dear old
+    common where I and the Coodes used to play, and the pretty
+    little lake where I went to slide, and it's such a pleasant
+    walk to London and the galleries, and ... is there _no_ little
+    hole left for poor Punch?[13] On the 16th July all the
+    schoolboys go on a three weeks' journey, whose wing but yours
+    can take care of me for so long a time? I will ask for money
+    to buy a clothes-brush, I have none; 2 fl. I spent on
+    water-colours for the painting lesson, 5 fl. a splendid book,
+    'Percy's Relics of Old English Poetry,' 1 fl. sundries, my
+    last florin I lent to Bob, but he was fetched away in a hurry
+    before his money was given to him, however he said he would
+    send it me from Mayence, but I have not seen it since. It is a
+    great bore to have no money; that 1 fl. would have lasted the
+    second month very well as I only want it for sundries. I have
+    dismissed Mottes, my _new_ boots have already been _re_soled,
+    and he made me wait three weeks for a pair of boots, which of
+    course I did not take. I wish I had had turning clothes, my
+    jacket is very shabby, and I cannot afford to put on my best
+    whilst it goes to the tailor; my black trowsers are ruined,
+    but I must wear them whilst my blue ones go to be lengthened.
+    Little Gussy looks very well, she is very well, and has sundry
+    'zufrieden's' and 'tres content's.' On the advice of _Pappe_,
+    the master of mathematics and nat. phil., I have got a
+    'Meierhirsch's Algebraische Aufgaben.' I want a Euclid, mine
+    is in England, how shall I get at it? I am quite well, but
+    _long_ to see you all, and to have some _wing_; pray write
+    very soon. Give my best love to Papa and Lina, and believe me,
+    dear Mamma, your affectionate and _speckfle_ son,
+
+                                                    F. LEIGHTON."
+
+    [Illustration: EARLY COMIC DRAWING, About 1850
+    By permission of Mr. Hanson Walker]
+
+History does not record whether the "little hole for poor Punch" had
+been found or not. Together with other studies, Leighton was allowed
+to attend the model class at the famous Staedelsches Institut, and, in
+1848, when the family went to Brussels, he painted his first picture,
+Othello and Desdemona, his elder sister sitting as model for the
+Desdemona, and also a portrait of himself. From Brussels he went to
+Paris, studying in an _atelier_ in the Rue Richer, among a set of
+Bohemian students, and then to Frankfort, to work seriously under his
+beloved master Steinle. The following letter to his father shows how
+unsatisfactory he considers his studies had been in both Brussels and
+Paris, and that now, as he expressed it, he is girding his "loins for
+a new race."
+
+                                     "CRONBERG, _Friday evening_.
+
+    "[DEAR PAPA],--As I have reason to believe that you are not
+    indifferent to the fate of the studies which met with
+    Dielmann's censure, and at the same time opened my eyes to the
+    fact that I have not yet (to use a German phrase) 'die Natur
+    mit dem Loeffel gefressen,'[14] I now write to tell you that I
+    have retouched better parts of them, and _that_ to Burger's
+    satisfaction as well as to mine. Of course some are better
+    than others. Independently of the intense irritation which bad
+    sitting (as well you know) occasions to my nerves, they give
+    me great trouble, and I take it; but this can hardly astonish
+    me, when I consider that, in point of fact, during the whole
+    time that has elapsed between my leaving the model class in
+    the Staedelsches Institut up to my return to Frankfurt, I have
+    _never_ studied from nature; that I did not in Brussels, I
+    need not remind you, and you must also remember that
+    everything I painted in Paris, in the way of portraits, was
+    done _before_ nature, I grant, but with a certain _ideal_
+    colour or tone, the consistency of which might be illustrated
+    by putting Rubens, Reynolds, Titian, Tom Lawrence, Vandyke,
+    Velasquez, Correggio, Carracci, Rembrandt, and Rafael into a
+    kaleidoscope, and setting them in a rotatory motion, in a
+    word--
+
+          When taken
+          Well shaken.
+                 (What's his name--Hem!)
+
+    I am therefore girding my loins for a new race, far from
+    discouraged, but rather with the persuasion that one with my
+    innate love for colouring, and, I think I may add, sharp
+    perception of the merits and demerits of the colouring of
+    others, has a fair chance of success; nor am I dissatisfied
+    with my beginning."
+
+In the year 1849, he went to London to paint the portrait of his
+great-uncle, Mr. I'Anson, Lady Leighton's brother, and wrote to his
+father and mother the following:--
+
+    "Fleeced at Malines--very fine passage--slept well, why the
+    deuce had not I a carpet bag? horrid inconvenience! my chest
+    of drawers twenty feet below the surface of the deck, obliged
+    to get on friendly terms with a sailor to borrow a comb (which
+    had got blue with usage)--lovely brown tints about my shirt,
+    cuffs more picturesque than tidy; two hours stifling in that
+    confounded hole of a waiting-room in the custom house; arrive
+    at last at Mr. I'Anson's at about three o'clock; as he was not
+    at home I dressed and ran half round London before dinner;
+    crossed Kensington Gardens, saw the outside of the Exhibition,
+    went down Hyde Park, along Green Park, stared at Buckingham
+    Palace, rushed down St. James' Park, flew up Waterloo Place,
+    made a dive at Trafalgar Square, and a lunge at Pall Mall,
+    gasped all along Regent Street, turned up Oxford Street, bent
+    round to the Edgware Road, and from there the whole length of
+    Oxford Terrace, I brought home a very fine appetite!"
+
+    "[MY DEAREST MOTHER],--I have resumed my Uncle's likeness, and
+    as far as it goes (the head is done) very successfully. Will
+    you tell Papa from me that it is more 'aufgefasst' (as I
+    expected) than 'durchgefuehrt,' but that I have seized the
+    _twinkle_ of his mouth to a T.
+
+    "Mr. I'Anson treats me with the utmost kindness, it is of
+    course superfluous to tell you that I enjoy myself beyond
+    measure.
+
+    "I am a very slow writer--I am without readiness either of
+    thought or speech owing to the picturesque confusion which
+    possesses my brain, and not, God knows, from a phlegmatic
+    habit of mind."
+
+Letter to his mother from Norfolk Terrace, Hyde Park:--
+
+    "[DEAREST MOTHER],--I have received your kind letter, and
+    conclude from your silence on that point that Lina is now
+    getting on well. In order to avoid losing time on fluency of
+    style, I shall follow, strictly as I find them, the heads of
+    your epistle, and answer them in the same succession. First, I
+    hasten to thank you and Papa for your kind permission to
+    prolong my stay, a permission which I value the more that I
+    know that Papa was desirous I should return as soon as
+    possible. You tell me, dear Mamma, that I am not to lose time
+    in seeing the _lions_ of London, and Papa, in his displeasure
+    at my having done so little as yet towards the real object of
+    my visit, seems to imply an idea that I _have_ been so doing;
+    I regret very much that you should entertain that notion, and
+    assure you that I have neither hitherto dreamt, nor have
+    ultimate intention, of seeing that long list of wonders, the
+    Colosseum, the polytechnic, the cosmorama, the diorama, the
+    panorama, the polyorama, the overland mail, Catlin's
+    exhibition, the Chinese exhibition, nor even Wild's great
+    globe, for that, I am told, costs five shillings; this is a
+    decided case of 'Frappe, mais ecoute.' And if Papa did not
+    think that I had so wasted my time, is it not very certain
+    that, if I had not thought it a matter of duty, I would not
+    have tired myself making what I most hate, calls, instead of
+    seeing works of art?
+
+    "Lady Leighton looked in some respects worse, and in some much
+    better, than I expected; I was surprised to see her walk with
+    her back bent, and leaning on a stick; but I was more
+    surprised still to see a face so free, comparatively, from
+    wrinkles, and bearing such evident traces of former beauty.
+    Her reception was of the warmest; in her anxiety lest I should
+    be lonely and uncomfortable in an inn, she insisted on my
+    sleeping in her house. She talked much, long, and _well_,
+    though slowly and in a suppressed tone; she dwelt tenderly on
+    Papa's name, and advocated warmly our return to England. I saw
+    two letters which she wrote to her brother, my uncle, and
+    which were both most elegantly written; both contained a
+    paragraph in allusion to me; in the first, written before my
+    visit (in answer to one in which my uncle had prepared her for
+    seeing me), she expresses herself most _eager to receive and
+    to love the grandson, of whom all speak so highly_; in the
+    second, written after my return to London, she says that her
+    _dear and fascinating grandson amply realises all her
+    expectations_, and that seeing him has increased that pain
+    which she feels at being separated from us all.
+
+    "Now, I will give you a _catalogue raisonne_ of whom I have
+    seen: Cowpers, this you know; Smyths, ditto; Laings, very
+    kind, though Mr. Laing, like the Cowpers, did not know me till
+    I mentioned my name; Wests, exceedingly kind, invitation to
+    dinner; Richardsons, motherly reception, party, given for me;
+    Moffatt, very _prevenant_, asked me twice to dinner, both of
+    which invitations I was unfortunately obliged to refuse, but
+    wrote a very civil note, and went next morning in person to
+    apologise; Hall, dreadfully busy, but gave me cards to
+    Maclise, Goodall, Frith, Ward, Frost; Maclise was not at home,
+    but I found Goodall, Ward, and Frith, and was pleased with my
+    visits. There is a new school in England, and a very promising
+    one; correctly drawn historical _genre_ seems to me the best
+    definition of it. They tell me there is a fine opening for an
+    historical painter of merit, and that talent never fails to
+    succeed in London. Goodall, a young man about thirty, who
+    painted 'The Village Festival,' in the Vernon Gallery, and of
+    which you have an engraving in one of your Art Journal
+    numbers, sells his pictures direct from the easel; and he does
+    not stand alone. Sir Ch. Eastlake received me very politely,
+    but looks a great invalid; Lance, very jolly, and Fripp,
+    ditto. Bovills and E. I'Ansons, very kind, invitations, of
+    course; Mackens, you know; I have found no time to call on Dr.
+    Holland, Mr. Shedden, or Tusons.
+
+    "Having told you _whom_, I will now tell you rapidly _what_, I
+    have seen: Vernon Gallery, very much gratified; Dulwich
+    Gallery, very much disappointed; British Institution, ditto;
+    National Gallery, pictures magnificent, locality disgraceful,
+    I must make another visit there; Royal Academy, on the whole,
+    satisfactory; British Museum, very fine; Mogford's Collection,
+    very indifferent; Marquis of Westminster (Mr. Laing), very
+    fine indeed; private collection (through interest of Mr.
+    Moffatt), delightful; Windsor, _Vandyke_, superb; _Lawrence_,
+    a wretched quack. Time presses--_la suite au prochain
+    numero_."
+
+    [Illustration: MR. I'ANSON, LORD LEIGHTON'S GREAT-UNCLE. 1850
+    By permission of Mr. E. I'Anson]
+
+The portrait of his great-uncle, Mr. I'Anson, here reproduced, proves
+that the visit to London effected the desired result. On his return to
+Frankfort he painted the portraits of Lady Cowley and her three
+children. Lady Cowley writes: "I am delighted with the pictures of my
+dear little girls, and again return you my most sincere thanks for
+having painted them." And in another letter: "I should have called on
+Mrs. Leighton all these days, had I not been very unwell with the
+grippe, as I wished to express to her, as well as to yourself, how
+very grateful I am for the beautiful portrait you have made of my
+little Frederick. I am quite delighted with it, as well as every one
+else who has seen it. Besides being extremely like, it is such a good
+painting that it must always be appreciated. Ever yours sincerely,
+Olive Cecilia Cowley." In the spring of 1852, Leighton, being then
+twenty-one, went to Bergheim, to paint the portraits of Count
+Bentinck's family. He writes from there:--
+
+    "[DEAREST MAMMA],--Having naturally a reflecting turn of mind,
+    I am struck with the truth of the following aphorism: 'It's
+    all very well to say I'll be blowed, but where's the wind?'
+    Circumstances induce me to deliver a sentiment of a parallel
+    tendency; it's all very well to say 'mind you write'; but
+    where's the post? A deficiency in that latter commodity is a
+    leading feature in the economy of the principality of Waldeck;
+    so much so, that any individual residing in Bergheim, and
+    desiring to carry on a correspondence 'ins Ausland,' is
+    obliged to take advantage of the privilege freely granted him
+    by the liberal constitution of the country of carrying his own
+    letters to the first frontier town of the next state, and
+    having posted them, waiting for an answer. I, however,
+    _knowing my privileges_, and not being desirous of availing
+    myself of them in _that line_, humbly and modestly send these
+    lines by my hostess's flunkey, who is going to Fritzlar
+    to-morrow on an errand of a similar description. _N.B._--If
+    you want a person to receive an epistle within a fortnight
+    (that is allowing you to be a neighbour), you must chalk up
+    _per express_ on the back of it, in consideration of which he
+    or she will receive it through the medium of a hot messenger,
+    much, and naturally, fatigued and excited by a journey
+    performed at the rate of half a mile an hour, not including
+    the pauses in which the _inner man_ is refreshed and
+    invigorated by a cordial gulp of 'branny un worrer.'
+
+    "Fancy a man getting to a place, by appointment, expecting a
+    carriage and trimmings to take him to a lovely retirement in
+    the country, and finding--devil a bit of it! Well that's
+    precisely what did not happen to me when I got to Waldeck,
+    because although the carriage was not there, there was a
+    letter to say it could not come. The road to Bergheim, which
+    crosses a river of no mean pretensions without the assistance
+    of a bridge (other advantageous peculiarity of the state of
+    Waldeck), was, it appeared, rendered impracticable by an
+    inundation of the torrent alluded to; it was therefore
+    proposed to me (without an option) to perform the journey on
+    the top of an _oss_ provided for the purpose and accompanied
+    by a groom mounted on another; I willingly accept an offer so
+    much to my taste, and for the first time after a lapse of
+    nearly three years put a leg on each side of a steed. The
+    first part of the road was executed at a round trot on a very
+    nice level _chaussee_, but I cannot say that I felt altogether
+    at home on my saddle. An eye to effect is nevertheless kept
+    open, which is manifested by my catching up two drowsy,
+    drawling, jingling 'po shays' and sweeping past them with
+    supreme contempt, but at a great expense of my lumbar muscles.
+    Presently, however, my continuation-clad members began to thaw
+    a little, and to adapt themselves to the saddle, which also
+    lost some of its rigid severity; I began to feel very
+    comfortable, and, by Jove! it was a good job I did, for on
+    getting out of Fritzlar, we left the high road (for reasons
+    above given) and plunged into a rugged, donkey-shay sort of
+    by-path in which the ruts were without exaggeration a foot
+    deep. Nothing daunted, however, I make light of this 'terrain
+    legerement accidente,' cross stream and ride along tattered
+    banks with the nonchalance of the Chinese Mandarin in the
+    Exhibition of '51; in fact, such is my confidence in myself,
+    that I at last begin to feel above my stirrups, I scorn them,
+    fling them over my saddle, and perform without their
+    assistance the rest of the journey to within half a mile of
+    Bergheim, and that on a road the profile of which was about
+    this:
+
+    (Here was drawn a line representing a hill-side almost
+    perpendicular.)
+
+    "On my arrival I am of course kindly received by the Countess
+    (her husband is still at Oldenburg), got my tea, and go to bed
+    rather stiff after an equestrian performance of about two
+    hours and a half. The house is large and rambling, fifteen
+    windows in a row, and yet I cannot get a satisfactory light,
+    the only available north room looking on a lane, the
+    white-washed houses of which reflect disagreeably on the
+    picture, whenever the sun shines. However I must make up my
+    mind to it and do my best; I am at present painting the
+    Countess."
+
+                                             "BERGHEIM, _Sunday_.
+
+    "[DEAR MAMMA],--In the midst of my anxious expectations of a
+    letter from you, it suddenly occurred to me that I had
+    forgotten to give you my direction; in the full confidence
+    that _late is far preferable to never_, I now hasten to make
+    up for my omission--
+
+                    Mons. F. Leighton
+                           bei
+             Ihrer Erlauchten der Graefin von
+                   Waldeck und Pyrmont
+                       zu Bergheim
+                       bei Fritzlar
+                   Fuerstenthum Waldeck.
+
+    "_N.B._--You will not forget to write _per express_ on the top
+    of the envelope; for reasons, see my letter of last Sunday.
+
+    "Being sorely pressed for time, I now huddle on to the rest of
+    the paper a few loose remarks, for the incoherency of which I
+    crave your indulgence.
+
+    "The aspect of affairs is much changed since my last epistle;
+    then, I was looking forward with anxious though sanguine
+    expectation to the labour before me; now, I look back on one
+    portrait (that of the Countess), achieved to the great
+    satisfaction of those for whom it is intended, and contemplate
+    with satisfaction the progress which the other is making in
+    the same direction. I must, however, add that, owing to the
+    necessary absence of the Countess for two days next week, my
+    return home will be delayed in proportion, as I have a few
+    more touches to give to the portrait of my eldest patient,
+    whose husband is desirous of taking it over to England with
+    him. (I shall probably be with you Saturday afternoon--at all
+    events I shall let you know beforehand.)
+
+    "What I said a few lines back will have suggested to you what
+    I am now going to add; Colonel B. is now returned from
+    Oldenburg, and will probably be in London in the early part or
+    middle of June; he is _much_ pleased with the pictures, and in
+    his kindness has promised me an introduction to his brother in
+    town, and also to another relation, whose name I have
+    forgotten; the result of which is to be: access to the
+    collections of Lord Ellesmere, Duke of Sutherland, and Sir
+    Robert Peel. I told Colonel B. that if on his road to or from
+    Toeplitz in the autumn he should pass through Frankfurt, I
+    should be very glad if he could bring the pictures with him,
+    as they would both want a varnish, and the children probably a
+    few glazes and touches; he said that he would make a point of
+    so doing, that indeed after all the trouble and pains I had
+    taken for him, it was the least he _could_ do; for these and
+    other reasons (not unimportant) which I shall communicate when
+    I see you, you need not regret my having made two journeys to
+    paint his wife and children.
+
+    "That I spend one of the days of the Countess' absence in
+    seeing _Wilhelmshoehe_, a sight reputed unique of its kind,
+    will, I hope, not seem unreasonable.
+
+    "I have noted down, as they occurred to me, during the last
+    few days one or two little arrangements, relative to my
+    approaching journey, which I would ask you to make during my
+    absence, trusting at the same time that if in the meanwhile
+    anything else should occur to your provident mind, and be
+    transmitted to your _many-knotted_ pocket-handkerchief, you
+    will kindly carry it into execution, in order to avoid delay
+    when I return from the country, as _my_ time will be almost
+    entirely taken up by Lady P.'s [Pollington's] sitting and the
+    _business calls_ I have to make.
+
+    "Will Papa kindly order a tin case for my compositions; it
+    should be a plain cylinder, about an inch and a half in
+    diameter, with a lid at one end; let its length be that of my
+    'Four Seasons.'
+
+    "To my amazement I have just received a letter from you, dear
+    Mamma--_did_ I give you my direction? You forgot the _per
+    express_ on the back of the letter. Pray write soon. Much love
+    and many kisses to all.--Your dutiful and affectionate son,
+
+                                                    F. LEIGHTON."
+
+Soon after Leighton's return to Frankfort Lord Cowley was appointed
+British Ambassador in Paris, and writes the following letters. The
+invitation he gives to Leighton to make his home at the Embassy while
+pursuing his studies was not accepted, Steinle's teaching being only
+given up later for the charms of Italy.
+
+    "MY DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I am more obliged than I can say by
+    the kindness you have shown in painting portraits of my
+    children. I never saw anything so like, or in general so
+    pleasing, as the portrait of Frederic, and I only regret that
+    it is not in England to be seen and appreciated. Once more
+    accept my thanks, and believe me to be very truly yours,
+
+                                                         COWLEY."
+
+                                             "_Sunday Afternoon._
+
+    "MY DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--It has been quite out of my power to
+    get to your house, as I had intended, to take leave of you,
+    and to thank you again for the valuable reminiscence which
+    through your talent and kindness I carry away with me. It will
+    give Lady Cowley and myself great pleasure if you will visit
+    us at Paris. You cannot find a better school of study than the
+    Louvre, and we shall be most happy to lodge and take care of
+    you.
+
+    "Pray present my best compliments to the members of your
+    family.
+
+    "I regret very much not being able to do it in person.--Very
+    faithfully,
+
+                                                         COWLEY."
+
+On his return from Waldeck, Leighton painted the portrait of Lady
+Pollington, one of his Frankfort acquaintances.
+
+During these years, when Leighton studied under Steinle, his family
+lived also at Frankfort, and therefore few other letters written at
+that time exist. There was a journey to Holland, made during the early
+summer of 1852, from England, where he and his family had returned for
+a visit. The journey back to Frankfort, _via_ Holland, is the subject
+of a long letter to his mother.
+
+    "There I am at the Hague. Pretty place, the Hague, clean,
+    quaint, cheerful, _and_ ain't the Dutch just fond of smoking
+    out of long clay pipes! _And_ the pictures, _Oh_ the pictures,
+    _Ah_ the pictures! That magnificent Rembrandt! glowing,
+    flooded with light, clear as amber, and do you twig the _grey_
+    canvas? _What_ Vandykes! what dignity, calm, gently breathing,
+    and a searching thoughtfulness in the gaze, amounting almost
+    to fascination; and only look at that Velasquez, sparkling,
+    clear, dashing; Paul Potter, too, only twenty-two years old
+    when he painted that bull, and just look at it; Jan Steen,
+    Terburg, Teniers, _Giov. Bellini_ (splendid), &c. &c. There I
+    catch myself bearing something in mind: 'And yet, after all'
+    (with an argumentative hitch of the cravat), 'all that those
+    fellows had in advance of us was a palette and brushes, and
+    _that_ we've got too!' I walk down to Scheveningen, and
+    sentimentalise on the seashore; I find the briny deep in a
+    very good humour, and offer _you_ mental congratulations.
+
+    "About the Rembrandt at Amsterdam, I say nothing, for it is a
+    picture not to be described. I can only say that, in it, the
+    great master surpasses himself; with the exception, however,
+    of this and the Vanderhelst opposite to it, which is full of
+    spirit and individuality, the _Ryko Museum_ is tolerably flat.
+    After a dull afternoon, I hurry off to Arnheim, and to
+    Mayence, and to Frankfurt, where I arrive on Wednesday
+    evening. From Cologne to Frankfurt, Janauschek[15] was on the
+    same conveyance as myself; I made her acquaintance, which was
+    a great blessing to me on that tedious, cockney-hackneyed
+    journey. She is lady-like, interesting, amiable, and
+    _severely_ proper, almost cold; she observed the strictest
+    incognito. Towards evening, however, when she had ascertained
+    that I was a resident at Frankfurt, and therefore probably
+    knew her perfectly well, and that I was an artist, which
+    excited her sympathy, and that my name was Leighton, a name
+    with which she was acquainted (through Schroedter and others)
+    as that of one of the most talented young artists of Frankfurt
+    (hem!), she relaxed considerably. She has a melancholy and
+    most interesting look, and talks very despondently of the
+    state of dramatic art nowadays. I made myself useful to her at
+    the station, and she was warmly grateful. About my picture[16]
+    (which I have entrusted to Steinle's care) I have nothing to
+    communicate, except that I am confirmed in thinking that it
+    has been universally well received; even Becker seems to like
+    it in many respects--of course you know that the leading fault
+    is that it was painted under his rival; Oppenheim said (when I
+    talked of it as a daub) that he wished he could daub so, and
+    that he promised me a great future; Prince Gortschakoff (who,
+    by the by, preferred the portraits, and judges with all the
+    _aplomb_ of a Count Briez) introduced himself to me in the
+    gallery, and told me in the course of conversation that he
+    regretted very much having no work of mine, adding that he
+    only bought masters of the first order; _that_ was a
+    compliment, at all events; Dr. Schlemmer has been very kind to
+    me, and has given me a letter for Venice; I dined with him on
+    Sunday, and made the acquaintance of Felix Mendelssohn's
+    widow, a charming woman."
+
+    [Illustration: "THE DEATH OF BRUNELLESCHI." 1851
+    By permission of Dr. Von Steinle]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE PLAGUE IN FLORENCE." 1851]
+
+Between the years 1849 and 1852 Leighton painted, besides the
+portraits mentioned, three finished pictures, "Cimabue finding Giotto
+in the Fields of Florence," "The Duel between Romeo and Tybalt," and
+"The Death of Brunelleschi"; and also made the notable drawing, now in
+the Victoria and Albert Museum, of a scene during the plague in
+Florence. His master, Steinle, easily discerned that Leighton was
+truly enamoured of Italy; the subjects he chose were Italian, and his
+memory was full of the charm and fascination of the country which he
+ever referred to, to the end of his life, as his second home. It was
+decided that he should go to Rome, his father having determined to
+leave Frankfort and to reside at Bath, where his mother, Lady
+Leighton, was then living. Steinle gave Leighton an introduction to
+his friend and fellow "Nazarene," Cornelius, and on the eve of his
+departure his mother wrote a farewell letter of "injunctions,"
+flavoured happily by hints of humour. There is something very quaint
+to those who knew Leighton after he was thirty in the admonitions
+with regard to manners and politeness, which occur in several of his
+mother's letters.
+
+    "MY DEAREST CHILD,--As we are about to part, you may perhaps
+    think you will be rid of my lectures, but no, I leave you some
+    injunctions in writing, so that you will not be able to urge
+    the plea of forgetfulness if you continue your negligent
+    habits, though you certainly may _forget_ to read what I
+    write--but I trust to your love and respect for me, though the
+    latter needs cultivation nearly as much as habits of
+    refinement in you. I have no new advice to give you, I can but
+    repeat what I have urged on you many times from your childhood
+    upwards; I do implore you, let your conscience be your guide
+    amidst all temptations, they will be such as they have never
+    yet been to you, as you will henceforward have no other
+    restraint on your actions than what is self-imposed. I beseech
+    you, do not suffer your disbelief in the dogmas of the
+    Protestant Church to weaken the belief I hope you entertain of
+    the existence of a Supreme Being. Strive to obey the law He
+    has implanted in us, which approves good and condemns evil,
+    though the struggle for the mastery between these principles
+    is sometimes fearful, as every one knows, especially in youth.
+    My precious child, if one sinful mortal's prayer for another
+    could avail, how carefully would you be preserved from moral
+    evil (the greatest of all evil); but I need not tell you there
+    is no royal road to Heaven any more than to excellence in
+    inferior objects, every advantage must be obtained by energy
+    and perseverance. May God help you to keep free of the
+    greatest of all miseries, an upbraiding conscience; for though
+    this can be deadened for a time in the hurry of life while
+    youth lasts, there comes an hour when life loses its
+    attractions, and _then_ issues the troubled consequence of
+    merry deeds. I am aware you have heard all this a hundred
+    times, and better expressed, but it will bear repetition; and
+    now that it is your mother who is counselling you, you will
+    not, I trust, turn a deaf ear.
+
+    "I can but repeat what I have continually told you--to refine
+    your feelings you must neither utter nor encourage a coarse
+    thought. It would be an inexpressible pleasure to me to leave
+    you confirmed in good habits; but wishes are idle. I trust to
+    your desire to improve in all ways and to please me. The next
+    sheet I wrote some time ago, intending to rewrite it, but the
+    trouble is too great for my shaking hands, and I add what I
+    have written to-day on separate pieces of paper. I have
+    written enough; I have only now to add an entreaty that you
+    will not throw these admonitions away, but sometimes read
+    them, remembering they come warm from your mother's heart.
+
+    "My child, your manners are very faulty, and I am consequently
+    much disappointed. You take so much after me, and my nearest
+    relations had such refined manners, that I made sure you must
+    resemble my father and brothers. There is, however, nothing on
+    earth to prevent your becoming the gentleman I wish to see
+    you, and remember to write ineffaceably on the tablets of your
+    memory, 'Too much familiarity breeds contempt.' You remember
+    how seriously young ----'s forwardness has been commented on.
+    Well, it is true, you have never, as far as I know, spoken as
+    he has done; but as I have seldom seen you in company, nor
+    your father either, without observing some want of politeness,
+    is it not probable that other people have their eyes open
+    also?"
+
+These admonitions received, Leighton started on his journey to Rome.
+At Innsbruck, on August 18, 1852, he began to write a Diary, in order
+that his mother should hear the details of his travels, and to serve
+"as a clue" by which he might one day recall the "impressions and
+emotions of the years of his artistic noviciate."
+
+Leighton's utterances on paper in these early days display the same
+intense exuberance of vitality which, during the whole of his notable
+career, served to spur on his mental and emotional powers to perform
+with great completeness all the various kinds of work which he
+undertook; a vitality which conquered triumphantly the effects of
+indifferent health and troubled eyesight. In the diaries and letters
+is also to be traced the existence of that Greek-like combination of
+qualities so characteristic of Leighton--namely, explicit precision in
+his thought and expression, and a subtle power of analysis, united
+with great emotional sensitiveness and enthusiastic warmth of
+temperament. His feeling for beauty was an intoxicating joy to him.
+Heartfelt and genuine joy engendered by beauty in nature and art is
+not a very common feeling among the moderns, though so much fuss is
+made by many in our day in their endeavours to become "_artistic_";
+but, as a ruling guide, beauty has gone out of fashion. The accounts
+that Leighton gives of his ecstasies in the presence of beautiful
+scenes, enforce the belief entertained by those who knew him best,
+that it was the power which beauty exercised over him that developed
+his exceptional strength in all artistic directions. What force in the
+over-riding of difficulties does not passion give to the lover! No
+less a force was engendered in Leighton by the inspiration of the
+beauty of nature.
+
+In the letter to his mother, which accompanies the Diary, referring to
+the joy he has been experiencing, Leighton adds: "I feel almost a kind
+of shame that so much should have been poured down on me. I will put
+my talent to usury, and be no slothful steward of what has been
+entrusted to me. Every man who has received a gift ought to feel and
+act as if he was a field in which a seed was planted, that others
+might gather the harvest." The purity of purpose which guided
+Leighton's life to the end, generated first by the precepts of his
+mother in the fertile soil of his own beautiful nature, subsequently
+developed by the teaching of the high-minded Steinle, and finally
+established later by other elevating influences, chastened the
+emotional side of Leighton's passion for beauty, and disentangled it
+even in the earliest days from lower and purely sensuous
+contamination. The puritanical attitude of mind towards beauty
+appeared to Leighton absolutely impure and desecrating, in that it
+associated influences and feelings which are of the lowest with the
+appreciation of God's most beautiful creations, and some of man's
+highest aspirations with sensations entirely degraded and unworthy.
+
+Fun and humour abound in the family letters, and in the Diary.
+Leighton was never guilty of being sentimental, and when referring to
+the word _ideal_ in one of his letters, he writes he "hates such
+stuff." After he died, it was written of him: "He was no idealist;
+needless to say, he was no materialist, no one less so; nor does the
+term realist seem to recall his nature. He was--if such a word can be
+used--an actualist, the actual was to him of primary importance. But
+the actual meant a great deal more to Leighton than it does to most of
+us. Life and its vivid interests was spread over a much wider area; so
+many more of its various ingredients were such very actual entities to
+him."[17]
+
+And when Leighton started, at the age of twenty-one, to begin his
+independent life, we feel that it is with the _actual_ that he
+grappled--the actual in his sensations, his feelings, his impressions,
+his conditions. An unmistakable note of reality rings through his
+description of all these. He has no tendency, even unconsciously, when
+under the glamour of the most entrancing impressions, to colour the
+picture other than he _actually_ saw it. In the strength of his own
+real nature he goes forth on the journey of life.
+
+
+DIARY
+
+                                    INNSBRUCK, _August 18, 1852_.
+
+    [Sidenote: I contemplate the life and
+    adventures of Mr. Thumb.]
+
+"When Hop o' my Thumb, a nursery hero of European note, first sallied
+out into the world with an eye to making a fortune, his first step was
+(justly foreseeing what the world would expect of the hero of a future
+romance) to lose himself in a large and horrid forest, in which it was
+pitch dark all day long, and nothing was heard but ... &c. &c. (Here
+see biog. of H.O'M. Thumb, Esq., vol. i.)
+
+"Now, in those days mile-posts were not yet come in, and maps were
+excessively expensive; how, then, was H.O'M.T., after he should have
+realised a large independence, to find his way back through this
+intricate waste? Here admire the man of parts and sagacity! '_He
+determined_,' says the historian, '_to drop pebbles in a row all along
+the path_'!
+
+    [Sidenote: and adopt one of his
+    measures,]
+
+"Admirable Thumb! I, too, purpose, as I stroll along, to drop every
+now and then mental pebbles, which shall serve as a connecting link
+between the past and the future, and as a clue by which I may one day
+recall the emotions and impressions of the years of my artistic
+noviciate.
+
+"Be with me, oh Thumb!
+
+    [Sidenote: but make a reservation.]
+
+"_N.B._--Quality of pebbles not warranted.
+
+
+PEBBLES
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble I.]
+
+"Kind, affectionate, earnest Steinle!
+
+    [Sidenote: A tribute of affection and
+    respect for my dear Steinle.]
+
+"In a record of whatever concerns me as an artist, _his_ name should
+be at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. _Now_, at the
+beginning, for our parting is still painfully present to my mind; our
+parting, and the last few days we spent together: the sad face and
+moistened eye with which he watched the diligence in which I rolled
+off from Bregenz; his fitful way, when we travelled together--one
+moment jovial and facetious, another laying his hand affectionately on
+my shoulder and remaining silent; his saying to me before I started,
+'I shall be all alone to-morrow, here, and yet I shall be with you all
+the day.'...
+
+"_In the middle_, all through, and to the end--because if ever,
+hereafter, my works wear the mark of a pure taste, if ever I succeed
+in raising some portion of the public to the level of high art, rather
+than obsequiously acquiesce in the judgments of the tasteless and the
+ignorant, and if I keep alive, to the end, the active conviction that
+an artist, who deserves the name, never ceases to learn, the key of
+such success will be in one name: Steinle; in having constantly borne
+in mind his precept, and his example.
+
+    [Sidenote: I find on reflection that
+    though I started a week ago, I am only
+    just gone!]
+
+    [Sidenote: I look forward,]
+
+"Although a week has already elapsed since I left Frankfurt, so long
+my home, it is only now that I have parted from Steinle that I really
+feel that I have taken the great step, that I have opened the
+introductory chapter of the second volume of my life, a volume on the
+title-page of which is written "Artist." It seems to me that my
+wanderings began at _Bregenz_, and that in retracing, as I presently
+shall, my route until I got there, I am tearing open again leaves that
+were closed--to remain so. I seize the opportunity offered by this
+first day of repose to take breath, and, as I stand within the
+threshold, to look before me and reconnoitre. Italy rises before my
+mind. Sunny Italy! the land that I have so long yearned after with
+ardent longing, and that has dwelt in my memory since last I saw it as
+a never-fading, gentle-beckoning image of loveliness; I am about again
+to tread the soil of that beloved country, the day-dream of long years
+is to become a reality. I am enraptured!
+
+    [Sidenote: but don't feel quite _it_.]
+
+"And yet--how is it that my pleasure is not unalloyed? that I
+involuntarily shrink from grasping the height of my wishes? It is
+because I feel a kind of sacred awe at breaking through the charm
+that has been so long gathering around the image that I have carried
+in my inward heart, as one who loves, at touching with cold _reality_
+that which has so long been the far removed object of dreamy, sweetly
+melancholy longings!
+
+"I cannot help thinking that an imaginative man must feel something
+similar when on the point of changing courtship for marriage.
+
+    [Sidenote: Get better.]
+
+"Other thoughts, too, assail me, and sometimes make me uneasy. 'Do I
+fully feel....' No, 'Shall I _continue_ fully to feel the immense
+importance to me of the three or four years now before me? feel that
+they will be the corner-stone of my career, for good or for evil?
+Shall I have the energy to carry out all my resolutions? Shall I
+fulfil what I have promised?'... Then I think of Steinle, and I feel
+reassured.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble II.]
+
+"Let me come to the point, to the description of my journey; but
+before I begin, let me remember that, whilst of all my friends and
+companions only _three_ were present at my departure,--one of them was
+there in order to give me a commission, and another to acknowledge a
+service,--old General Bentinck did not think it too great an exertion
+to see off, at eight in the morning, one, three times younger than
+himself.
+
+    [Sidenote: Middelburgh, August 11.]
+
+"My first day's journey took me to Middelburgh, along the Bergstrasse,
+which we all know, and of which I therefore say nothing, and yet I
+enjoyed it more than I ever had done before; it was one of those cool,
+clear, _opalescent_ mornings, in which all nature looks as if it was
+teeming with health and freshness; there was something exhilarating,
+too, in the atmosphere, which very much increased my enjoyment; I
+looked upon familiar scenes, but I saw them in a new light; it seemed
+to me as if I was reading nature in a new book.
+
+    [Sidenote: Stift Neuburg.]
+
+"On arriving at Heidelberg, I hurried at once, by appointment with
+Steinle, to a place in the neighbourhood called 'Stift Neuburg,' the
+property and residence of Frau Rath Schlosser, the widow of his old
+and intimate friend, Rath Schlosser.
+
+    [Sidenote: I enjoy myself.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Heilbronn, August 12.]
+
+"Picture to yourself, just where the Neckar makes a graceful curve,
+about a mile above Heidelberg, half-way up a rich and sunny slope,
+chequered with clustering vineyards and luxuriant meadows, an old,
+picturesque convent, with its adjoining chapel and appurtenant dairies
+and farmhouses, the whole group raised up on a lofty, timeworn,
+weather-beaten terrace--and you will form some idea of _the Stift_.
+There I spent the afternoon in the most charming possible manner,
+whether in wandering with Steinle along the solitary, shady walks of
+the convent garden, or in snuffing about in the vaulted, mildew old
+library (which, by the by, contains six or seven thousand valuable and
+curious books), or the silent chapel, with its stained-glass windows,
+or in looking through Frau Rath's magnificent collection of drawings
+by German artists, or, finally, in enjoying the conversation of the
+Frau Rath herself, who is a most clever and amiable old lady. The next
+morning (for I spent the night there) after all breakfasting together,
+we went down by a postern gate to the river-side, and awaited the
+arrival of the Heilbronn steamer; general leave-taking, shaking of
+hands, gratitude and thanks on the one side, on the other reiterated
+invitations for the future, which I sincerely hope I may one day be
+able to meet. The valley of the Neckar as far as Heilbronn, where we
+arrived on the evening of the same day, is dull enough in all
+conscience; indeed, had it not been for the company and always
+interesting conversation of Steinle, I really do not know what I
+should have done with myself; such a contrast with the preceding day!
+
+"Between Heilbronn and the Lake of Constance, however, a new scene
+opens out; I see Germany under a totally new aspect, I understand at
+last what German poets mean when they rave about the lovely
+'Schwabenland' and call it the 'Perle deutscher Gauen'; I can now
+imagine the existence of _landed patriotism_ (if I may be allowed the
+expression) among the Germans coming from that part of the country. It
+is, indeed, an enchanting panorama; a never-ceasing variety of rich,
+profusely fertile valleys, studded with cheerful, bright-looking,
+home-inviting villages, and enclosed by chains of gently undulating
+hills. The corn was ripe, and waved in golden stripes across the
+variegated plains; the peasants, a picturesque, good-humoured set,
+were scattered over the fields, some mowing down the heavy laden
+wheat, others binding it into graceful sheaves; in one respect the
+scene reminded me of my own dear country: it looked as if a blessing
+were on it.
+
+    [Sidenote: Ulm: its cathedral]
+
+"On our road we passed through Ulm,[18] and visited the cathedral,
+some parts of which (especially the portico) are very beautiful and
+elegant; the interior contains a magnificent and highly elaborate
+tabernacle, and some wood-carving by Syrlin of exquisite workmanship;
+the whole, however, left a melancholy impression on both of us,
+especially on Steinle, who is an ardent Catholic. It stands neglected
+and half-finished, in the midst of a miserable, rambling town-village,
+a thing of olden times, for whose presence one can hardly account. It
+was built, or rather, begun, as a monument of Catholicism; the country
+round it has become Protestant; itself has been protestantized; it has
+been disfigured by an incongruous heap of business-like pews; it is no
+longer accessible at every hour of the day, from Sunday to Sunday its
+walls re-echo no sound but the occasional tread of the pew-opener, as
+he dusts the seats of those who pay him for it; the soul has left the
+grey old pile; it is a stately corpse. What artist, however uncatholic
+in his belief, can contemplate those old Gothic churches, with their
+glorious tabernacles and other ornaments equally beautiful and equally
+disused, without painfully feeling what an almost deadly blow the
+Reformation was to High Art, what a powerful incentive it removed,
+irrecoverably? Who, in his heart of hearts, can but dwell with
+melancholy regret on the times when art was coupled with belief, and
+so many divine works were virtually expressions of faith? What a
+purifying and ennobling influence was thus exercised over the taste of
+the artist! an influence which nothing can replace. This influence was
+incalculably great; no dwelling was so humble but it owned a crucifix;
+no artist so poor in capacity but endeavoured to produce something not
+unworthy of his subject; the general _tone_ of taste thus produced
+reacted on everything; witness the most insignificant doorlatch or
+ornament that remains to us from the Middle Ages. Is it not remarkable
+that the first artists of the modern day, in the higher walk of art, I
+mean, are _Catholics_? Cornelius and Steinle were born in the Church
+of Rome; Veit and Overbeck went over to it; Pugin, too, our great
+architect, was converted by his art to the Catholic faith.
+
+    [Sidenote: August 15, Sunday.]
+
+"From Friedrichshafen a delightful sail took us across the emerald
+coloured Lake of Constance to Bregenz, where I parted from Steinle.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble III.]
+
+    [Sidenote: August 21, Saturday.]
+
+    [Sidenote: I make a reflection,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and feel grateful.]
+
+"I am sitting at my window in the inn (hotel, I'll trouble you!) at
+Meran. For the first time since I left Innsbruck I have leisure again
+to take up my pen. As I look back on my journey through the Tyrol, so
+far as it goes, I am forcibly struck with the reflection that my
+enjoyment of it has been much keener this time than ever it was
+before; this increased enjoyment has not, I feel, arisen from any
+external or adventitious circumstances; last time that I was in this
+lovely country, I contemplated it with ease and comfort from the
+rumble of our own carriage; this time I have jolted through it under
+all the disadvantages attendant on an _Eilwagen_ and indifferent
+weather; it has arisen in the greater development of my artistic
+sensibilities, in my sharpened perception of the charms of nature,
+which discloses to me now a thousand beauties that found no echo in me
+when I saw them last. I congratulate myself on this reflection. If any
+man should be constantly penetrated with gratitude for a gift bestowed
+on him, it is the artist who has realised as his share a genuine love
+for nature; for his enjoyment, if he puts his gift to usury, increases
+with the days of his life.
+
+    [Sidenote: I get drunk with the
+    anticipation of Italy,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and spout a parable.]
+
+"Another circumstance, which has greatly augmented my relish of the
+Tyrol, is that, at every step, it assumes more and more the character
+of my darling Italy; I have watched with fond anxiety every little
+token that whispered of the south; the gently purpling tints that
+steal gradually over the distant hills, as one advances towards the
+land of the amaranthine Apennines, the slow but steadily progressive
+change of vegetation, the gaunt and ragged fir giving way by degrees
+to the encroachment of a richer and more gently rustling shade, the
+anxiously watched gradations, the climax at last; the walnut, first,
+'few and far between,' but warmly welcome, with its clustering leaves
+of juicy green; the chestnut, with its long, graceful, dark-hued
+foliage; the vine, again, no longer, as in the north, tied stiffly to
+a row of sticks (like a regiment of gooseberry bushes), but luxurious,
+wildly spreading, gracefully trained along rows of outward-slanting,
+basket-like trellis-work, and wreathed here and there by a pious hand
+up a roadside image of the Crucifixion in illustration of the words of
+Christ: '_I_ am the true vine.' Now, too, the dark striped, portly
+pumpkins, with their gorgeous flame-like flowers, begin to appear,
+sometimes drowsily lolling under the tremulous shade of the mantling
+vines, sometimes basking with half-closed eyes down the sunscorched
+lizard-haunted walls, sometimes trained across from house to house,
+hanging like Chinese lamps over the heads of the passers by.
+Presently, a _fig-tree_--two--three--more--plenty! A cypress--and, by
+Jove! look at that terrace of stately, heavy-laden citron and orange
+trees! Nothing is wanting now but the olive. How could I pass by such
+dear old friends without loitering a little among them? A faithful
+lover, I return, after six years of longing absence, to the home of
+her of my inward heart; I hurry along, I have already crossed the
+garden gate. I breathe the air she breathes, I see from afar the bower
+where she dwells; but as I hasten along the well-known path, a
+thousand reminiscences of her arise from every object around me, and
+cling to me, and throw a gentle net across my faltering step, and
+whisper softly to my dream-wrapt brain--I am spellbound--I linger,
+even in my impatience.
+
+"I must not forget the excessively picturesque appearance of all the
+towns and villages south of Innsbruck; long, narrow, tortuous streets,
+lined on each side with never-ceasing vistas of arcades, and enclosed
+by houses of most fancifully artistic irregularity; as one passes
+along the vaulted galleries the eye is constantly caught by some
+picturesque object; either the peasants, as they stroll along in their
+divers costumes, or the many-coloured, richly piled fruit stalls that
+every now and then fill the arches, or, through an open door, the
+endless depth of vaulted passages and fantastic staircases and
+irregular inward courts and yards, offering to the artist's eye a play
+of lights and shades and mysterious, dreamy half-tints that might
+shame even a Rembrandt or an Ostade. As the exterior of all the houses
+is (with the exception, of course, of the ornaments) scrupulously
+white, the streets, narrow as they are, reflecting, by the luminous
+nature of their local tint, the light of day into the remotest corner,
+have a most cheerful aspect.
+
+"Of the Tyrolese themselves, three qualities seem to me to
+characterise them, qualities which go well hand in hand with, and, I
+think it is not fanciful to say, are in great measure a key to, their
+well-known frankness and open-hearted honesty. I mean Piety, which
+shines out amongst them in many little things, a love for the art,
+which with them is, in fact, an outward manifestation of piety, and
+which is sufficiently displayed by the numberless scriptural subjects,
+painted or in relief, which adorn the cottages of the poorest
+peasants, and, last not least, a love for flowers (in other words, for
+nature), which is written in the lovely clusters of flowers which
+stand in many-hued array on the window-sills of every dwelling. The
+works of all the really great artists display that love for flowers.
+Raphael did not consider it 'niggling,' as some of our broad-handling
+moderns would call it, to group humble daisies round the feet of his
+divine representation of the Mother of Christ. I notice that _two
+plants_, especially, produce a beautiful effect, both of form and
+colour, against the cool grey walls: the spreading, dropping, graceful
+_carnation_, with its bluish leaves and crimson flowers, and the
+slender, anthered, thousand-blossomed _oleander_.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF A BRANCH OF FIG TREE, 1856
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF BRAMBLE, 1856
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble IV.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Statues in Innsbruck.]
+
+    [Sidenote: I take on,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and lay on,]
+
+    [Sidenote: but bottle it up again.]
+
+"One of the sights in Innsbruck has left on me a deep and, I hope, a
+lasting impression: the bronze statues in the Franciscan church; they
+are the finest specimens of German mediaeval sculpture that I ever saw,
+and grew on me as I gazed at them in a manner which I hardly ever felt
+before; their great merit consists in combining in the most astounding
+manner the most consummate knowledge of the art with all the
+simplicity of nature and the most striking individuality (that first
+of artistic qualities), and exhibiting at the same time the most
+elaborate finish in the details, with greatest possible breadth and
+grandeur of general masses; this quality is particularly conspicuous
+amongst the women, three, especially, standing side by side, show, by
+three perfect examples, the whole secret of ornamental economy; the
+one, whose dress is ornamented with all the richness of which a
+luxurious imagination and an unparalleled power of execution were
+capable, recovers its simplicity of outline and mass by having a
+tightly fitting body and sleeve and a skirt of moderate amplitude;
+the second, whose ornaments, though richly, are more broadly disposed,
+retains its balance by a slightly increased amplitude of drapery;
+while the third, whose dress is altogether without embroidery,
+acquires a corresponding effect by large, loose sleeves and richly
+folded skirt, and two large plaits hanging down her back. What an
+opportunity this would be, backed by these giants of breathing bronze,
+to make an indignant descent on some paltry and muddle-headed moderns,
+who don't know how to discriminate between that kind of finish which
+proceeds from the love of a smooth surface, and makes the artist
+equally careful of his pumps and of his pictures, and that other kind
+of minuteness which is the beautiful fruit of a refined love for
+nature, and proceeds from a feeling of piety towards the mother of
+art, and who complacently call 'niggling,' a quality above the
+appreciation of their _breadth-mad_ brains; who, in their
+art-made-easy system of 'idealising' (forsooth), look for artistic
+'beauty' in a facial angle of so and so much. What with the _Greeks_
+was an _abstract of_ MAN, and very appropriately applicable in the
+cases of demi-gods (that the ancients _could_, and _did_, 'en tems et
+lieu,' individualise, may be sufficiently seen in their admirable
+portraits), becomes with _them_ an absurdly misapplied _average of
+mankind_, not _a_ man, or _men_. _The leading feature in Nature is a_
+MANIFOLD INDIVIDUALITY, AN ENDLESS VARIETY; _she is like a diamond,
+that glances with a thousand hues_. 'Indeed!' I hear them
+contemptuously sneering, 'you don't seem to be aware, sir, that ideal
+beauty is the great _centre_ of all these _extreme_ varieties, and the
+only thing worthy of a great artist's attention.' 'Well, gentlemen,'
+say _I_, 'without inconsistency, you can't get out of the way of the
+following mouthful: there are (perhaps you will allow) three
+elementary colours, which in different combinations produce every
+variety of hue; _but_, the great _centre_ of these three _extremely_
+various colours is _grey, non-colour ... the ideal of a bit of
+colouring, "the only thing worthy of the attention of a great
+colourist" is a picture with no colour in it at all_.' However,
+Messrs. the Generalisists and _Apollinisists_ 'have every reason to
+congratulate themselves on the extensive circulation of their views,
+for their _ideal_' is visible in every haircutter's window. Never
+mind, I must contain myself--but the rod is in pickle!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble V.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Meran.]
+
+"A glorious amphitheatre of lofty mountains! On one side rugged,
+sternly rising, crenelated, grey, snow-strewn; on the other, dreamy,
+far outspreading, gently vanishing, southward luring, softly glowing,
+wrapt in tints of loveliest azure, gradually blending with the
+silver-fretted sky. A spreading, fertile gushing valley. Down the
+sunny, swelling slopes, across the embosomed plain, an endless,
+curling, wreathing flood of gold-green vines, foaming and eddying with
+purple grapes. Through the verdant waves, like rushes in a stream, the
+Indian corn raises its slender form and feathered head in long array.
+Beneath, outstretched at ease, the pumpkin winks and yawns. At the
+foot of a steep-fronted, purpling rock, skirting the glowing
+vineyards, a foaming mountain stream, emerald and silver. Along the
+heights, nestling in verdure, rise thickly scattered, castellated
+villas, looking, with their bright, white walls, like smiles on the
+face of the earth. An epitome of what is rich and joyous and
+unfettered in landscape. The Alpha and Omega of all that is charming
+in the Tyrol. MERAN!
+
+"I can say no more for it.
+
+"To my mind, it is inferior to Italy only in one respect: it is
+wanting in that glowing, strongly marked individuality, that earnest
+beauty, that 'charm that is in melancholy,' which fascinates so
+powerfully in the land of wine and oil.
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble VI.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Italy!]
+
+    [Sidenote: I "realise," as the Americans say,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and find reason to think that
+    I am a queer party.]
+
+"To be able to say that, on returning after long years to a country
+whose image memory has, during the whole of that time, fondled with
+all the partiality of ardent attachment, one has found one's best
+expectations realised, is, in this world of disappointments and
+frustrated expectations, indeed a rare thing; but to find imagination
+_surpassed_ by reality is rarer still; yet it is my case now that I
+once more breathe the air and tread the soil of Italy. For this, I
+feel more grateful than I can say; for to have been disappointed in
+_these_ hopes would have been to me the greatest of miseries; as it
+is, my enjoyment is a double one: that which is occasioned by the
+positive, intrinsic beauty of what I see, and that, not less great, of
+recalling at the same time a happy, long-dwelt-on past. This I have
+more particularly experienced since my arrival in Verona; and here a
+queer feature in my queer idiosyncrasy obtrudes itself to notice,
+_i.e._ the extraordinary dominion exercised over me by the senses of
+smell and hearing! That I do labour under these peculiarities I always
+knew, but to what a ludicrous extent, I did not find out till, on
+arriving here (Verona), I was suddenly seized by a gust of a thousand
+smells and a din of a thousand sounds, some always remembered, others
+long-forgotten, suddenly rising up again to my memory. I was
+spellbound, the veil of the past was torn up, I was fairly carried
+back against the stream of time. Ridiculous as it may sound, my
+enjoyment of Italy, independently, of course, of the art (which is an
+extraordinary tissue of reality and illusion), would be very imperfect
+without this combination of trifles. One thing, I think, must affect
+every one agreeably; I mean the exquisitely humorous cries of the
+vendors in the thoroughfares and market-places; who could hear and not
+remember the loud, expostulatory shriek with which the one dwells on
+the excellencies of his handkerchiefs, the argumentative and facetious
+tone in which another infers that comfort is not possible without a
+supply of his matches, that urgent wail with which a third deplores
+that man should have so little appreciation of his baked apples, the
+muddy, half-suffocated tenor with which a fourth proclaims his
+water-melons, or the rabid, piercing soprano which seems to warn the
+public that 'if those violets are not bought pretty quick, there will
+soon be none to buy'?"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble VII.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Verona.]
+
+"I do not think there exists anywhere a more powerfully and
+fantastically individual town than Verona; it is to Italy what
+Nuremburg is to Germany; but it is a transfiguration of Nuremburg; in
+point of wildly picturesque variety it defies description and
+surpasses expectation; it is saturated with art; wherever one turns,
+the eye is struck by some beautiful remnant of the taste--that was; of
+that glowing, sterling feeling for art, which spread itself over
+everything, and ennobled whatever it touched. Hardly a house that
+cannot boast of a sculptured archway, or some such token of ancient
+splendour; not a church, even the most insignificant, but is crowded
+with old paintings in oil and fresco, few of which are bad, some very
+good, a few excellent, but _all_ in a far higher _tone of feeling_
+than nine-tenths of the shallow, papery daubs with which the
+nineteenth century covers its carcase of steam engines. No
+wonder--they are all scriptural or apocryphal subjects, and were all
+painted with an ardent belief in the faith to which they all owe their
+existence; from thence arose, amongst other excellencies, a certain
+naif, ingenuously childlike treatment of the miraculous, which,
+combined with the manly dignity of consummate art, gives them an
+indescribable charm, which nothing can replace. Now--with us, at
+least, of the cold belief--men throw really eminent talents--_to the
+dogs_. But, for us Protestant artists, things are made much worse than
+they in any way need be, by the total rejection of pictures and
+statuary in our churches. Now, three centuries back, in the first
+ebullition of reformatory fanaticism, such a practice was not only
+comprehensible, but even a natural and necessary consequence and token
+of their total disavowal of everything approaching to the Romish form
+of worship; but its continuance at present amongst us is, not only
+contrary to the spirit of the Anglican Church, which after all, when
+compared to Lutheranism and Calvinism, is a _conservative_ one, but is
+founded on arguments altogether untenable with any degree of
+consistency; for if, as we are told, pictures and statues distract the
+attention and produce a worldly frame of mind, if it be true indeed
+that works of _high art_ (for, of course, no others are here taken
+into consideration), than which surely nothing is more calculated to
+raise the tone of the mind and prepare it for the reception of
+elevated impressions, have indeed so pernicious an effect, then, it is
+evident, by the same argument, the beauties of architecture, the
+eldest of the sister arts, must be equally rejected; at the sight of a
+Gothic church, that offspring of Christianity, we must shrug our
+shoulders and say with pious aversion: 'Vanitas vanitatum!' But the
+Church of England has not gone as far as that; indeed, great attention
+is paid to our Church's architecture; is there no inconsistency here?
+Or does the Church, terrified by the example of Romish image-worship,
+fear a similar evil amongst us, whose belief is so infinitely more
+circumscribed than that of Rome? Or is she so tender of admitting
+symbols into her bosom, she, whose corner-stone is a symbol: the Last
+Supper?
+
+"To return to Verona.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble VIII.]
+
+    [Sidenote: The Veronese love flowers,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and have good legs.]
+
+"As Gamba, owing to the time which my letter took in reaching him, was
+not able to meet me at the time appointed, I remained two days at
+Verona, days to which I shall always look back with unmixed pleasure.
+I indulged, this time (the more that I knew the town already), in the
+luxury of _not_ 'sight-seeing,' but strolled about the whole town in
+every direction, dropping into churches, staring at tombs and palaces
+and piazzas and pictures, just as if rolled past me in the
+ever-varying panorama. I was struck, in the Tyrol, with the profusion
+of flowers everywhere displayed; but here I see far more, and those,
+too, more artistically distributed; they rise in double and treble
+tiers on, in, and about the gracefully curved balconies, and assert
+their sway wherever human ingenuity makes it possible to place a
+flower-pot, and in a great many other places besides; creepers wreathe
+from window to window, and vines actually springing from holes in the
+walls, with no visible root or origin at all, spread their graceful
+mantle over the walls of crumbling palaces. Of the Veronese
+themselves, I cannot say that they are a handsome race; the women
+especially, though they have a great deal of character in their
+features, are generally far from good-looking. Amongst the peasants I
+saw some very fine men; they have, some of them, very good legs,
+slender and well shaped as a Donatello or a Ghiberti.
+
+    [Sidenote: Thursday, August 26.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Gamba.]
+
+"On Thursday Gamba came, just as I was giving him up in a high state
+of despair and mystification. We hurried at once by Padua to Venice,
+where I found your letter.
+
+    [Sidenote: I look back and feel ashamed,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and make a clumsy excuse.]
+
+"As I look through what I have written, before sending it off to you,
+I feel, painfully, that my style is clumsy, stuttering, incoherent;
+that I am wordy, without saying enough; that I am overfree in my use
+of fanciful epithets, without giving an adequate idea of the
+suggestive beauty of what I see; that I am sometimes almost mawkish,
+without saying half I feel; that I am incorrigibly slovenly and
+forgetful; that I can't write, that I can't spell. In answer to all
+this, I can only answer by referring to a little premonitory
+observation at the foot of my first page, _i.e. Quality of Pebbles not
+warranted_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+BATCH No. 2.
+
+(This blank represents three weeks.)
+
+    [Sidenote: Sept. 16.]
+
+"_September 16._--Many happy returns of the day, dear Gussy! The other
+day I took a pair of scales, and put into the one vessel the price you
+would have to pay for the postage of a congratulatory letter to be
+received by you on your birthday, and into the other a pleasure which
+a surprise might afford you; the postage outweighed its rival; so I
+wrote no letter. If my directions have been attended to, you will, no
+doubt, have received a far more satisfactory outward and visible sign
+of my good wishes.
+
+    [Sidenote: Sept. 18.]
+
+"_September 18._--The same to you, Papa!... _Can the river offer its
+fountain a drink?_
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble I.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Sept. 19.]
+
+    [Sidenote: I lucubrate,]
+
+    [Sidenote: when I consider, &c. &c.,]
+
+    [Sidenote: whereas, &c. &c.,]
+
+    [Sidenote: and even then, &c. &c.,]
+
+"Three weeks (apparently months) have elapsed since I last soared on
+the descriptive pinion; now, and only now, on the eve of my departure
+from Venice, I find time and leisure again to pour on the past a
+libation of pen and ink. I resume the quill with a feeling of
+disheartenment. With what intentions did I begin to write this
+(journal)? Had I not hoped to note down, at once and in all their
+freshness, my emotions and impressions just as I should receive them?
+and to speak also sometimes of the thousand little incidents that fall
+in one's path, and which form the arabesque round the chapter of life?
+And how are my hopes fulfilled? Behold me, on the morning of the last
+day, the day of parting, packing, paying, and passports, forced to
+throw in a hurried and disconnected heap a few general remarks
+concerning what I have seen and heard and felt and found, and not
+found, during my stay in the home of Titian. And even that, how
+difficult! For in this short stay, sight has succeeded sight, emotion
+has followed emotion, in one continued merry-go-round; I have been
+alternately grave and gay, melancholy and jocose, dejected and
+enraptured; add to this that in my mind, as in the dissolving views,
+one picture always effaces its predecessor, and you will at once
+perceive that I am in the position of a man trying to see the pebbles
+at the bottom of a muddy brook, or his natural face in a basin of
+gruel.
+
+    [Sidenote: but you know, &c.]
+
+"Now, I again repeat what I made a preliminary condition: that I send
+you the pebbles, loose and disjointed, and that I don't undertake to
+make a necklace of them.
+
+"'But whose fault is all this?' (I hear you ask).
+
+    [Sidenote: besides, it's not my fault]
+
+"During my stay here (I continue, without attending to your question)
+I have been up nearly every day _before the sun_ (about five o'clock),
+and after working and tearing about the town all day, towards evening
+I was not sorry to....
+
+"Do you guess how it was I wrote so little?
+
+    [Sidenote: A little digression]
+
+"Here a little observation obtrudes itself to my notice. Man (for
+there is nothing like throwing your own frailties on mankind in
+general) is born with an irresistible tendency to talk _at something
+or somebody_; eighteen pages back I was talking to nobody; or, if I
+did address anything, it was that very vague personage, the future;
+now I find myself getting more and more personal; _you's_, I expect,
+will soon get up to fifty per cent.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble II.]
+
+    [Sidenote: A picture.]
+
+    [Sidenote: (Parenthetic Pebble about Gondolas.)]
+
+"Venice! Mighty word, city of endless associations, image that fills
+the mind! What impressions has it left on me? I shrink from answering
+a question so difficult to answer _fairly_, and from dissecting a
+point of such intricate anatomy. Whilst I think it over, I will give
+you a picture or two to look at; you shall have a peep out of the
+window where I sit writing. It is early morning, everything is cool
+and calm, in silent, almost breathless expectation of the not yet
+risen sun. Before your eyes rises one of the most splendid views in
+Europe, that of the Grand Canal from the steps of the Academy; the
+stately, dark green street of waters reflects on its wide-spreading
+mirror the grey and crumbling palaces, and the lovely form of Sta.
+Maria della Salute, with her domes of dazzling white. Not a ripple
+mars its glossy surface, except where, at rare intervals, some silent
+gondola glides swiftly along, scattering the sparkling drops from its
+graceful oar, or where, here and there, the playful 'aura mattutina'
+has left too rough a kiss upon its slumbering cheek. No sound is
+heard, but the distant, even, measured chimes, that seem to be rocking
+on the silence of the morning. Along its marge, singly, or clustering
+in close array beneath roofs of vine-covered trellis, lie the
+far-famed, ebon-coloured, swiftly gliding gondolas of Venice.
+'Gondolas!' Whilst the sun is rising, let me say a word or two on
+gondolas. It has always excited my great surprise that these barks,
+which are graceful almost beyond imagination, are, in point of fact,
+in their present shape the offspring of a period, next to our own, the
+most execrable in point of taste which the world has produced. I mean
+the end of the seventeenth, or rather the beginning of the eighteenth
+century. Yet, so it is. In the time of Carpaccio and the Bellinis they
+were queer, tolerably uncouth contrivances, about two-thirds of their
+present length, pointed and equally curved at both ends, so as to
+resemble as nearly as possible a slice of melon, dead of the cholera.
+In Titian's day the shape began to taper out a little, and the iron
+points or knobs, _at both ends_, rose to a greater height, and were
+enriched with a serrated ornament; but they did not assume their
+present slender proportions and graceful ornament, _at the prow only_,
+till the eighteenth century; as also the mysterious and exquisitely
+comfortable little cabins or coffins, which now surmount them, and
+which formerly were open _behind and before_, forcing the passenger to
+sit upright! They contained then the rudiment of an idea of grace,
+which took its natural growth and development in spite of man.
+Meanwhile, for I have been watching him, the sun has appeared above
+the horizon; not that I see his own, real, glorious face, for he is
+hidden behind an ancient palace, but I see his reflection glowing in
+the eye of nature. First a gentle, tremulous, golden light began to
+steal along the dappled morning sky, warning all the little, distant,
+fleecy clouds to shake their plumes, for that it was going to begin;
+then, of course, the water took up the tune; and then (it was fit the
+biggest building should set the example) the 'Salute' assumed a
+saffron hue, and gradually one by one all the palaces on one side of
+the Canal, right up to our windows, and, did not you notice? your own
+face took quite a shine. For a while you yourself and everything round
+you seems wrapped in a trance; presently you begin to write. How is
+this? The whole picture begins to dance and quiver. Our Lady della
+Salute glows with a deeper blush, and trembles. Then, suddenly, her
+redness vanishes, her glorious countenance sparkles, and she raises
+her stately form in a garment of burnished silver; the gondolas that
+nestle round her feet, and hem in the whole length of the Canal, seem
+like a fillet of sparkling gems around a web of emerald and gold; the
+sky is a sea of light; the sun is in the wide heavens--it's time for
+breakfast. Waiter, coffee and rolls!
+
+    [Sidenote: I am reminded,]
+
+"'Do you mean,' I hear you urge, 'to come to the point, and tell us
+how you like Venice?'
+
+    [Sidenote: but take no notice.]
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble IV.]
+
+"Another picture! (pretending not to hear). The same scene, but under
+a different aspect. How different! Just now it was a scene of dawning
+life, a burst of gladness--now it is a mild, a gentle dream, an
+Italian moonlight night, a _Venetian_ moonlight night--calm, clear,
+soft, fancy stirring. You lean idly out of the window; there are two
+of you, or ought to be, but you don't say anything to one another; you
+are rocked in silence; you feel the sweet, warm breath of night pass
+over your cheek; you think of Shakespeare's exquisite verses on what
+he never saw but with the eye of his boundless fancy; you are sitting
+with Jessica and Lorenzo (that is his name, I think) on a bank of
+violets; you are anxiously waiting for Portia and her company; your
+ear is attentive to every sound; presently a sweet, half-heard strain,
+like a distant echo, dawns on your ear; then it is lost again; again
+it swells, and seems to glide gently along the shadowy waters towards
+you, nearer, still nearer. You see a track of gleaming light along the
+water, and at intervals a shower of tiny stars; it's no illusion; they
+glide along towards you, the voices that rose from the distant waters;
+they are almost beneath your window. Quick, quick, a gondola; a dozen
+or more musicians, with every kind of instrument, sit together in a
+bark, and alternately play and sing lovely melodies by the musicians
+of Italy. As long as the strain lasts the oar is suspended, and the
+floating orchestra drifts slowly along with the slowly ebbing tide;
+round it, a cluster of gondolas, full of breathless listeners whose
+very soul seems to melt with the delicious sounds, and combine with
+them--at least, you can answer for yourself, for you are one of them.
+Those are moments which you, I am sure, will never forget.
+
+    [Sidenote: You interrupt me, but I take no notice.]
+
+"'You are beating about the bush, we want an ans....'
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble V.]
+
+"Another picture! (taking no notice of you)--a bit of Giorgione,
+coloured by Veronese. You are in an _atelier_; pictures and sketches
+in different stages of advancement lie about the tables and cover the
+easels; at one end of the room you see a large cupboard; its open
+doors betray within layers of rich old silks and damasks, some made
+up, some in pieces, as they were found at the antiquary's; further, an
+old mandoline, that perhaps could tell of the days of Titian. Through
+the large, gaping window you look upon a group of the most picturesque
+Venetian houses, with their fanciful basket-shaped chimneys and
+irregular windows and thousand-fold tints; the foreground is
+gracefully supplied by a screen of slender, net-like trees, amongst
+which heavy-laden vines wreathe in fanciful festoons. But where is
+Werner? the amiable inmate of this charming snuggery; where his
+pupils? Ah, I hear them! Hark! in the garden, a merry laugh, a
+clattering of cups, a sound of several voices, a suggestion of
+enjoyment; you rush to the scene of action; on your road you nearly
+break your neck over a table covered with the remains of a hearty
+dinner. A few yards further, you see half-a-dozen young men (of course
+artists) stretched, in every variety of ingeniously comfortable
+attitude, on a temporary floor of Turkey carpets, in a cool, clear,
+shady spot beneath arches of roof-weaving vines; in the middle, at
+comfortable arm's length, coffee, and heaps of purple grapes, whilst
+the intervals of conversation are filled by affectionate and earnest
+appeals to long Turkish pipes. You approach; you are recognised;
+seized by the hand, thrown down on the carpet; and presently you
+perceive that an entire afternoon is gone by! But that afternoon
+becomes a landmark to you. May not such reminiscences well endear a
+place to one's memory?
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF BYZANTINE WELL HEAD. Venice, 1852
+    By permission of Mr. S. Pepys Cockerell]
+
+"'Well, then, I suppose....' (say you).
+
+"Never mind, let me continue.
+
+    [Sidenote: More where the rest came from.]
+
+"Another impression. You are sitting, early in the morning, in a
+spacious, picturesque court; you have got your sketch-book, and you
+are busily poring over a drawing of a beautiful old Saracenic well;
+you are intent on doing it well, on cutting out that friend you have
+got with you. Presently you are seized with a peculiar sensation; you
+have heard, all of a sudden, the voice of an old, old friend, who
+speaks to you of things you don't see round you; a veil falls from
+your eyes; you feel that you have missed something for some time past;
+a vision rises before your eyes--a sweet vision of wooded hills and
+grassy fields, teeming with a thousand wild flowers and sending forth
+a sweet smell, and of flowing streams, of _fresh_ waters, of birds
+singing merrily as they fly from tree to tree, and swing on the
+slender branches; and then you remember that you dwell in a
+mysterious city, closed in by the salty sea. Who was the friend that
+called up these lively images in your mind? It was a poor, solitary,
+wandering _Bee_. But he suggested something else to you, the roaming
+honey-gatherer--he reminded you of _freedom_; reminded you that
+Freedom had no home _there_; and he made you _feel_ how much you had
+felt it, how much you had been unconsciously haunted by the breath of
+oppression that hovers over poor, browbeaten Venice, and whose
+pestilence clings to its rocky shore, as the rankling seaweed to the
+skirts of its palaces. Poor Venice! once resounding with joyous
+voices, now its walls seem, as you pass them, to mutter mournfully of
+arrests, condemnations, executions! Its narrow streets re-echo with
+the heavy tread of exulting soldiers, with the watchword of a foreign
+tongue. Palaces and convents are become barracks and infirmaries, and
+Slavonian troopers loll and spit where the proudest lords and
+loveliest ladies of Venice used to assemble to the banquet or the
+ball. But I turn away from such sad reflections, lest they may seem to
+outweigh all the delight that I have spoken of before.
+
+    [Sidenote: Pebble VI.]
+
+    [Sidenote: What I think about it.]
+
+"I have rehearsed to you a few of my impressions for good and for
+evil, and I think that was the only way of answering your (imaginary)
+questions. I need make no apologies for not _describing_ Venice to
+you, as you have all seen it, and it is a place the image of which
+does not easily fade. I might say a word or two about the Venetians.
+Whatever some people may say (and, if I am not mistaken, Byron amongst
+them), the female Venetian type, such as it is transmitted to us by
+Titian, Giorgione, Pordenone, &c. (_i.e._ stout, tall, round-faced,
+small-mouthed, _Roxolane-nosed_) has either totally disappeared, or
+only manifests itself to a chosen few; one feature only I recognise,
+and that is a profusion of fine hair, which they plait in the most
+elaborate manner. A thing that rather puzzles those who go to Venice
+with the idea of seeing _Titians_ and _Veroneses_ at the windows and
+in the streets, is that the women have altogether left off dyeing
+their hair auburn as they used in former times. To show you that
+vanity made the fair sex go through the greatest personal discomfort
+as far back as the sixteenth century, I will tell you what the process
+of dyeing was. On the top of nearly every house in Venice is a kind of
+terrace-like scaffold, or scaffold-like terrace ('you pays your money
+and takes your choice'), which has the noble vocation of drying linen;
+in former days, however, they were built for a different purpose. In
+the middle of the day, during the greatest heat of the sun, the party
+anxious to impart to her hair a tint between sugar-candy and radishes
+repaired to these _lofty_ spots, and there regularly bleached her hair
+in the following manner: she put on her head the _brim_ of a large
+straw hat, so that the top of the head was exposed to all the power of
+the sun, whilst the face and neck were kept in the shade. Through the
+hole thus left in the middle of this extraordinary headgear the whole
+of the hair was drawn, and spread out as much as possible; which done,
+different kinds of waters, made for the express purpose, were passed
+over it by means of a little sponge fastened to the top of a reed.
+History does not give the exact number of _coups-de-soleil_ caught in
+this manner; a few, I should imagine. However, I can warrant the
+accuracy of my statement, which is borrowed from a contemporary author
+of the highest standing. The men of Venice are neither handsome in the
+face nor well made in the body. The Venetian dialect is amusing; in
+the mouth of a woman, if well spoken, it is pretty, musical,
+childlike, lisping; but in the mouth of a man, for the most part,
+muddy, stammering, unintelligible.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+   "There, much as still remains to say, and willingly as I dwell on
+   its memory, I must discard Venice, and turn to your kind letter,
+   for it is now, I am afraid, more than a month since I last wrote.
+   This delay has, however, been unavoidable, for when one is
+   travelling, or staying a short time in a place, one is always
+   hurried and flurried in the day-time, and in the evening tired or
+   excited--or both. Next time you hear from me (which will be when
+   I reach Rome) my communication will openly take the shape that
+   this has imperceptibly been attaining, that of a letter; when I
+   am once settled for the winter I shall, I hope, be better able to
+   write _au jour le jour_. Before entering into your letter, which
+   will be a longish job, I must acknowledge the receipt of one from
+   Papa, containing part of my remittance; it was written in most
+   kind terms (I tell you this because you can't have seen it, since
+   he wrote in London), and was, I think, the longest I ever got
+   from him, at all events it was the first in which he said
+   anything beyond what was necessary to business. It gave me
+   sincere pleasure. I was touched, it seemed to me that distance
+   had brought me nearer to him; pray thank him both for that and
+   for the consideration with which he has provided for an emergency
+   which will in fact arise--that of my not reaching Rome in
+   October; I do not expect to get there until the first week in
+   November. Of one thing I must remind Papa; he talks of sending to
+   Rome the _remaining eighty_ pounds of my second quarter; he has,
+   I am afraid, forgotten that he gave me sixty for my first; my
+   remittance this time is only _forty_ pounds, he therefore has
+   only twenty to send to Rome.
+
+   "I now turn to your letter, dear Mamma; I lay it by my side, and
+   as I read it slowly through, answer it systematically, head for
+   head, for in my present hurry I have indeed no time to pick and
+   choose, or to arrange my topics according to their importance and
+   interest, or even to consult as much as I wish the little
+   amusement that my letters give you. However, I console myself a
+   little with the reflection that it certainly is not the
+   composition of my letters which gratifies you much, for I am
+   painfully aware that my ideas are brought to paper with about as
+   much order as the footprints of a cock-sparrow show on a
+   gravel-walk.
+
+   "You say, dear Mamma, that you have a fear of not telling me all
+   that I wish to hear; and there, indeed, you are right, for if you
+   were to tell me _all_ that I wish to know about your doings, you
+   might write for a week; but you are equally right in supposing
+   that _whatever_ you write concerning yourself (and selves) is
+   full of interest to your distant Punch. About my health? Well, I
+   plead guilty, steaks _do_ still continue to be to me _physical
+   consciences_; this admonitory part they took more especially at
+   Venice, where the climate, I must confess, did not agree with me
+   particularly well. This is perhaps attributable to the water,
+   which was particularly bad there, for my diet was of the simplest
+   description. Judge for yourself: in the morning early, coffee and
+   dry bread (I have discarded butter to keep company with Gamba,
+   who is not in the habit of eating any); at eleven or so, fruit
+   and bread; at four or five, a simple dinner; and in the evening,
+   an ice or a cup of coffee. Here I live much in the same way.
+
+   "I am truly delighted to hear that you are accommodating yourself
+   a little to an English climate; if you once get over that one
+   great obstacle, nothing else need prevent your establishing
+   yourself in the country which, after all, is still the dearest to
+   you; with the prospect of pleasant and desirable society for
+   yourself and the girls, and of other resources for Papa, there is
+   every reason to hope that you will find in Bath what you have so
+   long wished for, a home in _England_."
+
+Speaking of his elder sister's suffering, he continues:--
+
+    "I feel, almost, a kind of shame that so much should have been
+    poured down on me, who have deserved it less. To become
+    deserving of it, must be my great, never-wavering endeavour;
+    I will put my talent to usury, and be no slothful steward of
+    what has been entrusted to me. Every man who has received a
+    gift, ought to feel and act as if he was a field in which a
+    seed was planted that others might gather the harvest.
+
+    "I am delighted to hear that Lady Leighton is getting on well,
+    and as much gratified at having made on her a favourable
+    impression; pray tell her that her presence and conversation
+    inspired me with a desire to please her, and that her
+    affectionate reception has still a lively hold on my memory.
+
+    "You tell me that you were touched at Steinle's kindness to
+    me, and indeed it was such as might well touch any one; this
+    time you will be touched at his affliction, poor man, he has
+    just had a heavy misfortune--the most affectionate of fathers
+    has lost another child, the second, in a year and a half; I
+    heard this from Andre, who has just arrived from Frankfurt,
+    and who called on the unfortunate man before he started and
+    found him much dejected. He said in his melancholy but calm
+    tone of voice: 'Ich habe eine Tochter begraben.' You think it
+    improbable that I shall find a _second_ Steinle; I delight in
+    the belief that there _is none_.
+
+    "I am not surprised at your finding it impossible to imagine
+    an artist without a genuine love for nature. In any but an age
+    of perverted taste such a thing could not exist; but it is
+    only too true that that most essential of qualities has become
+    obsolete, and is hardly to be found at all. Artists now are
+    full of _breadth_ and _depth_; and, between us and the
+    doorpost, _flatness_. On this subject I mean to tell you more
+    in my next letter, when I speak more particularly of my
+    _artistic_ impressions and opinions, which I have not yet
+    done.
+
+    "I am glad to hear what you tell me about the comfort you
+    enjoy in Bath, from the superior cleanliness and decency of
+    behaviour of English servants over foreign ones; it is a
+    thing to which I am particularly alive, and which struck me
+    very much last time I was in England; Gussy too, I am sure,
+    appreciated it very much. I am sorry that I cannot participate
+    in your enthusiasm about the beauties of Bath (barring, of
+    course, the situation, which is charming), but I will say
+    nothing against it, as I am only too glad that you should be
+    pleased with it. I quite follow you in your admiration of the
+    edifices in Westminster; I think that, taking them altogether,
+    they form one of the finest groups of architecture that I ever
+    saw; but what particularly pleases me in the Houses of
+    Parliament is the example they set of building in that style
+    of architecture which is our own, the growth, as it were, of
+    our soil, and which therefore best befits our country. Such
+    feelings, I have reason to believe, are becoming prevalent in
+    England, and they may have great results; but I reserve all
+    this for another letter. I am glad to hear of the institution
+    you tell me of for the cultivation of good principles; I
+    believe that the greatness of England will not be as ephemeral
+    as that of the other nations that have had the lead in
+    succession, because so much is done to consolidate and
+    increase in strength the basis on which it stands, and which
+    is the best prop to the enduring prosperity of a nation,
+    uprightness and morality.
+
+    "I have now followed and answered your letter, from beginning
+    to end, from point to point, it is time I should close; next
+    time I write, I shall be in Rome, settled for the
+    winter.--Believe me, dear Mamma, with very best love to all,
+    your most affectionate and dutiful son,
+
+                                                 "FRED LEIGHTON."
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                           VENICE, _31st August_.
+
+    "HONOURED AND VERY DEAR HERR STEINLE,--If I did not, according
+    to our agreement, write to you directly Rico[19] arrived, it
+    was because I could not make up my mind to put you off with
+    two words, whereas I had neither time nor leisure to write you
+    anything detailed. Now, however, arrived and established in
+    Venice, I take up my pen to repair the neglect. It is a
+    lovely, cool, clear summer morning; I sit at my window on the
+    Grand Canal, and before my eyes rises in glorious beauty the
+    incomparable outline of Sta. Maria della Salute with the
+    adjoining Dogano. The newly risen sun (it is five o'clock in
+    the morning) throws a golden, enchanted light along one side
+    of the Canal; the gondolas and barges, which nestle in a
+    numerous array at the steps of the _Salute_, glitter in the
+    dusky distance like gleaming jewels on the borders of the
+    silver mirror of the water, whose clear bosom is gently
+    ruffled by the soft breath of dawn. All is still, except the
+    distant church bells. What words can give an idea of such a
+    sight? I gaze about me in a day-dream and think of you, the
+    dear friend, the honoured master; all that I owe you for
+    heartfelt sympathy and wise guidance, and cannot pay, rises
+    before my grateful soul, and reminds me that I have lost one
+    whom I shall miss many a time. I hope with all my heart that
+    your stay in the mountains of Appenzell will have given you
+    fresh strength, and that in all respects you are
+    re-established and invigorated according to your expectations.
+
+    "Now, however, as I am to speak of myself, and to give some
+    account of my impressions on my journey, I note that for me
+    the potent picture of Italy, of Venice, has pushed all that
+    went before into the background, almost blotted it out, so
+    that now it floats before me like a dim remembrance; but with
+    two exceptions: two pictures have impressed themselves deeply
+    on my memory, and will certainly not be easily erased--I mean
+    the _Franciscan church at Innsbruck_ and lovely _Meran_. You
+    were indeed right when you said that the cast giants in that
+    church are the grandest achievement of German sculpture; they
+    are colossal, a truly imposing spectacle, brilliant monuments
+    of an age of noble taste. What eternal truth! What an amazing
+    impress of individuality! Of marvellous execution that never
+    borders on the little, full of breadth and strength, and yet
+    nobly slender, they are the most perfect example of _economy
+    of detail_; what a sharp contrast to the superficial
+    stone-hammering (I might say) of to-day; what an everlasting
+    shaming to the nineteenth century! I could name many sculptors
+    who could not look at these things without profit.
+
+    "Meran! What an indelible, fascinating picture floats before
+    one's eyes at the name; this Alpha and Omega of all that is
+    lovely in Tyrol; this lovely amphitheatre of mountains, rugged
+    on one side, and steep and covered with snow on the other,
+    glowing in the purple gleam of the south--widely extended,
+    melting away, alluring; this fertile plain; this gold-green
+    flood of climbing vines, hanging down like waterfalls from the
+    espaliers on the mountain slopes, with the purple foam of the
+    vines; these thousand pleasure-houses and castles; the
+    picturesque costume!
+
+    "But why so many words? You have seen this beauty yourself,
+    and have no doubt a clearer picture of it than I can paint for
+    you.
+
+    "In Botzen, to my very great regret, I was unable to see Herr
+    von Hempel, since he was staying, not in his town house, but
+    in a castle at a distance of two hours; but I visited Becker's
+    brother. He received me in a most friendly manner, asked much
+    after his brother, of whom he had heard _nothing_ for more
+    than a _year_, and told me that his mother, who had recently
+    visited him in Feldkirch, had wept bitterly about it. I must
+    also inform you that he has recently _taken unto himself a
+    wife_--a fact of which our good Jacob (that is his name, is it
+    not?) also knew nothing.
+
+    "I could still, dear Herr Steinle, write much to you about
+    Tyrol and Italy (especially about _Verona_), for I know no one
+    with whom I so gladly share my artistic sensations as with
+    you, but lack of time obliges me to close quickly for the
+    present; I will only add that after I had been two days in
+    Verona the worthy Rico arrived, and we are now having a _feast
+    of art_ in Venice together.
+
+    "Should you be still at the Stift when you receive these
+    lines, I beg you to kiss the Frau Rath's hand for me, and to
+    tell her that I remember vividly the day I spent in her house.
+    Remember me most kindly to your wife--I congratulate her upon
+    her deliverance from the Cronberg martyrdom; kiss the little
+    children for me, and remember me to the elder ones; remember
+    me also to Frau Schoeff & Co. and to all my other good friends;
+    this is perhaps rather a large request, but whom could I omit?
+    I rely upon your kindness. I close with a plea for forbearance
+    towards my incorrigible writing and my lame, headlong
+    style.--Heartfelt greetings from your devoted and grateful
+    pupil,
+
+                                                  "FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    "_P.S._--Should you have anything to say to me, or any
+    commission to give me, the address, Poste Restante, Florence,
+    will find me till the end of September.
+
+    "Gamba wishes to be cordially remembered to you, and promises
+    himself to be under your wing again in eighteen months.
+
+    "In my next letter I will tell you about Italy."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[13] In the winter of 1845 Leighton went to a children's costume ball
+in Florence as Punch, and for some time after the name clung to him in
+his family.
+
+[14] Literally, "devoured nature with a spoon."
+
+[15] A distinguished actress.
+
+[16] Probably "The Death of Brunelleschi."
+
+[17] See Appendix, In Memoriam.
+
+[18] See sketch, "A Monk Dividing Enemies," Leighton House Collection,
+"Ulm, 1852."
+
+[19] Count Gamba.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+ROME
+
+1852-1855
+
+
+The first group of letters from Leighton to his family from Rome tells
+of his instalment, his projects, his disappointments, his indifferent
+health, and his eye-troubles. But more important are the views he
+expresses on his "_artistic_ impressions," and the ideas which force
+themselves on his mind, resulting from these impressions; the
+increased anxiety with which he regards the task he has set before
+him; the "paralysing diffidence" which he feels with regard to
+"composing." In the letter he wrote on January 5, 1853, he enters more
+intimately into his own feelings in addressing his father than in any
+previous letter I have seen. This letter is in answer to one from his
+father, which Leighton describes in writing to his mother[20] as "the
+longest I ever got from him, at all events it was the first in which
+he said anything beyond what was necessary to business; it gave me
+sincere pleasure. I was touched; it seemed to me that distance had
+brought me nearer to him." Leighton was evidently eager to respond to
+any advance from his father towards possible intimacy on the ground of
+his art-interests. In "Pebbles" he writes that he opens the
+"introductory chapter of the second volume" of his life, "a volume on
+the title-page of which is written 'artist'"; in these first letters
+from Rome he begins the second volume itself. The letter to his
+younger sister, on her "coming out," contains at its close memorable
+advice on the subject of the development of her musical taste.[21]
+"You must descend into yourself, and draw at the fountain of your own
+natural taste, but mind you go very deep, that you may really get at
+your _genuine, natural_ taste, and I think you won't go far wrong. He
+who knows how to hear the voice of nature has found the safest guide,
+and he only is a good master who opens the mind of his pupil to that
+voice." At the age of twenty-one, Leighton had realised, and was
+himself pursuing, the only right course in studying any art. By
+invariably drawing deeply from the fountain in his own nature, he ever
+remained true and sincere as an artist. It is evident that, if there
+is no fountain to draw from in a nature, any study of art becomes
+useless, and Leighton, when consulted in later years, never encouraged
+false hopes in those who possessed no natural endowments. When he
+wrote,[22] "being very receptive and prone to admire, I have learnt,
+and still do, from innumerable artists, big and small; Steinle's is,
+however, the indelible seal," he referred to the fact that in Steinle
+he had fortunately found the master who opened his mind to the voice
+of his own nature. Leighton felt a great necessity to sift the various
+influences which played upon his receptive nature, on account of his
+ready sympathy with all that was admirable. He had constantly to seek
+for that inner light, that "genuine, natural taste," which his revered
+master had led him to search for and find, and to act from the
+dictates of that light, and from no other.
+
+The commencement of the first letter from Rome to his mother is
+missing; the date of the post-mark is November 25, 1852, Rome.
+
+    "...unnoticed, and which now requires to be woven in with the
+    rest. I mean, of course, my more directly and practically
+    _artistic_ impressions, and their results. I take them up 'ab
+    ovo.' To an artist an occasional change of scene is of the
+    greatest advantage, if not importance; for, generally
+    speaking, when he has stayed long in one place, surrounded day
+    after day by the same objects, his eye becomes, by the
+    deadening effect of constant habit, indifferent to what he
+    sees around him, and often even inaccessible to the
+    impressions which a newcomer might receive from the same
+    natural beauties; most things that please the eye or the
+    imagination, do so (in my case, at least) by some peculiar
+    association; indeed I should imagine it must be so with all
+    things, for even when one cannot (as one often can) define
+    precisely the association which creates the echo within of the
+    impressions received, it seems to me that one is instinctively
+    aware of a kind of indefinable _innate relationship_ to the
+    beauties manifested in nature, to which, by-the-bye, I think,
+    all other associations might ultimately be traced through
+    different degrees of consanguinity. It is in being
+    unexpectedly reminded (however indirectly or unwittingly) of
+    this affinity, that lies all the pleasure that we experience
+    by the means of sight; indeed, it strikes me, although I am
+    too ignorant to explain why, that the 'feu sacre' of the
+    artist is a kind of inward, spontaneous, ever active,
+    instinctive _impulse_, blind and involuntary, to manifest and
+    put forth this his pedigree--as it were a yearning of son to
+    father, an attraction of a part to the whole, which is, as it
+    were, the living _motive_ and condition of his existence, and
+    which sometimes infuses in his works 'un non so che' that is
+    felt by others, but for which he would be at a loss to
+    account, and of which he is perhaps barely aware; it is a
+    manifestation of a _truth_ which is felt to be _fit_, and
+    called _beautiful_. These reflections, which have often
+    involuntarily forced themselves on me, suddenly remind me of
+    an expression I once heard Papa quote from some German
+    philosopher, I think Hegel: 'Der Mensch ist das Werkzeug der
+    Natur.' Good gracious, where am I running to? and how far out
+    of my depth! and yet one feels the want to empty one's head a
+    little now and then; latterly, especially, these ideas have
+    been stirred up in me by the perusal of fragments on the
+    theory, philosophy, of Art, &c., by Eastlake, which gave rise
+    in me to some painful feelings. At the first onset I was
+    amazed and bewildered at the quantity and great versatility of
+    Eastlake's acquirements, a man who has yet found time to
+    cultivate his art with success. I was filled with regret and
+    mortification when I looked at myself and considered how
+    little I know, and how little, comparatively, my health and
+    eyes will allow me to add to my meagre store. As I got further
+    into the subject, my feelings altered; it seemed to me to grow
+    more and more vast and comprehensive, but not more
+    _intricate_, for it appeared by degrees to embrace and involve
+    in itself (and be involved in) all human knowledge, so that I
+    felt that there must be only one key to all mystery, the
+    _non_-possession of which key is the characteristic, the
+    condition _des Menschseins_. Then it struck me as utterly
+    absurd for anybody to pretend to know anything about anything;
+    but it also struck me that it is not given to man to be a
+    neutral spectator, that he must advance or recede; and that
+    beautiful saying of Lessing's, which Papa read to us, occurred
+    to my mind: 'Wenn der Allmaechtige' (I quote from memory, and
+    therefore probably not quite correctly) 'vor mich hin traete in
+    der Rechten die vollkommene Erkenntnis, in der Linken ein
+    ewiges Streben nach Wahrheit, ich wuerfe mich flehend in seine
+    Linke und sagte: Vater, gieb! die reine Wahrheit ist doch nur
+    Dir allein!'[23] I hardly meant to say all this, especially as
+    it must seem horridly weak to a philosopher of Papa's calibre,
+    but I really could not help it; I wish such thoughts would
+    never come into my head, for I am painfully aware that I have
+    not the grasp of mind to investigate any abstract subject
+    deeply, and I wish that I had a mind, simple and unconscious,
+    even as a child. I hurry back to the point with my tail
+    between my legs; I was saying, was not I? that habit deadens
+    us (read _me_) to the _suggestive_ qualities of nature, and
+    that change of scene is sometimes required to make us again
+    _aware_ of nature; after such change she speaks a more
+    eloquent language than ever; I have heard her voice, ever
+    since I left Frankfurt, ring more powerfully than ever before,
+    and it has been the key to all that I have done, and to all
+    that I have omitted. But there are some cases in which this
+    numbing effect of habit has more lasting, almost irrevocable
+    consequences; when one has been for a long space of time
+    _utterly_ familiarised with an object (a work of art in
+    particular) of which one did not, when the acquaintance or
+    _liaison_ was contracted, appreciate all the beauties, though
+    in process of time the _understanding_ may become fully aware
+    of these qualities, the _heart of the mind_--if I may use such
+    an expression--can never feel that ingenuous fulness of
+    admiration which would penetrate a sensitive and cultivated
+    spectator on seeing it _for the first time_. This I have felt
+    more particularly in the case of the 'Transfiguration' here in
+    the Vatican; I am so utterly familiar with it from a child,
+    when I could in no way understand it, that I find it
+    impossible to judge of it _objectively_; I see colossal merit
+    in it, and yet, when I have looked at it for a few minutes, I
+    turn away and walk on; I am deadened to it. Thank God, it is
+    not so with his (Raphael's) divine frescoes, which are so
+    maimed and profaned in the engravings that the originals were
+    _new_ to me. But I am at the end of my paper, and as you do
+    not wish me to cross, I must this time close by just telling
+    you what my disappointments have been, that you may not form
+    a false idea of them. First, I expected to find an
+    _atmosphere_ of high art, and every possible 'guenstige
+    Anregung' for its cultivation; in this I have been completely
+    disappointed; of the numberless artists here, scarcely any can
+    call themselves historical painters, and Gamba and I, who
+    hoped for emulation, are thrown completely on ourselves;
+    Overbeck is the only remains of that much to be regretted
+    period when he and Cornelius and Veit and Steinle and others
+    were labouring together in friendly strife; he will, however,
+    never be to us what Steinle was. The next greatest sore point
+    was the difficulty of getting a studio. When we arrived in
+    Rome the first thing we heard was that all the _ateliers_ were
+    taken; and it was only after some days despondent search that
+    I got a little bit of one most skimpingly furnished, that I
+    should have sneered at when I first arrived. I have no
+    _secretaire_; I am obliged to lock up my papers with my
+    shirts; I have been obliged to buy a lamp, for the one they
+    gave me tried my eyes; and if I want any article of furniture
+    I must buy it, because I understand that at the end of the
+    year hiring costs as much here as buying. My _atelier_ for
+    next winter I shall take in the spring, as a good many become
+    vacant at that time. Rome is twice, nearly three times, dearer
+    than Florence in some respects; I am in despair; Gamba, who
+    has just half what I have, absolutely starves himself in his
+    food, and can hardly keep himself cleanly dressed; yet he has
+    fewer expenses than I, who have calls to make now and then,
+    and must dress accordingly. Oakes, too, who had sent me a
+    charming letter to Florence, saying that he delighted in the
+    idea of coming to spend the winter with me in Rome, was
+    suddenly prevented; this was a bitter disappointment; I had
+    expected a great deal of improvement from his conversation. I
+    am in the bleak position of one who stands in immediate
+    contact with _no_ cultivated and superior mind. The Laings
+    have not come yet; I hope to goodness they won't disappoint
+    me also.--I remain, dearest Mamma, your dutiful and
+    affectionate son,
+
+                                                 "FRED LEIGHTON."
+
+                (_La suite a un prochain numero._)
+
+                                                           "1852.
+
+    "DEAREST GUSSY,--As a gallant brother, I can't well do less
+    than answer separately your postscript to Mamma's letter. I
+    shall make a point, if I meet with it, of reading Andersen's
+    'Dichterleben'; your recommendation is sufficient to
+    predispose me favourably. I perfectly understand what you say
+    about St. Paul's, and quite agree with you on that subject.
+    What suits a salmon-coloured ribbon? By George, that's a
+    weighty question, and requires mature reflection; it would
+    look _best_ on a white dress with blue flowers or spots; a
+    sea-green would not look bad, and on black silk it would be
+    _distingue_; a bluish violet would not be bad either. I am
+    sincerely sorry that I am not able to 'assister' at your
+    triumphal entry into your eighteenth year; I am afraid the
+    spell is beginning to fall by degrees from the greatest of
+    days. If my directions have been attended to, I was present by
+    proxy on the memorable occasion. Do you fully appreciate the
+    immense importance of the epoch? Do you sufficiently feel that
+    you are on the brink of being _OUT_? You are very much
+    mistaken in supposing that I hear much good music here; there
+    is little or none to hear; the theatres, at least, are all
+    bad. I sincerely hope that you cultivate assiduously the
+    talent with which you are blessed; especially the vocal part I
+    am very anxious about; of course you will take lessons in
+    Bath. I sympathise very much with you on the want of
+    Rosenhain's guiding influence; I fully appreciate your
+    difficulty; you must descend into yourself, and draw at the
+    fountain of your own natural taste, but mind you go very deep,
+    that you may really get at your _genuine, natural_ taste, and
+    I think you won't go far wrong. He who knows how to hear the
+    voice of nature has found the safest guide, and he only is a
+    good master who opens the mind of his pupil to that
+    voice.--Believe me, with many kisses, your very affectionate
+    brother,
+
+                                                            "FRED.
+
+    "If Gussy _did_ want to be a charitable Christian, she would
+    copy in her pretty handwriting five lines a day of my horrid
+    scrawl, for I am ashamed that my Pebbles should remain in such
+    a state."
+
+                              "BATH, _Sunday, November 29, 1852_.
+
+    "MY BELOVED CHILD,--I need not tell you how close an account I
+    keep of the day of the month, nor how my heart beats as the
+    foreign post hour approaches, because you know how tenderly I
+    love you, and what it cost me to part from you, and
+    consequently how anxiously I look for the consolation for your
+    absence which your letters afford me, and I had hoped you
+    would supply this balm liberally. Of course while you were
+    actually travelling I made every allowance for weariness, &c.
+    &c., but if you have carried out your intentions, you must
+    have been in Rome quite ten days, and though I said in my last
+    I hoped for the future you would leave only three weeks
+    between each of your letters home, it is now more than a
+    calendar month since I had last the great happiness of seeing
+    your handwriting. I would not, my love, be unreasonable, but
+    you must remember that, in addition to the natural desire to
+    hear how you manage for yourself, my maternal anxieties have
+    been awakened by the indisposition you spoke of as not
+    serious, it is true, but which has started up before me,
+    explaining your delay in writing, and which, in spite of
+    reason's suggestion that a slight illness would not hinder
+    your work, whilst Gamba would prevent the addition of suspense
+    to the trouble a serious attack would cause us, has brought
+    the evil of separation very bitterly before me. The goodness
+    of your heart, my child, will teach you how you can soften
+    this to me; it is one of the few occasions remaining to you to
+    exercise self-denial, as you live alone and have no one to
+    please but yourself. I now and then wonder a little anxiously
+    whether you ever think of my exhortations, so much have I
+    wished that you should be in the retirement of your house as
+    gentlemanly as you are in company. But then I recollect
+    sentences in your letter, proving such right views in
+    important matters, such a clear understanding of your
+    responsibilities, that I resolve to believe that you will
+    strive to do right in small matters as well as in great ones;
+    indeed, my child, I have remarked with deep satisfaction your
+    appreciation of the blessings that are allotted to you, and
+    indeed you do right to enjoy them with all humility, for I
+    cannot flatter you in opposition to the dictates of my
+    conscience that you are _so_ well deserving of happiness as
+    your poor sister. She is deserving of the highest respect of
+    all, bearing all her trials with admirable patience. The
+    persevering rain, which has caused a great deal of illness in
+    Bath, has had a very bad effect on her, throwing her back just
+    as she was beginning to mend, so that she has a great deal of
+    rough ground to go over again. We revel in literary abundance,
+    even German and French books are in the circulating libraries,
+    and _I_ often wish the days longer to read and to work. Gussy
+    says she hopes you will not think her ill-natured if she
+    declines copying your letters, for, indeed, were she willing
+    to undertake this difficult task, I should forbid it, as her
+    eyes, always delicate, are unusually weak; whether this comes
+    from too long confinement to the house, or from crying, I
+    cannot say; the latter is produced by _Heimweh_! what do you
+    think of this for an English girl? Thank God, she employs the
+    best remedy against regretful feelings, as she is occupied
+    from morning till night. Are you equally industrious? I read
+    the other day the following assertion by Southey, which I copy
+    for you, in case you should _still_ have the habit, so common
+    amongst young people, of wasting during the day occasional
+    quarter-hours or ten minutes, because, they ask, only such a
+    few minutes, how often have I heard that excuse. This is the
+    portion: 'Ten minutes' daily study, for seven years, will give
+    the student sufficient knowledge of seven languages to read
+    them with ease, and even to travel without an interpreter in
+    the respective countries.' Is not this an encouragement to
+    industry? We imagine you by this time settled in your lodging
+    and beginning to feel at home. God grant that you may have
+    your health there and meet with kind friends; we are curious
+    to know what your letters will do for you. In the meantime you
+    will, I doubt not, have met some old acquaintances--the Henry
+    Walpoles, the Laings, Mr. Petre, the Isembourgs, and Princess
+    Hohenlohe; to what amount the latter will condescend, I know
+    not, but remember, I entreat you, my advice. The two former
+    families you will most likely have first met at church; let me
+    hope at least that you will not abandon the habit; it may at
+    last bring a blessing upon you. The intentions of your
+    Frankfurt acquaintances we learnt in a letter from Mme.
+    Beving; she had heard from M. Fenzi that he had given you a
+    general invitation to his villa, and that you had dined with
+    him, or been asked to do so; I do not know whether he made any
+    comment on you. Did your organ of _veneration_ do its duty?
+    Forgive my hints, dear son; all your good qualities are
+    pictured in lively colours before my eye, but I do not even
+    try to forget your faults, lest I should neglect my duty to
+    you; with the best resolutions we all occasionally require a
+    fillip to our conscience. Next Friday is your birthday. It
+    will be the first on which you have not received your parents'
+    blessing in person. We shall not forget you, my darling. God
+    bless you, my own dear Freddy; in this prayer your father
+    joins most fervently; think often of the advice and love of
+    your devoted mother,
+
+                                                    "A. LEIGHTON."
+
+    [Illustration: COSTUMI DI PROCIDA. Rome, 1853]
+
+                                            1 BROCK STREET, BATH,
+                                             _December 13, 1852_.
+
+    DEAR FREDERIC,--I need not say that we had all of us great
+    pleasure in receiving your letter from Rome, though not before
+    your dear mother had suffered great anxiety from the
+    delay--the greater, because your former letter did not give a
+    very encouraging account of your health. It gave us also great
+    pain to hear of the vexatious disappointments which have
+    attended your first entrance into the Eternal City, but this
+    was, perhaps, to be expected, as the sanguine expectations of
+    youth are seldom realised, and we may hope that by this time
+    you will have found in other advantages and opportunities for
+    improvement a sufficient compensation for the loss of those
+    you had expected. What you say about the weakness of your
+    eyesight is far more serious, and, indeed, would have
+    occasioned us alarm if we did not hope and believe that you
+    meant no more than we already knew at Frankfort, that your
+    eyes were weak, and not that they had continued to grow
+    weaker. But when I consider that your only means of acquiring
+    an honourable independence and gratifying your laudable
+    ambition depends upon your eyesight, I surely need no
+    arguments to urge you in the strongest manner to use all those
+    precautions for its preservation which your own good sense
+    must suggest--to throw aside your brush or pencil the first
+    moment that your eyes begin to smart or water, not to draw on
+    white paper or by candlelight (or lamp or any artificial
+    light), nor read except large print, nor small print even by
+    daylight, except for a few minutes occasionally in a book of
+    reference, and to acquire as much knowledge as you can,
+    independently of books, by conversation with well-informed
+    men, if you are so fortunate as to meet with them; when you
+    cannot paint, talk, or observe, exercise your memory, it will
+    store and cultivate your mind more and try your eyes less than
+    reading, which in your case cannot be systematically pursued.
+    You may perhaps meet some well-informed young men amongst the
+    German artists. Above all, draw your compositions as large as
+    possible (or rather as necessary for your eyes) and not such
+    as your architectural drawings, "Four Seasons," &c., which
+    contain so many objects minutely drawn. I suppose, likewise,
+    that chalk and charcoal must be better than pencil, and the
+    paint-brush better than either. You have no reason to complain
+    either of want of ideas or of power of expressing them (at all
+    events with your pen), however deficient you may think
+    yourself in a command of language for conversation; but the
+    fact is that, considering the distance that separates us, it
+    is of much more importance to us to know _how_ you are, what
+    you do, and what you observe, than what you think. Your
+    letters remind me of my friend, Dr. Simpson of York, who, when
+    we sat down for dinner, would enter into some abstract
+    discussion, say, of the nature and varieties of fish, or, _a
+    propos_ of the aitch-bone, on the homologies of the skeleton,
+    while in the meantime fish and beef were growing cold and my
+    appetite impatiently vivacious; so in your letters, while we
+    are burning with impatience to know how you are, what progress
+    you are making, or at all events what are your opportunities
+    of progress in the art, you indulge us with abstract
+    reflections on the theory of art in general. Your last letter,
+    it is true, begins and ends with interesting matter, but with
+    an interpolation of some three pages of disquisition on the
+    nature of genius in art, &c., &c., which, however well thought
+    or expressed, would be more in place in an essay than in your
+    letter to us who are so much more interested in what
+    immediately concerns yourself. The consequence is that,
+    although with a praiseworthy wish to please us you have tried
+    your eyes with a long letter, you have omitted much we were
+    anxious to know--whether, for instance, you were conscious of
+    having made any progress, or derived any advantage from the
+    many pictures both in art and nature you have had so many
+    opportunities of seeing; whether you had been making many, and
+    what sketches or copies, for we are quite convinced that you
+    have not been losing your time; whether you have been
+    comparing what you can do with what other artists of about
+    your age and standing in Italy can do, and whether the result
+    is satisfactory; whether there are any among them from whom
+    you can take any useful hints; whether Overbeck or any other
+    competent artist is willing to assist you; whether, above
+    all, you saw Power at Florence, and what he thought of your
+    compositions; whether you find in Rome the material advantages
+    you expected in the way of models, &c., and whether you will
+    think it advisable to draw from the antique--the Apollo,
+    Torso, &c.; in short, I cannot too strongly impress upon you
+    that one fact is of more value to us than a volume of
+    reflections. Of course, I would not have you infer that the
+    progress of your mind, your thoughts and feelings, are by any
+    means a matter of indifference to us, but after all they can
+    be only imperfectly shown in occasional letters, and must
+    necessarily exclude information of a more positive and, for
+    the present, of a more important nature. Let me caution you,
+    too, against reading any of the modern German works on
+    aesthetics; they can be only imperfectly understood without a
+    knowledge of the philosophies, of which they form a part, and
+    any advantage you may derive from them will not be at all
+    commensurate to the time and trouble, especially for you who
+    have so much positive knowledge to acquire. If, however, any
+    of your German friends can convey to you in conversation any
+    clear ideas on the subject (and if they have them themselves
+    there is no reason why they should not), well and good, but do
+    not let them impose upon you, as they so often do upon
+    themselves, with words either without any well-defined
+    meaning, or one different from, or even the direct contrary,
+    of the usual one. According to Hegel, for instance, 'das
+    Schoene, ist das _scheinen_' (Schoene from scheinen) 'der _Idee_
+    durch ein sinnliches Medium.' Now every artist knows without
+    Hegel that his idea, or, if he prefers to think so, nature's
+    idea within and through him, appears or manifests itself in
+    the sensuous material, in colours if he be a painter, or stone
+    if he be a sculptor, but this would be worse than trite, it
+    would be intelligible to a plain understanding. _Idee_ has a
+    far deeper meaning. If you hear a German flourishing away with
+    the magic word, ask him what he means. He will tell you,
+    perhaps, that it is das Absolute or der objective Geist as
+    distinguished from the Begriff or subjectiver Geist, or rather
+    the indifference of both, and that is neither one nor t'other,
+    but potentially either, or the _an sich_, or _an und fuer
+    sich_, or rather the _an, fuer, ueber sich_; at last after much
+    _hin und herreiten_ you get some faint glimmering of what is
+    meant; perhaps what some people call the soul in nature, or in
+    still plainer English, nature, or the unknown cause of all we
+    see, not an abstraction but a real entity, impersonal,
+    however, and therefore not a god, acting according to certain
+    laws, unconsciously in external nature (in ihrem Anders'sein)
+    coming to itself--acting consciously in man, but more
+    reflectively in science, more instructively in art. Well, you
+    have caught the _Idee_ at last (perhaps!) through its many
+    Proteus-like changes and recognise an old friend after
+    all--scratch your head, and ask whether you are any wiser than
+    before. 'Das scheinen der Idee durch ein sinnliches
+    Material'--in the Madonna of Raphael, for instance--'ist das
+    Schoene.' Why then, says Punch, not equally so in the pork-pie
+    and the mustard-pot, since the _Idee_ manifests itself equally
+    in both. The German solves the difficulty by "Sie sind ein
+    practischer Englaender, und haben keinen speculativen Geist."
+    In the meantime, let us hope that nature will use you as her
+    tool to carry out in colours and canvas some of her beautiful
+    ideas, and leave it to the German to find out how the
+    practical Englishman who has not read Hegel's "AEsthetics" has
+    set about it. That you may accomplish this to the utmost
+    extent of your wishes is the sincere wish of, dear Fred, your
+    affectionate father,
+
+                                                 FREDC. LEIGHTON.
+
+    _P.S._--"Werkzeug der Natur" is an idea by no means peculiar
+    to Hegel.
+
+    "_Your_ birthday--
+
+    "Dearest Mamma, may it be a right happy one--one that may
+    serve, and be used, as a pattern to cut out others on. Judging
+    by your accounts, there is one among you who will contribute
+    mirth to your enjoyment--one who takes as many shapes as
+    Proteus, and is always the most welcome of guests; his name is
+    _Bettering_. In this world confident expectation is a greater
+    blessing, almost, than fruition. I too, if my directions have
+    been followed (as I confidingly hope), shall have appeared to
+    you on the great day _as good as gold_.
+
+    "How grieved I was, dearest Mother, to hear that I had given
+    so much pain to the kindest of hearts! My excuse, such as it
+    was, you got in my last letter, which reached probably the day
+    after you posted your epistle to me; I was sincerely sorry; I
+    had not, I must confess, any idea of anxious suspense on your
+    part, as you were not in expectation of any _particular_ news;
+    I shall in future try to be more deserving of your solicitude;
+    this time, you see, I am punctual.
+
+    "Health Report. Taking all in all, tol. sat., owing, no doubt,
+    to the unusually magnificent weather which we have had since I
+    arrived here; rheumatism, average; colds, not more than usual;
+    eyes?... hum ... might be better; I suppose macaroni 'al
+    burro' are not unwholesome--I and Gamba and several others eat
+    it nearly every day.
+
+    "I now turn to your letter. Little Gussy an authoress! dear
+    child, it gives one unfeigned pleasure to hear of her
+    successful _debut_. I have myself had no opportunity of
+    judging of her talent for writing, but feel convinced that
+    with her warm heart, impressionable soul, sterling
+    understanding, and quick powers of observation, whatever she
+    writes will please a healthy taste. She has my very best
+    wishes. And yet, what slight cloud was that, I felt pass over
+    my pleasure, casting (I could not help it) an undefined shadow
+    on my heart? Did not I feel startled at being so palpably
+    reminded that the _child_ Gussy no longer exists? Did I not
+    seem to feel, disagreeably, that the bridge was cut down
+    behind us, that the last tie was broken that, in Gussy's
+    person, still linked us to childhood, the buoyantly confiding
+    age, the irresponsible age? Did not I become, through her,
+    painfully aware that when I took leave of you, you all sealed
+    with your kiss the first volume of my life, that I am indeed
+    launched into the second, that the rehearsal is indeed over
+    and the curtain drawn up?
+
+    "And do I not feel, even now, a _hypocrite_, _to know_ my
+    path, and yet so often to deviate from it? Write often, dear
+    Mother!
+
+    "The hint you gave me about husbanding my time, I shall take
+    to heart; it is a thing of which I myself full well feel the
+    necessity and know the unfailing benefit; but I confess that
+    when I read your quotation from 'Bob,' I felt irresistibly
+    reminded of the question once put to sage and wise courtiers
+    by the facetious monarch 'who never said a foolish thing, and
+    never did a wise one,' viz. Why is a tub of water with a goose
+    in it lighter than one without?
+
+        "'God help thee, Southey, and thy readers too!' (Byron).
+
+    "Your next question is: Am I comfortably _settled_ in Rome?
+    Well, I am happy to say that since the first week or fortnight
+    my prospects have been slowly but steadily brightening, one
+    cloud after another has passed away, and though I do not
+    expect to see the bright sky of fulfilled expectations quite
+    unveiled, yet I look forward to the enjoyment sooner or later
+    of contentment. I wrote my last letter in a tone of
+    considerable disheartenment, which I was indeed labouring
+    under; perhaps it was the triumph of a selfish feeling that
+    made me communicate my woes to you when it was not in your
+    power to mend them; but yet it is such a relief to feel that
+    there are those who are not indifferent to our grievances, who
+    rejoice when _we_ rejoice, and weep when _we_ weep; and then,
+    too, it seemed to me that perhaps a word from you might throw
+    a new light on my position and give me new reason to be
+    comforted. Meanwhile, altered circumstances have reassured me
+    on some points, and my own reason has pacified me on others
+    which I saw to be irremediable; the prospect of emulation of a
+    peculiar kind, such as I found in Steinle, and generally
+    speaking in the German school (I do not mean the emulation of
+    industry which I find amply in Gamba, or in the science of the
+    art which I have lately discovered amongst certain young
+    Frenchmen, but that which affects the animating _spirit_ of
+    the art, the _spiritual_ taste, the tendency of one's
+    thoughts), I have entirely renounced; the visions that I had
+    (God knows why, for I don't think I ever expected to grasp
+    them) of a time like that of Steinle's sojourn in Rome, when
+    so many master-minds were united together in friendly strife,
+    all inspired by the same spirit, all going hand in hand--have
+    all faded away, and only linger in my mind as a sweet
+    regretted image, like the gentle glow of twilight in the
+    western sky when the cold moon is already in the heavens. But
+    I have, on the other hand, seen reason to believe that this
+    will turn out for my good; that it is proper that I should,
+    once for all, and in all things, accustom myself to the idea
+    that I am, or should be, a _self-dependent_ and
+    _self-actuated_ being, accountable to myself for good and for
+    evil; that I must therefore learn to build and rely on my own
+    resources, and remember the most important of truths, that if
+    the growth of my art is to be healthy, lasting, fruit-bearing,
+    it must, though fostered from without, be rooted deeply in,
+    and receive its vital sap from the soil of my own mind. Still,
+    I have thought it good to hang up in my studio a work of
+    Cornelius and one or two of Steinle, to animate myself by
+    dwelling constantly on _an idea of excellence_ (not _ideal_, I
+    hate such stuff) irrespective of the _specific mode_ in which
+    it is manifested; and in this I think I have chosen the _juste
+    milieu_--so far my reason. Yet I do not deny that I every now
+    and then feel longings and regrets that make me feel the truth
+    of those lovely words--
+
+        "'We look before and after,
+            And pine for what is not;
+          Our sincerest laughter
+            With _some_ pain is fraught.'
+
+    "Among the irremediable disappointments on which I have to
+    put the best face, is that of not seeing Oakes here this
+    winter. From a man of warm feelings, of tastes congenial to my
+    own, of a cultivated and liberal mind, I had hoped to derive
+    much pleasure and especially advantage, and thus to have
+    supplied in some measure the void which must arise (and, alas!
+    remain) in my brain from want of time, want of robuster
+    health, want of eyes. A friendship, too, of mutual seeking is
+    so agreeable a thing. Matters stand so: when I was in Florence
+    I received from him a letter full of a kind and friendly
+    spirit, in which he seized with eagerness at the idea of
+    spending a winter with me in Rome; he was already in Paris,
+    where he was in treaty with a travelling servant in order to
+    continue his journey; he had written to you (did you get the
+    letter?) to know where he was most likely to catch me up; he
+    was anticipating the enjoyment we should find together in
+    Venice, or in Florence, or wherever we should meet; this
+    letter has been waiting for me a month at the post. I arrive
+    in Rome, and look anxiously about for Oakes, who, I suppose,
+    must already have arrived; no Oakes--no
+    news--suspense--despair; at last a letter: he has been
+    recalled from Paris; he is obliged, willy nilly, to stand for
+    his borough (Conservative, Ministerial); he is an M.P.
+
+    "Another disappointment, hitherto, is the non-arrival of the
+    Laings; I had promised myself great enjoyment in Isabel's
+    society; the footing on which we stand is such an agreeable
+    one: enough familiarity (for old friendship's sake) to make
+    our intercourse easy--a relaxation; enough restraint to refine
+    it and make it improving; she plays, too. Music! How I yearn
+    for music, which I never hear in the land best adapted to
+    foster it; music, that humanises the soul, that calls forth
+    all that is refined and elevated and glowing and impassioned
+    in one's breast, and without which the very lake of one's
+    heart ('il lago del cuore,' Dante) stagnates and is
+    congealed. I express myself extravagantly, but my words flow
+    from my heart.
+
+    "Again, the studio, which I at last found, though snug and
+    cheerful, very (let's give the devil his due), is, in its
+    professional capacity, bad beyond description; the light is
+    execrable; I could not dream of painting a picture in it
+    (thank God, I have only taken it till spring), scarcely even a
+    portrait, 'which is absurd,' Euclid, hem. What a list of
+    lucubrations! for goodness' sake, let me look at the gay side
+    of the picture. It has been a great comfort to me all through
+    that all the artists resident here, whom I have spoken to on
+    the subject, felt on first arriving the same kind of
+    disappointment that I did, and that all by degrees have
+    acquired the conviction that, after all, it's the best place
+    in the world for study. I have myself begun to feel what an
+    incalculable advantage it is always to have models at your
+    disposition whenever, and _however_, you want them; I look
+    forward, too, with the greatest delight to the studies that I
+    shall make this summer in the exquisitely beautiful spots to
+    which the artists always take refuge from the heat and malaria
+    of Rome. I long to find myself again face to face with Nature,
+    to follow it, to watch it, and to copy it, closely,
+    faithfully, ingenuously--as Ruskin suggests, 'choosing
+    nothing, and rejecting nothing.' I have come to the conviction
+    that the best way for an historical painter to bring himself
+    home to Nature, in his own branch of the art, is strenuously
+    to study _landscape_, in which he has not had the opportunity,
+    as in his own walk, of being crammed with prejudices,
+    conventional, flat--academical. But I am getting to the end of
+    my paper, and I have as yet said but little to the point; I
+    have not yet answered Papa's question about my sketching, and
+    therefore that I may not seem to be shirking the point, I
+    shall just tell you that amongst the sketches that I have made
+    (mostly architectural) are some by _far the best I ever
+    did_.[24] I have also to justify Marryat about not writing; I
+    got his letters the other day with a kind note to say that he
+    had been ill; that to the Princess Doria has availed me
+    nothing, as she is in mourning for her father, Lord
+    Shrewsbury; that to the Prince Massimo has opened to me at
+    once two of the first and most exclusive houses in Rome, those
+    of his two sisters, the Princess Lancelotti and the Duchess
+    del Drago. Enough for to-day. Good-bye, dearest Mother. Very
+    best love to all. Think often of your dutiful and affectionate
+    son,
+
+                                                  "FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    "I am ashamed to think of the time I have taken writing this
+    letter; not from want of ideas, not from any great difficulty
+    in expressing them, but from the great difficulty I have in
+    getting at them, controlling them, holding them fast.
+
+        "'A saucepan without a handle.
+          Soup without a spoon.'
+
+    "VIA DI PORTA PINCIANA, N. 8."
+
+                               "ROMA, VIA DI PORTA PINCIANA, N.V.
+                                      (_Postmark, Jan. 5, 1853._)
+
+    "DEAR PAPA,--When I received, the other day, your kind and
+    most interesting letter, and felt the appropriateness of your
+    admonitions--felt, too, how foolish it is for me, who am
+    ignorance personified (in certain matters, at least) to waste
+    _my_ time in speculations on subjects beyond my grasp, and to
+    exhaust _your_ patience by twaddling them out to you, whilst
+    your own penetrating and comprehensive mind takes, in
+    preference, a practical view of the subject--a question
+    suddenly presented itself to me: Bless my soul! what will he
+    say to the epistle I have just sent off? For, as you, by this
+    time, know yourself, it is, though perhaps less groggy than
+    the last, still insufficient in point of practical purport; a
+    _messed-up_ dish, not a joint. I hasten, if possible, to make
+    'amende honorable' by communicating to you in language as
+    concise as possible whatever information you either express or
+    hint a desire to have.
+
+    "One word only, a farewell one, on the subject of my
+    _ci-devant_ digressions; no, _three_ words; I must say in my
+    own justification. 1st. That when I sat down to write, it was
+    always with an idea of telling all (or nearly), and all in
+    detail, too, from which I was prevented by invariably getting
+    to the end of my paper, my time, and my eyes (as it would try
+    them to cross) before I had accomplished my object; 2nd. That
+    I have been discursive with an idea of entertaining for a time
+    the suffering members of the family; 3rd. That all my abstract
+    drawl, though it in some cases abutted in tenets that I had at
+    different times heard you let fall, was _altogether_ my own;
+    indeed it was, perhaps, the consciousness of the instinctive
+    _self-suggestedness_ of such thoughts that made me turn round
+    on myself and take an objective view of ditto. A philosopher
+    is very like a dog trying to catch his own tail.
+
+    "Now to business. You speak of my eyes; I cannot conceal from
+    you that they are worse than they were at Frankfurt, but I do
+    not know whether I can say that they are _getting gradually_
+    worse; everybody takes some time in getting _acclimatise_ to
+    Rome; my sufferings may perhaps be ascribed to that. I intend
+    for some months to give up the nude in the evening. Your
+    advice about gathering information from the conversation of
+    men of cultivated mind I would most gladly follow, but, alas,
+    I only know _two_ really well-informed people here, and one is
+    an old man I hardly ever see. There is no fear of my drawing
+    my compositions too small, for (I shall tell you why
+    presently) I am drawing _none at all_, and probably shall draw
+    none for a considerable time; but close and minute study of
+    Nature in its details is, as I now see more plainly than ever,
+    of paramount importance. I come to another point which it is
+    difficult to touch with conciseness: have I made any progress?
+    Perhaps I am not entitled to answer positively in the
+    affirmative till I shall have painted some portrait or picture
+    better than anything I have yet produced; this I have not yet
+    had an opportunity of doing; but if, from superlative
+    confidence, having fallen to a more beseeming diffidence, if
+    having improved and chastened my taste, if having become more
+    anxiously aware of the extent of my task and more deeply
+    humbled by those who have fulfilled it, may be called
+    progress, then I can answer: Yes, I have made a step.
+
+    "I was deeply impressed with the glorious works of art I saw
+    in Venice and Florence, and was particularly struck with the
+    exquisitely _elaborate_ finish of most of the leading works by
+    _whatever_ master; the highest possible finish combined with
+    the greatest possible breadth and grandeur of disposition in
+    the principal masses; art with the old masters was full of
+    love, refined, utterly sterling. I had got during my journey
+    through the Tyrol into a frame of mind that rendered me
+    particularly accessible to such impressions; I had been
+    dwelling with unwearied admiration on the exquisite grace and
+    beauty of the details, as it were, of Nature; every little
+    flower of the field had become to me a new source of delight;
+    the very blades of grass appeared to me in a new light. You
+    will easily understand that, under the influence of such
+    feelings, I felt the greatest possible reluctance to _sketch_
+    in the hasty manner in which one does when travelling; I
+    shunned the idea of approaching Nature in a manner which
+    seemed to me disrespectful, and the consequence was that until
+    I got to Verona I did not touch a pencil. In Venice and
+    Florence, however, I made several drawings, some of which are
+    most highly finished, and afforded me, whilst I was occupied
+    on them, that most desirable kind of contentment, the
+    consciousness of endeavour. Of course I was obliged to conquer
+    to a certain extent my aversion to anything but finished
+    works, and accordingly I made a considerable number of
+    _sketches_ 'proprement dits.' With regard to composing,
+    however, I still feel the same paralysing diffidence, I cannot
+    make up my mind to draw compositions like those I have
+    hitherto produced, but, at the same time, I feel that I am as
+    yet incapable of drawing any in the manner I should wish, and
+    as I see no prospect of such a desirable state of things till
+    I have spent a summer in the mountains and drawn landscape,
+    men and animals for several months, it is very unlikely that I
+    shall put my hand to anything original till next winter; then
+    I shall pour myself out with a vengeance. When I left
+    Frankfurt I asked Steinle whether I should compose the first
+    winter; he answered: '_Oh, wenn Sie moegen._' He foresaw how it
+    would be. It gives me great comfort to feel that I am quietly
+    settled to study for some years in one place, and that I am
+    able to make plans for the future without having to reckon on
+    removals and changes. Meanwhile, this winter I take models, I
+    have been studying the anatomy of the horse, I shall draw at
+    the Vatican from Raphael and Michael Angelo (_perhaps_, too,
+    from the antique), &c. &c. A digression, whilst I think of it:
+    I think that the pains in my eyes are in some measure nervous,
+    for mentioning them invariably brings them on, in broad
+    daylight. About the little emulation I find here I have spoken
+    in my last letter. The general tone here (of course with some
+    exceptions) is one of public toadying mediocrity. There is
+    here one young Frenchman, remarkable for correctness but
+    coldly scientific (only in his art), without that warmth and
+    spontaneity which give such a peculiar charm to works of
+    genius. Overbeck was endlessly courteous and praised me very
+    highly, talked of the artists in Rome acquiring in us 'einen
+    aechten Zuwachs' ('a real addition'), but the half century
+    between our respective ages and his pietistical manner make me
+    sure that we shall derive but little advantage from him; I
+    neither expected nor wished to find a second Steinle.
+
+    "As for Powers, though he was very polite to me in his own
+    sort of way, I am pretty certain that he had entirely
+    forgotten, nor did he ask me to show him anything. You may
+    console yourself on that score--a sculptor, especially one who
+    can do little but busts (however pre-eminently good they may
+    be, and _his_ are), can very seldom judge well of pictures.
+    Gibson, the great sculptor, whom I know very well, and who
+    shows me great kindness by-the-bye, has about as little
+    judgment in painting as a man well can. That I _do_ find
+    models here, and many other material advantages, I told you in
+    the letter that you lately received.
+
+    "I have now, dear Papa, answered all your questions; it only
+    remains for me to thank you for your poignant and admirably
+    practical remarks on the German philosophers--remarks, I
+    assure you, which have quite answered their purpose; both they
+    and the kind wishes you have expressed concerning my future
+    advancement shall not have been thrown away on your grateful
+    and affectionate son,
+
+                                                 "FRED LEIGHTON."
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF HEAD FOR "CIMABUE'S MADONNA." 1853
+    Erroneously supposed to be the Portrait of Lord Leighton
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+                                       (_Postmark, Jan. 5, '53._)
+
+    "DEAREST MAMMA,--To your appendix an appendix. Paper and time
+    force me to laconism.
+
+    "My personal discomforts, for which you show such kind
+    sympathy, are, I am happy to say, now only very slight; the
+    only thing I suffer annoyance from is my stove, which makes my
+    head ache; with regard, however, to beating a retreat, I must
+    candidly tell you that I see my only chance of coming to
+    anything is studying here steadily for _some three_ years;
+    the more so that it is by all accounts only at the end of the
+    first year that one feels all the advantages which Rome
+    affords. My plans seem to be these: this winter, studies; next
+    summer, ditto, in the mountains, or wherever it is coolest;
+    next winter, pictures, portraits, compositions; summer after,
+    Paris, see the large Veronese (which was invisible the last
+    time I was there); from Paris to Bath to see all you darlings
+    again, spend two or three weeks in England studying its
+    character under the ciceroneship of Oakes, that thorough
+    Briton, and collecting materials for some large (in meaning if
+    not in size) picture to be painted in Rome during the third
+    winter, and to be my firstling in an English exhibition; I
+    feel that one day my painting will have a strongly national
+    bias. That autumn I should probably return to Rome _via_ Spain
+    to see the Murillos, &c.
+
+    "When you next write to Lady Pollington, pray remember me very
+    kindly to her; her merry face and facetious ways are still
+    before me. Lord Walpole, whom you mention as coming to Rome,
+    and whom I shall know if he does, is indeed, I believe, a very
+    agreeable and clever man. The Henry Walpoles have been very
+    civil to me; Mrs. Walpole told me that if I wrote to you I was
+    to give her best--I think she said, _love_--for that you were
+    a great favourite of hers.
+
+    "Here I must absolutely close, though I have plenty more to
+    say. My very best thanks to Papa and you all for the kind
+    presents, but I don't see why you won't allow me the pleasure
+    of giving you anything. As I have written this letter
+    immediately after the other, I cannot promise to write again
+    soon. To yourselves, very best love from your dutiful and
+    affect.
+
+                                                  "FRED LEIGHTON."
+
+The following letters from Steinle are evidently the first Leighton
+received in Rome from his master. No comment on them is necessary.
+Every line is evidence of the affectionate quality and beauty of the
+nature that so permanently influenced Leighton's for good.
+
+  _Translation._]                             "FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
+                                               _January 6, 1853_.
+
+    "MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Although I do not know your address,
+    and am uncertain whether this will reach you, yet I can no
+    longer withstand the urging of my heart; I only know that you
+    and Gamba are in Rome, that you have visited Overbeck, as he
+    himself has written me; assuming, however, that you also visit
+    the Cafe Greco, I will risk that address. Your spirited lines
+    from Venice reached me safely, and I can truly say that since
+    then my thoughts and my good wishes for you and for Gamba have
+    daily accompanied you. A report which has been circulated
+    here, that you, Gamba, and Andre had been attacked by robbers,
+    made me anxious for a time, and I expected from day to day
+    that you would yourself write me something about this
+    adventure--in vain. Overbeck writes me now that it would give
+    him particular satisfaction to be able to help or serve you in
+    any way during your stay in Rome, and cordially wishes that
+    you and Gamba would give him the opportunity to do so, but
+    unfortunately he knew nothing else about you to tell me. What
+    Schaeffer writes me is also so extremely scanty, that for all
+    that concerns you and Rico I am thrown back on my own thoughts
+    and suppositions. That you are both absent from me is
+    unfortunately a painful truth; as to whether the ideal life
+    which from old and dear habit I still live with you, be also
+    true, the future, I hope, may show. I have an idea that you,
+    dear friend, and perhaps also your faithful comrade, already
+    suffer from the artistic fever of Rome, which every one feels
+    in the first year. It is that glorious old Rome, with her
+    wealth, and the multitude of her impressions, which works so
+    powerfully upon the receptive mind, that it can retain nothing
+    in contradiction, and cannot escape her influence; this period
+    is one of discomfort, because we feel ourselves oppressed; but
+    though it is of the greatest value, and no doubt bears rich
+    fruit, the work of artists of to-day is neither in a position
+    to offer you anything important, nor to deceive you in sight
+    of the old masters; if the multitude of impressions is first
+    gradually assimilated, if everything is assigned its place, if
+    we take a wide survey, and can stride forward freely in
+    pursuit of the goal set before us, then only does that
+    wonderful spirit which hovers over Rome rise up in us strong
+    and inspiring, and then we are able to recognise what we have
+    actually won in the fight with discomfort. Thus, and in
+    similar circumstances, I fancy that my dear friends are in the
+    same case as the bees, which swarm, and toil with all the load
+    they collect, but cannot make honey by perpetual sucking. That
+    is inconvenient and oppressive, but ah! when this time is
+    past, what wealth will they unfold, with what comfort will
+    they look upon the well-filled satchel, how quickly they will
+    recognise that such wealth pays interest for the whole life!
+    But if it is otherwise, dear friend, then laugh at the
+    all-wise Steinle, and resolve finally to free him from such
+    delusions, and to set the matter before his eyes as it really
+    is, and be you assured of one thing, that he always wishes
+    that everything may be good and prosperous for you, that all
+    that you are longing to attain you may attain, and that
+    Almighty God may guard you and Rico from all ill! You can have
+    had no idea with what feelings your friend would read your
+    vigorous, spirited lines from Venice. I received them, on my
+    return, from Gamba, a very dear lad, and could not help being
+    sorry that you, who have become so dear to me, should know
+    absolutely nothing of what distressed your friend. We are men;
+    hear, then, the news. Returning from Switzerland, I heard of
+    the illness of my daughter Anna, in Metz, and I and my wife
+    hurried to her, and spent six sorrowful days by the death-bed
+    of my little sixteen-year-old daughter. After the funeral, I
+    came back here, and finished 'The Raising of Jairus'
+    Daughter.' The real pleasure of my art I felt shrink from me
+    day by day in Metz; and now all my pleasure depends upon the
+    beloved art, for happiness is more and more confined within
+    the four walls of my _atelier_. Do not read any complaint in
+    this; I have learnt much sadness, but have also found rich
+    cause to thank God from my heart. What manner of children
+    should we be, if we would not kiss the rod when we are
+    chastised? And now, dear friend, with all my heart a greeting
+    to Rome, and to all who remember me kindly. All friends here
+    send greetings to you and Gamba, including Casella il
+    Professore; Senator Nay is in Rome. I hope with all my heart
+    that you have good news of your dear ones, and remain, always
+    and altogether yours,
+
+                                                        "STEINLE."
+
+    [Illustration: VIEW OF SUBIACO, NEAR ROME. 1853
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+  _Translation._]
+
+    "MOST ESTEEMED HERR STEINLE,--When you receive these lines I
+    shall have already been long in the lovely land wherein I lack
+    nothing but your presence; I beg you to accept from me the
+    accompanying translation of the first volume of the works of
+    the Father of English Poetry as a little remembrance; whether
+    it is a good rendering of the great master I cannot judge, as
+    at the moment of writing it has not arrived; but one thing I
+    can answer for: it is the only volume of the only translation
+    of Chaucer into the German language in existence; I only
+    regret that there is also no Italian version; may it serve you
+    as a souvenir of your devoted and grateful pupil,
+
+                                                  "FRED LEIGHTON."
+
+  "FRANKFURT A/M."
+
+  _Translation._]
+                           "ROME, VIA DELLA PURIFICAZIONE No. 11,
+                                                    _January 11_.
+
+    "MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--At last I am able to write you a few
+    words, and (although very late) to send you my very best good
+    wishes and congratulations for the New Year. I am sure that
+    you will be kind enough to forgive my long silence, and will
+    believe me when I tell you that I absolutely could not help
+    it. I hope with all my heart that in the meantime you have
+    been well and strong, and that your beautiful works have
+    progressed in accordance with your wishes. How has the
+    experiment with the new ground turned out? Have you already
+    started on the other cartoon? I, for my part, have experienced
+    the fact that to make plans and to carry them out are two
+    different things; for nothing has come of the pictures which I
+    set myself to paint. I have already told you in Frankfurt,
+    dear Master, how painfully my deficiency pressed upon me, and
+    how clearly I felt that my works lacked a highly genuine
+    finish in the form, an intimate knowledge of nature; this
+    consciousness had so increased when I arrived in Rome that
+    without more ado I determined to employ myself during the
+    whole winter exclusively upon school tasks, and by all means
+    to endeavour to rid my artistic capacity a little of this
+    defect; so now I continually paint study heads, which I try to
+    finish as much as possible, and in which I especially have
+    good modelling in view; that I have achieved this,
+    unfortunately I cannot yet assert, but I derive great
+    enjoyment from the attempt, and hope that my efforts will not
+    remain unrewarded; I shall then next year, if I come to the
+    painting of pictures again, go to work with greater knowledge
+    and clearness, and shall be able, I hope, to clothe my ideas
+    more suitably.
+
+    "I have nothing further to report of myself. I hope, my dear
+    Friend, to receive a few lines from you, telling me what you
+    are doing, for you know well how deeply interested I am.
+
+    "Will you be so kind as to tell Mr. Welsch that my trouble to
+    find the Palazzo Scheiderff was in vain, and I have also
+    unluckily not seen his brother? If I pass through Florence
+    again in spring, I will try my luck once more. And now, adieu,
+    dear Master. Kindest remembrances to your wife and children,
+    and to you the warmest greeting, from your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                      "LEIGHTON."
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                              "FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
+                                                _March 24, 1853_.
+
+    "MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--My desire for news of you and Gamba was
+    certainly great, but I possessed my soul in patience, for I
+    was convinced that it would come at last; you and Rico have
+    given me so many proofs of your love and friendship, that I
+    was able to face with perfect calm and confidence all the
+    numerous and impatient questions for news of you which came to
+    me. Now, however, I see by your welcome lines, to my inward
+    regret, that some restrained anxiety about you is justified,
+    and while on one hand I greatly regret the weakness of your
+    eyes and in a manner suffer with you, yet I have also my
+    consoling argument that the Roman climate, at a better time of
+    year, will certainly be good for your ailment, and that my
+    Leighton can rise up again, that he will not lose courage. But
+    whatever joy I had when you and your noble friends bore such
+    splendid witness of one another, I cannot express myself as
+    very easily satisfied; that you, in your efforts, would stand
+    alone in Rome, I knew well, I am sure you are cut out for it,
+    and it appears to me, even, as if every good heart that rises
+    to a happy independence nowadays, must feel his loneliness, I
+    might even say, that it must in order to give skill and power
+    of conviction. The better you get to know Rome, the more you
+    will learn to love her, and much will be freely given, when
+    once the year of struggle is past, that could never be seized
+    by force. How much I have rejoiced over all that you write of
+    your and Rico's studies, how I should like to see them! Cling
+    now to nature, you are quite right, you will not lose the art
+    of composition, for it is not a thing that can be acquired: it
+    is a gift, and one that you and Rico possess. Now, indeed, it
+    always seems to me, when I consider the highest aims of art,
+    and indeed the greatest capacities of man, that there should
+    be a certain equalisation of the various powers, and it
+    strikes me as indispensable, if we are not to become
+    one-sided, that we should by such equalisation balance these
+    various powers so as to achieve a _complete harmony_. Thus,
+    however great a delicacy goose-liver may be, it always
+    indicates a diseased goose, the monstrous enlargement of an
+    organ, &c.; I do not say this by way of blame, and am thinking
+    perhaps too much only of my own feeble powers, but merely as a
+    little warning that it may be well to keep in view. Do not
+    think that it is the Professor asserting himself, I say this
+    only as a matter of experience and because you and Rico lie
+    very close to my heart, and are associated with my own feeling
+    of the sacredness of art. I have, however, no anxiety; you
+    have good and noble natures, and will not lose the tracks of
+    truth. Spare and save your eyes, I hope that you will soon be
+    quite free from this ill, and then--forward! What you write me
+    of the friends is certainly quite correct, and I myself
+    thought no otherwise; Overbeck is the purest and noblest man
+    that I have ever met; moreover a genius--therefore I rejoice
+    that you and Rico know him; he speaks with feeling and
+    judgment of his art. Excuse, dear Leighton, my forgetfulness;
+    I have not thought of the dear and lovely present which with
+    your note surprised me so pleasantly on my return--I mean the
+    powerful and rich Chaucer; I find the prologue splendid,
+    rather knotty, but the Germans of that time are still
+    knottier. I thank you heartily. Of myself, I can inform you,
+    that I daily rejoice more over the grey canvas; I have worked
+    two months on my picture of the 'Whitsun-sermon,' and now in
+    three weeks have painted half the picture, and am, even though
+    somewhat exhausted, not altogether discontented with the
+    result. This picture, which grows daily more like a fresco, is
+    getting on fast, but much still remains to be done, and I have
+    the progress of the whole picture in hand. Of the friends
+    here, I can tell you that all speak of you and Gamba with love
+    and sympathy, and that you are kindly remembered by all. Thank
+    Rico cordially for his welcome note; if you and Rico always
+    call me 'master,' a title which abashes me, we shall be
+    friends, and I hope that as I grow old in years, at least I
+    shall remain young in art. Tell Rico that I had a visit from
+    his grandmother, who loves him dearly; with a few lines he
+    would give her extreme pleasure. Now, adio, dear friend; equip
+    yourself with patience and courage, and keep sad thoughts far
+    from you. Greet all friends from me most heartily, also I have
+    to send to you and Gamba warmest greetings from all here,
+    including my wife, Frau Ruth Schlosser, and Casella. Let me
+    hear sometimes how you get on. Always and altogether yours,
+
+                                                   "EDW. STEINLE."
+
+  (_Postmark, March 28, 1853.
+  Received April 6._)                 (_On cover_--Mrs. Leighton,
+                                  1 Brock Street, Bath, England.)
+                                  "ROME, VIA DE PORTA PINCIANA 8.
+
+    "DEAREST MAMMA,--If I did not, as was naturally my first
+    impulse, answer your letter directly I received it, it was
+    because Isabel's[25] portrait has of late taken up all the
+    time, or rather eyes, that I can dispose of; this being,
+    however, a _drying_ day, I seize the opportunity of making up
+    for lost time. As I have mentioned the portrait, I may as well
+    say _en passant_ that I expect it to be a very successful
+    likeness, and as decent a painting as a thing done in so
+    desultory a manner can be expected to be; Gamba admires it
+    very much, and intends to copy some parts. I was much touched
+    at the affectionate sympathy you show for me in my visitation,
+    and am as glad for you as for myself to say that there is a
+    decided improvement in the state of my eyes, so that, although
+    they are by no means _well_, it would hardly be worth while to
+    go to a doctor for a written account of my symptoms; the more
+    so as Dr. Small, who is a man very well thought of, thinks it
+    all depends on the weather, and will go away when fine weather
+    sets in, which God give! Add to this that several people of my
+    acquaintance, _i.e._ Mrs. Sartoris and Mrs. Walpole, who never
+    had anything the matter with their eyes, find them affected
+    now. About two months ago I went to consult Dr. Small, or
+    rather, on calling on him one day he _had me up_
+    professionally, for I felt a delicacy about going myself, as
+    he had told me that he would be very happy to be of service to
+    me _without_ any remuneration. Finding that Dr. Small's
+    prescription had done me no perceptible good, I determined at
+    last to go to a homoeopathic physician, of whom I heard great
+    things. He was originally the apothecary of Hahneman (do I
+    spell the name rightly?) the father of Homoeopathy. Under his
+    hands I certainly improved rapidly; but it so happened that,
+    just as I went to him, the rains, which had lasted without
+    interruption for six weeks, ceased, and we had some days of
+    glorious weather--now, who cured me, Jove or the apothecary?
+    The weather is now as bad again as ever; but though less well,
+    I have not _relapsed_ with it. Most days I can paint three or
+    four hours (I don't think I could draw), and the other
+    evening I even read half an hour with a lamp without feeling
+    pain; what a pass things have come to that that should be a
+    boast! I confess that the little I do, I do without energy or
+    great enjoyment. I have not yet given my eyes the fair trial
+    of complete rest which, when the Laings go, I shall be able,
+    through your kind promise of a piano and singing lessons, to
+    do for a fortnight or three weeks. My sincere thanks to Papa
+    for his kindness and liberality. I shall begin immediately
+    after the holy week, for until the _forestieri_, of which
+    there are a fabulous number, have gone to their respective
+    summer quarters, neither piano nor masters are in any way
+    come-at-able.
+
+    "Having now spoken of my health, I return to your letter, for
+    I find that the only way of writing at all to the point, is to
+    answer sentence for sentence the questions and remarks you ask
+    and make, and in the same order.
+
+    "I indeed count myself fortunate in having the acquaintance of
+    Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris; it is a source of the greatest
+    enjoyment to me; they show me the most marked kindness, which
+    I value all the more because it is for my own sake, and not
+    for that of a dinners-demanding letter of introduction. I am
+    never there less than three times a week, and often more; I
+    have dined with them _en famille_ four times, and it is only
+    seven weeks since I made their acquaintance. Although I have a
+    good many friends here, it is the only house which it is
+    improving to me to frequent; her conversation is most
+    agreeable to me, not from any knowledge she displays, but from
+    her great refinement of feeling and taste; her husband is an
+    enthusiastic amateur painter. I also meet there a young man of
+    the name of Cartwright, a very old friend of theirs, who seems
+    to me to possess an extraordinary amount of information, a
+    mine which I have already begun to 'exploiter' to my own
+    profit.
+
+    "I have made a considerable number of acquaintances, and have
+    had more than enough parties, for people have a habit here of
+    receiving once a week, so that, especially towards the end of
+    the season, there never was an evening when I could not have
+    gone somewhere, and often I had two or three places for one
+    night; I used often to stay away from them, till I was afraid
+    of offending people, which one does not wish to do when one
+    experiences kindness from them. Then came a long series of
+    arrears, which I found most monotonously tiring, for I am more
+    lazy about dressing for a party than ever; more than once,
+    when I have gone to my room to go through that hateful
+    operation, I have slipped into bed instead of into my glazed
+    boots; and yet, if I had taken the steps a great many young
+    men do take, I should have gone to twice the number of places.
+    Now all this was very well for this winter, as I could do
+    nothing else on account of my eyes, but next year I shall turn
+    over quite a new leaf; in the first place, give up dancing
+    altogether--it is too fatiguing; and in the next, go nowhere
+    but to my old acquaintances (of this winter, I mean).
+
+    "I have lionised Isabel all over Rome, and devoted to her
+    nearly all my afternoons since she came; it is the luckiest
+    thing in the world, her coming here at a time when I am not
+    able to paint; she is going in a few days; you may easily
+    imagine that I have not slept in the afternoons since she has
+    been here.
+
+    "Gamba is, as you rightly suggested, far too straitened to go
+    into society; however, he no way requires it, he has good
+    health and untiring industry, and requires no such relaxation.
+    As my paper is coming to an end, I must pass over the rest of
+    your letter more rapidly. I fully feel with you that it is
+    better in many respects that I should not go to Frankfurt, but
+    I confess that when I saw it was out of the question, I felt
+    painfully having to wait another year before seeing you;
+    however, it is for the best. I am interested in hearing that
+    you have bought a house in Bath; it looks as if you had at
+    last found an anchor in your own country; is the society of
+    Bath really agreeable? I always hear it spoken of in a jocular
+    tone. What becomes of the Frankfurt house? You won't sell it,
+    will you? Pray remember me most kindly to Kate Chamberlayne,
+    and thank her for giving such an unworthy a corner in her
+    memory.
+
+    "And now, dear Mamma, I must close. Pray write very soon, and
+    give me a quantity of news about all your doings; tell me how
+    dear Lina gets on and Gussy's Pegasus."
+
+The preceding letter contains the first mention that I have seen of
+Leighton's friends, Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris, who were to be so much to
+him during twenty-five years of his life. He had known them seven
+weeks when he wrote it, and already Rome had become a happier place.
+All that most interested him in social intercourse was satisfied in
+their companionship, and in that of the intimate circle of friends who
+frequented their house. It soon became a second home, a home doubly
+welcome, as Leighton felt keenly being separated from his family. Mr.
+Sartoris was a fairly good amateur artist, and was considered by his
+friends to be a first-rate critic of painting. To Leighton's reasoning
+mind, ever prone to analyse and to give expression to the results of
+his analysis, it must have been inspiringly interesting to discuss art
+in general and his own in particular with one who had a natural gift
+for criticism.
+
+Again, music was ever a joy to Leighton, a joy only equalled by that
+inspired by his own art. Mrs. Sartoris (Adelaide Kemble), imbued with
+the noble dramatic instincts and traditions of the Kembles, was not
+only a great singer, but a great musician, and had in all matters a
+fine taste, bred of true and deep feeling united with keen natural
+perceptions. In Miss Thackeray's "Preface to a Preface" to Mrs.
+Sartoris' delightful story, "A Week in a French Country House," she
+quotes the description of one who had known the two sisters, Fanny and
+Adelaide Kemble, from their youth: "Mrs. Kemble is essentially poetic
+and dramatic in her nature; Mrs. Sartoris, so much of an artist,
+musical, with a love for exquisite things and all that belongs to form
+and colour." (Some of us remember hearing Lord Leighton say that,
+though Mrs. Sartoris did not paint, she was a true painter in her
+sense of beauty of composition, in her great feeling for art.) Another
+old friend, referring to Mrs. Sartoris, with some show of reason
+deprecated any attempt to record at all that which was unrecordable:
+"Would you give a dried rose-leaf as a sample of a garden of roses to
+one who had never seen a rose?" she exclaims, recalling, not without
+emotion, the golden hours she had spent, the talks she had once
+enjoyed in the Warsash Pergola. "You have only to speak of things as
+they are," said a great critic who had known Mrs. Sartoris in her
+later years. "Use no conventional epithets: those sisters are beyond
+any banalities of praise." Again, take another verdict: "That fine and
+original being, so independent and full of tolerance for the young;
+sympathising even with _misplaced_ enthusiasm, entering so vividly
+into a girl's unformed longings. When I first knew her, she seemed to
+me to be a sort of revelation; it was some one taking life from an
+altogether new and different point of view from anything I had ever
+known before." Such are the descriptions given by those who knew her
+intimately of the lady who held out so kind a welcoming hand to
+Leighton when, as a youth of twenty-two, he started for the first time
+alone on the journey of life. I saw Mrs. Sartoris only two or three
+times at the house of our mutual friends, Mrs. Nassau Senior and Mrs.
+Brookfield. It was during the last years of Mrs. Sartoris' life, when
+illness and sorrow had marked her noble countenance with suffering. A
+friend of mine, however, who was greatly attached to Mrs. Sartoris,
+would often talk to me of her. My friend had had exceptional
+opportunities of coming in contact with the most distinguished minds
+in Europe. She told me she had never met with any personality who
+naturally, and apparently without effort, so completely dominated all
+others who were present. However distinguished the guests might be at
+a dinner, Mrs. Sartoris, she said, was invariably the centre of
+interest to all present.
+
+The Sartoris children were another source of delight to Leighton in
+this home. No greater child-lover ever existed. He writes, moreover,
+that all social pleasures which he enjoyed during the three years he
+lived in Rome he owed to these friends.
+
+With life brightened and inspired by their sympathy, and by all the
+sources of interest and culture which their society included, Leighton
+began brooding over the work which he meant should embody the best of
+his attainments so far as they were then developed. Florence and her
+art had cast a spell on his spirit very early in his existence. He had
+become especially enamoured of Giotto, the half-Catholic, the
+half-Greek Giotto. Pheidias had not yet touched him intimately; but
+his loving, spontaneous appreciation of this Florentine master, whose
+work in one sense echoes the secret of the noble, serene sense of
+beauty to be found in that of the Greeks, proves that in very early
+days Leighton's receptive powers were alive to it. The subject which
+inspired his first great effort appealed especially to Leighton from
+more than one point of view. In the historical incident which he chose
+was evinced the great reverence and appreciation with which the early
+Florentines regarded art, even when expressed in the archaic form of
+Cimabue's painting. The fact of his picture of the Madonna causing so
+much public enthusiasm was in itself a glorification of art; a witness
+that in the integral feelings of these Italians such enthusiasm for
+art could be excited in all classes of the people. One of the
+doctrines Leighton most firmly believed, and most often expressed, was
+that of the necessity of a desire for beauty among the various classes
+of a nation, poor and rich alike, before art of the best could become
+current coin.[26] In painting the scene of Cimabue's Madonna being
+carried in triumph through the streets to the Church of Sta. Maria
+Novella, Leighton felt he could record not only his own reverence for
+his vocation, but the fact that all who follow art with love and
+sincerity find a common ground, whatever the class may be to which
+they belong. To Steinle, religion and art were as one, and his pupil
+had so far been inoculated with his master's feeling that, as his
+friend and brother artist, Mr. Briton Riviere, writes: "Art was to
+Leighton almost a religion, and his own particular belief almost a
+creed." As no difference of class should be recognised in church, so
+neither should any be accentuated between artists, when such are
+worthy of their calling, a belief which Leighton carried into practice
+all his life in his relations with his brother artists. He makes
+Cimabue, the noble, lead by the hand the shepherd boy Giotto, who was
+destined to outstrip his patron in the race for fame, and to become so
+great an influence in the history of his country's art. The magnates
+of the city are represented in Leighton's procession as forming part
+of it, while Dante, standing in a shadowed corner, is watching it
+pass.
+
+Again, Leighton was afforded an opportunity, in the accessories of the
+design, of painting the things which had entranced him in those days
+when he first fell in love with Italy; the mediaeval costumes in the
+old pictures, the background to the _Citta dei Fiori_ of hills, spiked
+with cypresses pointing dark, black-green fingers upwards to the sky,
+and the beautiful San Miniato crowning one of their summits, the stone
+pines, the carnations, the _agaves_--all these things that had
+appealed to his native sense of beauty as such wonderful revelations,
+when, at the age of ten, he was transported to the sunlit land of art
+and beauty, after being accustomed to the sights and surroundings of a
+dingy region in fog-begrimed London.
+
+The subject of Leighton's early _opus magnum_ was indeed no bare
+historical fact to his mind; it was a symbol of everything to which,
+in his enthusiasm for his calling, he attached the most earnest
+meaning, and which was also steeped in the radiant glamour cast over
+his spirit from childhood by the land that inspires all that is most
+ardent in the aesthetic emotions of an artist.
+
+The subject decided on, in the spring-time of 1853 he began working,
+as hard as the trouble in his eyes would permit, at the cartoons for
+the design. His intention of remaining in Italy during the summer was
+frustrated, partly by the unsatisfactory state of his eyes and health
+generally, partly by the decision of his family to return to their
+home in Frankfort for the summer, before finally settling in Bath.
+This change of plans is first mentioned in a letter to Steinle
+received February 23, 1853:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                   ROME, VIA DI PORTA PINCIANO 8.
+
+    DEAR MASTER AND FRIEND,--How gladly I seize the opportunity to
+    answer your delightful letter, and to connect myself again
+    through the post with a man and a time round whom and which so
+    many dear remembrances cling; that I did not do this
+    immediately on receipt of your lines, I hope you have not set
+    down to a possible negligence or to any sort of cooling of my
+    grateful attachment to you, but that you have
+    thought,--something has happened, Leighton has not forgotten
+    me; and so it is; I suffer with my eyes. How sorry I am to
+    begin a letter by giving you such news, for you expected only
+    to hear from me of industrious making of progress; therefore
+    exculpation of my silence is my first duty. The disorder of my
+    eyes is not painful; I do not suffer with it; I am only
+    incapacitated. Oh, that I were again in Frankfurt, then I
+    should be well! Otherwise I am fairly well, and am intensely
+    eager to do a great deal--and dare not; I am not altogether
+    incapacitated, only my wings are clipped; I work for two or
+    three hours every day, but as I cannot accomplish all that I
+    desire, the little I can affords me the less pleasure; what,
+    however, particularly damps my ardour is the lack of
+    intellectual stimulus, because for _nearly six weeks_ I have
+    not _looked at a book_, for in the evening I simply dare not
+    do _anything_. I have driven myself out into society, till I
+    absolutely prefer going to bed. If I could only compose in my
+    head! but first this was always difficult for my unquiet head,
+    and secondly I have, in consequence of this moral _Sirocco_,
+    been blown upon by such a _svoglia-tezza_ that it is quite
+    impossible; it only remains for me to think sadly of my, and I
+    may say to you, most sympathetic friend, of our hopeful
+    expectation, and to vex myself with the recollection of the
+    zeal and joy with which I had commenced to put my plans into
+    execution in Venice and Florence. My optic ailment is partly
+    of the nerves, but principally rheumatic. You can imagine
+    whether it has been improved by four weeks of unbroken wet
+    weather! But enough of these complaints. I will now turn to
+    your letter and answer the points on which you touch. What a
+    refreshment your lines were to me! They are a mirror of your
+    warm, rich soul; I read with unfeigned emotion how
+    sympathetically you still think of your two pupils; you have
+    not been out of our minds for a moment; see how it is in my
+    atelier here: in your portrait you are bodily, in your
+    writings you are spiritually, present with me daily. That I
+    did not write to you immediately on my arrival was certainly
+    wrong of me, for then I had not begun to suffer with my eyes;
+    but my head was in such a maze that I always put off and
+    thought, I will wait till I hear if he has received my first
+    lines, quite forgetting that you did not know my address in
+    Rome. I am sure you will forgive me. What you imagined about
+    my impressions, agrees at the first blush with the facts, but
+    as regards the "gathered honey" it has unfortunately turned
+    out quite differently. I feel as if blighted, and until I have
+    the full use of my eyes it will not be otherwise. Of Rico I
+    will say nothing, for he will write himself either to-day or
+    to-morrow; I can only tell you that so far we have travelled
+    through Italy in perfect concord and friendship; but there is
+    one thing that he will not tell you himself, he is
+    indefatigably industrious, and has made marked progress in
+    both drawing and painting. One word about my own development.
+    Since I left Frankfurt, my observations on nature and art, in
+    all beyond what is technical, have produced in me a curious
+    shyness, a peculiar and uncomfortable distrust of myself. When
+    on my journey I saw Nature unfold before my eyes in her
+    teeming summer glory, and saw how each flower is like a
+    miracle on her richly worked garment, when I saw how golden
+    threads wound everywhere through the whole fabric of beauty,
+    then it seemed to me that the artist could not without
+    sacrilege pass over the least thing that is sealed with the
+    love of the Creator; when, later on, I noticed in Venice and
+    Florence with what love and truth the great Masters had
+    rendered the smallest, then my feelings arose; I knew only too
+    well that I, until I should have drawn a multitude of studies,
+    could not possibly complete a composition in the sense that I
+    should wish, and otherwise I would not; and the consequence of
+    this knowledge is that I have not attempted a stroke of
+    composition, and I often anxiously ask myself whether I could;
+    thus far it has worked to paralyse me, but on the other hand
+    it has led me to draw some very complete studies which would
+    certainly not displease you, dear Master. Finally, I touch
+    upon a point which, on account of its painfulness, I would
+    gladly pass over. I heard in Florence from Andre of your
+    severe loss, and my first impulse was to write to you to
+    express my sympathy; but when I set about it, I found it so
+    infinitely difficult to say anything suitable without
+    irritating your wound, that in the end I forbore. Your
+    consolation you draw from a higher source than human
+    friendship.
+
+    We have visited Overbeck several times, and have found him a
+    dear and estimable old man, but naturally the difference of
+    age and of aims is too great between us for him to supply
+    your place with us; besides, I do not wish that he should in
+    any way supplant Steinle in my memory or affection.
+
+    Flatz and Rhoden have welcomed us both most cordially; your
+    name is a charm with them; as regards their art, both are
+    _thoroughly able_, but unfortunately such _literal copyists_
+    of Overbeck's style that absolutely no difference is
+    perceptible; consequently they are quite insipid to me, for I
+    consider a real independence indispensably necessary in an
+    artist. From all three I send you most cordial greetings.
+
+    Much as I could still tell you, my dear friend, I must hasten
+    to a close on account of my eyes. I beg you not to repay my
+    silence in kind, but when you have a moment, put a few lines
+    on paper for the encouragement of your distant pupil. I long
+    also to know how your works prosper, particularly the large
+    one on the grey canvas with the light from above.
+
+    Accept the assurance of the unalterable, devoted attachment of
+    your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    It is not impossible that I might come to Frankfurt for a
+    short time this summer.
+
+  A Monsieur Frederic Leighton,
+    Frankfort a/M. Poste Restante.          BATH, _May 15, 1853_.
+
+    MY BELOVED SON,--I have hardly the courage to tell you how
+    intense is our joy at the prospect of meeting you, so much
+    sooner than we had hoped, knowing that our pleasure is
+    obtained, or will be, at the expense of a grievous
+    disappointment to your long cherished and quite reasonable
+    hopes. Your father was quite depressed the whole evening after
+    the receipt of your last letter. I am sure I need not tell you
+    how willingly I would relinquish my expected happiness to
+    promote yours. I shall write but a short letter, as we hope to
+    be in Frankfort soon after this reaches its destination.
+    Surely I told you in my last epistle we mean to spend the
+    summer at home, for the last time to bear that name, alas! I
+    fear I shall never, in England, feel as I do in Germany when
+    tolerably well. The climate makes it impossible for me to feel
+    that springiness of spirit so nearly allied to youthful
+    feelings which I have often enjoyed at Frankfort and for no
+    particular reason. It was in the air, but never notice these
+    observations in your father's presence. He is sufficiently
+    troubled at the thoughts of depriving me of my beloved house
+    and garden, which, after all, is done by my own desire. I have
+    just been reading an extract from a letter to Miss Pakenham
+    from Mrs. Maquay, partly at that lady's request, that we might
+    know the agreeable impression you made on her and your
+    acquaintances at Rome. I will not gratify your vanity by
+    repeating words of praise that have sunk deep into my mother's
+    heart; "for the matter of that," I think your father and
+    sisters are equally pleased at the tribute to your attractive
+    qualities.
+
+    I will no farther fatigue your eyes as we hope so soon to
+    embrace you. We fervently hope your eyes will be obedient to
+    the treatment, which shall enable you to return to Rome for
+    the winter. You cannot doubt that your father desires as much
+    as you that you may be in a fit state to return.
+
+    God bless you, my dearest, all unite in this wish, if
+    possible, more than the others.--Your tenderly attached
+    Mother,
+
+                                                     A. LEIGHTON.
+
+Leighton went for medical treatment to Bad Gleisweiler, bei Landau,
+and writes to Steinle from there on July 25, 1853:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+
+    HONOURED AND DEAR FRIEND,--What can you think of me for
+    leaving you so long without news of me! It certainly did not
+    occur through forgetfulness, but because I always deferred in
+    the hope of being able to announce some marked improvement in
+    my condition, but that is still impossible, although my
+    general health (particularly in respect of the hardening
+    against cold-catching) is much stronger, though unfortunately
+    the improvement in my eyes is not great; this, however,
+    requires time, and especially patience. I shall be here
+    another fortnight, then my medical treatment will proceed in a
+    so-called after-cure (Nachkur); I shall be dieted, take many
+    baths, work in moderation--ouf! But I will conform to it all
+    willingly, if only I may very soon return to my adored Italy.
+    How I cherish the beloved image in my heart! how it comforts
+    me! how many idle hours it beautifies for me! how mightily it
+    draws me! The remembrance of the beautiful time spent there
+    will be riches to me throughout all my life; whatever may
+    later befall me, however darkly the sky may cloud above me,
+    there will remain on the horizon of the past the beautiful
+    golden stripe, glowing, indelible, it will smile on me like
+    the soft blush of even. In the meantime, I impatiently await
+    the moment when I shall see you again, my dear friend, and
+    when I shall be permitted to set before your eyes the work
+    which we have already discussed together; I shall seek so to
+    deal with my affairs that you shall not be ashamed of your
+    grateful and devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    _P.S._--I beg to be remembered most kindly to your wife, and
+    to all my friends.
+
+  (_On envelope_--A. Madame Leighton,
+  50 Frankfurt a/M.)
+                                     BAD GLEISWEILER, BEI LANDAU.
+                                     (_Postmark, July 30, 1853._)
+
+    I had the first quarter last year; so that I shall still be
+    where I started; however, I can say nothing more myself to
+    Papa, since he has given me to understand that his reason is
+    want of confidence in me, for, having rejected the obstacle
+    which I myself suggested--that he could not afford it--he
+    leaves no other reason possible. I confess I do not feel much
+    flattered that this feeling should have so penetrated him as
+    to make him fall back from me on an occasion so momentous as
+    the painting of my first exhibiting picture, a moment critical
+    in my career, and on the immense importance of which nobody
+    can, at other times, dwell with more disheartening eloquence
+    than himself; how, he says, do I know that your picture will
+    succeed? Is it this doubt that makes him throw obstacles in my
+    way? Nobody is better persuaded than myself of the kindness of
+    Papa's heart, and of the sincerity of his desire for my
+    welfare, but he does not seem in any way to realise the
+    importance of the occasion. Now, if I, like so many other
+    young men, had gone into the army, he would not--for what
+    father does?--have hesitated for a moment to provide me with
+    my complete outfit as required by the rules of the regiment,
+    for he would have felt that I could not canter about on parade
+    without a coat; but now that I am girding myself for a far
+    greater struggle, now that I am about, single-handed, to face
+    the bitter weapons of public criticism, does he withhold the
+    sword with which he might arm me, for fear I should waste my
+    blows on the butterflies that pass me as I march into the
+    field? At two and twenty I am still in his eyes a schoolboy
+    whose great aim is to squeeze as much "tin out of the
+    governor" as he can by any ingenuity contrive.
+
+    Will you remember me most kindly to my uncle, aunt, and
+    cousins, and take for all yourselves the best love of your
+    dutiful and affectionate son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+Leighton took the cartoons for his picture of Cimabue's Madonna to
+Frankfort to discuss the designs with Steinle and obtain from him his
+criticism and advice. In the autumn of 1853, the home in Frankfort was
+finally given up, and the family returned to Bath. Leighton, on his
+journey back to Rome, stopped some weeks at Florence, to steep himself
+afresh in her mediaeval art, and to gather fresh material for the
+details of his picture. During this visit, he drew the group of
+figures painted _al fresco_ by Taddeo Gaddi on the walls of the
+Capella Spagnola of Sta. Maria Novella, which included the portraits
+painted from life of Cimabue and Giotto. In this portrait Leighton
+found the costume for the hero of his picture. He also repeated the
+dress in painting the cartoon for Cimabue's portrait executed in
+mosaic in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The pencil sketch (see List
+of Illustrations) is wonderful as a drawing, considering the
+conditions under which it was made. It was secured for the Leighton
+House Collection, and in the preface for the catalogue it is
+described (see Appendix). While at Florence he wrote the following
+letter:--
+
+                                     FLORENCE, 386 VIA DEL FASSO,
+                                             _November 13, 1853_.
+
+    [MY VERY DEAR MAMMA],--How could you for one instant suppose
+    that I could suspect you of coldness towards me? I was quite
+    distressed that you should have entertained such an idea, and
+    had I followed my first impulse should have written at once to
+    tell you so; but, as it so easily happens when one is newly
+    arrived in a strange place, first one thing and then another
+    made me defer writing, till at last I made up my mind to stay
+    at home all this morning, and not to get up till the letter
+    should be finished; I am, however, still several days within
+    my month. With regard to my health, I made no especial mention
+    of it, probably because, as I have a treatment before me when
+    I get to Rome, I attached little importance to my feelings in
+    this state of interim; however, as you mention it, I am happy
+    to say that my faceache makes its appearance decidedly less
+    often than it did in Frankfurt, and that my eyes seem to me,
+    if anything, better since I have got to Italy. One thing is
+    certain, and that is that my spirits are very much improved
+    since I have got back to the dear land of my predilection; I
+    felt it as soon as ever I arrived in Venice; I felt a heavy
+    cloud roll away from over me, the sun burst forth and shone on
+    my path, and a thousand little springs, stifled and
+    half-forgotten fountains of youth and joyousness, gurgled up
+    in my bosom and buoyed up my heart, and my heart bathed in
+    them and was glad--happy Fred! that he has such sources of joy
+    and happiness! Unlucky Fred! for he will never be able to live
+    but where the heavens always smile--and where he can economise
+    on umbrellas!
+
+    I have had many happy hours within the last three weeks, but I
+    think that the happiest time of all was the afternoon of our
+    descent on to Florence from the mountains of the Romagna; even
+    the morning of that day was very enjoyable, for although the
+    sky was murky and cross, and it rained as far as you could
+    see, yet I knew that that very evening, in that very coach, I
+    should be rattling along the streets of dear, dear Florence,
+    and that bore me up, and I made light of the rain, and
+    whistled out of tune in order to take off the wind, who, in
+    spite of his fine voice, has certainly no ear for music. Then,
+    too, we had a most amusing coachman, who did nothing but tell
+    stories and crack jokes the whole time. One episode is worth
+    transcribing: "Seen to-day's paper, sir?" (turning sharply
+    round). "Well, no" (says I); "anything in it?" "Ah!" (says
+    he), "very interesting correspondence from the moon." The
+    article seems to have been as follows: "Our correspondent in
+    the moon tells us of rather a discreditable affair which has
+    just taken place in a high quarter. It seems that the other
+    night St. Peter, having spent the evening with a few friends,
+    by whom he was entertained with the distinguished hospitality
+    which his high position entitled him to expect, left them in
+    such a state of excitement and, in short, intoxication, that
+    he lost his way, and was missing at his post till ten o'clock
+    the next morning. Unfortunately, too, he had taken the keys
+    with him. About two o'clock in the morning a batch of souls,
+    with passports for heaven, came up to the gates and requested
+    admittance, but finding all knocking in vain, they were
+    obliged to spend the night behind a cloud in a very exposed
+    situation, which was made doubly disagreeable by their having
+    put on in anticipation the very slight costume habitually worn
+    in the abode of eternal happiness; several severe colds were
+    caught." "But all this," he added (mysteriously producing a
+    key from his waistcoat pocket), "does not affect me--letters,
+    you know, despatches." I have myself subsequently consulted
+    the papers in question, and find that St. Peter, in the
+    confusion of his ideas, had taken up his seat at the other
+    Sublime Porte, and had inadvertently let a lot more Russians
+    into the Danubian Principalities. So the papers say. However,
+    I confess that I rather question the whole affair.
+
+    I close with the old, yet ever new refrain. Pray, write very
+    soon! if at once, to Florence, Poste Restante; if not, to
+    Rome, Poste Restante.--With very best love to all, I remain,
+    dearest Mamma, your dutiful and affectionate son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    [Illustration: Portraits of Cimabue, Giotto, Simone Memmi, and
+    Taddeo Gaddi, from Fresco in Capella Spagnola, by Taddeo Gaddi.
+    Santa Maria Novella, Florence, 1853.]
+
+                                         BATH, _August 13, 1854_.
+
+    MY DEAREST FREDDY,--We are delighted to know you are out of
+    Rome, for it is possible to have too much of a good thing; and
+    much as you delight in "seeing the streets flooded with light
+    and glittering under a metallic sky" (how beautiful it must
+    be!), the pure air of the country, a less fierce heat, and a
+    total change of scene, will, I trust, make a new man of you.
+    How long a holiday shall you take, and did you mean that you
+    are staying with the Sartoris family as a visitor? under all
+    circumstances you will be a great deal with them, and as for
+    the happiness you would so affectionately share with me, I
+    would not, if I could, deprive you of a morsel of it; you are
+    enjoying such unusual social advantages that it is a solace to
+    me to know that you are capable of appreciating them. Thank
+    God, you have no taste for what so many men of your age call
+    pleasure, and that in spite of your sociable disposition, you
+    always show good taste in the choice of your companions. I
+    wish we could have a little of your society. The ---- are
+    still familiar and dear friends, but their minds are so
+    different, so conventional, that many sides of your sisters'
+    minds are closed, even to them.
+
+The next letter from Leighton to his mother was written after he
+returned to Rome:--
+
+  (_On cover_--Mrs. Leighton,               ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+    No. 9 Circus, Bath, England.)             _January 19, 1854_.
+                               (_On cover--Arrived Jan. 6, '54._)
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--When I received your long expected letter,
+    which, by-the-bye, took sixteen days reaching me, I was just
+    winding myself up to write and tell you that I was sorely
+    afraid some letter of yours must have been lost; I need hardly
+    tell you that I was relieved of a considerable anxiety when I
+    found that all was right, and that your letter, not mine, had
+    been detained in that most slovenly of all institutions, the
+    Roman post.
+
+    And now that I have taken up my pen, what a quantity I have to
+    make up for in the way of congratulations, and greetings, and
+    good wishes relative to days often and felicitously to recur!
+    what jolly birthdays loom in the imagination, what Christmas
+    Eves and Christmas Days, and old years going out and new ones
+    coming, with a punctuality never known to fail! Alas! that I
+    cannot send you some outward and visible sign of my inward
+    sympathies and hearty yearnings; here would be a fine
+    opportunity of enumerating an extensive catalogue of blessings
+    which I sincerely wish to see showered down upon you, but that
+    they can all be returned in one compendious, all-embracing
+    word--Health! I therefore laconically but heartily wish you
+    all _that_, positive or relative; and this leads me to _mine_.
+    Well, let me confess it (unromantic as it undoubtedly is); I
+    feel there is no shirking the avowal that, stamping all things
+    down into an average, and squinting at little annoyances,
+    I--must I say it?--_am about as happy as the day is long_: may
+    my happiness reflect a little of its light on your days,
+    dearest and best of mothers! I have begun my report of health
+    by an average of my spirits; I think there is more _a propos_
+    in this than one might at first sight imagine. I proceed to
+    the other details which differ widely from your probable
+    expectations; you ask me whether I leech myself with
+    conscientious regularity. Now I don't leech myself at all! My
+    reason for abstaining when I first came was that I feared so
+    strong a measure till my spectacles should arrive that I might
+    therewithal screen and protect my exhausted blinkers. It is
+    only the other day that the said barnacles arrived, and as I
+    have meanwhile gone on working day after day without great
+    inconvenience to my eyes, I really think I might do myself
+    more harm than good by drawing blood, the more so that I am by
+    no means a person of full habit that I could spare much of
+    that article.
+
+    On turning to your letter, I find the next point you touch is
+    my music. I did indeed try my voice at the Hodnett's as you
+    anticipated, but unfortunately I never by any chance had
+    anything like a decent note in my voice during the whole time
+    that I was in Florence; indeed at the very best of times it is
+    the merest "fil de voix" that I have, which, however, would
+    not prevent my cultivating it for my own private enjoyment,
+    but for a circumstance which will astound you perhaps, but is
+    nevertheless a great fact--to wit, that I can't afford it! The
+    expenses of my pictures are far too considerable to allow of
+    it this winter; next winter I hope to make up for lost time
+    and still to be able to chirp some little ditty when I once
+    more skim by the paternal nest. A piano I have, such a
+    hurdy-gurdy! I fear, alas! I am an inveterate blockhead; I
+    daily lament that you did not _drub_ music into me when I was
+    a child; I should then have broken my fingers in time; my
+    youngsters shall most assuredly learn it with a stick in their
+    minds' eye. As we were just talking of the ----s, I must
+    mention that I founded my opinion less on what they say than
+    on what _I_ think and see; they could not either of them be
+    happy if they could not have their bonnets and dresses from
+    the most fashionable _modiste_, turn out drag of their own,
+    and in every way be "the thing"; that they like me, I know,
+    but I believe they would not have me if they liked me twice as
+    much; I am not exactly poor, I admit, but I seem something
+    like it in Florence, where it is the custom for young men to
+    drive to the Cascine in elegant broughams or phaetons, to find
+    their riding-horses at the round piazza, to prance and amble
+    round the ladies, and then to drive home again in the style
+    they went. But let me speak of more important things; you will
+    be pleased to hear that my compositions have been highly
+    approved of by all those whose opinion has weight with me.
+    Cornelius said, the first time he saw them, "Ich sehe Sie sind
+    weiter als alle Englaender ausgenommen _Dyce_;" that is a great
+    compliment from such a man. I have made one alteration in my
+    plans, of which Papa, I think, will not disapprove; I found,
+    on more accurate calculation, that, in order to paint my
+    Cimabue of such a size as to be admissible to the London
+    Exhibition, the figures would be far smaller than my eyes
+    would tolerate; I have therefore reversed the order of things,
+    and am painting it on a large scale for the great Exhibition
+    in Paris (spring, '55), in which all nations are to be
+    represented, and where size is rather a recommendation than an
+    obstacle. My "Romeo" I shall send to London in the same year;
+    it will be a foot each way smaller than Lady Cowley's
+    portrait; thus I also have the advantage of giving the
+    Florentine picture a size more commensurate to the
+    art-historical importance of the event it represents. With
+    regard to the sale of it, I hug myself with no vain delusions.
+    I paint it for a name; I could not have a finer field than is
+    offered by the great International Exhibition in question. I
+    must come to a close, for I expect a model immediately, and do
+    not wish to miss to-morrow morning's post. _La suite au
+    prochain numero._
+
+    Pray write soon, dearest mother, and tell me all I long to
+    know about yourselves, the house, the furniture, your friends,
+    and your dinner-party; meanwhile, having first largely helped
+    yourself, pass up to all the dear ones very best love and
+    kisses from your dutiful and affectionate boy,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+  (_On cover_--Mrs. Leighton,               ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+    9 Circus, Bath, England.)                   _March 22, 1854_.
+                                           (_Received March 31._)
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--As I see no chance of finding time to write to
+    you in the ordinary course of things by merely waiting for it,
+    I lay down my brush for this afternoon, and "set to" regularly
+    pen in hand to answer your last, dated the fifth (let us be
+    business-like), but which did not reach me till a few days
+    ago. According to the egotistical practice which you have
+    wished me to adopt, I begin with an account of myself: I am
+    very much at a loss to tell you anything of my eyes that shall
+    convey to you a correct idea of their state; one thing is
+    certain, which is that their weakness bears no regular
+    proportion to the work done; sometimes when I do little or
+    nothing my eyes feel uncomfortable, and at others, when I do a
+    great deal, I suffer nothing. For instance, yesterday, having
+    a great deal of work cut out for the day, I worked eleven
+    hours, with barely half an hour's respite at twelve, and,
+    _pour comble de mefaits_, I did what I rarely venture on--I
+    read at night; and yet I feel little or no inconvenience. The
+    fact is, my eyes are the humble servants of my head, which is
+    particularly sensitive; at the same time I hesitate to adopt
+    leeches (unless, of course, Papa adheres to his opinion),
+    because I don't feel as if I were over-troubled with blood;
+    what do you think? My _otherwise_ health is, thank God, very
+    decent. I am not a robust man, but I jog on very comfortably,
+    and feel very jolly, and I am sure I have a good many reasons
+    to be so. About the hours I spend inactive, I don't feel that
+    so severely as I did last winter, by any means; in the first
+    place, I work till five or so (from seven or eight in the
+    morning), then, you know, I dine at six, which I make rather a
+    long job; then, in the evening, instead of tiring my eyes as I
+    did last winter with dancing, _which_ I have totally forsworn
+    (there are more "whiches" in my letter than in the whole
+    tea-party on the Blocksberg in "Faust"), I spend nearly all my
+    time at the house of my dear friends, the Sartoris, where, I
+    assure you, to pass to another point in your letter, I neglect
+    no opportunity to cultivate my poor unlettered mind. It is
+    indeed my _only_ opportunity, for to study, alas, I have
+    neither time, health, nor eyes, and the hopes to which you
+    allude, and which I myself once entertained, must, I fear, be
+    given up. The worst feature in my mental organisation is my
+    utter want of memory for certain things, a deficiency of which
+    I am daily and painfully reminded by the mention in my
+    presence of books which I have read and enjoyed, and which I
+    have _utterly_ forgotten. My only consolation I find in the
+    hope that I shall be able to devote myself with double energy
+    to the art "proprement dit," and in the reflection that hardly
+    any of the modern artists (alas, what a standard!), that have
+    possessed extensive knowledge and varied accomplishments, have
+    had them as a super-addition to the gift of art, but _at the
+    expense_ of their properly pictorial faculties; to every man
+    is dealt a certain amount of _calibre_--in one man's brain it
+    breaks out in a cauliflower of variegated bumps, in another's
+    it flows into one channel and irrigates one mental tree, and
+    "sends forth fruit in due season"--hem! Thus, whilst _I_
+    paint, _others_ shall know all about it; _I_ shall be an
+    artist, let _them_ be connoisseurs. What did poor Haydon (for
+    I _have_ read the book) get by his mordant gift of satire and
+    his devouring thirst for ink? He embittered old enemies, made
+    new ones, estranged his friends, encouraged the fierce
+    irascibility of his own temperament, allowed himself to cuddle
+    the phantoms of undeserved neglect which always haunted him,
+    distorted his own perceptions, and cut his throat! Without
+    that pernicious gift, Haydon would not have written, the
+    Academy would have hung his pictures as they deserved, for his
+    early works were full of promise, they would have stood by him
+    in the hour of need; had everything that he saw and heard not
+    fallen in distorted images on the troubled mirror of his mind,
+    he would, no doubt, have produced better works. Haydon might
+    have been a happy man! With regard to the practical lesson to
+    be drawn by myself, this painful book undoubtedly shows in a
+    strong light the absurdity of _always_ painting large
+    pictures--a practice in which, I assure you, I have not the
+    remotest idea of indulging. To one thing, however, which you
+    observe, dear Mamma, I must beg to take exception, as
+    involving a very important question: you say Haydon persisted
+    in following the historic style, to the exclusion of pictures
+    of a saleable size; now this would only avail as precedent
+    against historical art on the supposition that that walk
+    necessarily implies colossal proportions, than which idea
+    (though Haydon seems to have entertained it) nothing can be
+    more false. Is it necessary to mention Raphael's "Vision of
+    Ezekiel," "Madonna della Seggiola," or a thousand other
+    pictures, by him and others, which utterly confute any such
+    notion? But even were it so, we must also not overlook the
+    fact that the unsaleability of Haydon's pictures had its cause
+    as much in their quality as in their quantity, and I will hold
+    up to you, in contrast to his sad story, the case of Mr.
+    Watts, who gives a sketch of the artistical character at the
+    end of the autobiography, and who has as many orders for
+    _fresco_ as he can execute for a considerable number of years.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF HEAD OF WOMAN AT WINDOW IN "CIMABUE'S
+    MADONNA"
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+                                              BATH, _April 17th_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRED,--I have left a longer interval than usual
+    between this letter and my last, for your convenience and my
+    advantage; that is to say, that by arriving close on the time
+    for your writing to me, the contents of this sheet, or
+    anything in it needing comment, may not have escaped your
+    memory till no longer wanted, for, with the best possible wish
+    to be contented with the epistles for which I look forward so
+    anxiously, I cannot help feeling a little disappointed when
+    you do not answer inquiries. I do not wish to be unreasonable,
+    my darling, in my demands on your time, but I cannot bear that
+    your letters should be mere unavoidable monthly reports, and
+    not what mine are to you, that is, in intention; though I make
+    every allowance for natural infirmity. Could we but have
+    foreseen your weakness of sight, I should have felt a great
+    inclination to thrash you into exercising your memory more
+    than you did, though I am not at all sure that the result
+    would have been satisfactory; and with respect to music, I am
+    convinced you would not have made a satisfactory return for
+    any knowledge acquired by dint of birch, but--if it were not
+    useless--I would enlarge upon the imprudence of having
+    neglected your father's admonitions at a more recent period to
+    store your memory; remember it for the sake of your own young
+    people when you are the venerable papa of an obstreperous
+    youth like yourself. I think upon the whole it is satisfactory
+    that the uneasiness in your eyes depends on your general
+    health. Papa thinks the sensation you describe when drinking
+    must be nervous, and connected with the narrow swallow you
+    inherit from me, a peculiarity which has shown itself in four
+    generations. We do not feel so certain as it would be
+    comfortable to do that the climate of Rome is the one best
+    suited to a nervous person; but of course you will seek a
+    healthy change of place as soon as the heat makes it
+    desirable. I must remind you of the unpleasant fact that your
+    constitution very much resembles mine; remember what I have
+    come to, and do not trifle with yourself; do not say to
+    yourself: What a bore Mamma is! I am constantly thinking of my
+    precious absent son, and long, as only a mother can, to see
+    you; when I look at your picture, I feel quite wretched
+    sometimes that I cannot, though you seem alive before me,
+    stroke your cheek and lean my head on your chest. The other
+    day we were startled by the appearance in the drawing-room of
+    Andrew, Lizzy, and the girls; and the first greeting over,
+    "That's my saucy Fred," burst out of your aunt's mouth; "dear
+    fellow, what a likeness;" and Lina was equally admired, and we
+    all agreed in deploring Gussy's absence from the wall. I wish
+    I could see your studies, for I suppose you have a great many
+    for your great undertaking. Models are probably cheaper than
+    in Germany--are you conscious of improvement? This seems an
+    odd question, but it is suggested by the fact that while Gussy
+    practises most diligently, she seldom seems conscious of the
+    improvement I perceive distinctly. Do you see Cornelius from
+    time to time, and gain anything from him? You never mention if
+    you have any friends amongst the artists distinguished in any
+    way.
+
+                                          ROME, _April 29, 1854_.
+
+    I have of late, since the underpainting of my large picture
+    (at which I worked like a horse) given myself rest and
+    recreation in the way of several picnics in the _Campagna_
+    under the auspices of Mesdames Sartoris and Kemble. We are a
+    most jovial crew; the following are the _dramatis personae_:
+    first, the two above-mentioned ladies; then Mr. Lyons, the
+    English diplomatist here (whom your friend probably meant); he
+    is not ambassador, nor is he in any way supposed to represent
+    the English people here, he is only a sort of negotiator;
+    however, a most charming man he assuredly is, funny, dry,
+    jolly, imperturbably good-tempered; then Mr. Ampere, a French
+    savant, a genial, witty, amusing old gentleman as ever was;
+    then Browning, the poet, a never-failing fountain of quaint
+    stories and funny sayings; next Harriet Hosmer, a little
+    American sculptress of great talent, the queerest,
+    best-natured little chap possible; another girl, nothing
+    particular, and your humble servant who, except when art is
+    touched, plays the part of humble listener, in which capacity
+    he makes amends for the vehemence with which he starts up when
+    certain subjects are touched which relate to his own trade; in
+    other things, silence, alas! becomes him, ignorant as he is,
+    and having clean forgotten all he ever knew![27] I shall not
+    be able to leave Rome more than a month in the summer, as the
+    work which I have carved out for myself makes it utterly
+    impossible. You must know, however, that the hot months (July
+    and August) are not the dangerous ones, but September, when
+    the rains set in. During that month I shall give myself a
+    complete rest from work, and shall go to the baths of Lucca,
+    the healthiest spot in Italy, where I shall enjoy cool air,
+    country scenery, and, better than all, the society of the
+    Sartoris, who are going to spend the summer there; meanwhile,
+    I shall take what precautions I can; I shall live as the
+    Italians do, getting up early, and sleeping in the middle of
+    the day, and shall resume flannel, if you do not advise the
+    contrary, as I see reason to believe that it is a great
+    preservative against fever. As for the general climate of
+    Rome, I don't give it much consideration, as there is not the
+    least probability of my ever _residing_ here; I think there is
+    not a worse place for a rising artist to set up his abode in
+    than Rome, on account of the want of emulation as compared,
+    for instance, to a place like Paris, where there are hundreds
+    of clever men, all hard at work, and where an artist is always
+    exposed to comparisons. It is impossible for me to give you
+    any decisive answer about my progress, for you know I have
+    been busy all the winter drawing studies; I shall see when I
+    come to the picture itself what steps I have made forwards; I
+    reckon on its being the best thing I shall have done, I can
+    say no more. I believe Sartoris, whose judgment in all the
+    arts is excellent, considers me the most promising young man
+    in Rome; but that does not mean much--we shall see!
+
+    Of my daily life and occupations, I have little or nothing to
+    say, as they are monotonous to a degree; parties, of course,
+    have ceased, and I am just about to leave p.p.c.'s everywhere,
+    as I don't mean to go into the world at all next year. I don't
+    remember whether I told you that some little time back Mrs.
+    Sartoris gave some tableaux and charades in which your humble
+    servant co-operated; the whole thing was, I believe, very
+    successful. The greatest treat I have had lately has been
+    hearing Mrs. Kemble read on different occasions Julius Caesar,
+    Hamlet, and part of Midsummer Night's Dream; I need not tell
+    you how delighted I was.
+
+  (_Cover_--Mrs. Leighton,                  ROME, _May 25, 1854_.
+    Circus, Bath, England.)                  (_Received June 5._)
+
+    VERY DEAREST MAMMA,--Your letter (which I received the day
+    before yesterday, and should have answered the next day but
+    for an engagement I had made to go into the country) caused me
+    great pain; if you have known me hitherto for a dutiful and
+    loving son, believe that in this case nothing has been further
+    from me than the least umbrage at the advice and suggestions
+    that you always offer me with kindness and delicacy, and that
+    I am much distressed at the idea of having in any way
+    aggravated the discomforts which an English winter make you
+    suffer; let me rather attribute, and beg yourself to refer, to
+    the depressed state of your spirits any misconstruction you
+    have laid upon a letter in which, if there was any constraint,
+    it arose only from a desire to answer satisfactorily and
+    systematically such questions as you asked me; I will
+    endeavour in future to present my report in a more ornamental
+    form. The delay, too, of my last letter arose from a
+    misconception on my part of your expectations, for I was
+    waiting and eagerly waiting for _your_ answer to intervene,
+    and, considering the irregularity of Roman posts, you can
+    hardly have a day on which you particularly expect to receive
+    news of me. Let me hope, dear Mamma, that on these points, as
+    on the others that I am going to touch, you will be able in
+    future to think more cheerfully, in spite of the distorting
+    medium of British fogs. I fear from the tone of alarm I detect
+    in your letter that I (myself perhaps, at the time, under the
+    influence of the _scirocco_) must have conveyed to you an idea
+    of greater ill-health than I labour under: my eyes, certainly,
+    are not strong, so that I avoid using them at nights, and I
+    am, as I ever was, incorrigibly bed-loving, but this is "the
+    whole front" of my ailments; meanwhile I work all day with
+    little or no annoyance. I am of good cheer and contented, and
+    altogether more free from rheumatism than I have been for a
+    long time; that, thus deprived of the means of reading, such
+    little information as I ever had should have effectually made
+    its escape from a noddle that never had the capacity of fixing
+    itself on any _one_ thing at a time, is deplorable, but not to
+    be wondered at; let us hope for a better day. Nor is spending
+    the hot months of the summer here in Rome so dreadful a thing
+    as it appears to your tender anxiety; with proper precautions
+    and a regular life I shall no doubt go through it as well as
+    so many of my friends that have tried the experiment; the more
+    so that the worst part of the summer is in September and early
+    October, at which period I shall be enjoying the particularly
+    cool and healthy air of Bagni di Lucca. How could you be
+    surprised, dear Mamma, at my having begun the pictures? did I
+    not tell you the size of them? do you not know the quantity of
+    figures in the composition? do you not know that it will be
+    considered a piece of extraordinary rapidity if I finished
+    them in time for the Exhibitions, _i.e._ by the beginning of
+    next February? You perceive the necessity of my staying here,
+    willy nilly. The Sartoris seem to you too prominent a motive
+    in my desire to stay; alas! and again alas! they are off to
+    Lucca in a few days, and I shall be left alone. Judge whether
+    I am eager to get off, and whether anything but necessity of
+    the most urgent kind will keep me here, for I am warmly
+    attached to both, and her I dearly love. Be quite at ease
+    about the amount of advice I can get here, I do not lack that
+    if I want it; but as it is, the compositions were so
+    completely sifted by Steinle before I left Frankfurt, that I
+    have nothing left but the material execution, in which you
+    know every artist must fumble about for himself. Cornelius
+    _is_ very kind and amiable to me, has been to see me twice,
+    and speaks well of me behind my back; he told Mrs. Kemble
+    (Fanny) that there was not another man in England that could
+    paint such a picture as my "Cimabue" threatens to be, and the
+    same was unhesitatingly asserted by Browning, the poet, who is
+    also a connoisseur. Such details as these from my mouth savour
+    of intolerable vanity; they are not meant so, and I give you
+    them simply because I think they will fall pleasantly on the
+    ear of the mother of the daubster. To show you the _revers de
+    la medaille_ about advice from influential men, I will just
+    tell you that I received the other day from Cornelius some
+    advice which was diametrically opposed to that of Steinle,
+    _arrangez vous!_ Gamba and I are still capital friends, and he
+    is making great progress, which is the well-earned fruit of
+    his talent and assiduity.
+
+    Now, dear Mamma, you see how letters come to be dry; by the
+    time you have shaken off the responsibility of question
+    answering, and begin to breathe a little, you have got to the
+    end of time and paper, and have no margin left for a little
+    dessert; the fact is, _your_ only chance is this: next time
+    you write, ask me no questions, and then I'll devote my
+    epistle to telling you a most thrilling story which, though it
+    far surpasses in strangeness the common run of works of
+    fiction, is _perfectly and literally true_, as I have it
+    almost from headquarters; them's your prospects!--Meanwhile,
+    with very best love to all, I remain, your affectionate and
+    dutiful son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    [Illustration: ORIGINAL SKETCH OF COMPLETE DESIGN FOR "CIMABUE'S
+    MADONNA"
+    Drawn in 1853
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+  _Translation._]                           ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                                  _May 29, 1854_.
+
+    DEAREST FRIEND,--Delightful as it always is to me to receive
+    any news of you, yet your last letter, along with pleasure,
+    caused me some pain, for I could not help fearing that my long
+    silence had annoyed you a little; if this should be indeed the
+    case I must express my extreme regret, and beg you to believe
+    that my gratitude and love can only cease when my memory
+    ceases; how could it possibly be otherwise?
+
+    You paint me a very melancholy picture of the situation in
+    Frankfurt; it is certainly a most unpleasant state of things,
+    all this quarrelling and dissension! When I, at this distance,
+    think of such a regular hermit-like way of going on, I feel
+    quite disgusted; it is fortunate that you, dear Friend, have
+    in the ecstasy of creation a resource that can never fail you.
+    But how comes it that Hommel and Hendschel, formerly your
+    enthusiastic pupils, have now cooled down? That is very
+    incomprehensible; they do not know their own interests. I
+    congratulate you most heartily on the completion of your large
+    picture, which I am very sorry not to have seen finished, and
+    I am especially glad to hear what you tell me about the
+    shield-bearer, for that breathes to me of _industrious study
+    of nature_! Believe me, that you, the mature master, who still
+    consents to play the part of a student, will not be without
+    your reward.
+
+    What you have written me about my work has put me into a most
+    terrible dilemma, a dilemma which I am still very deep in. It
+    is a presumption that I should set up _my_ ideas, and a
+    disobedience that I should take the advice of other friends,
+    against your judgment; but I have gone so carefully into this
+    manner of representation, that I beg you, dear Friend, to
+    reconsider the matter, and see whether I am not right. These
+    are my reasons: it seems to me that the action in my pictures,
+    if ostensibly a triumph of the artist, yet, at the same time,
+    as an historical event, is just as much the consecration of a
+    Madonna, for which reason I (as you know) have placed the
+    masterpiece which is being carried upon a small decorated
+    altar; that such a solemn event probably took place on a
+    church festival (as was the case with the consecration of the
+    Chapel) may very well be assumed; would not such a festival in
+    the _thirteenth century_ be important enough to justify the
+    presence of the bishop? But much more important than this
+    question of historical probability, appears to me the
+    consideration that the conception of a bishop is only made
+    tangible to the general mass of spectators by certain symbolic
+    articles of apparel, which are in some degree inseparable from
+    it; a bishop's presence in the procession is most probable.
+    Why should I not put him there? Amongst others, this opinion
+    was also held by Cornelius, to whom, as an experienced
+    Catholic, I naturally applied at the outset, and who told me
+    candidly that he would leave it. I hope you will not accuse me
+    of being too stiffnecked; in other respects I am certainly
+    docile.
+
+    Since I last wrote to you I have been fairly industrious on an
+    average. I have now under-painted "Romeo and Juliet" in grey
+    (grau untermalt), made both the colour sketches, and have now
+    fairly got into the over-painting, or rather second
+    under-painting, of "Cimabue"; but I have not been always
+    within four walls; on the contrary I have profited by the
+    beautiful spring weather, and have often gone out into the
+    divine Campagna with a party of dear friends, male and female,
+    and I need not tell you that we have enjoyed it. I wish with
+    all my heart you could be with us, my dear Master. Rico, the
+    ever-industrious, for he does twice as much as I, sends you
+    warm greetings. I must now close. I wish I could tell rather
+    than write to you how you are loved and esteemed by your
+    devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife.
+
+  _Translation._]                              FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
+                                                _August 6, 1854_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--You have heaped coals of fire upon my
+    head, for I have not answered your last dear note, brought me
+    by Andre, and now I have received by Miss Farquhar the lovely
+    study of Vincenzo's head, which you so kindly wish to present
+    to me. I am almost dumfounded to find that you could believe I
+    was angry with you because you have not written me for so
+    long, and that you believe that the indignation had been
+    ignored in my last note. That, dear friend, was a complete
+    delusion, for there is nothing to which I am more partial than
+    to artists' letters, and nothing to which I am more
+    insensible than to such flattering praise as you lavish upon
+    me, while I know only too well how unfortunately little I have
+    deserved it. In earnest, dear friend, call me no more master,
+    but rather regard me as your true and sincere friend, who only
+    out of friendship for you and love of art, far removed from
+    despicable dissimulation, faithfully shares with you his
+    opinions and experience, and never regards them as the
+    pronouncements of an oracle. I know very well what a
+    difference there is between the description of a work of art
+    and the sight of it; the first, at best, only gives one side,
+    one part, whilst seeing places before our eyes the whole soul
+    of the artist, from all sides, and then much is made mutually
+    clear which in the former case appeared either not understood
+    or misunderstood. Miss Farquhar could not tell me enough about
+    you and your work, and greatly kindled my curiosity and desire
+    to be in your _atelier_ for once; I was only sorry that she
+    had nothing to tell me about Gamba; indeed, on the whole, she
+    knew nothing about him. If I am to express my thoughts of the
+    very beautiful head of Vincenzo, it seems to me that Leighton
+    ought to guard against striving for excessive fineness, for
+    works of art can only be produced by quite the contrary
+    method. A certain roughness must bring out fineness, but if
+    everything is fine, nothing remains fine, &c. But believe,
+    though this head half displeases me, especially on account of
+    these theories, I think it beautiful and masterly in drawing,
+    and am consequently proud to possess it, as I am of all that I
+    have from your hand. I thank you a thousand times for this
+    fresh proof of your friendship. About this place, let me be
+    silent; you are right to say that art is my refuge, and that I
+    find in it my compensation for much that goes ill here and
+    everywhere; I must also not allow this asylum to be profaned
+    by the trifles of the very human things that surround us in
+    this world.
+
+    Greet from me Rome, Gamba, Cornelius, and all the friends who
+    remember me; and to yourself, dear friend, heartfelt greetings
+    from your true and unchanging friend,
+
+                                                    EDW. STEINLE.
+
+    [Illustration: "VINCENZO, THE PRETTIEST AND WICKEDEST BOY IN
+    ROME." 1854
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+Before leaving Rome Leighton received the following characteristic
+letter from Mr. Cartwright, one of his truest life-long friends:--
+
+                                       CARLSBAD, _July 11, 1854_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--You will be astonished to see a letter from
+    me. I can assure you that I have often thought of you, and
+    meant to indite you an epistle in the hope of eliciting a
+    reply full of Roman tale from you, and lately, when through
+    Papeleu I heard of your great canvass labors, my yearning got
+    a new twinge which at last has been pinched into expression by
+    the start at Pollock's resuscitation. I had heard of his death
+    in Paris and had mourned his fate most sincerely, when the
+    first man whom I met tramping health out of the hot water of
+    Carlsbad was Pollock himself. He is himself again every inch
+    of him; indeed a most wonderful recovery; and, after deep and
+    valorous potations of hot water, we take long walks in the
+    hills. He goes from here to Marienbad and Prague, and means to
+    be back in Rome by the end of October. And I also mean to
+    return there. Like a true drunkard, I can't forswear my
+    bottle, and I must have another pull at it. We shall be there,
+    I hope, in the beginning of October, and I hope, my dear
+    Leighton, that you will not grudge me the pleasure of letting
+    me have a few lines, so that I may know whether you will be
+    there in the winter and what are the changes in Rome since my
+    time. Are the Sartorises to be there next winter, and where
+    are they now? Pray answer me this, as I particularly wish to
+    know where they are. I have heard that there were such crowds
+    of strangers at Rome last winter that quarters were not to be
+    had; and for this reason I wish to be there early. Do you
+    happen to know what is the price of the floors in the house on
+    the Pincio which was built by Bystroem the sculptor? Next to
+    the Trinita, immediately after the sculptor's studio, there is
+    a small house inhabited when I was last in Rome by some French
+    officers (at least a sentinel was at the door) and years ago
+    by Mrs. Sartoris. Pollock tells me it is now to be let. Would
+    you be kind enough to give me any information you can about
+    it. It is a house I have often coveted on account of the view.
+    I beg your pardon for my coolness; I hope you will bear kindly
+    with it; if I can do anything for you in Paris, command me:
+    but anyhow pray write to me, if only a few lines, for in my
+    heart I wish to have some news about you and old Rome. The
+    other day I saw at the Louvre our old friend the very
+    questionable _Vittoria Colonna_ which was at Minardis. It was
+    for Exhibition there in the Gallerie d'Apollon: what the
+    picture is I cannot pretend to pronounce, but I do not like
+    it: it is a picture in which I have no confidence. I think
+    that if not a made picture, it is at all events a tame one.
+    This year there was no Salon as it has been put off till next
+    year's great Exhibition. Robert Fleury has sold a picture to
+    the Luxembourg which is not so good as his former ones; but
+    the man who I think is the most _marked_ one of the day is
+    Conture. Excuse my scrap, and pray take pity on my longing and
+    write me, were it only _a line_. I should be grievously
+    disappointed were you to refuse me the pleasure. I shall be
+    _here till the 7th August_; until the _25th August_, after
+    that date letters will find me Frankfurt Poste Restante; and
+    after that in Paris Poste Restante. If you write here, put
+    Carlsbad--Boehmen--and in a corner, _Austria_. And now
+    farewell; with a real ... I am longing for a letter. The
+    kindest regards to my Caffe Greco and other friends.--Yours
+    most sincerely,
+
+                                             W.C. CARTWRIGHT.[28]
+
+After his stay at the Bagni di Lucca, in the summer of 1854, Leighton
+went to Frankfort, Venice, and to Florence, returning to Rome in
+October.
+
+In the following letter to Steinle are sentences it might be well to
+print in finest gold, for the benefit of students who try to run
+before they walk, who aim at the freedom and glorious inevitability of
+a Velasquez touch without taking the pains to equip themselves
+worthily to enter the lists with the giants; not realising that
+skipping over the underpinning, necessary in creating any work of art,
+must result in the shakiest of edifices. The sentence refers to the
+criticism in Steinle's letter of August 6, 1854, on the drawing of
+"Vincenzo" (called by Leighton "the prettiest and wickedest boy in
+Rome") which Leighton had sent him.
+
+  _Translation._]                           ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                              _October 22, 1854_.
+
+    As I am making a short pause to-day in my work, I cannot
+    employ it better than in writing a letter to you, my very dear
+    Friend. It was a very great comfort to me to see by your last
+    lines that you had not construed my former long silence as a
+    cooling of my friendship and gratitude, and I therefore hope
+    that you will also this time meet me with the same
+    forbearance. You will certainly be interested to hear, my dear
+    Friend, that both my pictures are by this time fairly forward,
+    and I expect to finish them within three months. How much I
+    wish that you could see them here, and that I could put in the
+    finishing touches under your supervision! I would give you an
+    account of my work, but, bless me, what is there to _tell_
+    about my picture, except that it has given me a fearful amount
+    of trouble, and that in the end one perceives how
+    circumstantially one has gone to work on the whole matter; the
+    "Cimabue" goes to London and the "Romeo" to Paris. While I am
+    speaking of my works, I take this opportunity to touch
+    gratefully upon your kind remarks about the study head of
+    Vincenzo, and to inform you, however, that my opinion of it
+    takes rather more the form of a question than that of an
+    objection. I have often considered the question of the
+    self-guidance of an artist who is left to his own devices, and
+    it has often struck me how many wander in evil by-paths
+    through an unorganised, may I say _unprogressive_, development
+    of their gifts; and now it seems to me that most of them are
+    wrecked because they maturely study _the object to be
+    attained_, while the _means_ are not considered which should
+    lead to such results. For example, a young man sees a Raphael,
+    a Titian, a Rembrandt, all in their latest manner, and hears
+    people say: See how broad, how full, how round, how masterly!
+    And the student naturally conceives the wish that he also
+    might produce broad and masterly works, and _so far_ he is
+    right; but from that point he goes aside. He goes home and
+    _strives_ and _strains_ after masterly breadth; he succeeds
+    (apparently), and he is lost. The soap-bubble is quickly
+    blown; he rejoices in its gay colours; it flies up and breaks
+    in the air. And the cause is simple; the true, genuine
+    mastership is not an _acquired quality_ but an _organised
+    result_. As with art itself, so is it also with the individual
+    artist. If we cast an eye over the progress of art-history, we
+    see how the full, conscious, free, has developed itself out of
+    the meagre, timorous, scrupulous, dry. Similarly if we compare
+    the first efforts of the individual with his last, we perceive
+    the same thing: place M. Angelo's "Pinta" beside the
+    decorations of the Sixtine, one of Raphael's works at Perugia
+    beside the "Stanzen," Rembrandt's "Lecon d'anatomie" beside
+    the "Nightwatch," and it will be evident in the most striking
+    manner that not one of these men had risen by means of his
+    talent to full breadth in his youth, or had been in any way
+    studious to do so, but on the contrary that they have attained
+    mastery by natural growth. In order, therefore, to reach the
+    same altitude, the young artist must proceed in the same
+    manner as his exemplars, and must endeavour so to direct his
+    studies that he, according to his gifts, may achieve a similar
+    result. He who would fill his threshing-floor must not
+    _glean_, but rather he must _sow_ that he may richly harvest;
+    he who would have rare fruits all his life must plant and
+    cherish the tree; even so should the young artist seek to
+    plant a tree the normal fruit of which is called "artistic
+    perfection." You will easily understand how by the application
+    of these maxims my preliminary works go forward rather
+    _timorously_. Entire conscientiousness is now the chief thing
+    to me. I _am laying_ the foundation on which I hope to rely
+    firmly later on; I am amassing capital and am not yet in
+    enjoyment of the interest. "How many objections to a couple of
+    words?" you will laughingly remark; dear Friend, I must feel
+    myself indeed well equipped before I permit myself to oppose
+    anything against your judgment.
+
+    Of Gamba I will say nothing, for he is going to enclose a few
+    lines in this.
+
+    I have made a trip to Florence this summer, and again
+    thoroughly enjoyed the art-treasures. I think I have spoken to
+    you of the wall-paintings by Giotto which were discovered two
+    years ago in Santa Croce; one of them, which represents the
+    death of St. Francis, is the literal prototype of the
+    celebrated fresco by Ghirlandajo (on the same subject) in the
+    Sta. Trinita, and I really prefer it.
+
+    Time, eyes, paper fail me, and I must close. I hope that, if
+    you write to me again, you will tell me exactly what you are
+    doing.--Meantime, dear Master, accept the heartfelt greeting
+    of your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife and to all my
+    friends.
+
+Leighton's eye trouble having become a constant anxiety and hindrance
+to him, he resolved to consult Graefe, the great German oculist. From
+Florence, on his return journey, he writes his impressions of Berlin
+to Steinle. In this letter he repeats again the sense of happiness
+which he always experienced in Italy.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                     FLORENCE, 386 VIA DEL POSSO,
+                                                   _November 13_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--At last I am able to write to
+    you. In the hurry and bustle of travelling, and even in the
+    short sojourns that I have made here and there, it has been
+    impossible for me to sit quietly down and compose a letter.
+    Even to my parents I have written this morning for the first
+    time since I left Vienna. But you will readily believe that
+    during this time I have often travelled in thought to
+    Frankfurt in loving remembrance of you, my dear Friend.
+
+    Strange things have happened to me since I saw you. I had not
+    even reached Berlin when I was informed by a "jebildeten"
+    (cultivated) Prussian that Graefe, on whose account
+    exclusively I was travelling to the "geistreichen" (clever)
+    capital, had gone away for an indefinite period; imagine my
+    dismay! Luckily on my arrival I found an old friend who was
+    acquainted with the family of Geheimerath von Graefe, and who
+    found out through them that Graefe must arrive at the Golden
+    Lamb (Leopoldostadt) in Vienna on such and such a day. I met
+    him, and had a consultation at which he examined my eyes with
+    the ophthalmoscope, and told me to be of good cheer, my
+    trouble was certainly obstinate but in no way dangerous, and I
+    might hope for a complete cure. He prescribed me a course for
+    Rome, which consists principally of local blood-letting and
+    wearing spectacles, and will be very tedious; but I will
+    gladly conform to anything in order to get my eyes back again.
+    One thing is certain, since I have been in Italy they have
+    been quite markedly better, which I attribute for the most
+    part to the diminution of my hypochondria. Yes, since I have
+    been in Italy I have become a new man; I breathe, my breast
+    throbs higher; heavy clouds have rolled away from me; the sun
+    shines again on my path, and my heart is once more full of
+    youth and love of life; if only you were also here, dear
+    Friend!
+
+    But I must tell you something about my German travels, and I
+    will begin with Berlin. There is certainly something special
+    about that town. At the first glance it is somewhat imposing,
+    and the prodigious quantity of new buildings, which evidently
+    aim at architecture, gives (one may hold one's own opinion as
+    to the taste of the buildings) the appearance of great
+    artistic activity and of a widespread taste for art; but I
+    have since found reason to regard this apparent love of art as
+    something feigned or forced. One gets quite sick of
+    _education_ in Berlin; would you believe that now _every girl_
+    has to pass an _examination as governess_?[29] Kaulbach
+    understands the Berliners well; in Raeginski's house a study
+    of a Roman piper hangs in great honour, which he has purchased
+    from the _great master_ on account of a doggerel verse which
+    is written on it in large letters, and runs thus:--
+
+    "Upon my travels in Italy,
+    This little boy I found, but he,
+    Although my brush may his form repeat,
+    Remains to my sorrow incomplete."[30]
+                 --W. KAULBACH.
+
+    Divine! eh? I knew a counterpart in the Belgian art-world.
+    When I visited Gallait in Brussels some years ago, before the
+    door stood a ragged, most picturesque Hungarian rat-catcher,
+    who asked me if an artist did not live there. Recently I saw
+    my Slav again, with a violin under his arm, in a window, very
+    finely lithographed, I believe even an "artistes
+    contemporains"; in the corner was "Louis Gallait pinx";
+    underneath, "Art et Liberte"! Thus do pictures originate!
+
+    In Berlin everything is valued extrinsically. One sees that
+    most strikingly in the new Museum. When it is finished, it
+    will be, in proportion to the means of the town in which it
+    stands, the most splendid that I know; moreover, it cannot be
+    denied (unsuitable as a three-quarters Greek building may be
+    on the banks of the Spree) that much in the architecture is
+    even very beautiful. But what is the good of it all? With the
+    exception of some Egyptian antiquities, in all these lavishly
+    gilded and painted rooms there are only _plaster casts_! Yes,
+    and, I must not forget it, the great tea-service of Kaulbach.
+    A wretched thing, made, moreover, with superfluous
+    productiveness; simple allegory carried out without any fine
+    sense of form, with utter denial of all individuality, and
+    painted--well, of that one would rather say _nothing_; and yet
+    "Kaulbach has the Hellenic art," &c. &c., and all the rest
+    that is in the papers. One would like to exclaim with Cassius:
+    "Has it come to this, ye gods!"
+
+    Unfortunately I cannot praise the Cornelian things in the
+    _old_ Museum much either. I must confess they displeased me
+    greatly; when I consider them from a distance in their
+    connection with the building, I find them disproportioned; in
+    a long, very simple colonnade, built on a large scale, I
+    require of a fresco painting that it shall show in form and
+    colour large, quiet, plastic masses; instead of that I see
+    here a gay, unquiet, confused _fricassee_ of thought and
+    allegory that makes one dizzy; ideas in such profusion that
+    nothing remains with the spectator; he goes away without
+    having received anything; nor is the mental impression
+    plastic. If, however, one goes nearer to see the execution,
+    again one finds nothing pleasing--a constrained, unlovely
+    drawing--positions that could only be attained by complete
+    breaking on the wheel--a general appearance as if the figures
+    had no bones, but muscles made of brick instead. The colour is
+    not much better than Kaulbach's. The end-piece on the right,
+    an allegorical representation of the death of man (or
+    something of the kind), gives the most ordinary and at the
+    same time most awkward sudden impression that I have yet seen.
+    Cornelius may look at the Vatican in Rome and see if he can
+    find anything like it there. Altogether the once certainly
+    great artist seems to have somewhat deteriorated; the Cartoons
+    at the Campo Santo are not by a long way so good as the design
+    (which I find charming in parts); they are here and there,
+    which greatly surprised me, disgracefully _out of drawing_;
+    and then the theatrical attitudes, conventional clothes, &c.
+    &c. In the Museum itself there are few pictures of the first
+    rank, but so much the more beautiful are those by masters of
+    the second rank. What a Lippi! what a Basaiti! what a Cos
+    Rosetti! I was entranced; that is art, character, form,
+    colour, all in beautiful harmony. The "Daughter of Titian"
+    does not deserve its celebrity; it is weak and dull.
+
+    But my paper is exhausted, as are also my eyes; I will
+    therefore defer the rest to another letter, and only mention
+    that in Vienna Kuppelwieser, Fuehrich, and Roesner received me
+    like a son of the house, and all sent hearty greetings to you.
+    Do write to me very soon, dear Friend, and keep in kind
+    remembrance your grateful, devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    My address is, Poste Restante, Rome.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife, and generally to
+    all friends.
+
+When tracing the ever-swaying ebb and flow in the tides of joy and
+sorrow in a life, we come to times which seem to accumulate in their
+days the whole strength of feeling and vitality of which a nature is
+capable; prominent summits that rise triumphant out of the troublous
+waves, up to which the past existence has seemed to climb, and the
+memory of which retains a dominating influence in the descent of the
+future.
+
+"I--h'm--must I say it?--am just as happy as the day is long." So
+wrote Leighton to his mother when at the age of twenty-three he was
+spending his days in and about Rome--that wonderful Rome with her
+world of ghosts, her solemn eventful past skimmed over and made faint
+by her actual sunlit present. To Leighton that sunlit present became
+vividly, excitingly alive. Fountains of joy were springing up in the
+artist-nature, catching as they sprang golden rays from all that is
+most beautiful in youth's dominions. Leighton writes to Steinle (July
+25, 1853): "The remembrance of the beautiful time spent there (Rome)
+will be riches to me throughout my life; whatever may later befall me,
+however darkly the sky may cloud over me, there will remain on the
+horizon of the past the beautiful golden stripe, glowing, indelible;
+it will smile on me like the soft blush of even."
+
+When, in the late autumn of 1852, he first arrived in Rome, he had just
+stepped from the position of being one in a family to that of being an
+independent unit; and, though accompanied by his brother artist, Count
+Gamba, he felt greatly the loss of what he had left behind--the
+inspiring companionship of Steinle, compared to which nothing in Rome
+was worthy to count as an art influence. Obliged to work in a small,
+inconvenient studio, the only one obtainable--expected friends, whose
+society he valued, failing him--he felt the want of so much that he
+could hardly enjoy what he had. In those first days (as we gather from
+his letters) the Eternal City cast no fresh glamour over his spirit.
+
+Spring came, and the tune changed with the entrancement of
+Persephone's release in the balmy warmth of the South. The spring air
+twinkles with sunshine, and the fruit-trees are again alive with gay
+blossom, of fluttering petal, frail as the soft moth wing; the villa
+gardens are again bedecked with grand, more solid petalled
+flowers--brilliant-hued camellias--and later,--the noble magnolia's
+ivory white goblets; while the ground is carpeted with violets and
+varied-hued anemones. All over the wild spaces of the Campagna spring
+up grasses and lovely unchequered growth, spreading a green and golden
+fur, bristling in the bright light for miles and miles under a
+cloudless sky away to the faint blue line of mountains on the horizon.
+On one summit--golden in the sunlight--the old town of Subiaco is
+poised; on nearer slopes--summer haunts of the ancient Roman world,
+Tivoli, Frascati, Albano: the wastes of budding herbage between
+checked only here and there by some spectre of old days, some skeleton
+of a broken archway, some remnant of a ruined wall.
+
+It was on these strange wilds of the Roman Campagna that the life-long
+friends, Giovanni Costa and Leighton, first met. Here is the
+description of the delightful scene of their meeting, and of
+Leighton's previous introduction to Costa's work at the famous Cafe
+Greco, written by Costa after his friend's death:--
+
+"In the year 1853, the Cafe Greco at Rome was a world-renowned centre
+of art, a rendezvous for artists of all nationalities, who had flocked
+to Rome to study the history of art as well as the beauties of nature
+surrounding the sacred walls of the Eternal City.
+
+"At the Cafe Greco[31] there was a certain waiter, Rafaello, a
+favourite with all, who had collected an album of sketches and
+water-colours by the most distinguished artists, such as Cornelius,
+Overbeck, Francais, Benonville, Brouloff, Boecklin, and others, and I
+felt much flattered when I too was asked to contribute, with the
+result that I gave him the only water-colour I have ever done in my
+life. Leighton was also begged by Rafaello to do something for the
+album, and having it in his hands, he saw my work, and asked whose it
+was. On being told, he advised Rafaello to keep it safely, saying
+that one day it would be very valuable. When I came later to the Cafe,
+Rafaello told me how a most accomplished young Englishman, who spoke
+every language, had seen my water-colour, and all he had said about
+it. I was very proud of his criticism, and it gave me courage for the
+rest of my life.
+
+"That same year, in the month of May, the usual artists' picnic took
+place at Cervara, a farm in the Roman Campagna. There used to be
+donkey races, and the winner of these was always the hero of the day.
+We had halted at Tor de Schiavi, three miles out of Rome, and half the
+distance to Cervara,[32] for breakfast. Every one had dismounted and
+tied his beast to a paling, and all were eating merrily.
+
+"Suddenly one of the donkeys kicked over a beehive, and out flew the
+bees to revenge themselves on the donkeys. There were about a hundred
+of the poor beasts, but they all unloosed themselves and took to
+flight, kicking up their heels in the air--all but one little donkey,
+who was unable to free himself, and so the whole swarm fell upon him.
+
+"The picnic party also broke up and fled, with the exception of one
+young man, with fair, curly hair, dressed in velvet, who, slipping on
+gloves and tying a handkerchief over his face, ran to liberate the
+poor little beast. I had started to do the same, but less resolutely,
+having no gloves; so I met him as he came back, and congratulated him,
+asking him his name. And in this way I first made the acquaintance of
+Frederic Leighton, who was then about twenty-two years old; but I was
+not then aware that he was the unknown admirer of my drawing in
+Rafaello's album. I remember that day I had the great honour of
+winning the donkey race, and Leighton won the tilting at the ring with
+a flexible cane; therefore we met again when sharing the honour of
+drinking wine from the President's cup, and again we shook hands.
+When I heard from Count Gamba, who was a friend and fellow-student of
+Leighton's, what great talent he had, I tried to see his work and to
+improve our acquaintance; for as I felt I must be somewhat of a donkey
+myself, because of the Franciscan education I had received, and
+because I was the fourteenth in our family, I thought the
+companionship of the spirited youth would give me courage."
+
+And again it was on the Campagna that that choice and delightful
+company picnicked in the spring-time of the year, of which company
+Leighton wrote on April 29, 1854 (see p. 146).
+
+Who knows but that it was at one of these notable picnics that
+Browning was inspired to write his wonderful little poem on the
+Campagna?
+
+    "The Champaign, with its endless fleece
+      Of feathery grasses everywhere,
+    Silence and passion, joy and peace,
+      An everlasting wash of air--
+    Rome's ghost since her decease.
+
+    Such life there, through such lengths of hours,
+      Such miracles performed in play,
+      Such letting nature have her way,
+    While Heaven looks from its towers."
+
+Life was full to overflowing in those inspiring days, and Leighton was
+indeed "as happy as the day was long." Friendships grew apace. Many
+were made which were lasting, notably that with Mr. Henry Greville,
+the most intimate man-friend of Leighton's life. His friendships with
+Sir John Leslie, Mr. Cartwright, George Mason, Mr. Aitchison, Sir
+Edward Poynter, all began in those early happy days in Rome. Artists
+living there, who included this gifted brother-painter in their
+comradeship, showed more and more sympathy towards his work as they
+became more intimate with the delightful nature. Leighton had arrived
+so far forward on the threshold of his success that anxiety about his
+pictures was outweighed by hopeful expectancy; but it was while still
+standing on the threshold--that really most inspiring of all stages in
+the journey, during the two years from 1853 to 1855, before the great
+triumph of signal success crowned him--that we catch the happiest
+picture in Leighton's life. To use his own words, "In this world
+confident expectation is a greater blessing, almost, than fruition."
+
+In a letter he wrote to Fanny Kemble on February 1, 1880, Leighton
+refers to a conversation he had with her at this "outset of his
+career"--a conversation which recurred to him, he tells her, when he
+first addressed the Royal Academy students from the presidential chair
+in 1879. He offers a copy of his discourse for her acceptance, ending
+his letter by the words: "If you remember that conversation, you may
+perhaps feel some interest in reading the Lecture, of which I ask you
+to accept a copy. If you do not remember it, nevertheless accept the
+little paper for the sake of old days which were not as to-day."[33]
+How much can a few words say! If gratified ambition could ever make an
+artist-nature happy, how transcendently happy Leighton ought to have
+been in 1880! But the fibre which strung the highest note in his
+nature never vibrated to worldly success. Though his ambition may have
+sought success, and his passion for fulfilling to the utmost his duty
+towards his fellow-creatures may have greatly welcomed it, he
+remained to the end of his life ever on the threshold of that kingdom,
+the possession of which could alone have satisfied what he "_cared for
+most_."
+
+The following letters mention the progress of the _opus magnum_ to its
+completion, also of the "Romeo" picture, and his visits to Florence
+and the Bagni di Lucca. The first begins by his expressing his
+ever-growing dislike of general society.
+
+  [_Commencement missing._]
+
+    Miss ---- is no less than ever, and no less agreeable, as far
+    as I can judge; I have only called once as yet, I have an
+    ungovernable horror of being asked to tea; my aversion to
+    tea-fights, muffin-scrambles, and crumpet-conflicts, which has
+    been gathering and festering for a long time, has now become
+    an open wound. The more I enjoy and appreciate the society and
+    intercourse of the dozen people that I care to know, the more
+    tiresome I find the commerce of the others, _braves et
+    excellentes gens du reste_; the Lord be merciful to the
+    overwhelming insipidity of that individual whose name is
+    Legion--the _unexceptionable_--the _highly respectable!_ My
+    great resource is, of course, Mrs. Sartoris, whom I see at
+    some time or other every day, for it would be a blank day to
+    me in which I did not see her; God bless her! for my dearest
+    friend. I warm my very soul in the glow of her sisterly
+    affection and kindness. Little baby is the same sunbeam that
+    he always was; did I tell you I painted his likeness in oils
+    as a surprise for his father? as a picture it is not
+    unsuccessful, but any attempt at a portrait of that child is a
+    profanation, and will be till we paint with the down of
+    peaches and the blood of cherries, and mix our tints with
+    golden sunlight; still, it pleased _them_, and that ought to
+    be enough; but I am an artist as well as a friend. A very
+    interesting acquaintance I have here in the shape of Rossini,
+    the great Rossini! Poor Rossini, what a sad fate is his, to
+    have lived to see the people on whom the glory of his splendid
+    genius has shone turn away from him in forgetfulness,
+    neglecting his classical beauties to listen to the noisy
+    trivialities of a ----, who has made the Italian name in music
+    a by-word of ridicule; with the music of course, the singers
+    have degenerated also; a singer no longer requires to be an
+    _artist_, it is no longer necessary that he or she should
+    study his or her part till every note has a meaning and a
+    character expressive of the words of the libretto, and
+    accompanied by musical and impassioned _mimica_; no, let the
+    _prima donna_ only squall out her never-ending _fioriture_
+    with sufficient disregard for the safety of her lungs, or the
+    _primo tenore_ shake the stage with a _la di petto_, and all
+    is right. This is a digression, but as an artist I can't help
+    taking it to heart, and wanted to have it out. Amongst Mrs.
+    Sartoris' few "intimes" at this moment is a Neapolitan lady,
+    la Duchessa Ravaschieri, daughter of Filangieri the minister,
+    who has given her himself an education almost unique amongst
+    Italian noblewomen, who are insipid and ignorant beyond
+    anything.
+
+                                         FLORENCE, HOTEL DU NORD,
+                                            _September 20, 1854_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I was much surprised, as we very naturally
+    measure time past by the number of events that have taken
+    place in it, the interval between this your last letter and
+    the previous one seemed to me doubly long, for I have changed
+    scene so often during these last four or five weeks, and have
+    moved so much from place to place, that it seems to me an age
+    since I last despatched a letter to England; from which you
+    will naturally and correctly infer that it was a very great
+    pleasure to me once more to see your handwriting. Your kind
+    anxiety and advice about the cholera I shall remember when I
+    get to Rome (which will be in a week or ten days), where that
+    disease prevails, although mildly, for what are thirty cases a
+    day in a town of that size? In the meantime, both at the baths
+    where I have been, and at Florence, where I am, the cholera
+    has not dared to show its face; indeed, such a prestige of
+    salubrity attaches to the name of the baths of Lucca that
+    eight days' sojourn at that place is considered tantamount to
+    a "_quarantaine_!" It is a very strange thing, this exemption
+    from disease, for in a number of the surrounding villages the
+    number of people carried off has been frightful. As for that
+    after apprehension of yours, dearest Mamma, about my being
+    alone and uncared for in case of illness, I am happy to say
+    that nothing can be more unfounded; I have in Mrs. Sartoris
+    that genuine friend, and, especially, genuine _woman friend_
+    that in such a case would leave nothing undone that you, the
+    best of mothers, and my own dear sisters, would do for me. It
+    is her habit, when any of her bachelor and homeless friends
+    are poorly, to go and sit with them and nurse them, and do you
+    think that I, who have become one of her most intimate circle,
+    should need to fear neglect? In the friendship of that
+    admirable woman I am rich for life. Poor thing, she has lately
+    received a great blow in her own family from the sudden
+    calamity which has befallen her. This shocking news reached me
+    here, at Florence, where I had come on from the baths, and
+    ascertaining that her husband was gone off to England to
+    inquire into the matter, and that by a chance her boy's tutor
+    was absent at the same time, I instantaneously went off to
+    Lucca, where I stayed a week (till the return of the tutor),
+    taking care of her boy, hearing him his lessons, and
+    especially keeping him out of the way; in the evening I used
+    to walk or drive with her, and to my infinite gratification
+    was able to be some little comfort and distraction to her; my
+    only regret in the whole business was that I was making no
+    material sacrifice of my own time and pleasure, so that I had
+    not the satisfaction of comforting her at my own expense. In
+    adopting the resolution, which I have communicated to you, of
+    retiring from society, I have taken into consideration all
+    that you say, dear Mamma, and more too, for I feel I have of
+    my nature a very fair share of the hateful worldly weakness of
+    my country-people; still, I have found no sufficiently great
+    advantage or compensation for the tedium of going out; the
+    Roman _grand monde_, a small part of which I know, and which,
+    had I chosen to push a little, I might have known all, is of
+    no _use_ whatever in reference to my future career; added to
+    which I believe I told you that I never by any chance got
+    introduced to anybody, so that whomever I know, I know by
+    chance, or by their own wish. For instance, last winter I met
+    the Duke of Wellington constantly, both at the Sartoris' (he
+    is a very old friend of hers) and at the Farquhars', and
+    though he is the most accessible of men, I made no attempt to
+    make his acquaintance, and so it is with everybody. But for
+    the _tableaux charades_ which Mrs. S. gave last winter, in
+    which I was joint-manager with herself, and was therefore
+    brought into contact with her numerous co-operating friends, I
+    should probably have known few or none of those who were at
+    her house every week; always excepting our own intimate
+    circle, to wit, Browning, Ampere, Dr. Pantaleone, Lyons, Count
+    Gozze, Duke Sermoneta, &c. You know, when I say I shan't go
+    out, it is in so far a _facon de parler_, that, as I shall be
+    at least every other day at Mrs. Sartoris', I shall not be at
+    home, trying my eyes. I quite agree with you in thinking this
+    business of ----'s a most awkward thing; I cannot understand a
+    man having once gone into the army and made his profession to
+    be honourably killed for his country, should not jump at the
+    idea of going to the scene of war; I have felt a very strong
+    desire to lend a hand myself, but one cannot drive two trades.
+    My singing (in particular, and music in general) I have
+    avoided mentioning, because, dear Mamma, it is a subject on
+    which I have _no_ reason to dwell very complacently; my first
+    disappointment was finding my voice, instead of strengthening
+    in an Italian climate, getting if possible weaker than it was.
+    It is the merest "fil de voix." I have therefore as the onset
+    very insufficient "moyens"; this is owing, not only to the
+    insufficiency of my "organe," but also to an unpleasant
+    visitation in the shape of swollen and irritated tonsils, the
+    very ailment, I believe, under which Gussy labours. This
+    symptom, which I have carried about some time, is, I fancy,
+    not likely ever to leave me permanently; add to this that as
+    soon as I sit down to thump with elephantine touch a most
+    ordinary accompaniment, the little voice I have vanishes; thus
+    between two stools ... you know the rest. Still, I am bound to
+    add that Mrs. Sartoris (who could not flatter) has great
+    pleasure in hearing me coo a little song or two that I know,
+    and says I have what is better than voice, which is a musical
+    "accent," and that (she is pleased to add) to a rather
+    remarkable degree; my voice is weak and powerless, but true
+    and facile. I will tell you exactly what to expect when you
+    see me again. I shall be able to sit down to the piano and
+    whine some half-dozen pretty little ballads, with a
+    rum-tum-tum accompaniment of affecting simplicity. Gussy
+    dreams of me as "very handsome" and "are my whiskers growing?"
+    I am _not_ very handsome, none of my features are really
+    _good_. My whiskers _have_ grown, they are undeniable, there
+    is no shirking them, or getting out of the way of them; _I
+    wear whiskers_ though you were short-sighted; _but_ they are
+    modest ones; as for moustaches, the seven hairs which I have
+    (and wear) are not worth mentioning, but still I have none of
+    that delicacy which you profess on the subject. In my opinion,
+    _if_ gentlemanhood is a thing dependent on the scraping of
+    four square inches of your face, and residing only in the
+    well-shaved purlieus of a (probably) ugly mouth, I feel equal
+    to going without it, in that shape at all events. A moustache,
+    and even a beard, if kept short enough to be in keeping with a
+    not very flowing costume, is both becoming and convenient, and
+    I fear that the whole prestige of respectability hovering
+    around Mr. and Mrs. ----, or the withering contempt of the
+    irreproachable Sir John and Lady ----, would not make me
+    shave, unless, indeed, I felt too hot about the chin. I have
+    gone through your letter, and shall wind up with a few words
+    about my doings, which, by-the-bye, might be compendiously
+    characterised by one word: _nothing_. My holidays are drawing
+    to a close, and I shall be in Rome, working very hard to get
+    my pictures done for the Exhibitions. Meanwhile I am enjoying
+    Florentine sunsets, the gorgeousness of which defies
+    description. The other day, in particular, I was on the
+    heights near the Miniato, I thought I had never seen anything
+    like it. I remembered Papa's fondness for that spot, and
+    wished he had been there to share my enjoyment; the lanes were
+    cool and pearly grey; over them hung in every fantastic shape
+    the rich growth of the orchards and gardens that crowned the
+    lengthened walls; the olives, strangely twisted, flaming with
+    a thousand tongues of fire; the wreathing vine flinging its
+    emerald skirts from tree to tree; the purple wine flashing in
+    the fiery grape; the stately _mais_ flapping its arms in the
+    breath of the evening; the solemn cypress; the poetic laurel;
+    the joyous oleander--all glorified in the ardour of the
+    setting sun, that flung its rays obliquely along the earth;
+    you would have been enchanted.
+
+                                            ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                             _February 10, 1855_.
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--I hasten to answer your kind letter and to thank
+    you for the willingness you express to advance such a sum of
+    money as I shall require to cover the heavy expenses I am
+    incurring. I forgot to mention in my last letter that my
+    picture will be directed straight to the frame-maker's who
+    undertakes the exhibiting of it.
+
+    In approaching the other points which you touch in your
+    letter, I feel that my letter will unavoidably have a
+    combative colouring, which I sincerely hope you will not
+    misconstrue, and beg that you will consider whether the
+    reasons I advance for not conforming to your suggestions are
+    not sound ones. If I particularly object to accompanying my
+    picture, it is because I think that the small advantages that
+    might accrue from so doing would in no way make up for all I
+    should lose; whatever can be done to my picture on its arrival
+    in England will be kindly done for me by my friend, Mr. T.
+    Gooderson, who is in the habit of receiving and varnishing
+    Buckner's works on similar occasions; with respect to the
+    interest to be made amongst the Academicians in behalf of my
+    op. magn., I have neglected _that_ on the _express advice_ of
+    Buckner, who has great experience in those matters and is a
+    most kind and honest man; he says, such is the party spirit of
+    R.A.'s, that the best chance of securing impartial treatment
+    (in the case of a work of merit) is to be _completely unknown_
+    to all of them, a condition which I am admirably calculated to
+    fulfil. You are also perhaps not aware that my picture will
+    reach England _five weeks_ before the opening of the
+    Exhibition, so that by accompanying it I should completely
+    lose all the best part of the year here in Rome. There are a
+    great number of things which I propose doing now that my
+    pictures are about to be off my hands. There are here several
+    very remarkable heads of which I wish to make finished
+    studies, and especially also I am loth to go without having
+    drawn anything from Michael Angelo and Raphael, which is one
+    of the chief objects for which one comes to this city of the
+    past; but, I do not hesitate to say, the principal task which
+    I propose to myself is a half-length portrait of Mrs.
+    Sartoris, to which I wish to devote my every energy that it
+    may be worthy of perpetuating the features of the last Kemble;
+    irrespective of the enormous artistic advantage to be derived
+    from the study of so exceptional a head, you will easily
+    understand my eagerness to give some tangible form to my
+    gratitude towards those whose fireside has been my fireside
+    for so long a time; nothing would grieve me more than missing
+    so good an opportunity. I confess, too, that I wished to see a
+    little more leisurely the glorious scenery that lies all round
+    Rome, and which I have hitherto hardly glanced at, and partly
+    indeed not seen at all. I had indeed contemplated before
+    leaving Italy, making a trip to Naples, Capri, Oschia, Amalfi,
+    and all the spots about which artists rave. This, however,
+    will I fear be under all circumstances a financial _chateau en
+    Espagne_.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                            ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                                   _February 12_.
+
+    HONOURED AND DEAR FRIEND,--That you, who know me so well and
+    are so well aware of how I carry your image in my heart, could
+    misinterpret my silence I did not fear for a moment, for
+    rather will you have thought to yourself that the stress of my
+    occupations in the course of the day, and my incapacity to do
+    anything at night, have hitherto prevented me from writing;
+    and so it is; for, be you assured, dear Friend, that, as long
+    as I pursue art, you will be ever present with me in the
+    spirit, and that I shall always ascribe every success which I
+    may possibly attain in the future to your wise counsel and
+    your inspiriting example, for "as the twig is bent the tree's
+    inclined."
+
+    First I will tell you about my health; thank Heaven, as
+    regards my general health, I have nothing to complain of; if
+    not exactly strong, still I am lively and in good spirits, and
+    look out upon the world quite contentedly. My eyes--well, yes,
+    they might be better; otherwise I am always in a condition to
+    work my seven or eight hours a day without over-exertion, in
+    return for which I dare not do anything in the evenings. To
+    tell the truth, my position is not an agreeable one; I am not
+    bad enough to follow the course prescribed for me by Graefe,
+    but on the other hand not well enough to be able to feel quite
+    tranquil....
+
+    Time has slipped away in stress of work since I commenced this
+    letter. I throw myself again upon your goodness, dear Master,
+    and beg you will not measure my love by my readiness in
+    writing, for then I should certainly come off a loser. I told
+    you that my affairs have pressed upon me; I have finished my
+    "Cimabue." I am dreadfully disappointed, dear Friend, that I
+    cannot, as I hoped, send you a photograph, but it has been
+    impossible for me to have one taken, since the picture is so
+    large that it could not be transported to a photographic
+    loggia without fearful ado and unnecessary risk to the canvas;
+    I will therefore exert myself to write you what it looks like.
+    First you must know that I changed my intention as to the
+    respective sizes of the two pictures, for I perceived that my
+    eyes could not possibly permit the Florentine composition to
+    be carried out on the proposed scale. I therefore took a
+    canvas of 17-1/2 feet (English measure), in consequence of which
+    my figures have become half life size (like Raphael's "Madonna
+    del Cardellino"), and do not look at all ill. The other
+    picture (which I shall send to London) will be something over
+    7 feet long by 5 feet. If I am to get them both finished by
+    next January, I must set to work in earnest. I have made the
+    following alterations: first, those prescribed by you, viz. I
+    have made the picture which is being carried larger, the
+    chapel smaller, and have suppressed the flower-pots on the
+    walls. A further alteration I have made by the advice of
+    Cornelius; he said to me that the foremost group (the women
+    strewing flowers with children) seemed to him somewhat to
+    disturb the simplicity of the rest of the composition, and
+    suggested that I should put in a couple of priests, especially
+    as the portrait is of a Madonna and is being taken to a
+    church; he further advised me, in order to prevent the picture
+    from being too frieze-like, to allow this foremost group to
+    walk up to the spectator. It now looks something like this:
+
+    (Slight sketch of the design for "Cimabue's Madonna.")
+
+    I hope with all my heart that you will approve these
+    alterations. I have drawn a quantity of heads and hands, which
+    are all finished, like the "Chiaruccia" which I gave you;
+    drapery is not lacking. How I regret, dear Friend, that I
+    cannot show them to you. Gamba also is very industrious; he
+    has made endless studies, and has also got his record ready.
+    He sends you most hearty greetings. Of his diligence there is
+    always plenty to tell, and you will not be surprised when I
+    tell you that he has made very gratifying progress.
+
+    I could still tell you a great deal, my dear Master, of what I
+    have seen and experienced! but time and, alas! especially eyes
+    compel me to be laconic, or this oft-begun letter will never
+    be finished. Therefore I will only briefly narrate what
+    happened to me in the imperial city; my goodness! how long ago
+    that seems. My first impression, as I alighted from the train,
+    was very pleasant. A lovely autumn morning, the Prater with
+    its beautiful trees, the Jaegerheil in the sunshine, all
+    together welcomed me gaily. I alighted in the Leopold suburb,
+    and set off on foot the same morning in quest of Kuppelwieser,
+    a cordial, charming man. Through him I became acquainted with
+    Fuehrich and Roesner, who both received me no less kindly. They
+    all remembered with warm affection their dear comrade,
+    Steinle, and sent most hearty messages to him. Of their works
+    (for to you, best of friends, I write frankly) I cannot,
+    candidly, speak very highly, but perhaps I might of the
+    tenacious maintenance of their opinion in spite of the
+    boundless, oppressive indifference of the Viennese towards
+    high art. Now, the dear friends are somewhat ascetic
+    representatives of their mode of thought--a mode of thought
+    which can be combined, as we have seen in the great days of
+    art, with the greatest charm of representation; but this
+    quality is unfortunately too often absent from our friends. Of
+    the two, Kuppelwieser is the less offensive; he is perhaps
+    rather antiquated, but not without cleverness; Fuehrich is far
+    too ornamental for me, and as a painter, God save the mark!
+    Good gracious! what is nature there for? What can the people
+    make of all this! how is it possible that one can get so far
+    in spite of a perverted training! that people do not perceive
+    their fearful arrogance! They plume themselves upon piety and
+    humility, and in God's beautiful creation nothing is right for
+    them; do they then ever admit, these gentlemen, that they do
+    not want nature any more because they are aware that they no
+    longer know how to use her? Would they feel happy if they saw
+    a Masaccio, a Ghirlandajo, a Carpaccio? But they in their
+    drawings are pretentious and puffed up, but there is no
+    learnedness in them, and that which God has made so lovely
+    with all the brilliancy of colour, they daub with any dirt,
+    and call it a picture; some even (that was still lacking)
+    shrug their shoulders spitefully and mock--at the
+    unattainable. And whence does all that arise? How is it that
+    even sensible, clever men are so ill equipped? It is due
+    solely and alone to the topsy-turvy, involved principle of
+    education, to the fact that the people, while they are still
+    young, labour and worry day and night at the representation of
+    unrepresentable ideas, instead of drawing from nature and from
+    nothing else for ever and ever amen, till they are in close
+    harmony with her; that would be a soil from which the tree of
+    their art could grow upwards, fresh, powerful,
+    ever-herbescent; that they might not stand there in their old
+    age as high, proud, upward-aspiring trunks without leaves,
+    without sap. Naturally all this is not aimed at the good
+    Fuehrich, but in general against all those who in their
+    infatuation allow themselves, behind the shield of severe
+    sentiments and high efforts, to throw overboard all the
+    difficulties of art. How gladly my thoughts turn away from
+    such unpleasing reflections to you, dearest Friend, who take
+    nature for your model in every part of your pictures, and with
+    your high degree of ability are always the devoted pupil of
+    _nature_! Keep, I beg you, _your_ grateful pupil in
+    sympathetic remembrance, and never doubt the devotion of your
+    loving friend,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife; also to my other
+    friends. If you see Schalck, will you kindly say to him that I
+    have received his letter, and will answer it when my eyes
+    permit. I am longing to hear what pictures and drawings you
+    are making! Will you forgive my silence, and write to me?
+
+    My picture is under-painted grey-in-grey (_grau in grau_); I
+    finished it in a week; it was a great effort.
+
+                                                ROME, VIA FELICE,
+                                             _February 19, 1855_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--As the body of the letter I have just received
+    is written by Papa, I have thought well to address to _him_
+    the important part of mine; you will therein see all the
+    business news that I have to give, and will, I know, be much
+    pleased to hear that my picture has had great success here; I
+    hope it may not have less in London. As the picture is of a
+    jovial aspect and contains pretty faces, male and female, I
+    think the public will find _leur affaire_; the "Romeo and
+    Juliet" (also nearly finished) will, though perhaps a better
+    picture, probably be less popular from its necessarily serious
+    and dingy aspect. Dear Mamma, I am much tickled at your
+    comparison between the Campagna and the environs of Bath; it
+    is like saying that strawberries and cream are equal and
+    perhaps superior to a haunch of wild boar! _l'un n'empeche pas
+    l'autre_, but they can never be compared, nor can they answer
+    the same purpose. The Sartoris are well; I am there every
+    evening of my life.
+
+    The next page is Papa's. Good-bye, dear Mamma. Best love from
+    your affectionate and dutiful son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    _P.S._--My resolution not to dance I have kept (excepting in
+    the case of quadrilles), and have avoided making new
+    acquaintances, as I intend next winter not to go out at all;
+    but if I have no longer agitated the fantastic toe, and have
+    acquired a cordial dislike to balls, I have been all the
+    oftener to my dearest and best friends, the Sartoris, to whom
+    I go about four times a week, and of whose sterling worth it
+    is impossible to speak too warmly; at their house also I have
+    made several interesting acquaintances; Fanny Kemble (as you
+    know), Thackeray, Lockhart, Browning, the authors; Marochetti,
+    the sculptor, and so on; as for Mrs. Sartoris, I look upon her
+    as an angel, _ni plus ni moins_, and I feel terrified at the
+    idea of how much more exacting she has made me for the future
+    choice of a wife, by showing one what opposite excellencies a
+    woman may unite in herself.
+
+  _To his Father--Part of letter missing._]
+                                                            1855.
+
+    It is with very great pleasure that I announce to you the
+    completion of my large picture, which I have exhibited
+    privately to my English friends and a crowd of artists of all
+    nations. You will, I am sure, be gratified to hear that it had
+    a remarkable "succes"; artists of whatever school seem equally
+    pleased, some admiring the drawing, others the colouring. I
+    hope that what I say does not savour of vanity; I simply tell
+    it you from a conviction that it is agreeable to you to hear
+    what people say of your son, and to anticipate in some measure
+    the verdict of a larger public. As for the positive _value_ of
+    it, we all know what to think about _that_. It amused me to
+    hear that several people compared my picture to the works of
+    Maclise, and came to conclusions considerably in my favour.
+    Swinton paid me the compliment of requesting to be introduced
+    to me, and seemed very sincerely to admire my picture, as also
+    a portfolio of leads which I have drawn at different times,
+    and which are much admired by everybody.
+
+    Of course you did perfectly right in not dreaming of
+    exhibiting Isabel's likeness. Pray do not think from what I
+    said about my lengthened stay in Rome, that I undervalue the
+    delight of seeing you all again, but still I think that if by
+    a little postponement I can have that pleasure without losing
+    my spring, it would be better. My idea is to remain in Italy
+    till the end of May, and then visiting Paris (to see the great
+    Exhibition) on my road to get home by the middle or end of
+    June, which will still leave me a long summer's holiday.
+
+This letter from his mother contains the news of Leighton's father's
+joy at the success of the picture in Rome:--
+
+                                             _February 18, 1855._
+
+    Now I think of it, you have probably some signs of spring
+    about you--how enviable! My dear Fred, I did not compare the
+    artistic resources of Bath with those of Rome, well knowing
+    that the transparent atmosphere there imparts beauty to the
+    country which, without it, might not be remarked; equally
+    bright and clear the sky is not in England, but I assure you
+    that many parts of the country near us and in Devonshire, and
+    doubtless in many other counties, may for beauty challenge a
+    comparison with many most admired spots in Italy and
+    elsewhere, though the character of the landscape is different.
+    Nevertheless, I shall be very glad to see again Switzerland,
+    Southern Germany, &c. &c. Pray, dear Fred, if you do go to
+    sketch in the Campagna, take care not to expose yourself to
+    any disagreeable adventures with Brigands; I _entreat_ you, be
+    prudent. Not to tire you with repetition, I have not alluded
+    to the success of your picture, but I must tell you that your
+    father was radiant with joy as he read your letter and gave it
+    into my hands with the words, "That _is_ a satisfactory
+    letter." I am curious to know _when_ we shall see your Paris
+    picture, and whether we shall winter in that delightful town;
+    Papa and I have always wished it. I must just mention, what I
+    had nearly forgotten, that a great treat is in store for the
+    inhabitants of Bath, as next week Mrs. Fanny Kemble is to read
+    some of Shakespeare's plays in public, with appropriate music.
+    A great treat is expected. God bless you, love, I can no more.
+    Our united affectionate greetings.--Your attached Mother,
+
+                                                     A. LEIGHTON.
+
+                                         ROME, _January 3, 1855_.
+                                            (_Recd. January 12._)
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--Let me hasten to reassure my poor dear
+    progenitor on the subject of his anxieties; if I spoke
+    doubtfully and despondently of my performances, it was owing
+    to the lively feeling that every artist, whose ideal is beyond
+    the applause of the many, must entertain of his own
+    shortcomings; once and for all let me beg him never to feel
+    any uneasiness on the score of mechanical processes, as in
+    such cases one always has the resource of cutting the Gordian
+    knot by painting over again the unsuccessful portions, an
+    expedient indeed to which I have many a time been forced to
+    resort; the result of such failures is called experience;
+    through such failures alone one arrives at success. Nor am I
+    wanting in the applause of my friends, who all speak in praise
+    and encouragement of my works, and it is not a little
+    gratifying to me to find that those whose opinions I most
+    value are the first to speak favourably of my endeavours; as
+    agreeable as is to me this testimony on their part, so
+    indifferent am I, and must I beg you to be (for better and for
+    worse) to the scribbling of pamphleteers; the self-complacent
+    oracularity of these _pachidermata_ is rivalled only by their
+    gross ignorance of the subjects they bemaul, and the
+    conventional flatness of all their views; I speak without fear
+    of being considered partial, as the article which you
+    communicate to me contains more of praise than of blame; it
+    is, however, my practice never to accept (inwardly) the praise
+    of those whose blame I don't acknowledge. I happen to have
+    seen other articles from the pen of this same Mister ----, and
+    know _a quoi m'en tenir_. The notice on myself I had heard of,
+    but not seen. It may amuse you to hear that my draperies have
+    been considered (alas!) the most successful part of my
+    picture, and I am at present labouring hard to bring the
+    heads, &c., _up to them_! In about a fortnight, the large work
+    ("Cimabue," the "canvas of many feet") will be, D.V.,
+    finished, with the exception of the ultimate glazes and
+    retouches; by the end of February, both pictures will start
+    for their respective destinations. One thing has caused me
+    some annoyance and anxiety; I wrote a month ago (or more) to
+    one Mr. Allen, carver and gilder, 31 Ebury Street, Pimlico,
+    sending a design of my frame, and requesting him to let me
+    know at once what would be the cost of such a frame, whether
+    he would undertake it, and asking many questions important to
+    me to know; I have received no answer; I therefore must take
+    for granted that either he has not received my letter, or his
+    answer to me has been lost; now, as there is no longer any
+    time to correspond on the subject, I must, on the supposition
+    that my letter has gone astray, send another design together
+    with an unconditional order to begin at once at whatever cost;
+    now I grudge the time of writing a duplicate of my old letter,
+    and especially that of drawing a new diagram for his guidance.
+    With regard to the price, Fripp, who recommended him to me,
+    says Allen is a very respectable man, and will no way take
+    advantage of my awkward position; I calculate the frame can
+    hardly exceed five and twenty pounds; then there will be the
+    bill for exhibiting the picture of which he will take charge;
+    I expect that the framing, packing, sending, &c., of the two
+    canvases together will cost about fifty pounds "tant pis pour
+    moi!"
+
+(Here the letter breaks off.)
+
+  (_Cover_--Madame Leighton,
+  9 Circus, Bath, England.)
+
+                                            ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                                 _March 2, 1855_.
+                                    (_On cover--Recd. April 12._)
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--I received a day or two ago the kind letter in
+    which you inform me of the disposition you have made to enable
+    me to get the money I want, and for which I sincerely thank
+    you; your letter reached me just as I was driving the last
+    nail into the coffin of my large picture; the small had been
+    disposed of in like manner the day before. Delighted as I am
+    to have got them at last off my hands, yet I felt a kind of
+    strange sorrow at seeing them nailed up in their narrow boxes;
+    it was so painfully like shrouding and stowing away a corpse,
+    with the exception, by-the-bye, that my pictures may possibly
+    return to my bosom long before the Last Judgment. With regard
+    to the success of my picture with its little Roman public,
+    nearly all the praise that reached my ears was bestowed
+    _behind my back_, so that whether intelligent or no, I have
+    good reason to believe it was sincere; indeed, I should not
+    else have said anything about it; Cornelius, I am sincerely
+    sorry to say, did not see my daubs in their finished state; he
+    was prevented by ill-health; however, all the advice he could
+    give me I got out of him in the beginning, and indeed, as you
+    know, altered about a dozen figures at his request; in points
+    of material execution he is utterly incompetent; I am happy to
+    say that he feels very kindly towards me, as indeed he told me
+    in plain words, and added on one occasion, "Sie koennen fuer
+    England etwas bedeutendes werden;" I need not tell you that as
+    he is altogether without apprehension of the peculiar and very
+    great merits of some of our artists, he considerably
+    overvalues my (relative) value. You ask for _my_ opinion of my
+    pictures; you couldn't ask a more embarrassing and
+    unsatisfactory question; I think, indeed, that they are very
+    creditable works for my age, but I am anything but satisfied
+    with them, and believe that I could paint both of them better
+    now; I am particularly anxious that persons whom I love or
+    esteem should think neither more nor less of my artistic
+    capacity than I deserve; the plain truth; I am therefore very
+    circumspect in passing a verdict on myself in addressing
+    myself to such persons; I think, however, you may expect me to
+    become eventually the best draughtsman in my country; Gibson
+    and Miss Hosmer are, as you expect, amongst those who praise
+    me, but I warn you that they are both utterly without an
+    opinion in matters pictorial. Who is ----? He is, _entre
+    nous_, the worst painter I ever saw, but also the greatest
+    toady, in virtue of which quality he makes L5000 a year by
+    portraying the nobility of Great Britain and Ireland; however,
+    towards me he has been very pleasant and nice, and so long as
+    there is no lord in the way he is a sufficiently companionable
+    person. I certainly feel very little desire to have my
+    "Cimabue" hung in the little room you speak of, but I fear
+    that I must take my chance with the rest; the fact is that
+    although I personally have taken no steps in the matter, still
+    "ces messieurs" will not be unprepared for my picture, because
+    I know that old Leitch for one will speak to them about it and
+    will do everything that is friendly; he even offered to
+    varnish it, but _that_ another friend of mine has already
+    undertaken. One thing is certain, they can't hang it out of
+    sight--it's too large for that. I must leave myself room to
+    write afterwards to Mamma....
+
+    ...I am glad that you have made up your mind to not seeing me
+    as soon as you expected; indeed I felt sure that when I told
+    you all the reasons which concurred to make me prolong my
+    stay, you would feel the force of them; I willingly confess,
+    too, that I was most strongly biassed on the matter by my
+    reluctance to part from my friends, but particularly _her_. I
+    am horrified at the use you make of the words "indefinite
+    time"; I shall certainly never live long anywhere without
+    going to see them, and I trust that our "intimes relations"
+    will not cease as long as I live. How sorry I am that I should
+    not have known in time that Mrs. Kemble was to read in Bath; I
+    should have liked so to introduce you to her; you no doubt
+    found her reading a rare treat. How beautiful is the
+    "Midsummer Night's Dream" with Mendelssohn's music! This
+    reminds me of dear Gussy and _her_ music; I suppose her new
+    master is a good one, or she would not have taken him;
+    generally speaking I have a sovereign dislike for the
+    _engeance_ of _pianistes_ with their eternal jingle-tingles at
+    the top of the piano, their drops of dew, their sources, their
+    fairies, their bells, and the vapid runs and futile conceits
+    with which they sentimentalise and torture the motive of other
+    men; we have a specimen here in the shape of the
+    all-fashionable ----....
+
+Referring to a lady of his acquaintance, he continues:--
+
+    She has acquired by her melancholy and sometimes haughty moods
+    a character for misanthropy which she has not cared to refute;
+    but, my good sir, she is DIVORCED! Poor cowards! should they
+    not rather gather her to them, and "weep with her that weeps,"
+    Bible-wise Pharisees! Your letter is full of thrilling events:
+    children born among the Australian flocks of Mr. Donaldson;
+    little ----, too, taking to herself a husband--alas for the
+    Laird of (probably) Ballyshallynachurighawalymoroo! I must
+    think of answering dear Gussy's note, and close with a hearty
+    kiss, from your dutiful and affectionate son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    DEAREST GUSSY,--Many thanks to you for your kind note and for
+    the sympathy and interest which you both offer and ask. How
+    heartily sorry I am that you should still be persecuted by the
+    soreness in your throat, and should be prevented, poor dear,
+    from singing; you who have the rare gift of that which is
+    unteachable and without which the most brilliant execution is
+    dumb to the heart; I mean musical accent. I had hoped that we
+    should sing together, but I fear that if the air of Bath has
+    such a bad effect on the throat, I shall be invalided as well
+    as yourself. What is about the compass of your voice? or
+    (which is more important) in what _tessitura_ do you sing with
+    least discomfort? that I may see whether anything I sing will
+    suit us; unfortunately most part of my limited _repertoire_
+    consists of the first tenor part in quintettes and quartettes,
+    which are not available for us two. I don't know whether I
+    told you that I take a part in Mrs. Sartoris' musical
+    evenings, in which I officiate as _primo tenore_; you may
+    imagine how great an enjoyment this is to me. Dear Gussy, how
+    I wish you could hear _her_ sing! it would enlarge your ideas
+    and open out your heart; I am sadly afraid however, that she
+    won't winter in Paris, so that if you go there you must make
+    up your mind to not meeting her; but if you are in England in
+    October she may possibly be there by that time, and you might
+    make her acquaintance; if I sell either of my pictures, and am
+    "sur les lieux" at the time, I will take you and Lina to town
+    at my own expense and introduce you to the dearest friend I
+    have in the world; I long for you to know and love one
+    another. You ask me whether she is like her sister; in
+    _expression_, sometimes, strikingly like; in _feature_, not in
+    the least. She is the image of John Kemble, with large
+    aquiline nose and the most beautiful mouth in the world, a
+    most harmonious head, and, like Fanny, the hair low down on
+    her forehead; artistically speaking, her head and shoulders
+    are the finest I ever saw with the exception only of Dante's;
+    in spite of all this, many people think her barely
+    good-looking, because she has no complexion, very little hair,
+    and is excessively stout; _you_ will be more discriminating. I
+    am amused at Mamma's asking me in her letter whether I know
+    why ---- did not know the Sartoris! Pardi! I did not introduce
+    them,--in the first place I have been obliged to make a rule
+    to introduce nobody to that house, as I should otherwise
+    become a nuisance; people have constantly fished for
+    introductions knowing my intimacy; but the chief reason is
+    that Mrs. Sartoris has the judgment and courage to ask to her
+    house nobody but those she _likes_ for some reason or other,
+    for which reason her house is the most sociable in the world;
+    her "intimes" are a complete medley, from the Duke of
+    Wellington down to a poor artist with one change of boots, but
+    _all_ agreeable for some reason; I know that she would be kind
+    to _any one I_ brought to her, but I also know that the ----s
+    would have been in the way and a _corvee_ to her, which fully
+    accounts, &c. &c.
+
+    I am delighted, dear Guss, that you have a music master to
+    your heart, and that you have been considered worthy to play
+    Bach's Fugues, which are indeed monstrous difficult. With
+    regard to the pianistic style and the dewdrop-warbling school,
+    you need not fear that _I_ should throw sour grapes in your
+    teeth about _that_; _franchement_, the ---- after all is
+    commonplace enough, and the ----, though pretty, hardly
+    deserves such an epithet as beautiful; as for the ----, it's
+    just ludicrous. Did you ever hear ---- piano-doodle himself?
+
+    I was rather surprised at the judgment you pass on Fanny
+    Kemble's reading; if _anything_ seems at all coarse in it, it
+    is occasional bits in the _male_ part, and that only, after
+    all, because it is _too_ good and it seems discrepant to hear
+    male harsh sounds proceeding from the mouth of a woman. With
+    regard to her women, nothing can be more pathetic and touching
+    than her Juliet, or indeed all the women I have heard her do;
+    there is altogether in her style a certain amount of mannerism
+    belonging to the Kemble school, but in spite of all that, it
+    is quite unapproachable now and is grand in the extreme; the
+    Ghost in "Hamlet" is quite a creation. You seem, like Mamma,
+    to apologise almost for expressing an admiration for my
+    photograph; do you think, dear, that I don't value your
+    sympathy irrespectively of your art judgment? I shall send you
+    soon two photographs of portraits that I am now painting; one
+    of Mrs. Sartoris, the other of her little daughter May. I must
+    close.--With very best love to all, I remain, your very
+    affectionate brother,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+The change Leighton made in his picture at the request of Cornelius,
+mentioned in his letter to his father, dated March 2, 1855, can be
+seen by comparing the pencil sketch of the complete design with the
+finished painting (see List of Illustrations). It consisted in his
+making the Procession turn at the left-hand corner to face spectator,
+instead of filling in this space and giving the required grouping of
+lines partly by the foreshortened horse and its rider which we find in
+the first sketch. In the Leighton House Collection there is a fine
+study in pencil of the undraped figure of the man riding which is not
+included in the final design. There are those who remembered the
+picture when first painted in Rome, also at the Exhibitions in
+Trafalgar Square and Burlington House, who were of opinion that it was
+never seen so advantageously as on the occasion when the King lent it
+for exhibition in the artist's own studio in Leighton House in the
+year 1900, and many seeing it there exclaimed, "Leighton never did a
+finer thing;" and, truly, seen, as it was then, placed across the end
+of the glass studio under perfect conditions of lighting and
+surroundings, the power and originality both in the colouring and
+design of the work were very striking and impressive. Leighton's
+friends felt specially grateful to the King, for an opportunity having
+been afforded for the public to see this early work under such
+favourable and appropriate circumstances. During those months when the
+picture was shown at Leighton House, it felt as if the very spirit of
+the young artist, at the time when he was starting on his notable
+career, had returned and was haunting the home of his later years.
+From the end of the large studio, looking through the darkened passage
+connecting the two rooms, the procession verily looked alive, a
+_tableau vivant_--no mere painting.
+
+One of the salient virtues in the composition lies in the happy way in
+which the two central figures take a separate important position,
+without the moving on of the procession being interrupted nor their
+attitudes being in any sense forced. On the contrary, it is by their
+absorbed, modest demeanour, which contrasts with the rest of the gay
+crowd, talking, singing, and playing musical instruments as it moves
+along, that the sense of awe and reverence felt by the two artist
+spirits becomes accentuated. These recognise in this public ovation
+bestowed on the picture of their beloved "Madonna and Child" the union
+of a service offered both to Art and to Religion.
+
+The happiness Leighton enjoyed during the two years when this subject
+occupied his thoughts seems to have been reflected in the vigour of
+the actual painting. It was evidently finally executed with an
+exuberant feeling of satisfaction. Careful studies having been
+previously made for every portion, the under-painting itself was, as
+he writes to Steinle, completed in one week, and the canvas once
+attacked, there appears to have been no hitch in the process of
+completion. The happy balancing of masses, the grouping of the
+figures, the beauty of the lines throughout the crowded procession are
+admirable. The picture was admitted by competent judges to be a work
+marked by a distinct individuality, yet possessing "style," a word
+which in recent years had been associated in England with art that
+lacked vigour and originality, and which flavoured solely of obsolete
+grooves and theories. The colour is richer and purer than in
+Leighton's earliest pictures, and arranged cleverly so as to give full
+importance and value to the beautiful white costume worn by
+Cimabue.[34] Sir William Richmond, R.A., writes: "Impressions of early
+years are not easily removed. As a boy at school I went to the R.A.
+Exhibition, and saw for the first time a work of Leighton's, the
+procession in honour of the picture by Cimabue in Florence, 1855. It
+stood out among the other pictures to my young eye as a work so
+complete, so noble in design, so serious in sentiment and of such
+achievement, that perforce it took me by the throat."
+
+Leighton sent a photograph of the picture to Steinle with a letter
+dated March 1.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                            ROME, VIA FELICE 123,
+                                                 _March 1, 1855_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Although since my last letter I have had
+    no news of you, I cannot pass by this moment, so important to
+    me, without giving you intelligence of it. Yesterday I at last
+    sent off both my pictures, the large one to London, the small
+    one to Paris, with the consignment of the Roman Committee.
+    Thank goodness, at last I have got them off my mind! And how
+    sorry I am, dear Friend, that I could not put the finishing
+    touches to them in your presence! Of the "Cimabue," I send
+    you, in two pieces, a very bad photograph, but it is the best
+    that could be made within four walls; from it you will only be
+    able to judge generally of the grouping, for as regards the
+    colour, which comes out so black in the photograph, in the
+    picture it is altogether clear and light. You will certainly
+    be glad to hear that this work has earned much praise here; I
+    promised that you should not have to be ashamed of your pupil.
+    The small picture is so dark in effect, that it would be
+    impossible to photograph it; but as I suppose you, like all
+    the rest of the world, will visit the great exhibition in
+    Paris, you can avail yourself of the same opportunity to see
+    my daub.
+
+    Gamba is, now as ever, industrious, tireless, conscientious;
+    his picture _also_ will be finished in a few weeks, and will
+    be a great credit to him; I only wish he had a prospect of
+    selling it, but at present the sale of pictures is stagnant,
+    especially in Piedmont, where the art-loving Queen-Mother has
+    died. He will have to fight hard against the gigantic pedantry
+    of the Turin Academy and College of Painters (_Malfacultaet_),
+    for he paints things exactly as he sees them in nature; God be
+    with him! Of course, he sends you heartfelt greetings. Of
+    other artistic doings in Rome I cannot tell you much; I think
+    I have already told you that I look upon Rome as the grave of
+    art; for a young artist, I mean, for whom actively suggestive
+    surroundings are necessary. As regards the so-called German
+    historical art, that is not much of a joke to me; when men,
+    out of pure impotence, throw themselves under the shield of
+    noble tendencies, in order to make mistaken efforts to imitate
+    the work of other painters, they are simply ridiculous; but
+    when men are endowed with fine natural gifts, and nevertheless
+    out of sheer queerness and pedantry go altogether astray, then
+    I only feel angry. God forgive me if I am intolerant, but
+    according to my view an artist must produce his art out of his
+    own heart; or he is none.
+
+    Dear Master, I may perhaps pass through Frankfurt on my way
+    back (in June); I should like beyond all things to see you
+    again, you and your works that are so dear to me. Have you
+    painted the "Death of Christ" which pleased me so much? Write
+    to me if you have time, and tell me how things go with you.
+    Keep a friendly recollection of your grateful, affectionate
+    pupil,
+
+                                                  FRED. LEIGHTON.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                               FRANKFURT AM MAIN,
+                                                _March 20, 1855_.
+
+    DEAR FRIEND,--My best thanks for your dear lines of the 1st
+    and for the photographs, with which you afforded me the
+    greatest pleasure. I had an idea that I should receive this
+    friendly remembrance, and I hope that you have meanwhile
+    received my letter of the 3rd March. I know the difference in
+    a photograph of a painting, and the often quite contrary
+    effect of the yellow and red, too well to be deceived by a
+    dark impression; the masses, their distribution, alike in the
+    groups and in the light and shade, the outline of the
+    background, most of the single figures, all please me very
+    well, and you could not believe how much I rejoice in every
+    detail in which I recognise my Leighton, and when I see how
+    all these have been achieved so thoroughly by industrious
+    study and artistic culture. You have indeed prepared a real
+    feast for me, my good wishes in my last letter were quite the
+    right ones, and the recognition which you have obtained in
+    Rome was certainly well earned. I am convinced that Overbeck
+    was heartily pleased with your pictures. It was perhaps my
+    imagination, dear friend, when I thought from your letter that
+    there was a slight cloud between us, but I think it will be
+    torn away when these lines reach you. The fond idea of being
+    again able to share your life and artistic work, I must
+    relinquish, for I am an exile, and besides cannot make myself
+    familiar with your progress as an artist in the Fatherland.
+    Shall, then, your stay in Italy be ended by the journey which
+    you led me to hope would bring you to see me again? But I
+    forget so easily that we live in a world of renunciations, and
+    that often when we believe we are disposing, we are disposed.
+    My spirit and my love will always, wherever you may be, be
+    with you. It occurred to me that probably our excellent Gamba
+    would not send his great picture to Paris, and yet I seem to
+    have heard that he intended doing so; it appears to me that
+    exhibition in Paris would give the picture more importance
+    than in Turin; that Gamba would triumph over the academic
+    formalities in Turin, I do not doubt in the least. His
+    grandmother and all his friends await him here; on a journey
+    to Paris?--Now, dear friend, one more request. Ihlee brought
+    from Rome some photographic views, with which I and the
+    friends who know Rome are truly delighted; the worthy Frau
+    Rath Schlosser wishes very much to possess a selection of
+    twelve, I myself would like to have at least three, will you
+    be so good as to bring them with you in June, and also
+    yourself take the trouble to make a really beautiful
+    selection? You will oblige me thereby very greatly. I shall
+    rejoice excessively to see you again, and wish much that your
+    stay in Frankfurt need not be so short. Remember me cordially
+    to Gamba, and give my kindest regards to Altmeister Cornelius.
+    My wife thanks you for your kind remembrance, and sends many
+    greetings. All friends here have bidden me send their best
+    wishes to you and Gamba. Adieu, dear friend, always and
+    altogether yours,
+
+                                                    EDW. STEINLE.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                          ROME, _April 15, 1855_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Only a day or two after I sent off my
+    letter with the photograph, I received your dear lines, and
+    now I have also the letter in which you acknowledge receipt of
+    mine, so that I am well off for news of you. All the affection
+    and kind sympathy which you express for me has affected me
+    deeply, and I look forward with sincere pleasure to the moment
+    when I shall be able personally to express my gratitude to
+    you; I am also most eager to see the drawings of the
+    completion of which you tell me; judging by the sketches, I
+    expect great things from this composition, so rich in
+    imagination; I saw the first beginnings of it. That you are
+    pleased with my photograph rejoices me extremely, but I am
+    sorry that you have not mingled some blame with the praise;
+    you say that _most_ of my figures please you well; ergo, some
+    of them do not; which are they? why not tell me all? do you no
+    longer regard me as your pupil? From one part of your letter I
+    understand that you think I have had a great deal of
+    intercourse with good old Overbeck; that is not so; he and his
+    followers one does not see at all unless one belongs to their
+    clique; Overbeck has never been within my four walls.
+    Cornelius I see less seldom, but not very often; he is a very
+    charming old man, so cheerful and friendly, and is of great
+    strength; for the rest, he has some little queernesses; he
+    said to me once, "Yes, Nature has also her style" (!). Does
+    that not bespeak a curious mental development?
+
+    Gamba will not, as it happens, send his picture to Paris, it
+    was not ready in time; meantime, it is being exhibited here in
+    the Piazza del Popolo, and receives the applause it merits; he
+    sends you most cordial greeting.
+
+    Yes, indeed, the years of my "Italian Journey" are now ended!
+    It seems but yesterday that we first took leave of one
+    another, and you encouraged me upon my setting forth; the
+    remembrance makes me sad at heart; I cannot help asking myself
+    whether my expectations for these three years have been
+    fulfilled: and the question remains unanswered.
+
+    My stay in Italy will always remain a charming memory to me; a
+    beautiful, irrecoverable time; the young, careless,
+    independent time! I have also made some friends here who will
+    always be dear to me, and to whom I particularly attribute my
+    attachment to Rome.
+
+    From an artistic point of view I am quite glad to leave Rome,
+    which I, _for a beginner_, regard as the grave of art. A young
+    man needs before all things the emulation of his
+    contemporaries; this I lack here in the highest degree; also
+    here I cannot learn my _trade_, and, notwithstanding
+    Cornelius, I am of opinion that the spirit cannot work
+    effectively until the hand has attained complete pliancy, and
+    I cannot see what right a painter has to evade the
+    difficulties of painting; Cornelius always says, "Take care
+    that the hand does not become master of the spirit," and that
+    sounds well enough; however, I see that, in consequence of his
+    scheme of development, he has not once succeeded in painting a
+    head reasonably, not once in modelling as the _form_ requires;
+    and that, with all his magnificent talent! Judge the tree by
+    the fruit. How are the frescoes of Raphael painted and
+    modelled? and the Sixtine Chapel! the lower part of the "Day
+    of Judgment" is in a high degree _colouristic_
+    (_Koloristisch_). _Those_ people took nature straight from
+    God, and were not ashamed; therefore their art was no
+    galvanised mummy.
+
+    I must close. Please remember me most kindly to your wife, and
+    to my other friends. For yourself, keep in remembrance, your
+    grateful and affectionate pupil,
+
+                                                  FRED. LEIGHTON.
+
+Steinle answers:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                FRANKFURT AM MAIN, _May 6, 1855_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Hearty thanks for your friendly note of
+    April. The photograph of your picture quite pleases me as it
+    is, and if I am particularly pleased with the details, that is
+    to cast no discredit on the whole; for a general criticism the
+    photograph does not give me sufficient certainty, and I must
+    content myself, this time, with expressing the pleasure your
+    always well-composed pictures give me. You know your picture,
+    and can see more in the photograph than I. What you say about
+    Overbeck, Cornelius, and Rome, I understand well, and I am in
+    sympathy with much of it; but I am almost beginning to fear
+    you, especially as I particularly feel how much I myself am
+    wanting in ground-work, how much I myself belong to the same
+    evolution as these two men. Custom, circumstances, and the
+    tendencies of the times, are often mitigating facts in our
+    judgment of these painters; they have fought against things of
+    which we no longer know anything, and, as participators in
+    their art, we stand, to a certain extent, shoulder to shoulder
+    with them; their delicacies are proofs of their struggle, and
+    the characteristic of youth becomes in old age principally a
+    sign of weakness. Also experience has taught me not to let
+    myself be deceived by what is called "cliquiness," I grant you
+    that this is not an infallible judgment, which is often to be
+    regretted, but people nowadays are weak, and I have found that
+    cliques often have a greater tendency for good than those
+    judgments which make more noise, a greater outcry than the
+    fact warrants. Overbeck has always withdrawn himself too much;
+    but now, dear friend, you must attack him on the subject
+    before you leave Rome. Kindest regards to Gamba, to whom I
+    wish a happy completion of his picture. My wife sends best
+    greetings. Always and altogether yours,
+
+                                                    EDW. STEINLE.
+
+We have read in Leighton's letters the effect the "Cimabue's Madonna"
+produced on his friends in Rome, and how it was nailed up as "in a
+coffin" and despatched from the Eternal City, where it was destined
+never to return.
+
+    [Illustration: "CIMABUE'S 'MADONNA' CARRIED IN PROCESSION
+    THROUGH THE STREETS OF FLORENCE." 1855
+    By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+There exists a small long envelope edged with black, stained horny
+yellow by time, the head of Queen Victoria on the postage stamp. It
+was despatched from England to Rome over fifty years ago. In the
+ardent spirit of the young artist who had been eagerly awaiting
+tidings of his first great venture, what a tumult of excitement must
+the contents of that small envelope have aroused! They brought with
+them a conclusive and triumphal end to all arguments with his father
+concerning the career Leighton had chosen; they realised the sanguine
+hopes of his beloved master, Steinle, and of his other friends; last
+not least, they gave him the means and the great happiness of helping
+his fellow-artists. To quote again from the record of one who was with
+him in Rome at the time: "My husband[35] remembers the departure of
+his picture 'The Triumph of Cimabue,' sent with diffidence, and so,
+proportionate was the joy when news came of its success, and that the
+Queen had bought it. It was the month of May. Rome was at its
+loveliest, and Leighton's friends and brother-artists gave him a
+festal dinner to celebrate his honours. On receiving the news,
+Leighton's first act was to fly to three less successful artists and
+buy a picture from each of them. (George Mason, then still unknown,
+was one.) And so Leighton reflected his own happiness at once on
+others."
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                            ROME, 123 VIA FELICE,
+                                                  _May 18, 1855_.
+
+    DEAR AND HONOURED FRIEND,--As with everything that I receive
+    from you, I was delighted to get your dear lines of the 6th;
+    one thing only in them grieved me a little, _i.e._ that what I
+    said about the German historical painters here seems to have
+    rather jarred upon you. Was I then so intolerant in my
+    expressions? I hope not. You say that you are almost afraid of
+    me. When I spoke to you so freely of the others, was that not
+    a plain proof of how completely I except you? You assuredly
+    know, dear Master, how and what I think of you, and that I
+    ascribe entirely to you my whole aesthetic culture in art. Your
+    commission to good old Overbeck I have executed as well as I
+    could. I found him much more cheerful and less ailing than
+    before. He received me with the greatest amiability; we spoke,
+    amongst other things, of you, and I perceived that he had it
+    in his mind to go soon to Germany and to spend a couple of
+    weeks in Mainz; I should like to be the first to give you this
+    good news.
+
+    As for myself, dear Friend, my plans are once more quite
+    upset. My father has hastily recalled me to England, and I am
+    sorry to say that I must consequently give up going to
+    Frankfurt. However, I have not neglected your commission. I
+    have chosen the photographs, and you will receive them in the
+    beginning of next month, and that by a friend of mine who will
+    be passing through Frankfurt, and whom I hereby introduce to
+    you. Mrs. Sartoris is my dearest friend, and the noblest,
+    cleverest woman I have ever met; I need not say more to secure
+    her a cordial welcome from you. She is one of the celebrated
+    theatrical family of Kemble. It is now ten or eleven years
+    since she left the stage, but she is still the greatest living
+    cantatrice.[36]
+
+    You will certainly be glad to hear that on the first day of
+    the Exhibition my picture was bought by the Queen.
+
+    I am at this moment in the thick of packing; you must excuse,
+    dear Friend, my ending so abruptly. I will write again from
+    England.--Your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    [Illustration: Reproduction of Letter written by Sir Charles
+    Eastlake, P.R.A., to Lord Leighton, announcing the fact that
+    Queen Victoria had purchased his picture, "Cimabue's Madonna."
+    1855.]
+
+So ended the first page of Leighton's life as an artist in the Rome of
+the fifties--a very different Rome to that of the present. The
+atmosphere was still steeped in those days with a flavour belonging to
+the Papal temporal dominion, and the visible life still picturesque
+with the costumes and grandeur of mediaeval customs.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[20] See page 83.
+
+[21] Page 97.
+
+[22] Page 26, "Introduction."
+
+[23] "If the Almighty were to come before me, with absolute knowledge
+in his right hand, and perpetual striving after truth in his left, I
+would fling myself to his left, praying: Father, give! pure truth is
+thine alone."
+
+[24] "The Well-Head" (see List of Illustrations), drawn during
+Leighton's visit to Venice, and described in "Pebbles," more than
+justifies this opinion, for it may be questioned whether any other
+drawing he ever made of the kind is as perfectly beautiful.
+
+[25] Miss Laing, afterwards Lady Nias.
+
+[26] See Appendix. Presidential Address delivered by Sir F. Leighton,
+Bart., P.R.A., at the Art Congress, held at Liverpool, December 3,
+1888.
+
+[27] This modest attitude Leighton took as listener reminds me of the
+last time he saw Browning. One afternoon in the autumn of 1888, we were
+sitting with Leighton and Browning in the Kensington studio. Browning
+showed us photographs of the Palazzo Rezzonico which he had lately
+given to his son. The subject turned to a discussion on Byron and
+Shelley. Often as I had heard Browning talk well, I never heard him
+converse so well as he did on that afternoon. It was no monologue. It
+was real conversation, and of the kind that inspires others to do also
+their best; but Leighton never uttered, till--when, after an hour or
+so, we rose to leave--he exclaimed, "Oh, don't! _do_ go on," and we had
+to sit down again. When at last the good thing came to an end, Leighton
+conducted us downstairs to his door, where we parted. Browning waved a
+farewell from across the road, where he stood for a moment in front of
+the little cottages, while Leighton stood in the porch-way of his
+house. The next day Browning started on his last journey to Italy--to
+die in the Palazzo Rezzonico.
+
+[28] Another old friend of Leighton's, Mr. Hamilton Aide, writes: "My
+journal 1854-55-56 contains frequent notices of our excursions and long
+days spent on the Campagna, and on the hill-sides near the Bagni di
+Lucca, where we took out food for mind and will as well as for the
+body, and sketched while one of our party read aloud--and also of many
+Tableaux at Rome, devised by him (Leighton) to suit the colouring,
+character, and grace of certain noble ladies."
+
+[29] It appears that Leighton had been misinformed as to "every girl"
+having to pass such an examination.
+
+[30] In Italien auf meiner Wanderschaft
+     Hab' ich dies Bueblein aufgerafft
+     Hab's mit dem Pinsel so hingeschrieben
+     Ist mir leider unvollendet geblieben.
+
+[31] The Cafe Greco still exists, unaltered since the days when
+Leighton and Gamba lunched there every day on _macaroni al burro_. I
+visited it last May (1906), and heard from the present proprietor that
+it continues to be frequented by artists of all countries. He had heard
+of the book of sketches, and also that Rafaello had sold it before his
+death, but to whom the _Padrone_ could not say.
+
+[32] Of Cervara there is a pencil drawing by Leighton in the Leighton
+House Collection, in his earliest style, dated 1856.
+
+[33] Fanny Kemble's answer to these words of Leighton's were:--"Thank
+you, my dear Sir Frederic, for the address you have been so good as to
+give me. You honour me by remembering any conversation you ever had
+with me. I remember one I had with you many years ago, but do not think
+you refer to that. You say no word, and you do well, upon the subject
+that must be uppermost in both our minds when we meet or hold any
+intercourse with each other--our thoughts must be of the same
+complexion and could hardly find any expression. Thank you again for
+your kindness.--I am affectionately, your obliged,
+
+                                                   FANNY KEMBLE."
+
+[34] Ruskin wrote the following criticism of the picture when it was
+first exhibited: "This is a very important and very beautiful picture.
+It has both sincerity and grace, and is painted on the purest
+principles of Venetian art--that is to say, on the calm acceptance of
+the whole of nature, small and great, as, in its place, deserving of
+faithful rendering. The great secret of the Venetians was their
+simplicity. They were great colourists, not because they had peculiar
+secrets about oil and colour, but because when they saw a thing red
+they painted it red, and ... when they saw it distinctly they painted
+it distinctly. In all Paul Veronese's pictures the lace borders of the
+tablecloths or fringes of the dresses are painted with just as much
+care as the faces of the principal figures; and the reader may rest
+assured that in all great Art it is so. Everything in it is done as
+well as it can be done. Thus, in the picture before us, in the
+background is the Church of San Miniato, strictly accurate in every
+detail; on top of the wall are oleanders and pinks, as carefully
+painted as the church; the architecture of the shrine on the wall is
+studied from thirteenth-century Gothic, and painted with as much care
+as the pinks; the dresses of the figures, very beautifully designed,
+are painted with as much care as the faces; that is to say, all things
+throughout with as much care as the painter could bestow. It
+necessarily follows that what is most difficult (_i.e._ the faces)
+should be comparatively the worst done. But if they are done as well as
+the painter could do them, it is all we have to ask, and modern artists
+are under a wonderful mistake in thinking that when they have painted
+faces ill, they make their pictures more valuable by painting the
+dresses worse.
+
+"The painting before us has been objected to because it seems broken up
+in bits. Precisely the same objection would hold, and in very nearly
+the same degree, against the best works of the Venetians. All faithful
+colourists' work, in figure-painting, has a look of sharp separation
+between part and part.... Although, however, in common with all other
+work of its class, it is marked by these sharp divisions, there is no
+confusion in its arrangement. The principal figure is nobly principal,
+not by extraordinary light, but by its own pure whiteness; and both the
+master and the young Giotto attract full regard by distinction of form
+and face. The features of the boy are carefully studied, and are indeed
+what, from the existing portraits of him, we know those of Giotto must
+have been in his youth. The head of the young girl who wears the
+garland of blue flowers is also very sweetly conceived."
+
+D.G. Rossetti wrote to his friend, William Allingham, May 11, 1855:
+"There is a big picture of Cimabue, one of his works in procession, by
+a new man, living abroad, named Leighton--a huge thing, which the Queen
+has bought; which every one talks of. The R.A.'s have been gasping for
+years for some one to back against Hunt and Millais, and here they have
+him, a fact that makes some people do the picture injustice in return.
+It was very interesting to me at first sight; but on looking more at
+it, I think there is great richness of arrangement, a quality which,
+when really existing, as it does in the best old masters, and perhaps
+hitherto in no living man--at any rate English--ranks among the great
+qualities."
+
+[35] Sir John Leslie.
+
+[36] Mrs. Richmond Ritchie gives a very charming account of her first
+introduction in the Rome of those days to Leighton's friend, the great
+_cantatrice_, Mrs. Sartoris, in the preface to the edition of "A Week
+in a French Country House," published in 1902. Thackeray, Mrs.
+Ritchie's father, and Charles Kemble, Mrs. Sartoris' father, had been
+old friends. Mrs. Ritchie says: "The writer's first definite picture of
+her old friend (Mrs. Sartoris) remains as a sort of frontispiece to
+many aspects and remembrances. We were all standing in a big Roman
+drawing-room with a great window to the west, and the colours of the
+room were not unlike sunset colours. There was a long piano with a bowl
+of flowers on it in the centre of the room; there were soft carpets to
+tread upon; a beautiful little boy in a white dress, with yellow locks
+all a-shine from the light of the window, was perched upon a low chair
+looking up at his mother, who with her arm round him stood by the
+chair, so that their two heads were on a level. She was dressed (I can
+see her still) in a sort of grey satin robe, and her beautiful proud
+head was turned towards the child. She seemed pleased to see my father,
+who had brought us to be introduced to her, and she made us welcome,
+then, and all that winter, to her home. In that distant, vivid hour
+(there may be others as vivid now for a new generation) Rome was still
+a mediaeval city--monks in every shade of black and grey and brown were
+in the streets outside with their sandalled feet flapping on the
+pavement; cardinals passed in their great pantomime coaches, rolling on
+with accompaniment of shabby cocked-hats and liveries to clear a way;
+Americans were rare and much made of; English were paramount; at night
+oil-lamps swung in the darkness. Many of the ruins of the present were
+still in their graves peacefully hidden away for another generation to
+unearth; the new buildings, the streets, the gas lamps, the tramways
+were not. The Sartorises had fireplaces with huge logs burning; Mrs.
+Browning sat by her smouldering wood fire; but we in our lodging still
+had to light brazen pans of charcoal to warm ourselves if we shivered.
+At my request an old friend, who for our good fortune has kept a diary,
+opens one of his pretty vellum-bound note-books, and evokes an hour of
+those old Italian times from the summer following that Roman winter. He
+tells of a peaceful Sunday at Lucca, a place of which I have often
+heard Mrs. Sartoris speak with pleasure; Leighton and Hatty Hosmer and
+Hamilton Aide himself are there; they are all sitting peacefully
+together on some high terrace with a distant view of the spreading
+plains, while Mrs. Sartoris reads to them out of one of her favourite
+Dr. Channing's sermons. Another page tells of a party at Ostia. 'Very
+pleasant we made ourselves in a pine wood,' says the diarist; 'I walked
+by A.S.'s _chaise-a-porteur_ up the hills later in the evening. She
+talked of her past life and all its trials, and of her early youth.'
+Mrs. Ritchie in her preface also tells of this 'past life.'
+
+"The Rue de Clichy of which he (Thackeray) speaks was the street in
+which Miss Foster lived, under whose care both Fanny and Adelaide
+Kemble were placed, when they successively went to Paris. Then each in
+turn came out and made her mark, and each in turn married and left the
+stage for that world in which real tragedies and real comedies are
+still happening, and where men and women play their own parts
+instinctively and sing their own songs. Adelaide's short artistic
+career lasted from 1835 to 1842, long enough to impress all the
+subsequent years of her life. With all the welcoming success which was
+hers, there must have been many a moment of disillusion,
+discouragement, and suffering for a girl so original, so aristocratic
+in instinct, so quick of perception, so individual, '_De la boheme
+exquise_,' as some great lady once described her. The following page
+out of one of her early diaries gives a vivid picture of one side of
+her artistic life: '...Received an intimation that the company who are
+to act with me had arrived at Trieste, and would be here at eleven to
+rehearse the music. At twelve came Signor Carcano (the director of the
+music), and a dirty-looking little object, who turned out to be the
+prompter. After they had sat some time wondering what detained the
+rest, a little fusty woman, with a grey-coloured white petticoat
+dangling three inches below her gown, holding a thin shivering dog by a
+dirty pocket-handkerchief, and followed by a tall slip of a man, with
+his hair all down his back, and decorated with whiskers, beard, and
+mustachios, made her appearance. I advanced to welcome my Adalgisa, but
+without making any attempt at a return of my salutation, she glanced
+all round the room and merely said, "Come fa caldo qui! Non c'e nessuno
+ancora? Andiamo a prendere un caffe," and taking the arm of the hairy
+man retreated forthwith. Then came Signor Gallo, leader of the band,
+then the tenor, who could have gained the prize for unwashedness
+against 'em all--and after half-an-hour more waiting, Adalgisa and the
+hairy one returned, and after about half-an-hour more arrived my bass,
+and, God bless him, he came clean!
+
+"'We then went to work. Adalgisa could think of nothing but her dog, who
+kept up a continuous plaintive howl all the time we sang, which she
+assured me was because it liked the band accompaniment better than the
+piano, as it never made signs of disapprobation when she took it to
+rehearsals with the orchestra. She also informed me that it had five
+puppies, all of which it had nursed itself, as if Italian dogs were in
+the habit of hiring out wet nurses....'" And again--
+
+"I can remember her describing to us one of these performances, and her
+enjoyment of the long folds of drapery as she flew across the stage as
+Norma and how she added with a sudden flash, half humour, half
+enthusiasm: 'I have everything a woman could wish for, my friends and
+my home, my husband and my children, and yet sometimes a wild longing
+comes over me to be back, if only for one hour, on the stage again, and
+living once more as I did in those early adventurous times.' She was
+standing in a beautiful room in Park Place when she said this. There
+were high carved cabinets, and worked silken tapestries on the walls,
+and a great golden carved glass over her head--she herself in some
+velvet brocaded dress stood looking not unlike a picture by Tintoret."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+PENCIL DRAWINGS OF PLANTS AND FLOWERS
+
+1850-1860
+
+
+No attempt at an appreciation of Leighton's art would be complete were
+it not to include, and even accentuate, the distinct value of the
+exquisite drawings of flowers and leaves which he made in pencil and
+silver point between the years 1852 and 1860.[37] As regards certain
+all-important qualities these studies are unrivalled. I was well
+acquainted with the drawings Leighton made for his pictures during the
+last twenty-five years of his life, and I had oftentimes heard Watts
+express an unbounded admiration for these; but when, looking through
+the portfolios of early drawings after Leighton's death, I came upon
+these exquisite fragments in pencil, it seemed that I had found for
+the first time the real key to the inner chamber of his genius. As
+reproductions of the beauty in line, form, and structure--the
+architecture, so to speak, of vegetation--nothing ever came closer to
+Nature revealed by a human touch through a treatment on a flat
+surface.
+
+On December 22, 1852, Leighton writes to his mother from Rome: "I long
+to find myself again face to face with Nature, to follow it, to watch
+it, and to copy it, closely, faithfully, ingenuously--as Ruskin
+suggests, 'choosing nothing and rejecting nothing,'" and it is in this
+spirit that he set to work when he filled sketch-books with exquisite
+studies of the flowers and plants he loved best. These records of the
+joy with which Nature filled his artistic temperament are to some more
+truly sympathetic than his elaborate work, for the reason that, while
+enjoying their beauty, we come in contact with the pure spirit of
+Leighton's genius unalloyed by any sense of intellectual effort. In
+his diary, "Pebbles," on August 21, 1852, Leighton writes: "Of the
+Tyrolese themselves, three qualities seem to me to characterise them,
+qualities which go well hand in hand with, and, I think it is not
+fanciful to say, are in great measure a key to, their well-known
+frankness and open-hearted honesty. I mean Piety, which shines out
+amongst them in many true things, a love for the art, which with them
+is, in fact, an outward manifestation of piety, and which is
+sufficiently displayed by the numberless scriptural subjects, painted
+or in relief, which adorn the cottages of the poorest peasants ... and
+last, not least, a love for flowers (in other words, for Nature),
+which is written in the lovely clusters of flowers which stand in
+many-hued array on the window-sills of every dwelling. The works of
+all the really great artists display that love for flowers. Raphael
+did not consider it "niggling," as some of our broad-handling moderns
+would call it, to group humble daisies round the feet of his divine
+representation of the Mother of Christ. I notice that _two plants_,
+especially, produce a beautiful effect, both of form and colour,
+against the cool grey walls; the spreading, dropping, graceful
+_carnation_, with its bluish leaves and crimson flowers, and the
+slender, anthered, thousand-blossomed _oleander_." No exact name has
+ever been given to the special creed of the artist's religion; to that
+condition of the soul which Socrates in Plato's _Phaedrus_ declares has
+come to the birth as having seen most of truth together with that of
+the Philosopher, the Musician, and the Lover. The artist penetrates
+further than others can, into the mysteries of Nature's marvels as
+revealed through the eye, and he therefore comes in closer union
+through the sense of sight with the spirit of the artist of the
+infinite, and can gauge better the immeasurable distance which exists
+between Divine and human creation, and this is felt more distinctly,
+more reverently, when the artist simply copies Nature than when his
+own daemon is taking a part in the inspiring of his inventions.
+
+Leighton writes to his mother when he first reaches Rome in 1852: "I
+wish that I had a mind, simple and unconscious, even as a child"; and
+we find the evidence in these studies by Leighton of plants and
+flowers that his wish, for the time when he was drawing them, was
+granted; no intellectual choice nor assumption of scholarly theories
+have taken part in their achievement; they are spontaneous echoes of
+Divine creations when he was "face to face with Nature," and there is
+no reflection of any teaching but hers. Nature and her child have been
+alone together. The results are unalloyed expressions of the joy he
+felt in pure impersonal revelations of beauty. They are distinguished
+because elemental, recording the birth of the ingenuous response of a
+human spirit to a superhuman perfection of workmanship. When in such
+union of spirit with Nature, the artist-soul enters his most sacred
+shrine. An ecstatic joy is kindled by wonder, admiration, adoration,
+from which joy is inspired a peremptory impulse to endeavour to
+reproduce in his human handicraft the marvels of creation. Such
+experiences result from instinctive inevitable conditions, and, coming
+from the illumination of genius, belong to a higher level than that on
+which the intellect works;[38] no temptations of the personal daemon
+simmer behind and distort the pure vision of Nature, provoking
+suggestions which are human of the human--the desire to excel, the
+ambition to be first, the love to display individuality. That inner
+life, the very core and most vital meaning of Leighton's being, the
+life that held revelry with all Nature's beauty, had been enraptured
+through the pure innocent loveliness in the flowers. Take, for
+instance, the page where he has _explained_ the cyclamen he found at
+Tivoli in October 1856, and take a cyclamen, the real flower, and
+dissect it. What precious work we find: the ribbed calyx spreading out
+from the satin sheen of the stalk to clasp the bulbous swelling at the
+root of the petals--brilliant like finest blown glass, each calyx
+fringed round with emerald green flutings--inside straw colour dashed
+with brown speckles, all this triumph of minute finish just to start
+the sail-like petals of the flower itself. What reverence and
+enthusiasm was excited in Leighton as he pored over such things is
+vouched for by this page (and others similar of different flowers),
+exquisite portraits of every view of the cyclamen; faint notes in
+writing recording the colours which his pencil failed to do.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDIES OF CYCLAMEN. Tivoli, October 1856
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: WREATH OF BAY LEAVES.
+    Drawn at the Bagni di Lucca, 1854. Leighton House Collection]
+
+Referring to his journey through the Tyrol, in 1852, Leighton writes:
+"I had been dwelling with unwearied admiration on the exquisite grace
+and beauty of the details, as it were, of Nature; every little flower
+of the field had become to me a new source of delight; the very blades
+of grass appeared to me in a new light."
+
+Not only his artistic temperament, but also circumstances, had guided
+Leighton's instincts into the worship of beauty--beauty such as can be
+conceived alone by the artistic temperament--as the divinest element
+in creation and one to be reverenced beyond all others; and when "face
+to face" with Nature, having no desire but to record that reverence
+and worship "ingenuously," he made these incomparable drawings. They
+were done solely for the sake of the joy he felt in doing them, and
+Leighton certainly never expected any recognition of their beauty by a
+future generation. Stray leaves from a sketch-book have been collected
+and preserved in the Leighton House Collection, having been extracted
+from a mass of old dusty papers. On these pages are exquisite
+pencilled outlines of cyclamen, of a crocus, of oleander flowers, of a
+bramble branch, of sprays of bay and of plants of the agaves. They are
+dated the year after Leighton's great success, 1856, the year of his
+failure. In 1854, when he spent the summer at the Bagni di Lucca, he
+drew studies of bay-leaves twined into a wreath and festoons of the
+vine (see List of Illustrations and design on cover). Three days after
+Leighton's death, in a letter to _The Times_ from one who knew him, a
+reference was made to this visit to Lucca.[39] This old acquaintance,
+who was then seeing him daily for three months, writes, "He was the
+most brilliant man I ever met." It was this brilliant entity, this
+attractive personality, who spent hours over drawing the flower of a
+pumpkin and of a "_faded pumpkin_." Professor Aitchison records how he
+found Leighton at work over this drawing.[40] The celebrated "Lemon
+Tree," to which Professor Aitchison refers, and of which Ruskin also
+writes,[41] though the most renowned of Leighton's drawings of plants,
+and doubtless a _tour de force_,--a wonderful achievement,--has not, I
+think, the same perfection of charm which many of the earlier, less
+complete studies possess.[42] The sketch of a portion of a deciduous
+tree[43] is perhaps a greater triumph in draughtsmanship than even the
+"Lemon Tree," because the foliage has a frailer and less definite
+aspect, and is yet reproduced with an absolute certainty of outline.
+The "Lemon Tree," drawn at Capri in 1859, was done for a purpose.
+Leighton had a feeling that the pre-Raphaelites ought not to have it
+all their own way on the score of elaborate finish and perfection in
+the drawing of detail. My first introduction to the "Lemon Tree" was
+on an occasion when Leighton and I had had an argument respecting the
+principles of the pre-Raphaelite school. He fetched the drawing from a
+corner in his studio, and, while showing it to me, said words to the
+effect that it was not only the pre-Raphaelites who reverenced the
+detail in Nature, and who thought it worth the time and labour it took
+to record the beauty in the wonderful minutiae of her structure. If
+sufficient pains were taken, any one, he maintained, who could draw at
+all ought to be able to draw the complete detail of every object set
+before him. But, for the very reason that the "Lemon Tree" was done
+with a further purpose than the mere joy the beauty of Nature excited
+in Leighton's aesthetic senses, there is not, I think, quite the same
+convincing charm in this drawing as in some other more fragmentary
+studies.
+
+In considering this early work by Leighton, it should be borne in
+mind, that in those years when it was executed, photography had not
+yet given the standard of a finish and perfection in actual
+delineation which outrivals every record made by human hand and eye.
+Photography has, in these later years, given the proportion and detail
+in beautiful architecture, the form of trees, plants, and flowers,
+their exquisite delicacy of structure, their grace and intricacy of
+line: all this has been secured and pictured for us by the camera;
+and, up to a certain point, very precious and truthful are these
+memoranda of the aspects of nature and art. Many of us remember the
+days when enthusiastic disciples of the wonderful new art of
+photography prophesied that no other would soon be needed, and that
+the draughtsman's craft would before long cease to exist. And further,
+they maintained it only required the discovery of a means to
+photograph colour for the painter's art also to be demolished.
+Artists, however, knew better. What was valuable in the records of
+photography, and what was of most intrinsic worth in the records
+created through means of the human hand and eye, were absolutely
+incomparable quantities. The treatment of nature in a photographic
+picture, however admirable and complete, must always be lacking in the
+evidence of any preference, reverence, or enthusiasm--in the sacred
+fire, in fact, which inspires the draughtsman's pencil and the
+painter's brush. Photography is indiscriminate; human art is
+selective, and is precious as it evinces and secures a choiceness in
+selection. However truthfully a photograph may record beauty of line
+and form in nature, it inevitably also records in its want of
+discrimination any facts which may exist in the view photographed;
+these counter-balance the effect of such beauty, and mar the subtle
+impression of charm which scenes in nature produce on a mind sensitive
+to beauty.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF LEMON TREE. Capri, 1859
+    By permission of Mr. S. Pepys Cockerell]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF DECIDUOUS TREE.
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+As the vision of the artist which attracts this feeling for beauty
+focalises itself in the sight, he naturally perceives but vaguely any
+other objects before him; therefore, the facts inspired by such
+preference become accentuated, and all their surroundings subordinated
+to it. For this reason, also, what is called, somewhat erroneously,
+the sculptor's sense of line and form--the sense applying equally to
+the treatment of line and form on a flat surface as in the round--is
+not so obvious in a photograph as in a good drawing. The eye of one
+possessing a gift for drawing transmits to the brain the structure of
+an object, not only as it is outlined against other objects, but also
+as the different planes of which it is formed recede or advance, slant
+one way or another, curve or straighten. To a truly gifted
+draughtsman, such as Leighton, there is an absorbing interest in
+working out the forms of the objects he sees which delight his sense
+of beauty,--of guiding his pencil so that it echoes on the paper the
+gratification with which his senses are inspired through his artistic
+perceptions. The result will be--that the drawing he produces almost
+unconsciously accentuates what has delighted him most in the objects
+he is depicting, and, explaining further than does even an actual copy
+by photography the element of beauty which has inspired him, carries
+with it also an inspiring effect on the spectator: the drawing will
+have something in it which affects us as a living influence, an
+influence which the most perfect of photographs can never possess. The
+actual perspective may be absolutely correct in the photograph--so may
+be the placing on the paper of every turn and twist in a bough or a
+leaf as regards their outlines; but compared to a beautiful drawing we
+feel the want of mind behind it: no human sense has revelled in the
+intricacies of growth and foreshortening, no human eye has traced the
+exquisite grace and sweep of the curve and the happy spring of the
+shoot alive with uprising sap. Just that accentuation which
+unwittingly creeps into the human touch, denoting that the
+construction of the form has been perceived and appreciated with
+delight, is lacking. The line of a pathway rising up on the sweep of
+an upland, a line which is always so fascinatingly suggestive, does
+not lead you farther over the hill in a photograph as it does in a
+little woodcut by William Blake. Just that push and movement is
+wanting in the sense of the line which in a really fine drawing gives
+it a living quality. Another shortcoming is caused by the inevitable
+flattening of tone in a photograph. The brightest light does not
+detach itself, the darkest spot, to some degree always, even in the
+best print, is merged in the general shadow.
+
+    [Illustration: EARLY STUDIES OF KALMIA, OLEANDER, AND
+    RHODODENDRON FLOWERS
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+The idea that photography could supersede the art of the draughtsman
+soon exploded. Artists have used photography--some intelligently, as
+did Watts--many unintelligently. The illegitimate use of photography,
+the endeavour to make the lens do the work which alone the human eye
+and hand can effect, was seen in lifeless portraits, painted partly
+from the sitter, partly from a photograph. It is natural that any
+genuine artist should rebel against such cheapening of his art; and
+the deadening effects of relying on photography "to help you out" have
+brought about the result that the qualities in art which are furthest
+removed from those which it has in common with photography have been
+forced to the front, and the grammar of drawing, the groundwork of
+nature's structures which the human hand and the photographic lens can
+both record, has ceased to be considered as all-important. In
+Leighton's work this grammar was in itself developed into a fine art.
+By comparing any sketch he made of a leaf or of a flower with a
+photograph of the same, this will be evident to any eye that can
+appreciate grace and quality in drawing.
+
+The latest phase of using photography to help out the drawing is found
+in some modern illustrations where the lens has found the outline, the
+right placing of the scene on the paper, the right proportion and
+perspective in buildings, and the general light and shade of the scene
+for the illustrator--the human hand only coming in to give breadth of
+effect, to undo the tell-tale finish of the photograph, and to make it
+into what is called "a picture" on the lines of a Turner or a
+Whistler.
+
+All these were unknown ways in Leighton's youth, and to the end of his
+life he could make no use whatever of photography in his work. He took
+a kodak with him once on his travels, but the results were amusingly
+negative. "From the moment an artist relies on photography he does no
+good," was a statement I heard him make. Leighton believed in no short
+cuts. Enthusiasm, labour, sacrifice, renouncement,--these, and these
+alone, he maintained, can secure for the artist a worthy success.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF A FADED FLOWER OF PUMPKIN. Rome, 1854
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF FLOWER OF A PUMPKIN. Meran, 1856
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDIES OF BRANCHES OF VINE. Bagni di Lucca, 1854
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: BRANCH OF VINE. Bellosquardo, Florence, 1856
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+There are those who would define genius by describing it as the
+faculty for taking infinite pains. But obviously genius is in itself a
+power, born of inspiration, which so completely overmasters all other
+conditions in a nature, that no labour nor time is taken into account
+so long as the impelling force obtains utterance. The inborn
+conviction in a nature that it has the power to create, demolishes all
+impediments which come in the way to hinder this power from stamping
+itself into a form. The necessity of taking infinite pains is but the
+natural and inevitable consequence of the burning desire born, who
+knows how? in the spirit of those who are blessed with genius, and the
+faculty to discern how best to develop it. Leighton, by reason,
+perhaps, of the very spontaneity of his own gifts, and also of his
+extreme natural modesty, allied to the conscientiousness with which he
+carried out his feeling of duty towards his vocation, was apt to lay
+more stress on the necessity for taking pains than on the necessity of
+possessing the real source of his power of industry. He saw too often
+the fatal results of artists depending on talent to achieve what only
+talent allied to industry can perform, for him not to accentuate the
+all-importance of unceasing labour. He wrote to his elder sister with
+reference to one of these fatal results: "I have not seen that young
+man's recent work, neither do I hunger and thirst thereafter;
+twenty-one years ago, or more, his parents brought me a composition of
+his--it justified the highest hopes--it was very ambitious in its
+scope (though the work of a child), and the ambition was justified
+in the ability it displayed. Nothing that I could have done at his age
+approached it. I told his parents so. He ought now to have been a very
+considerable artist, to say the least--he no longer even _aims_! He
+told me a year or two ago that he had _ceased to design_! He paints
+portraits, and twists a little moustache under an eyeglass. He is
+_nothing_, as far as the world knows, and I doubt whether he is hiding
+himself under a bushel. I fear vanity and idleness have rotted out his
+talents. It is a strange and a sad case. I often quote it (without
+names) to those who show precocious gifts." His attached friend and
+fellow-Academician, Mr. Briton Riviere, writes of Leighton:--
+
+"I have always believed that his ruling passion was Duty--the keenest
+possible sense of it; to do anything he had to do as perfectly as
+possible, and to be always at his best. He was evidently a believer in
+Goethe's maxim that 'an artist who does anything, does all.' In his
+own work, in what concerned his colleagues and the outside body of
+artists, in fact in everything he did. Nothing easily or passively
+done satisfied him; but in every case the decision and action were
+brought by care and work--if possible, executed by himself; and no
+pressure of time or labour ever made him escape such personal trouble,
+or caused him to transfer it to the shoulders of another. This temper
+of mind was shown even in small matters, which so busy a man might
+well have left for others to do. I think it sometimes injured his own
+work as an artist, because, though a great artist can never be evolved
+except by years of patient work and strenuous effort to do his very
+best always, yet, on the other hand, it is often the happy, easy work
+and absolutely spontaneous effort at the moment by such a hand which
+is his very best. Such happy, easy work probably Leighton would seldom
+allow himself to do, and never would leave at the right moment, but
+would still strive to make better and more complete. He must still
+elaborate it and try to make it more perfect; and this it was which
+made his old friend and enthusiastic admirer, Watts, sometimes say
+"how much finer Leighton's work would be if he would admit the
+accidental into it."
+
+I remember once casually remarking to Leighton how much easier writing
+was than painting. He answered quickly but seriously--quite
+impressively: "Believe me, nothing is easy if it is done as well as
+you can possibly do it." This was Leighton's creed of creeds. Whatever
+genius or facilities an artist may possess, he must ignore them as
+factors in the fight. He must possess them unconsciously--the whole
+conscious effort being concentrated on surmounting difficulties, not
+on encouraging facilities.
+
+To return to the subject of this chapter. It would be obviously
+unreasonable to attempt to compare slight studies of plants and
+flowers, however precious, with finished important works of art such
+as "Cimabue's Madonna," "A Syracusan Bride," "Daphnephoria," "Captive
+Andromache," "The Return of Persephone," or, in fact, with any of
+Leighton's well-known paintings--or indeed with those masterly studies
+of the figure and draperies in black and white chalk, drawn for his
+pictures, or when he was seized with the beauty of an attitude while
+his model was resting. These, though executed in a few seconds, are
+true and subtle records of the perfection in the form and structure of
+the human figure, proving the existence of a knowledge and of a sense
+of beauty which Watts declared were unrivalled since the days of
+Pheidias. The later masterly studies of landscape in oil-colour which
+formerly lined the walls of his Kensington studio, in which can be so
+truly discerned the distinctive colouring and atmosphere of the
+various countries where they were painted, also are greater as
+achievements than the pencil drawings. Nevertheless, when studying
+Leighton's genius with a view to gauge rightly its power and also its
+limitations, it is, I maintain, essential to take into account these
+direct studies from Nature, made with the object solely of following,
+watching, and copying her faithfully, ingenuously, "choosing nothing
+and rejecting nothing," but into which crept unconsciously the
+undeniable evidence of his native gifts. As proofs of spontaneous
+power in the quality of his genius, they refute much unjust criticism
+which has been hurled at Leighton's art since his death. Sir William
+Richmond wrote[44]:--
+
+"That term of abuse and of contempt, trite now, on account of the
+mannerism of its constant adoption by ephemeral critics, and sometimes
+adopted by poorly equipped artists, 'academic,' has been most
+unjustly, in its derogatory sense, applied to Leighton's art.
+
+"In point of fact, it is academic, but only in the good sense of being
+highly educated, very scientific, and restrained. And in that sense it
+is a pity that there is not more of such academic art. The bad sense,
+wherein such criticism is applicable, being justly advanced towards
+work that displays no inspiration, no originality, that is correct and
+commonplace, balanced without enthusiasm, adequate without reason, and
+accurate without good taste in the choice of beautiful and expressive
+gestures, forms, and colours, and is preoccupied and narrow."
+
+It is probably the restraint, the science, the high education in
+Leighton's finished pictures which have provoked unsympathetic critics
+to endeavour to demolish Leighton's reputation as a great artist. To
+these, such qualities would seem to deny the existence of any
+sensitiveness, any spontaneity in his art. They have asserted that it
+is cold, dry--academic. For the reason that science, calculated
+effects, style, and high education--qualities rarely found in modern
+English art--are evident in Leighton's pictures, they conclude that
+the painter is possessed of no intuitive genius. They take essentially
+a British, a non-cosmopolitan standpoint from which to preach. They do
+not take into account the standard towards which Leighton was ever
+aiming. He may not have attained the goal towards which he worked, but
+the nature of that goal should be understood and recognised before any
+criticism on his work can pass as intelligent and just; and these
+exquisite drawings of flowers and plants come to our aid in confuting
+sterile estimates of Leighton's art, which deny any other elements but
+those which can be acquired by painstaking and teachable qualities.
+Here are records of Nature complicated by no intellectual choice, no
+academic learning, no results of high education; and what is the
+result? an undeniable evidence of the finest, most tender
+sensitiveness for beauty, resulting in a complete and perfect
+rendering of the subtlest forms of growth. When "face to face" with
+Nature, Leighton's aesthetic emotions were keen enough and
+all-sufficient to create these perfect records, as later in his life
+he created unrivalled drawings of the human figure in even more
+spontaneous and certainly more rapid strokes of his pencil, and
+landscape sketches which prove undeniably his gifts as a colourist;
+but it may be questioned whether his aesthetic emotions had as great a
+_staying_ power as those qualities of heart and brain which made
+Leighton a great man, independent of the position he held as a great
+artist. His sensibilities were of the keenest; the agility and
+vitality of his brain power were quite abnormal. As Watts wrote, a
+"magnificent intellectual capacity, and an unerring and instantaneous
+spring upon the point to unravel." It seemed, however, that this
+vitality and agility did at times run away with that more abiding
+strength of aesthetic emotion which impregnates the very greatest art
+with a serenity, a sublime atmosphere,--an emotion which denotes a
+mood in which the artist has been steeped throughout the creation of a
+work, from the first moment he conceives it to the moment when he puts
+the last touch to the canvas, and affects the actual manipulation of
+the pigment. The above criticism applies only justly to certain of
+Leighton's works. In many of his paintings the poetic motive which
+inspired their invention,--their mental atmosphere,--governs the
+achievements throughout, though doubtless these works also would have
+had a more convincing effect as art had the surface possessed a more
+vibrating quality. Among those pictures in which form, colour, tone,
+and expression are completely dominated by their poetic meaning are
+"Lieder ohne Worte," a lovely, though youthful, work; "David;"
+"Ariadne," a picture little known, but in some respects perhaps the
+most poetic Leighton ever painted; "Summer Moon" (Watts' favourite
+Leighton), "Elisha Raising the Son of the Shunammite," "Winding the
+Skein," "Music Lesson," "Antique Juggling Girl," "Daedalus and Icarus,"
+"Helios and Rhodos," "Golden Hours," "Cymon and Iphigenia," "The
+Spirit of the Summit," "Flaming June," "Clytie" (unfinished).
+
+    [Illustration: "ARIADNE ABANDONED BY THESEUS; WATCHES FOR HIS
+    RETURN. ARTEMIS RELEASES HER BY DEATH." 1868
+    By permission of Lord Pirrie]
+
+    [Illustration: "ELISHA RAISING THE SON OF THE SHUNAMMITE." 1881]
+
+    [Illustration: "DAEDALUS AND ICARUS." 1869
+    By permission of Sir Alexander Henderson]
+
+No aspect of his own work was a secret from Leighton. No one knew
+better than he did his own limitations, or why it was necessary to
+keep himself in hand by methods of procedure in his painting which he
+could guide by his ever present intellectual acumen. He wrote to his
+father on March 2, 1855, having just completed the two pictures,
+"Cimabue's Madonna" and "Romeo": "You ask for _my_ opinion of my
+pictures; you couldn't ask a more embarrassing and unsatisfactory
+question; I think, indeed, that they are very creditable works for my
+age, but I am anything but satisfied with them, and believe that I
+could paint both of them better now. I am particularly anxious that
+persons whom I love or esteem should think neither more nor less of
+my artistic capacity than I deserve--_the plain truth_; I am therefore
+very circumspect in passing a verdict on myself in addressing myself
+to such persons; I think, however, you may expect me to become
+eventually the best draughtsman in my country."
+
+A biographer's obvious moral duty is to aim at presenting impartially
+"the plain truth," following Leighton's lead in not desiring to give
+either a more or less favourable view of his capacities as an artist
+than they deserve. On May 7, 1864, Leighton writes in a letter to his
+father and 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.'" Leighton remained ever far from being contented with his own
+work. "I alone know how far I have fallen short of my ideal," he says,
+many years later, to the old acquaintance of the Lucca days. He had
+studied under the shadow of the great masters; and though never an
+imitator even of the greatest,[45] he had set himself a standard of
+supreme excellence, more easily approached under the conditions in
+which artists worked in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth
+centuries than it possibly could be in those of the nineteenth. With
+respect to his power of draughtsmanship and his natural sense of
+beauty, Leighton knew his place was among the greatest. His
+appreciation and love of colour were also far keener than those
+possessed by the average artist. He felt nevertheless that he lacked
+the inevitable and continuous force which alone gives "_enormous
+power_" and ease to the craftsman, when he deals with work on a large
+scale, and which carries with it the absolutely convincing effect of
+the world-renowned art of the past. Realising that the "enormous
+power" was not there because the ever conclusively propelling force
+was lacking, perhaps owing partly to the want of robust health, and
+also doubtless from the scattering of his powers in many directions to
+which he was drawn by a sense of duty, Leighton, in working out the
+designs of his large pictures, clung all the more resolutely to the
+exercise of that system which he had adopted, and which many of his
+friends--Watts and Briton Riviere among the number--thought tended to
+cramp his genius. He was not sufficiently sure of himself to admit the
+"accidental" into his work.
+
+    [Illustration: "CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE." 1888
+    The Corporation of Manchester]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "CAPTIVE ANDROMACHE." 1888
+    By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson]
+
+    [Illustration: "WEAVING THE WREATH." 1873]
+
+    [Illustration: "WINDING THE SKEIN." 1880
+    By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+    [Illustration: "MUSIC LESSON." 1877
+    By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the
+    Copyright]
+
+Some critics have, however, gone beyond the mark in emphasising this
+characteristic of Leighton's methods. One writes: "Deliberateness of
+workmanship and calculation of effect, into which inspiration of the
+moment is never allowed to enter, are the chief characteristics of the
+painter's craftsmanship. The inspiration stage was practically passed
+when he took the crayon in his hand; and to this circumstance probably
+is to be assigned the absence of realism which arrests the attention."
+This statement is contrary to many which I have heard fall from
+Leighton's own lips. He constantly drew my attention to the fact--a
+fact on which he laid great stress, and of which many models were
+witnesses--that he _invariably_ recurred to Nature in the later stages
+of his pictures, in order to imbibe renewed inspiration from the source
+of all his aesthetic emotions--Nature. Any one who carefully studies
+Leighton's pictures will find evidence of this in the works themselves,
+in the accessories no less than in the principal figures. During the
+exhibition of some thirty of Leighton's finest paintings at Leighton
+House in 1900, I was daily more and more impressed by the fact that
+the final touches in those pictures had been inspired by the actual
+subtlety of Nature's aspects, and transmitted to the canvas by the
+artist direct from the objects before him without conscious
+calculation. Very obviously was this the case not only in the principal
+features of the design--the countenances and the hands and feet of the
+figures--but in such details as the flowers, fabrics of draperies,
+carpets, mother-of-pearl inlaying, found (for instance) in "A Noble
+Venetian Lady," "Summer Moon," "Sister's Kiss," "Weaving the Wreath,"
+"Winding the Skein," "The Music Lesson," "Atalanta." In all these
+pictures exists the internal convincing evidence contradicting the
+statement that "the inspiration stage was practically past when he took
+the crayon in his hand." This, however, did not obscure in some of
+Leighton's large finished pictures undoubted evidences of arrangements
+and calculated effects, which are not over-ruled by an art which
+conceals them, by the art which disguises art,--the clenching force of
+the inevitable. The beauty of line, the grouping of masses, the
+"composition" evident in the posing of the figures--admirable and
+unlaboured as all these arrangements are--not infrequently lack this
+convincing sign of the inevitable. It is too obvious that they have
+been chosen by the intellectual taste of their maker. When Goethe was
+expatiating on Shakespeare and comparing his genius with his own, he
+said, as a proof of his own inferiority, that he knew well how every
+word was made to come in its place, but with Shakespeare they came
+without Shakespeare knowing.[46] Leighton, like Goethe, was conscious
+that his genius could not vie with the greatest in the world--the
+genius he was able to appreciate as Goethe did Shakespeare's; but he
+also knew, as did Goethe, exactly the place his own art ought to take;
+he knew that in his sense of style--which, in its true meaning, is the
+echo of Nature in her choicest, noblest moods,--in his sense of the
+beauty of the human structure, in his power of draughtsmanship, his
+work was superior to that of any of his contemporaries in England. The
+fact of the greatness of Leighton's powers in some directions
+challenges a comparison between his work and that of the giants of old
+who possess enormous power in all directions. No one knew so well as
+did Leighton the place he must take when he entered the lists with the
+giants: "I have _not_ and _never shall have_ 'enormous power.'" He
+writes in 1856 from Paris to his Master, Steinle:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                           PARIS, RUE PIGALLE 21.
+
+    MY GOOD AND DEAR FRIEND,--Accidentally I had an idle morning
+    when I received your dear letter, and therefore answer it
+    immediately. With your usual modesty you put aside all that I
+    say of goodness and love, but I repeat it unweariedly.
+    Steinle, my good Master, if in this insincere world I have an
+    unfeigned, pure feeling, it is my warm gratitude and love for
+    you; and the time when I bloomed, gay and full of hope, in
+    your garden will light me through life like a sunny spot in
+    the past; and I yield myself to this feeling the more
+    confidently, since I _know_ that I am under no delusion in it.
+    I have fairly strong insight, and know exactly what I owe to
+    you, and for what I have to thank nature; I can already
+    appraise my moderate natural gifts; but I know also that these
+    gifts received _through you alone_ the impression of _taste_
+    that can alone make them effective, and that in your hands
+    they were refined as in a furnace. An English painter seldom
+    lacks fancy and invention, but _taste_, that which forms and
+    embellishes the raw material, _that_ is almost always wanting
+    with us--and it is you I must thank for the _little_ I
+    possess.
+
+To flatter was an impossibility with Leighton. He paid every artist
+the respect of believing he desired the same sincerity shown in the
+criticism of his work that he,--Leighton,--wished when his own was
+judged, and with which he judged it himself. A remarkable feature in
+his character was the power he had of retaining so secure a hold on
+his own standards of excellence without for a moment losing his
+individual self-centre, yet at the same time possessing that of
+entering sympathetically into the view of other artists--a view often
+quite contrary to his own--and generously acknowledging every merit
+that could by any possibility be extracted from their work. Mr. Briton
+Riviere writes: "The intensity of his own personal belief was well
+known to himself. He once said to me, in reference to a clever picture
+which he greatly admired for some of its qualities, that he could not
+really enjoy it, owing to its careless drawing. On another occasion,
+when at Mr. Russell's sale I had bought a very vigorous study by Etty,
+and Leighton was quite enthusiastic about its colour and painting, he
+said, 'But I could not bear it on my wall, with that drawing,' and he
+laughed at himself for this strictness, and said, 'I know that I am a
+prig about drawing.' However, not only did this never blind him to the
+claims of another kind of art, but I think he was even more keen to
+recommend for approval the work of any school of painting for which,
+personally, he had no particular liking or sympathy. 'It is not
+whether you or I like it, but what it is on its own merits,' was a
+favourite warning of his to any rapid opinion expressed on a picture.
+To any one intimately acquainted with his own real views and opinions
+it was sometimes surprising to find how well he realised the
+intentions, and put himself in the place, of some artist who had
+produced something very foreign to his own point of view, and quite
+repugnant to his beliefs. This is not a common quality among artists,
+whose critical tolerance is often in an inverse ratio to the firmness
+of their own particular creed of art faith; and it was one of the many
+qualities which marked Leighton out as so admirably fitted for the
+Presidency."
+
+Leighton was, undoubtedly, an absolutely competent critic of his own
+art; and the fact that his principles had been inspired by a
+spontaneous and sincere reverence and admiration for the creations of
+artists whom time has crowned as the greatest in the world, and that
+with his critical faculty he perceived in what measure he had
+succeeded in following in their steps, enabled him to gauge with
+absolute justice the merits and shortcomings of his own work, compared
+with that of his contemporaries. Whatever those shortcomings were,
+certain it is that they did not arise from an absence of those natural
+gifts which are the outcome of emotional sensitiveness, nor from a
+want of intense feeling for the beauty of Nature, nor from a poverty
+of invention. The theory that his art was solely the result of his
+having an abnormal power of industry and of taking pains--a theory
+which has been advanced many times since Leighton's death--cannot hold
+good for a moment with those who impartially study his work from the
+beginning of his career. The spontaneity of the impulse to produce in
+every born artist is described in the following passage from
+Leighton's first discourse, when President, to the students of the
+Royal Academy, December 10, 1879, and the description is obviously
+drawn from his own personal experience: "The gift of artistic
+production manifests itself in the young in an impulse so spontaneous
+and so imperative, and is in its origin so wholly emotional and
+independent of the action of the intellect, that it at first and for
+some time entirely absorbs their energies. The student's first steps
+on the bright paths of his working life are obscured by no shadows
+save those cast by the difficulties of a technical nature which lie
+before him, and these difficulties, which indeed he only half
+discerns, serve rather to whet his appetite than to hamper or
+discourage him; for his heart whispers that, when he shall have
+brushed them aside, the road will be clear before him, and the
+utterance of what he feels stirring within him will be from
+thenceforward one long unchecked delight. This spirit of spontaneous,
+unquestioning rejoicing in production, which is still the privilege of
+youth, and which, even now, the very strong sometimes carry with them
+through their lives, was indeed, when Art herself was in her prime,
+the normal and constant condition of the artistic temper, and shone
+out in all artistic work. It is this spirit which gave a perennial
+freshness to Athenian Art--the serenest and most spontaneous men have
+ever seen. And when again, after many centuries, another Art was born
+out of the night of the Dark Ages, and shed its gentle light over the
+chaos of society, this spirit once more burst through it into flame.
+All forms of Art are alike fired with it. Architecture first, exulting
+in new flights of vigorous and bold creation; then Sculpture; last,
+Painting, virtually a new Art, looked out on to the world with the
+wondering delight of a child, timidly at first, but soon to fill it
+with the bright expression of its joy. Those were halcyon days; the
+questions, 'Why do I paint?' 'Why do I model?' 'Why should I build
+beautifully?' 'What--how--shall I build, model, paint?' had no
+existence in the mind of the artist. 'Why,' he might have answered,
+'does the lark soar and sing?'"
+
+Though his direct study from Nature mostly took the form, in later
+years, of sketching in oil colour views in the different countries in
+which he travelled, Leighton showed to the end of his life his great
+delight in flowers by continuing to make sketches from them. In 1895,
+at Malinmore, he was fascinated by the sea-thistle, and there are four
+pages in a sketch-book devoted to rapid sketches of the plant,
+_callantra_, which he made there. Notes are written on the first
+sketch indicating the colours. It is interesting to compare the early
+pencil work executed between 1850 and 1860 with that of forty years
+later. Though the handling may be different, there is the same
+complete sense and enjoyment of the wonderful architecture of plants
+and flowers obvious in both.[47]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF SEA THISTLE. Malinmore, Ireland, 1895
+    From Sketch-book]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF SEA THISTLE. Malinmore, Ireland, 1895
+    From Sketch-book]
+
+    [Illustration: "RETURN OF PERSEPHONE." 1891]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY IN COLOUR FOR "RETURN OF PERSEPHONE." 1891
+    By permission of Mrs. Stewart Hodgson]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[37] See Appendix, Vol. II., description in Preface to "Catalogue of
+the Leighton House Collection."
+
+[38] An artist who was a great flower lover, when relating her
+experiences, maintained that it was in the revelation, to her
+perceptions, of the infinite perfection of the structure and form of
+one flower, that she had realised in her own nature a more intimate
+recognition and response to that of the Creator of the Infinite than
+had ever been elicited by any church services or creeds, or even, in
+fact, by the most sublime scenery. In one small flower she had found an
+epitome of the wonders and beauties of all creation, so focussed as to
+be grasped closely, and responded to, from the innermost intimate
+recesses of her nature with a joy unspeakable.
+
+[39] See Appendix, Vol. II., Preface to "Catalogue of the Leighton House
+Collection."
+
+[40] See Appendix, Vol. II., "Lord Leighton, P.R.A., Some
+Reminiscences."
+
+[41] Appendix, Vol. II.
+
+[42] Ruskin was mistaken in thinking that the "Lemon Tree" and the
+"Byzantine Well" are of the same date. The former drawing was made in
+1859, the latter seven years earlier in 1852 (reproduced facing page
+80), and is referred to in his diary, "Pebbles." I think this is the
+most beautiful drawing of the kind I have ever seen.
+
+[43] See List of Illustrations.
+
+[44] See Appendix, Vol. II.
+
+[45] See letter to Steinle, page 188: "...God forgive me if I am
+intolerant; but according to my view an artist must produce his art out
+of his own heart, or he is none."
+
+[46] "I remember hearing him (Wordsworth) say that 'Goethe's poetry was
+not inevitable enough.' The remark is striking and true; no line in
+Goethe, as Goethe said himself, but its maker knew well how it came
+there. Wordsworth is right; Goethe's poetry is not inevitable; not
+inevitable enough."--Preface to "Poems of Wordsworth," chosen and
+edited by Matthew Arnold.
+
+[47] Knowing that Leighton was a frequenter of the Kew Gardens, I asked
+Sir W. Thiselton Dyer to write me his recollections of him, which he
+most kindly did in the following letter:--
+
+                                         KEW, _January 11, 1906_.
+
+    DEAR MRS. BARRINGTON,--My acquaintance with Lord Leighton was
+    only beginning to ripen into intimacy when he unhappily died.
+    His somewhat grand seigneur manner at first a little alarmed
+    me; but when I had broken through his reserve, I became, like
+    every one else, much attached to him.
+
+    He used often to dine in evening dress at a small table behind
+    a screen at the door of the coffee-room at the Athenaeum. In the
+    corner adjoining this is a round table known as Abraham's
+    Bosom, as it was once frequented by Abraham Hayward. Here, on
+    Royal Society days, we often had a lively scientific party.
+    Leighton often found it impossible to keep aloof, and joined in
+    the fun.
+
+    I found Sir Frederic, as he was called, was well known to our
+    men as a visitor to Kew. He used to drive down in his victoria
+    in the afternoon and take a solitary walk. I only myself came
+    across him once. I had taken some trouble to get a fine show of
+    the old-fashioned Dutch tulips known as Bizards and Byblomen. I
+    found Leighton one day absorbed in the enthusiastic
+    contemplation of them. There were certain combinations of
+    colour which completely fascinated him. I remember that he
+    particularly admired a purplish brown with yellow and a reddish
+    purple with cream-colour. Both were, I think, in the "key" that
+    particularly appealed to him. He was very anxious to have them
+    in his garden in London, and we gave him a little collection,
+    with directions how to grow them. What was the result I never
+    heard.
+
+    I then suggested that, as it was a lovely spring day, I should
+    take him a walk. He assented, and we sent his carriage round to
+    the Lion Gate, nearest to Richmond. I took him through the
+    Queen's Cottage grounds to show him the sheets of wild
+    hyacinth. He admitted their beauty, but remarked that the
+    effect was not pictorial.
+
+    That, I think, was Leighton's point of view. With an intense
+    feeling for beauty, he had little or none for Nature pure and
+    simple. His art was essentially selective, and I think he took
+    most pleasure at Kew in the more or less artificial products of
+    the gardener's art. What he sought was subtle effects of form
+    and colour. Personally, I appreciate both ways of treating
+    plants. I am always at war with artists for their undisciplined
+    and mostly incompetent treatment of vegetation: drawing and
+    anatomy are usually defective to an instructed eye, such faults
+    would be intolerable in the figure. Their presence robs me of
+    much pleasure in looking at Burne-Jones' pictures. I imagine he
+    mostly made his plants up out of his head. Ruskin, with all his
+    talk, was both unobservant and careless. Millais, on the other
+    hand, though I am not aware that he ever had any botanical
+    training, by sheer force of insight paints plants in a way to
+    which the most fastidious botanist can take no exception. One
+    can actually botanise in his foreground of "Over the Hills and
+    Far Away," yet there is no loss of general pictorial effect.
+    The plant drawing of Albert Duerer, Holman Hunt, and Alma
+    Tadema, though more studied, is absolutely satisfying to the
+    botanist. Sir Joseph Hooker has always complained that the
+    Royal Academy has never given any encouragement to accurate
+    plant drawing. Yet I have heard Sir William Richmond say that,
+    as a student, he made hundreds of careful studies of
+    plant-form, and that he knew no discipline more profitable. I
+    remember remarking to an Academician that I thought that in
+    this respect the competition pictures of the students reached a
+    higher standard than that of the average May Exhibition, and he
+    admitted that that was a possible criticism.
+
+    Leighton aimed at beauty by selection and discipline. Millais
+    in his later work looked only to general effect and balance,
+    but as to detail was content to faithfully reproduce, and did
+    not select at all. This explains the admiration which I believe
+    Millais had for Miss North's work. Both produced admirable
+    results, but they were of an essentially different kind, though
+    equally admirable.
+
+    But whenever Leighton introduced plant-forms, it was penetrated
+    by his characteristic thoroughness and perfect mastery of what
+    he was about. I am myself a passionate admirer of the
+    Gloire-de-Dijon rose. I remember telling Leighton that I did
+    not think that any one had ever painted it with such consummate
+    skill as he had. I am told, and quite believe it, that his
+    pencil studies from plants are as fine as anything that has
+    ever been done.
+
+    Leighton rendered us a very great service on one occasion. Miss
+    North's pictures were painted on paper, roughly framed, and
+    simply hung by her on the brick walls of her gallery. They soon
+    began to rapidly deteriorate. I appealed to L. for advice. I
+    was, I confess, astonished to receive from him a full, precise,
+    and business-like report, pointing out exactly what should be
+    done, and who was the proper person to do it. The gallery was
+    to be lined with boarding, the pictures were to be properly
+    framed, cleaned, lightly varnished, and glazed. The report was
+    at once accepted by the office of works, the work was
+    successfully carried out, and no trouble has been experienced
+    since.
+
+    In his turn, Leighton sometimes appealed to me. This was
+    notably the case when he was painting his "Persephone," which I
+    frankly told him I thought was the most beautiful picture he
+    had ever painted. He had been in Capri, and had seen on the
+    rocks a blue flower which he wished to introduce into the
+    foreground. We made out what it was, and sent him tracings from
+    plates and sketches from herbarium specimens. These did not
+    satisfy him, and he ultimately sent to Capri for the living
+    plant. He worked hard at it, and, I do not doubt, produced a
+    very beautiful piece of colour.
+
+    That year I dined at the Academy. "Persephone" hung over
+    Leighton's chair, and was the subject of one of the few really
+    witty remarks I ever heard in an after-dinner speech. But then
+    the speaker was Lord Justice Bowen.
+
+    But his beautiful foreground was all gone. Leighton, and I
+    think he was right, thought it destroyed the balance of his
+    colour scheme, and painted it out. But I have always felt sad
+    to think of the beautiful work that lay buried there.
+
+    When he died, we felt very sad at Kew. He had always been so
+    lovable and disinterested. We decided to send some tribute to
+    his funeral, but to avoid what was commonplace. So we sent a
+    large wreath of bay, introducing, in the place of the
+    conventional berries, single snowdrop flowers. The result was
+    dignified and, I think, adequate. At any rate, the Academicians
+    thought so, if, as I have been told, they placed the wreath by
+    the coffin on the hearse on its way to St. Paul's.
+
+    I walked back with Lord Redesdale, one of Leighton's most
+    intimate friends, who had come up from Batsford to attend.
+    There was a great gathering at the Athenaeum. I sat next
+    Millais, already himself stricken with death, and whom I never
+    saw again.
+
+    I am afraid all this will not be very helpful to you, but my
+    pen ran on to tell you all I could of a good, great, and brave
+    man, whom it was an honour to have known.--Yours always
+    sincerely,
+
+                                             W.C. THISELTON DYER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+WATTS--SUCCESS--FAILURE
+
+1855-1856
+
+
+It was in the summer of 1855, in consequence of his father having
+summoned him suddenly back to England, that Leighton first became
+known as a notable person to the London world. His picture of
+"Cimabue's Madonna" had preceded him, and gave him an introduction to
+the art magnates; while the fact that the Queen had bought it of the
+young and, till then, unknown artist, raised the curiosity of those to
+whom the intrinsic value of the work was insignificant, compared to
+its having received this mark of Royal approval. Hanging on the walls
+of the Academy throughout the season and being much talked about, the
+picture, combined with the painter's charming personality, won for him
+at once a prominent position. His friends of the happy Roman days,
+however, remained the nucleus of his real intimacies. As can be
+gathered from his letters, he had already in Rome felt general society
+to be fatiguing and unremunerative, the interest in it never having
+compensated him for the physical exertion and weariness it entailed.
+Health--and a more or less stolid temperament--are requisite in order
+to combat, with any satisfaction, the wear and tear of late hours, and
+contact with mere acquaintances and strangers whose personalities
+carry with them no special interest. Leighton found no pleasure in
+such intercourse sufficient to overbalance its sterility, for he
+possessed neither robust health nor much equanimity of temperament.
+He could enjoy with ecstasy those things which delighted him, but
+had little of that even current of patient contentment, the normal
+condition of those who can tolerate cheerfully--and even with
+pleasure--the herding in crowds with mere acquaintances. Circumstances
+combined in making Leighton's disinclination to indiscriminate
+visiting often misunderstood. His extreme vitality when in company,
+his notable gifts as a talker and as a linguist, the high social
+standing of many of his most intimate friends, naturally gave the
+impression that he was made for the sort of success which is the aim
+of many living in the London world. That he never availed himself of
+all the opportunities that offered themselves was considered by many
+as a sign of conceit and superciliousness. Nothing could have been
+farther from the truth. That he was ambitious for Art to take her
+legitimate position on the platform of the world's highest interests
+is certain, and that he resented the position which was but too often
+accorded in England to her earnest votaries, and had a keen
+discernment in tracing evidences of self-interest and snobbish
+proclivities in those who would have patronised him, is no less
+certain; but that Leighton himself was ever personally otherwise than
+the most modest of men, all who really knew him can attest. To
+whatever class in society a man or woman might belong, whether a Royal
+or a quite humble friend--once a friend, Leighton gave of his very
+best and worthiest. No time or trouble would he spare in such service;
+though he was too eager a worker, and felt too keenly a responsibility
+towards his calling for him to allow any moment of his life to be
+frittered away by claims which were not in his eyes real or of any
+serious advantage to others.
+
+    [Illustration: "CUPID WITH DOVES"
+    Decorative work with gold background. About 1880]
+
+It was during this summer that he made the personal acquaintance of
+Ruskin, Holman Hunt, Millais, and Watts. While in London he found a
+home with his mother's relations, Mr. and Mrs. Nash, in Montagu
+Square, for whose affectionate kindness he was ever grateful. It was
+while staying there that Watts and he first met, or rather on the
+pavement outside the house. Watts recounted how he had ridden one
+afternoon to Montagu Square, and having asked for Leighton, the artist
+himself came out to greet him. Watts was much impressed at the time,
+he said, by the extraordinary amount of vitality and nervous energy
+which Leighton seemed to possess. This acquaintance thus begun was
+continued for forty years.[48]
+
+As regarded Art, the supreme interest in the lives of these two famous
+painters, their relations remained intimate to the end of Leighton's
+life. Before Leighton definitely settled in London, Watts invited him
+to show his work in the studios of Little Holland House, which
+invitation he gratefully accepted. In a letter to his mother Leighton
+writes: "Watts has been exceedingly amiable to me; the studio is at my
+disposal if I want to paint there. I am still of opinion that Watts is
+a most marvellous fellow, and if he had but decent health would whip
+us all, if he does not already."
+
+It is interesting to trace the influences which developed alike in
+Leighton and Watts, the feeling for form which in both artists is
+analogous to that of the Greek. Before going to Italy, Watts had
+studied the perfection in the work of Pheidias in the Elgin Marbles, a
+perfection rediscovered by Haydon; and a visit to Greece later only
+confirmed his conviction that the Pheidian school of sculpture made a
+higher appeal to his artistic sense than did any other. That was "_the
+indelible seal_" which, in the case of his brother artist, had been
+stamped on Leighton's artistic nature through the guidance of his
+master, Steinle. When Watts lived in Italy, from the year 1843 to
+1847, he found that it was the work of Orcagna and Titian that
+appealed most to his imagination, and to his sense of form and
+colour--Orcagna's great conceptions, which struck notes stranger and
+more widely suggestive than those dictated and restricted by special
+religious creeds; Titian, the glorious Titian of the Renaissance,
+whose sense and modelling had the breadth and bloom of Pheidian art,
+and whose colour was triumphant in qualities of richness and subtlety
+combined. The pure beauty in the early religious painters made a much
+slighter and less personal appeal to Watts during those four years he
+lived in Italy.
+
+It was in Italy, when a child of twelve, that Leighton drank a deep
+draught from the fountain-head of mediaeval and modern art; and this
+established once and for all the high standard towards which he ever
+aimed. But though his true artistic preferences were aroused at this
+early age, the full and complete passion for his calling was not
+developed till he met his master some years later in Frankfort.
+Belonging to the brotherhood of Nazarenes, the early religious Italian
+art appealed more strongly than any other to Steinle; and, doubtless,
+the earnest study Leighton devoted to Duccio, Cimabue, Giotto,
+Buonfigli, Perugino, and Pinturicchio, and the delight he took in
+their work, was originally started by Steinle. The following list,
+which exists in Steinle's handwriting, of the paintings which he
+wished Leighton specially to study in Florence is evidence of this.
+
+  _Translation._]
+
+FLORENCE
+
+  _St. Croce._--The choir by Angiolo Gaddi, pupil of Giotto. The
+      chapel on the right by his uncle, Taddeo Gaddi. The altar
+      by Giotto himself, in the sacristy the Taddeo Gaddi, in the
+      refectory the Last Supper, all by Giotto.
+
+  _St. Marco._--Outside Fiesole, where particularly should be seen
+      in the cloister-cell and choir-stalls a Last Supper by
+      Ghirlandajo.
+
+  _St. Maria Novella._--The choir by Domenico Ghirlandajo, chapel
+      by Giovanni and Filippo Lippi, a Madonna in marble by
+      Benedetto da Majano, the great Madonna of Cimabue. The Hell
+      and Paradise of Andreas Orcagna. Opposite the court of this
+      chapel grey in grey by Dello and Paul Ucello; from the court
+      into the Capello dei Spagnola, to the left the picture by
+      Taddeo Gaddi; all the rest by Simon Memmi.
+
+  _Capella di St. Francesco_, by Dom. Ghirlandajo.
+
+  _St. Ambrogio._--Fresco by Cosimo Rosetti.
+
+  _St. Spirito._--Built by Brunelleschi; altar-pieces by Filippo
+      Lippi and Botticelli.
+
+  _Al Carmine_, dei Massacio's.
+
+  _St. Miniato._--Chapel by Aretino Spinello.
+
+  _Palazzo Riccardi._--The lovely chapel by Benozzo Gozzoli.
+
+  _In the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital._--Beautiful
+      altar-piece by Ghirlandajo.
+
+After visiting Padua, Siena, Perugia, Assisi, however, the pupil
+became a keen admirer of this early art, independently of any
+influence other than the inherent beauty, dignity, and purity of the
+feeling in the works themselves.[49] Moreover, the natural sympathy
+which Leighton felt for the art of Greece, discovered in this early
+Italian work records of her influence, and that, in a very striking
+manner, it was allied to that of the great ancients. In his Academy
+address of 1887 we find this alluded to in the following passage:--
+
+    "The production, both in sculpture and painting, of the middle
+    period of the thirteenth century has a character of
+    transition. In painting, the works, for instance, of Cimabue
+    and of Duccio are still impregnated with the Byzantine spirit,
+    and occasionally reveal startling reminiscences of classic
+    dignity and power, to which justice is not, I think,
+    sufficiently rendered. In sculpture, the handiwork of Nicolo
+    Pisano is full of the amplitude, the rhythm, and virility of
+    classic Art. I see in it, indeed, the tokens of a new life in
+    Art, but little sign of a new artistic form--it is not a dawn;
+    it is an after-glow, strange, belated, and solemn. In the Art
+    of Giotto and the Giottosques, the transformation is
+    fulfilled. It is an art lit up with the spirit of St. Francis,
+    warm with Christian love, pure with Christian purity, simple
+    with Christian humility; it is the fit language of a pious
+    race endowed with an exquisite instinct of the expressiveness
+    of form, as form, but untrained as yet in the knowledge of the
+    concrete facts of the outer world; an art fresh with the dew
+    and tenderness of youth, and yet showing, together with this
+    virginal quality of young life, a simple forcefulness
+    prophetic of the power of its riper day. Within the outline of
+    these general characteristics individuality found sufficient
+    scope."
+
+Even when this transformation is fulfilled in the frescoes of Giotto,
+any intelligent study of his art at Padua and Assisi, while keeping in
+mind the manner in which Pheidias felt and treated the human form in
+his sculpture, would prove to the student how distinctly visible is
+the link between the ancient and this mediaeval art; though the fact of
+the latter being fired with an ecstasy of spiritual emotion of which
+the Greek had no experience, may disguise the link where feeling in
+art is of more interest than form. There is the same detachment of one
+form from another, each being given its full expression and
+intention--which induces a feeling of simplicity and serenity in the
+greatest work. The form of the head is not smudged into the throat,
+nor the throat into the chest, nor the chest into the arms. Even in
+the smallest Greek coin or _intaglio_ of the best period this separate
+individuality of form in each part of the human frame is accentuated,
+and with it a sense of size and breadth. The same fundamental
+principles also, adhered to by the great Greek workmen in their
+treatment of drapery, is to be traced in the work of Giotto.
+
+    [Illustration: "IDYLL." 1881]
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MISS MABEL MILLS (THE HON. MRS.
+    GRENFELL). 1877]
+
+But the great Greeks did not invent the beauty they immortalised, any
+more than did Leighton and Watts; the Pheidian school intuitively
+chose the noblest form it found in nature.[50] The notable gift
+with which nature endowed the artists of the Periclean epoch consisted
+of eyes to perceive, and taste to _prefer_, the form which,
+intrinsically and most convincingly, inspires admiration in those
+imbued with the finest sense of beauty--not a gift to invent something
+new and different from nature. In like manner the gift nature bestowed
+on Leighton and Watts was the same, a perception and a preference for
+noble form; and in this choice they had been educated by legacies from
+Pheidias and his school, but only so far as these legacies induced
+them to seek and perceive in nature herself the elements of such
+nobility. In painting the magnificent head and shoulders entitled
+"Atalanta,"[51] or the reclining figures in "Idyll,"[52] Leighton
+copied as directly from nature as when he painted the portrait of
+"Miss Mabel Mills,"[53] where a similar beauty of form in the throat
+existed as in Miss Jones, who sat for "Atalanta" and "Idyll." When
+Watts painted his superb "Lady with the Mirror," one of his really
+great achievements, it was the model before him whose beauty he was
+recording, though his own sense in recognising it had been further
+inspired by his study of Pheidias. We need not go out of England to
+find types which are as completely noble as are those in the most
+inspiring art ever created, but the sense as a rule is wanting in
+English artists to select and to prefer such nobility.
+
+Leighton writes to a friend in 1879:--
+
+    "I have just remembered a circumstance which might be worth
+    mentioning: I painted pictures in _an out-of-door top light_
+    and with realistic aims (of course, subordinate to style) in
+    the old Frankfurt days before I came over here, and long
+    before I heard of 'modern' ideas in painting. In this,
+    perhaps, more than in anything, the boy was the father of the
+    man, for it is still the corner-stone of my faith that Art is
+    not a corpse, but a living thing, and that the highest respect
+    for the old masters, who are and will remain supreme, does not
+    lie in doing as they did, but as men of their strength would
+    do if they were now (oh, _derisim_!) amongst us."
+
+Leighton taught Watts to appreciate the Greek inheritance to be found
+in early Italian art; and I have frequently heard Watts comment on the
+evidence of this legacy in Giotto's work. Watts, by ventilating the
+results of his studies of Pheidian art with Leighton, and analysing
+the elemental principles on which it was grounded, aided his brother
+artist in securing a faster hold on the sources of his individual
+preferences.
+
+No two characters could have been more dissimilar than those of Watts
+and Leighton, no two men could have led more different external lives;
+Leighton's great and varied gifts requiring for their full exercise
+the whole area of life's stage, Watts' genius demanding seclusion, and
+days undisturbed by friction with the outer world. Watts' first and
+great object in life was to preserve his work, and to bequeath it to
+his country, which he, happily for his country, was enabled to do;
+Leighton's object was to complete a work as far as industry and his
+gifts would enable him to complete it, then--as he would say--"to get
+rid of it and never see it again; but try to do better next time"! The
+one was frank, free, courageous; the other almost morbidly
+self-depreciative, sensitive, and timid. All the same, no two workmen
+could have had more sympathy with one another in their true aims and
+aspirations, or more mutual admiration for each other's artistic
+gifts.
+
+    [Illustration: "VENUS DISROBING FOR THE BATH." 1867
+    By permission of Sir A. Henderson, Bart.]
+
+    [Illustration: "PHRYNE AT ELEUSIS." 1882]
+
+Watts, to his credit, had from his first acquaintance with Leighton
+discerned that "the unusual position" which Leighton undoubtedly held
+from his first appearance in the London world to the day of his death,
+was due to the possession of unusual gifts, exercised in a very
+unusually generous and public-spirited manner, and not to reasons
+invented by those who were envious of this prominent position.
+
+Watts wrote to Leighton after they became neighbours in Kensington:--
+
+    "I have been worrying myself by fancying you rather
+    misunderstood the drift of my observations respecting the
+    value of social consideration to a professional man, that I
+    meant to imply you sold your pictures in consequence of the
+    unusual position you undoubtedly hold; knowing me and my
+    opinions as you do, you could hardly think so, yet poets and
+    artists are proverbially sensitive beings. I know I am myself
+    to a degree that could hardly be imagined, though not with
+    regard to opinion of my work; I am resigned, if not contented,
+    to preserve what I can do for posterity, conscious that no
+    other judgment can really be worth anything; I am very often
+    unhappy, thinking that after all the best I can do may not be
+    worthy of being brought before the great tribunal at all; but
+    I do not allow myself to brood over the subject more than I
+    can help. However, I do not attempt to deaden the keen dread I
+    have of giving pain or offence, and am really miserable when I
+    think I have done so, or been unjust; I don't think I am often
+    the latter, but I may by clumsiness fall into the former
+    regrettable position. I should grieve indeed if any word or
+    deed of mine should ever be offensive to you, for you know me
+    to be always yours most sincerely,
+
+                                                         "SIGNOR."
+
+Immediately on his arrival from Italy Leighton paid a visit to his
+family at Bath, arriving on May 24. He returned to London shortly
+after, where his family joined him on June 15, and the introduction so
+long desired by Leighton took place between his parents and sisters
+and his great friends, Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris. In December 1854
+Leighton's mother had written: "How delightful to see you again, and
+perhaps we may spend the next winter together, but of that I am
+uncertain. In England we shall not be, and both Papa and I incline to
+Paris, but Gussy has an anxious desire to go to Berlin. The Sartoris'
+being in Paris would be a strong inducement to us to go there, as we
+very much wish to make your friends' acquaintance, and we should most
+likely meet at their house agreeable people. I am exceedingly sorry I
+overlooked Mrs. Sartoris' friendly message, which I have since
+discovered in your former letter. Pray offer her my best compliments,
+and assure her I consider her great kindness to you gives her a claim
+upon my sympathy, and I shall rejoice to have an opportunity of giving
+her this assurance in person."
+
+In February his mother wrote: "I hope you will not long be separated
+from your friends the Sartoris when you leave Rome. We all sincerely
+desire to become acquainted with the valued friends of whom we hear so
+much."
+
+Later his father wrote: "With regard to your reasons for remaining at
+Rome during the spring, you have this time at least the best of the
+argument. If there were no other than your wish to give more tangible
+form to your gratitude to your kind friends, the Sartoris, it would be
+sufficient, to say nothing of the drawings from M. Angelo and
+Raphael."
+
+And in the same cover his mother says: "I feel, with your father,
+great satisfaction at your undertaking a likeness of Mrs. Sartoris--I
+hope it may prove a satisfactory one. Give our love to Mrs.
+Sartoris." Leighton's younger sister kept a diary in those days.
+Written in this are notes which describe the keen appreciation which
+she and her family felt for her brother's friends. "In fact she is, as
+Fred says, an angel. She seems very fond of him, as she might be of a
+younger brother.... She is very stout, high coloured, and has little
+hair. But the shape of her mouth is very fine, the modulations of her
+voice in speaking are exquisite. She is a creature who can never age,
+and before whose attractions those of younger and prettier women must
+always pale." "August 1855.--Fred returned to Bath to stay with us a
+little while. Beautiful drives together. So generous in giving me
+several volumes of poetry." "Sept.--Left us to go to Paris."
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MRS. ADELAIDE SARTORIS
+    Drawn by Lord Leighton for her friend Lady Bloomfield, 1867
+    By permission of the Hon. Mrs. Sartoris]
+
+While in London Leighton wrote the following to his master, Steinle:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                   10 MADDOX STREET, BOND STREET,
+                                                    LONDON, 1855.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--At last I am able to write to you again.
+    When I sent off my last letter to you I was busily packing for
+    my journey; now I have been already six weeks in England, and
+    it seems a year since I left Rome. I scarcely need tell you,
+    dearest Friend, that at first, in this London hurly-burly, I
+    hardly knew whether I was standing on my head or my heels: I
+    will not say that this condition has not had a certain charm.
+    I have made several acquaintances, have been cordially
+    received, and have had considerably more praise for my picture
+    than it deserves. However, I have already set seriously to
+    work again, and expect shortly to commence upon a new
+    composition. It is a real grief to me, dear Master, to have to
+    work without your guidance.
+
+    My _succes_, here in London, which, for a beginner, has been
+    extraordinarily great, fills me with anxiety and apprehension;
+    I am always thinking, "What can you exhibit next year that
+    will fulfil the expectations of the public?" When I have
+    settled anything definitely, I shall report to my master in
+    Frankfurt.
+
+    Now, however, as regards the photographs. Owing to unforeseen
+    circumstances, Mrs. Sartoris (whom I introduced to you in my
+    last letter) was obliged to alter the plans of her journey,
+    and will not leave this for Germany until the middle of
+    September. What now? Will you wait so long, or shall I seek an
+    opportunity to send you your seven things?
+
+    And now, my Friend, how are you occupied? Do you still sparkle
+    with beautiful inventions? Tell me all that you are doing. I
+    had a delightful surprise recently when I saw your long
+    expected "Court Scene" in Paris; it is a charming composition.
+    I tell you nothing of the great Paris Exhibition, for you
+    naturally will not neglect to see a thing so excessively
+    interesting; it throws light upon a great many things. If only
+    you could come in September! then we could meet again and
+    renew old times a little; it would be very delightful. I
+    should like extremely to arrange something of the kind with
+    you; we should certainly agree very well.
+
+    Remember me most kindly to your wife and my old friends in
+    Frankfurt, and keep in mind your loving pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+In a letter to his mother, before she arrived in London, Leighton
+refers to Ruskin's criticism when comparing his "Cimabue's Madonna" to
+Millais' "Rescue":--
+
+                                                          LONDON.
+
+    I do wonder at the critics: will they never let "the cat die"?
+    What Ruskin means by Millais' picture being "greater" than
+    mine, is that the joy of a mother over her rescued children is
+    a higher order of emotion than any expressed in my picture. I
+    wish people would remember St. Paul on the subject of hateful
+    comparisons: "There is one glory of the sun, and another glory
+    of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for one star
+    differeth from another star in glory."
+
+    I spent last night an evening that Gussy would have envied me.
+    We (I and the Sartoris and one or two others) were at Halle's,
+    who is the most charming fellow in the world.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR PORTION OF FRIEZE, "MUSIC" (not carried
+    out in final design). 1883
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+Having sent his "Romeo" picture to Paris, Leighton was not quite
+unknown to the art world when he arrived there in September 1855. The
+"Cimabue's Madonna," hanging on the walls of the Royal Academy in
+London, and this picture being shown at the great International
+Exhibition in France, he can fairly be said to have entered at the age
+of twenty-four the arena where he competed with the first artists in
+Europe. By a mistake the "Romeo" picture was hung in the Roman instead
+of the English section in the International Exhibition. The following
+extract appeared in a publication at the time, and gives the unbiassed
+criticism of one who was unknown to Leighton:--
+
+    "Strange it may seem, but such is the fact, that of the
+    thirteen canvasses she (Rome) has sent on this occasion to
+    sustain her credit, that which for intrinsic merit takes the
+    lead--in which soul for expression and true artistic feeling
+    are conspicuous, is due to the pencil of an
+    Englishman--Frederic Leighton, _ne a Scarborough, eleve de
+    Mons. Edouard Steinle de Frankfort_. The subject of this
+    picture--and it is a fine one--is the reconciliation of the
+    Houses of Montagu and Capulet over the bodies of Romeo and
+    Juliet. Let us hope that his native country may hear and see
+    more of so promising an artist as Mr. Leighton."
+
+And again:--
+
+    "When these lines were written on the other side of the
+    Channel, Mr. Leighton had already sent his 'pencil's' first
+    representation to the Royal Academy, causing therein not a
+    little surprise, fluttering the dovecots in Corioli. We beg he
+    will construe our sincere anticipations into a hearty
+    welcome."
+
+In the early days of September 1855, Leighton was in Paris preparing
+to settle in for a winter's hard work. The following letters to his
+mother and father and to Steinle were written soon after his arrival.
+In that to Steinle, Leighton alludes to the serious work he has
+before him, in painting "The Triumph of Music":--
+
+                                HOTEL CANTERBURY, RUE DE LA PAIX,
+                                                  _Sunday, 1855_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--Though I have, of course, nothing to tell you
+    yet, still, as it is Sunday morning, I send you a few lines as
+    a token of continued vegetation. Paris is bright and warm and
+    sunny, and contrasts incredibly with the murkiness of London.
+    I have already set to work to look for a studio, but shall
+    have great difficulty in finding one, and shall have to pay
+    about 1500 francs per annum _unfurnished_; my furniture I
+    shall of course hire, not buy--_ci vuol pazienza_.
+
+                                                HOTEL CANTERBURY,
+                                                _Saturday, 1855_.
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--When one has bad news to swallow, there is nothing
+    like taking the bull by the horns and engulphing the dose at
+    once: this is the bull to be swallowed, horns and all. I have,
+    after great trouble and manifold inquiries, taken _the only_
+    studio that at all suited me, and for that I give
+    _unfurnished_ 150 francs a month. It is enormous, but
+    unavoidable; nor have I been at a disadvantage from being an
+    Englishman, for two artists of my acquaintance, one a
+    _Parisian_ just returning from Rome, the other a Frankfurter,
+    have seen precisely the _same_, and only the same, studios as
+    I did. It is the dearth of studios and the great demand for
+    them that makes the price so high. Those who have had studios
+    some time of course pay very much less, others put up with
+    little holes far too small to paint a picture of any size.
+    Carlo Perugini is painting in the studio of a friend, and that
+    is a strip not large enough for one person. There was only
+    _one_ studio which I could for a moment think of besides this
+    one I have taken, and that costs infinitely less; but not only
+    was it too small--it had been built _this_ summer, and is not
+    yet finished painting, feels cold and damp, and would no doubt
+    have laid me up with the rheumatism.
+
+    I have been advised and actually assisted in everything by
+    Hebert, who is a friend as well as an old acquaintance, and
+    than whom nobody knows the resources of Paris better. He took
+    me about to get my furniture, &c., and I am happy to say that
+    I have bought everything, including ample bedroom and table
+    linen, crockery, and knives, spoons, &c., all under L30. I
+    have quite a little _fond de menage_; this is the only cheap
+    thing I have done in Paris, everything is exactly as dear as
+    London. It certainly _is_ lucky I sold my picture.
+
+    My frame cost, with time and trouble of exhibition, 320
+    francs.
+
+[Portion of letter to his father.]
+
+                                       21 RUE PIGALLE, _Tuesday_.
+
+    I have nothing whatever to tell you, except that I have just
+    finished a head of Carlo Perugini (for myself), which is the
+    best thing of the kind I ever did. It has not interfered with
+    my picture, but has stopped up unavoidable gaps. I have got H.
+    Wilson[54] to teach me the Conture Method--_a fin d'avoir tate
+    a tout_. Conture paints well in spite of his method, which
+    might easily lead to superficial mannerism. The best _dodge_
+    is to be a devil of a clever fellow.
+
+    Will you do me a _great_ favour--for my friend Hebert, to whom
+    I am under great obligations? If you can get me for him _any_
+    Greek classic (if Homer, all the better) in the _same edition_
+    as my _Brumek's Anacreon_ with _Latin notes_, I shall be much
+    obliged. Hebert wants very much to have any such work.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                           21 RUE PIGALLE, PARIS,
+                                  _Saturday, September 29, 1855_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--At last I find the long-desired
+    opportunity to send you the photographs; our old Gamba has
+    undertaken to convey them to you. How I envy him the pleasure
+    of seeing you again, dear Master! You, on your side, will
+    certainly have great pleasure in seeing your old pupil again.
+    He is just the same as ever; rather more of a beard, and
+    broader shouldered, but still quite the old Gamba. He will be
+    able to tell you that we have cherished your memory with love
+    and reverence, and are always proud to call ourselves your
+    pupils.
+
+    I should like to describe to you what I am painting now, but
+    the subject I have chosen is such an absolute matter of
+    sentiment, that your imagination might well paint something
+    quite different, in comparison with which my picture might
+    subsequently suffer; I would rather wait until I can send you
+    a photograph. It is a picture with only four figures, but
+    life-size. I stand in alarm before the blank canvas. One
+    learns gradually to understand that one really can do nothing.
+
+    The photographs in the portofolio with my writing on them are
+    yours; I hope they will please you. You must accept them as a
+    little memento of my Italian hobbledehoy-hood.
+
+    Remember me respectfully to Madame Steinle, to my other
+    friends "tante cose."
+
+    Keep me in remembrance.--Your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+Again to Steinle he writes:--
+
+                                           PARIS, RUE PIGALLE 21.
+
+    No one could sympathise better than I with your melancholy
+    loneliness in the hermitage of Frankfurt; in that air an
+    artist breathes with difficulty; I confess I should be
+    entirely paralysed by the lack of models and other resources
+    in Frankfurt; one all too easily loses sight of the infinite
+    importance of a complete material representation, which is
+    always the special mark of the _artist_; I often see with
+    amazement how even quite clever people behave in this respect.
+    It has quite a plausible sound if one says (such a fellow as
+    Strauch, for example), "Away with materialism! Pfui! The great
+    artist is he who has the most ideas!" Stop, my little man! do
+    you not feel what a store of artistic cowardice lies behind
+    your words? Ah, behind so broad a shield you can elude all the
+    difficulties of your work! He who has the most _ideas_ is
+    first only as the greatest _poet_ or even _philosopher_! He
+    only is an _artist_ who can _set_ his ideas _forth_. _Art_
+    means the power to do; undoubtedly the idea is the source, the
+    achieved is art; but an _idea_ completely _embodied_ can no
+    more exist without the _artist_ power than a thousand ideas
+    that are only muddled away by agitated incapacity!
+
+    I gladly let myself go on such matters to you, for I know that
+    we are of one mind regarding them, and it does one good to
+    pour out one's heart a little for once.
+
+    I hear, with particular interest, that you are painting the
+    little picture of the Madonna that you composed twenty-three
+    years ago in the diligence when you were travelling to Italy;
+    it is a very good thing. I imagine a lovely landscape in the
+    background; an oleander, rich in starry bloom; grey olives and
+    stately cypresses wave in the distance; soft violets nestle on
+    the bank of the cool water, and gaze with earnest eyes out of
+    the whispering grass. On the still bosom of the stream sleep
+    white blossoms, which have flown down when the winds breathed
+    on the limes, and see, in a secret nook in the shade of the
+    lovely _Himmelsglocken_, the strawberry bed from which the
+    black-eyed John will peep at the treasures. Above, in the
+    branches, many-coloured birds frolic, and chase one another,
+    and flit through the grove, in harmonious, song-rich flight.
+    And the Madonna! how tenderly and lovingly she looks down upon
+    the two playing children! Have I described your picture?
+
+    In order to send it to England (and how delighted I should be
+    to see it) you should, so much I know from personal
+    experience, cause your picture to reach the Royal Academy
+    (without fail) on the first of April; I believe that influence
+    is no use at all, for the Academicians are very autocratic; I
+    will, however, obtain all the information in good time. I, who
+    was even more totally unknown in England than you, have
+    refrained, by the advice of my friends, from applying to _any_
+    person, and have left my pictures entirely to themselves.
+
+    Now I must close this immoderately long letter. It seems not
+    impossible to me that I may pass through Frankfurt next
+    spring, then we will have a good long gossip together, won't
+    we?
+
+    Till then, keep in warm remembrance your English pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+It is clear that Paris lacked the charm which Italy had for Leighton.
+Parisians have been compared to the Greeks with respect to the
+peculiarly _fin_ and agile manner in which they can exercise their
+intellects; and so far Leighton might have been expected to fit in
+happily and with enjoyment to himself into their life. But though he
+felt a great respect and admiration for the genuine artistic sense
+which the French undoubtedly possess as a nation, Leighton, no less as
+a man than as an artist, was more Greek than is any typical Parisian.
+He viewed the beauty of nature from a less circumscribed standpoint,
+his emotions were excited with a more ingenuous spontaneity and less
+from a _parti-pris_ attitude than, as a rule, are those of the French
+artist. Paris was too artificial to appeal strongly to Leighton's
+taste. As with the Greeks, grace and charm in the form of living as in
+Art was a necessity to his well-being; but he found more natural
+expression of such grace and charm in the unsophisticated Italian than
+among the artificial and more highly finished manners of the
+Parisians. We never read of the eager longing to be in France that
+Leighton's letters show when it was a question of a return to Italy.
+Also Paris does not appear to have suited his health. He writes to his
+mother after living there some weeks:--
+
+                                    21 RUE PIGALLE, _Sunday, 21_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I observe in a general way that the climate of
+    Paris is very exciting to my nerves--infinitely more than
+    Rome. The life I lead is one of unprecedented regularity and
+    absence of any kind of excess, yet sometimes in the evening,
+    when I have lit my lamp and my fire and sit down to work, I
+    can neither play, nor read, nor draw, nor do anything for five
+    minutes together for sheer restlessness and fidgets. That
+    sleep, too, that used to be the corner-stone of my
+    accomplishments and the pillar of my strength, is not by any
+    means what it was--_non sum qualis eram!_
+
+    The Sartoris have not changed their plans more than five or
+    six dozen times since you saw them. They are now staying in
+    the country with the Marquise de l'Aigle, Edward's sister.
+    They will be here at the beginning of November and stay
+    _three_ months--ooray! Lady Cowley is, I believe, not yet come
+    back. I see a great deal of Herbert Wilson here. He has with
+    him, too, an arch-brick of a friend, a naval captain whom I
+    like most particularly. I am painting his head for practice
+    and for him--he is a fine specimen of an English sailor.
+    About learning by heart, don't you think it will be a great
+    waste of my very little eyesight to read the same thing over
+    and over again until I know it?
+
+                                    21 RUE PIGALLE, _October 26_.
+
+    My health, to return to the eternal refrain, is just what it
+    was. I shall find very little difficulty in giving up coffee
+    or tea after dinner, as I never take either; indeed, of late I
+    have given up wine, beer, gin, and other spirituous liquors as
+    utterly exciting and damnable. Nothing makes me sleep as I
+    used except going to bed late, and as I am always either
+    sleepy, tired, or fidgety in the evening, I very seldom get
+    beyond ten o'clock.
+
+    Carlo Perugini, whom I saw to-day, sends "tante cose" to his
+    cousin. He is a charming boy, most gentlemanlike, and has that
+    peculiar childlike simplicity which belongs to none but
+    Italians.
+
+    [Illustration: SKETCH IN WATER COLOUR FOR TABLEAUX VIVANTS,
+    "THE ECHOES OF HELLAS."
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+Leighton's friendship with Brock and the French sculptor Dalou began
+in these autumn days of 1855. He also made the acquaintance of
+Whistler, whose etchings he admired greatly. The work of Jean Francois
+Millet also delighted him no less than that of Corot.
+
+His sister's diary contains the following notes: "November 25.--We
+arrived at Paris. Our dear, handsome Fred was here to meet us.
+December 1.--Fred comes to see us daily, though sometimes only for
+five minutes. He is pale and coughs a good deal; it makes us uneasy.
+He often comes to dinner. Presents to us on New Year's day. Took me to
+the Conservatoire. Always generous. We went often to Mrs. Sartoris in
+the evening."
+
+It was in Paris that Leighton probably first enjoyed to the full the
+culture of his instincts for the drama. Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris remained
+in Paris during the winter and spring, and Mr. Henry Greville arrived
+there on February 28th, 1856.
+
+Extracts from his published diaries give a picture of the _milieu_ in
+which Leighton's hours of relaxation from work were spent:--
+
+                                   27 RUE DU FAUBOURG ST. HONORE,
+                                       _Saturday, March 1, 1856_.
+
+    I left London on Thursday with Flahault and Charles, and after
+    a smooth passage slept at Boulogne and came on here yesterday.
+    After dining _tete-a-tete_ with the excellent doctor (the
+    Hollands dined out), I went to Adelaide Sartoris', where I
+    found Herbert Wilson, Leighton, and other young and
+    good-looking artists, and some ladies whom I did not know, and
+    amongst them Madame Kalergi, a niece of Nesselrode, a tall,
+    large, white-looking woman, who has a reputation for
+    cleverness and a great talent on the pianoforte. This morning
+    I went to Leighton's studio, and saw his drawings, which are
+    full of genius.
+
+                                             _Thursday, March 6._
+
+    Heard in the morning that Covent Garden theatre was burnt at
+    seven yesterday morning, and went to announce the event to
+    Mario. In the evening, with Adelaide Sartoris and Leighton, to
+    Ristori's rentree in "Mirrha." She acted more finely than
+    ever, and I was enchanted with her wonderful beauty and
+    classic grace: her tenderness, in this part especially, is
+    indescribable. Adelaide Sartoris had never seen her before,
+    and was as much delighted as astonished at the performance.
+    The audience was in a frenzy of enthusiasm, and yet I do not
+    believe half the people present understood Italian.
+
+                                              _Friday, March 20._
+
+    I went last night with Adelaide Sartoris and Leighton to see
+    Ristori in Alfieri's play of "Rosmunda."
+
+    In reading it I was convinced I should be bored by so inflated
+    a rhodomontade, and that the part of Rosmunda, being one of
+    unmitigated fury and violence, was unsuited to an actress
+    whose chief merit seemed to consist in her power of
+    delineating the gentler passions. I was therefore but little
+    prepared for the wonderful effect she produced upon me and on
+    the audience. The play is horrible and offensive, but her
+    manner of rendering this odious part is nothing short of
+    sublime. Her beauty in the costume of the sixth century is
+    beyond all description, and the manner in which she varies
+    the phases of the same passions of hatred and vengeance, and
+    the prodigious power of the whole impersonation, are
+    marvellous. Her acting of the scene in the third act, when she
+    tells Ildevaldo that Amalchilde loves Romalda, is about the
+    best thing I have seen her do; and the last act, in which she
+    murders her rival, and the way in which she seizes her and
+    drags her up the steps, is like a whirlwind sweeping
+    everything before it; too terrible almost to witness, and
+    prevented my sleeping all night.
+
+                                              _Monday, March 24._
+
+    In the evening I went (as I generally do) to Adelaide
+    Sartoris', where I found Bickerton Lyons, French, and
+    Leighton. This latter is a singularly gifted youth. Besides
+    his talent for painting and drawing, which is already at
+    twenty-five very remarkable, and likely, if he lives, to place
+    him in the highest rank of modern artists, he appears endowed
+    with an extraordinary facility for anything he attempts to do.
+    He speaks many foreign languages with remarkable fluency, and
+    almost without accent; he is possessed of much musical
+    intelligence, and on matters connected with the art which he
+    has made his particular study and profession his information
+    is very extensive--and, I am told by others, better able to
+    judge than myself, that this is the case. With all these
+    qualities, natural and acquired, I never saw a more amiable or
+    single-hearted youth.
+
+                                           _Wednesday, March 26._
+
+    Went with the Sartoris's, Montfort, and Leighton to the Palais
+    Bourbon to see Morny's pictures--a charming collection. The
+    Emperor had just sent him two beautiful pieces of Beauvais
+    tapestry--marvellous specimens of that manufacture; in return,
+    I suppose, for his speech of the other day, with which his
+    Majesty was highly pleased.
+
+                                      _Wednesday, April 2, 1856._
+
+    In the morning, with Adelaide Sartoris, Browning the poet,
+    Cartwright, and Leighton, to the Pourtales Gallery--a charming
+    collection. The pictures that most pleased me were a Paul
+    Veronese, a Rembrandt, and a Greuze. There is also a fine
+    collection of Raphael ware--glass and bronzes. Pourtales has
+    ordered by will that this collection should remain intact for
+    ten years, and then to be sold to the highest bidder.
+
+                                      _Wednesday, April 9, 1856._
+
+    Last night, after a dinner given by a Lady Monson to Adelaide
+    Sartoris, Leighton, and myself, at Philippe's, we adjourned to
+    the first representation of the Italian translation of
+    Legouve's play of "Medea"--that in which Rachel refused, after
+    attending rehearsals, to act the principal part, and about
+    which there was a trial. Great curiosity was shown about this
+    performance, and there was a great scramble for places; and,
+    although inserts for nearly three weeks, we were fobbed off
+    with very bad seats in the orchestra. The play had great
+    success, and that of Ristori was prodigious, but not greater
+    than she deserved. The part is most arduous, full of
+    transitions, and almost always on the full stretch. Her
+    costume was most picturesque, having been designed by
+    Schaeffer, and she looked like a figure on an Etruscan vase;
+    and in no play that I have yet seen her in does she produce
+    more effect than in certain passages of "Medea." The audience
+    was wound up to a pitch of frantic enthusiasm. I am always
+    astonished at the effect she produces on the mass of the
+    audience, when I know how few there are who really can follow
+    the play. But, whether by means of her countenance, voice, or
+    gestures, she contrives to make all the nuances of her acting
+    felt by the public. I expect when she comes to London she will
+    find a vast difference between this excitable and sympathetic
+    audience and that stupid, flat collection of would-be
+    fashionables who will _promener leurs ennuis_ at her
+    performances.
+
+Before his family had arrived in Paris the subject of the Orpheus
+entitled "The Triumph of Music," to which Leighton was devoting
+himself, was criticised by his father, which criticism Leighton
+answered in the following letter:--
+
+    I do not think honestly that the choice of a mythological
+    subject like Orpheus shows the least poverty of invention, a
+    quality, I take it, much more manifested in the manner of
+    treatment than in the choice of a moment.
+
+    About fiddles, I _know_ that the ancients had _none_; it is an
+    anachronism which I commit with my eyes open, because I
+    believe that the picture will go home to the spectator much
+    more forcibly in that shape.
+
+To his mother he writes:--
+
+                                                     RUE PIGALLE.
+
+    I have seen Scheffer,[55] who is cordiality itself to me;
+    Robert Fleury, ditto, and I have further made the acquaintance
+    of Ingres, who, though sometimes bearish beyond measure, was
+    by a piece of luck exceedingly courteous the day I was
+    presented to him. He has just finished a beautiful figure of
+    Nymph, which I was able to admire loudly and sincerely. I have
+    also been to Troyon, who was polite.
+
+    I am fiddling away at the preliminaries of my pictures, a
+    disjointed and desultory period through which one has to wade
+    to get at one's large canvas.
+
+    The Sartoris are of course, as ever, my stronghold and
+    comfort.
+
+    Your loving boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+    I have sent the sketch of my "Orpheus" to Ruskin, and don't
+    yet know his opinion of that particular thing, but I feel
+    about that, that as a _now_ responsible artist, it is my
+    _duty_ to do things exactly as I feel them and to abide by
+    them, risking criticisms and cavillings of every kind. I must
+    be _myself_ for better and for worse; this truth, which I feel
+    strongly myself, has been corroborated by the opinions of
+    Fanny Kemble, Mr. Sartoris and Mrs. Sartoris, all at different
+    times, and quite spontaneously expressed. In haste.--Your
+    dutiful and affectionate son,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+The question naturally arises, considering the sequence of the history
+of the Orpheus picture, _was_ Leighton _himself_ when he painted "The
+Triumph of Music"? I have studied his work from the commencement to
+the close of his artistic career, and this picture remains the unique
+example, in my opinion, when he was _not_ himself; the only picture
+which does not carry out the principle he thought of all importance.
+It does not evince "sincerity of emotion." The feeling and intention
+of the work when first conceived had been absolutely sincere; but,
+when it came to the performance, spontaneity had failed. It seems to
+have been painted when he was overshadowed by an influence which was
+alien to his real artistic sense, and is a further proof that Paris
+was an entirely unsympathetic atmosphere to him. The picture appears
+to me to be in feeling unreal, stagey--not to say, ridiculous. That
+Leighton, after the first bitterness of his failure was over, shared
+somewhat the same view of it is certain; for shortly after the Academy
+Exhibition of 1856 was over he took it off the stretcher, rolled it
+up, and consigned it to oblivion during his lifetime in the dark
+recess of a cellar.
+
+Notes in Mr. Henry Greville's Diary, dated April 24th and Tuesday, May
+6th, run as follows:--
+
+                                              LONDON, _April 24_.
+
+    Went yesterday to Colnaghi's to see Leighton's picture of
+    "Romeo and Juliet," with which I was much pleased. Colnaghi
+    tells me it is much admired, and said, "Young Leighton will,
+    one day, be a very great man."
+
+                                                _Tuesday, May 6._
+
+    A letter from Leighton, in answer to mine preparing him for
+    the failure of his picture in the Exhibition, says: "Whatever
+    I may have felt about my little bankruptcy, there is no fear
+    of its disabling me for work, for if I am impressionable I am
+    also obstinate; and, with God's will, I will one day stride
+    over the necks of the penny-a-liners, that they may not have
+    the triumph of having bawled me down before I have had time to
+    be heard."
+
+In April Leighton's family left Paris to travel in Switzerland. The
+following letters to his mother show the spirit in which Leighton met
+his artistic disaster.
+
+                                                         _May 7._
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I received your two kind letters in due time,
+    and answer them on the second day you fixed, having in the
+    interval had time to hear about the fate of my picture; but
+    first let me say, dear mamma, that you need never fear my
+    misinterpreting or taking awry any kind advice that your love
+    and solicitude may dictate to you. I am reading as much as
+    ever my eyes will allow--indeed, you are strangely mistaken in
+    thinking I don't see the necessity of reading. I assure you
+    that it is a perpetual mortification to me to feel how little
+    I know, but I stand unfortunately at such a disadvantage owing
+    to the weakness of my eyes and my unprecedented absence of
+    mind; however, I shall do what I can, and hope for the best.
+
+    Dearest Mamma, I did not expect to write a _consolatory_ note
+    to you to inaugurate your journey, but I am sorry to say that
+    I am in that painful position. My picture, which has been
+    exceedingly badly hung, so that one can scarcely see half of
+    it (indeed I believe only the figure of Orpheus), is an
+    _entire failure_; the papers have abused, the public does not
+    care for it, in fact it is a "fiasco." Ruskin (who likes the
+    "Romeo" very much) is disappointed with "Orpheus," tho' he
+    says of course a man like me can't do anything that has not
+    great merits, and that I am to attach no importance to the
+    malicious articles written by venal critics. Now, dearest
+    Mother, look upon this--you and Papa, who takes so
+    affectionate an interest in my welfare--look upon this, as I
+    do, as a fortunate occurrence; consider what an edge and a
+    zest I get for my future efforts, and what an incentive I have
+    to exert myself to put down the venomous jargon of envious
+    people--next year, tho' the Academicians may think that they
+    have cowed me, I shall very probably not exhibit; but the year
+    after, God willing, they shall feel the weight of my hand in a
+    way that will surprise them. The more they abuse, the better
+    I'll paint--industry against spite--I will have a pull for it.
+    Dear Henry Greville behaves to me like an angel; he writes
+    _every day_, and sends me the _Times_ regularly. Mrs.
+    Sartoris, too, writes very often. You will be glad to hear
+    that my prospects about models are rather brighter than they
+    were; I have found two or three that will be useful.
+
+                                                 PARIS, _Sunday_.
+
+    Although my letter (and I am afraid a very unpleasant one)
+    must have reached you as soon as the other was fairly out of
+    the house, yet I write a line in answer to all the kind and
+    considerate things you wrote in the idea I might be ill or
+    irritable. I value your kind solicitude, dear Mamma, as much
+    as you can wish, I assure you, and should indeed be heartily
+    sorry in any way to give you pain or make you in any way
+    unhappy--and talking of that, dear Mamma, I sincerely hope you
+    have completely got over your first annoyance about my fiasco,
+    which, except of course in a pecuniary point of view, is in
+    point of fact a fortunate event for my future progress, in the
+    _elan_ it gives to my application and particularly to my
+    obstinacy. I am very busy now at "Pan" and "Venus," but have
+    not decided what I shall do next year. I think it is very
+    characteristic of the critics that they _none_ of them mention
+    "Romeo and Juliet," which is, I know, universally liked. Dear
+    Mamma, never fear, your boy will walk over all that--depend
+    upon it. How does Papa take it? How the girls?--Give to all my
+    best love, and believe me, your very devoted son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+                                                 _Tuesday, 1856._
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--In the hope that I should receive to-day Ruskin's
+    pamphlet on the Institution, I delayed until now answering
+    your kind letter. It has, however, not arrived, and as there
+    is great uncertainty whether it really is already published or
+    no, I think it better not to keep you longer without news from
+    me. The criticisms in the papers are, as far as I can judge,
+    partly from the little I have read and partly from what my
+    friends tell me, singularly injudicious, leaving almost
+    entirely untouched the really vulnerable parts of the picture,
+    and attacking almost exclusively that which is least
+    objectionable--the execution.
+
+    Ruskin does not much like the picture, and prefers the "Romeo"
+    considerably, but he will write of course in a serious spirit
+    and like an intelligent man. I have just made the acquaintance
+    of Robert Fleury--the best French colourist, in my
+    opinion--and he received me with the greatest kindness and
+    simplicity, showing all that he had, and explaining anything
+    that I wished to know; this is a valuable acquaintance which
+    I owe to Montfort. I have made the acquaintance of a highly
+    talented young German genre painter of whom I had heard in
+    Frankfurt; he is my age, and paints with greater facility, but
+    my talent is of a higher order I think. Ary Scheffer has been
+    very amiable and pleasant to me about my fiasco, telling me
+    what he went through himself, and telling me to think nothing
+    of it. I sent to Wild shortly after you left, and was able to
+    render him a little service in the way of some Venetian
+    costumes, still I hesitate to ask him to introduce me to Paul
+    Delaroche. We shall see about all that next autumn when I come
+    back from Italy, when the Viardots will also introduce me to
+    Delacroix.
+
+    Pan and Venus are progressing _tout doucement_.
+
+    I have written to Watts to ask his leave to put my pictures in
+    his studio (Pan and Venus) in Little Holland House. I read
+    carefully all you said, dear Mamma, about the critics, &c. &c.
+    I honestly think that my ill-luck is in no way attributable to
+    over-hurrying. Those things in my picture which were really
+    most open to discussion, I did all with my eyes open and
+    deliberately, and they were the only ones that the discerning
+    scribblers seem not to have noticed. Again, with regard to the
+    said critics, I think, dear Mamma, you see things "en noir."
+    _Who reports_ me to have sneered at ----? I did internally, as
+    I do at all snobs. However, I have long since banished the
+    whole subject. If ever I attain real excellence, the public
+    will in the long run find it out; and if they don't pay me
+    they will at least acknowledge me, especially when the
+    pre-Raphaelite "engouement" has calmed a little. In a
+    fortnight I shall go to England; by that time Pan and Venus
+    will be done, and I think they promise well. I am very anxious
+    to get to London. I mean to enjoy it very much--take my fill,
+    and then go for a short time to Italy to renew my profession
+    of faith before Raphael and Michael Angelo. I am very glad to
+    hear that you are enjoying yourselves, and that you remember
+    me in the midst of your jonquils and anemones.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[48] Watts wrote at the time Leighton died that he had enjoyed an
+uninterrupted friendship with him of forty-five years. This was
+evidently a slight miscalculation. We read in one of Leighton's letters
+to his mother from Rome that Watts had called on him, but that he had
+missed seeing him, and Watts certainly spoke to me of this interview on
+the pavement of Montagu Square in 1855 as the first he had had with
+Leighton.
+
+[49] In a letter from his mother, December 22, 1854, she quotes an
+extract from the _Morning Post_, written by a critic who had been
+visiting the studios in Rome, and who alludes to Leighton's sympathy
+with Giotto. It reads to-day as quaint and curiously antiquated as do
+Knight's scornful criticisms on the Elgin Marbles. Mrs. Leighton
+writes: "One sentence in your letter has set your dear father on the
+horns of anxiety. You tell us we are not to expect too much from your
+pictures, and remind us 'that the path which leads to success, &c. &c.'
+Now, Papa fancies that you had underpainted your canvas and were not
+satisfied with the result, and that was the cause of your writing less
+hopefully than usual. We have been wishing much to hear what your
+progress was; knowing the subject of each picture, we should have
+understood if you had reported progress. In case you are in want of a
+little encouragement, I must tell you the other day Papa enters the
+drawing-room with a radiant face. He held in his hand a piece of paper,
+and requesting my attention, he read me its contents, which I copy for
+you, and which I found were taken from a column in the _Morning Post_
+devoted to criticisms on artists and their works chiefly, I believe, on
+the Continent, but of that I am not quite sure. 'I next called on Mr.
+Leighton, who is employed on a canvas of many feet. His subject
+is'--then follows the description, after which he adds: 'Mr. Leighton
+will become a great artist if he advances as he has begun. His drawing
+is admirable, much better than that of English artists generally. Some
+of the figures are Giottoish in the treatment of the drapery, which is
+scarcely pardonable, because drapery fell flowingly about the human
+body in Giotto's time as well as now. Why imitate the uncomfortable
+line of that conventional rag? It is, however, unfair to judge of
+anything beyond drawing and composition in the present state of this
+picture, which is an extraordinary work for so young a man.' Remarks
+more or less favourable were made on several other artists, but nothing
+like what you have just read. Do you know this critic? I need not tell
+you how highly we appreciate this gentleman's sagacity; but jokes
+apart, Papa was rather puzzled at such a criticism about the drapery of
+some of the figures, because you excel in such folds, so it seems to us
+odd that you should skimp any of your figures. The same column contains
+observations on the subject of 'High Art' and large historical
+pictures, or rather comments on those made by young students, such
+indeed as I have heard you make, that I could almost have fancied the
+author was answering your remarks. We were rather startled to read in
+your letter that you find you had better not use the interests of a
+professional man to facilitate the admission of your picture into the
+Exhibition of the Royal Academy, but trust to its merits for that
+result, as we are told the Exhibition in question is, strictly
+speaking, a private affair for the works of the members only and such
+as they choose to admit, which explains perhaps the complaints of
+rejection one has read of from time to time. I hope your picture may be
+kindly judged and well hung."
+
+[50] On a first visit to Athens I was struck by the extraordinary
+insignificance and want of beauty in the Levantines of mixed race who
+crowded the streets; nowhere seemed there a trace left among the
+inhabitants of the town of the type of Greek beauty. When travelling a
+few days later to Colonna, while the train stopped at a station on the
+lower slopes of Hymettus, I saw two men hurrying through the adjacent
+olive groves to catch it. They were dressed in the Greek costume of the
+provinces--an embroidered waistcoat cut low leaving the throat bare,
+the short white plaited skirt, and the heavy cloak falling from one
+shoulder. Either of these men might have sat to Pheidias for the
+Theseus. Both were more magnificent in form than any statue ever made.
+Doubtless, in the days of her ancient glory, Greece contained a far
+larger proportion of inhabitants who were beautiful than are to be
+found now; nevertheless Pheidias without a doubt had to exercise his
+gift of selecting the best, no less than did Leighton and Watts.
+
+[51] See List of Illustrations.
+
+[52] Ibid.
+
+[53] Ibid.
+
+[54] Mr. Herbert Wilson.
+
+[55] The story is that on Leighton's expressing his gratitude at
+receiving a visit from him (Ary Scheffer), he replied, "If I did not
+attach considerable importance to your talent, I should not have
+mounted three flights of stairs to see you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+FRIENDS
+
+
+Leighton's friendships were very salient, vivid interests to him among
+the varied occupations of his life. In any complete picture of his
+personality these must take a prominence only secondary to his passion
+for Art and Beauty,--and for "his second home,"--the land that had
+cast such a strange spell and charm over him from the early days of
+childhood,--to his love for his family, and his reverent devotion to
+his master, Steinle, and to Mrs. Sartoris. To these two inspiring
+friends and teachers he declared he owed what he prized most in life,
+namely, a development of those gifts and qualities which enabled him
+to be of service to his generation.
+
+"I have always believed that his ruling passion was _Duty_--the
+keenest possible sense of it," Mr. Briton Riviere writes. The
+influences which were the most precious to Leighton were assuredly
+those which enabled him to extend his own influence in the highest and
+widest direction, and fulfil exhaustively his duty to his
+fellow-creatures. Every moment of his life was real and earnest to
+him. Every moment had a purpose--ever before him was the urgent
+imperative necessity he felt of being _faithful_: faithful in every
+detail as in decisive final aims. If an epithet had to be attached to
+his name, epitomising Leighton's salient characteristics, the most
+appropriate would surely be "Leighton the faithful."
+
+Many among those who are dead,--also among the now living, found in
+him their best friend. The letters written to him by Mr. Henry
+Greville, and those that Leighton wrote to Mr. Hanson Walker are good
+examples, among the many that have been preserved, showing the very
+prominent place his friends took in Leighton's life. In the first we
+trace the tender affection he inspired in the hearts of his
+intimates,[56] and in the second the ardent manner in which Leighton
+would help artists younger than himself, and how with a parental
+solicitude he would do his best to forward their true interests.[57]
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF HEAD FOR "LIEDER OHNE WORTE." 1860
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+The following letters from Mr. Henry Greville were written on
+Leighton's return to Paris, after he had run over to London to place
+the "Romeo" picture which had been in the Paris International
+Exhibition with Colnaghi, and after "The Triumph of Music" had been
+sent in to the Academy.
+
+                                              LONDON, _April 25_.
+
+    DEAR FAY,--You are rather a bad boy not to have given either
+    Ad. or me a _signe de vie_, but as I have not seen her to-day,
+    she may have heard from you. We both want to do so _very_
+    much, so pray write ME a line directly. I only do so to-day to
+    say that at my suggestion Ad. and I rushed off yesterday again
+    to Colnaghi to find out if the Queen or Albert knew of your
+    picture being at his shop; and if not, to ask him to let them
+    know it, if he could do so with propriety. He said he would at
+    once send the picture to B. Palace, as he was in the habit of
+    doing other works; though he did not think that it was likely
+    they would buy another picture of yours, he admitted that it
+    might be advantageous to you that they should see it. He again
+    praised the picture greatly, and told us that it was
+    universally admired. My sister prefers it infinitely to
+    "Cimabue" in all respects, but the fact is, the subject is
+    more attractive to English people than the other. I have
+    nothing else to tell you. I am _very_ seedy with an affection
+    of the bronchial tubes, and very low, and would give anything
+    to see you, my dear boy, but must have patience till the
+    pleasant moment of having you under my roof arrives. You will
+    be glad to hear that my mother is better. I have not seen
+    Ellesmere, as he was at the Review, but you may depend on my
+    not forgetting your interests. The said Review was a most
+    glorious spectacle, and they had a splendid day for it. I am
+    starved to death here, and Ad. and I do nothing but grumble.
+    She and I dined _tete-a-tete_ last night, and slept and
+    coughed through the evening with the occasional intermission
+    of talking of you--you old Fay! To-night I am going with her
+    to Eli, though I ought to be in my bed. Theo is ill and can't
+    come, and Fanny reads. Oh! that you were to be with us! Tell
+    me if you would object to a VERY slight gold frame to the
+    drawings--merely a _line_, because, as my rooms are all white,
+    and that everything in them has gilt, the drawings want a sort
+    of background--which this slight frame would give them. Tell
+    me what you think. I don't mean to hang up my Vintage, but
+    keep it near me on an _easle_ (how do you spell it?). Charley,
+    being highly coloured, looks lovely, and don't want any
+    frame--nasty Charley! Now pray write and tell me all about
+    yourself--and the _moddles_--and how you _are_--and how you
+    get on--and what you do. Don't drag off to dull parties, but
+    go to bed early.
+
+    God bless you. Amami, ne ho gran bisogno. Colnaghi said he had
+    heard from one Cooper a very good report of "Orpheus."
+
+                                                               H.
+
+    How have the photographs turned out? I like your portrait less
+    now that you are away--but it can't be helped, it is better
+    than none, but it looks so sad. I have hung you and Ad. up
+    side by side in sweet companionship in my dressing-room, so
+    that I may see you both the first thing on waking.
+
+                                            LONDON, _April 26th_.
+
+    DEAREST BIMBO,--You have made us pass some very anxious hours,
+    as the telegraph which I sent off at seven this morning will
+    have testified, though it will also have surprised and perhaps
+    alarmed you until you read its contents. The fact is, _I_
+    thought it odd that we did not hear from you, yesterday at all
+    events, as I felt sure you would have written immediately on
+    getting our joint note from Boulogne, Wednesday, and certainly
+    on the following day. However, I felt sanguine that on going
+    to dine at 79, I should find that Ad. had heard from you, but,
+    on the contrary, I found her full of anxiety at no letter,
+    imagining every species of cause for your silence, which she
+    said was so very unlike you, that I directly caught the same
+    state of worry, and we determined that I should telegraph the
+    first thing this morning to know if you were ill, or if
+    anything had happened. I never slept all night, and of course
+    had worked myself, with her assistance, into a wretched state
+    of anxiety about you--when at nine your letter arrived, and a
+    blessed relief it was. I should not probably have been in such
+    a state, had Adelaide not been convinced that illness or some
+    catastrophe had prevented your writing, because, she said,
+    your _wont_ was to do so immediately on parting with her, and
+    she could account for it in no other way. In short, dear Fay,
+    we were very foolish; but I assure you our folly met its own
+    punishment by the anxiety, and which spoilt our "Eli"
+    entirely. Poor Fay! I daresay you little thought that we were
+    tormenting ourselves about you, and I, for one, shall try and
+    not do so any more. Your letter is like yourself--dear and
+    kind. With regard to the enclosure, my opinion is that you
+    would not do wisely or handsomely by Colnaghi to withdraw your
+    picture from his keeping, unless he _wished_ to get rid of it
+    to make room for the supposed exhibition of drawings;
+    moreover, my own opinion is that you would not do well to
+    exhibit at the Crystal Palace. I have no faith in that
+    institution, and I think it will be a pity to rob your studio
+    of the "Pan" and "Venus" for that purpose; but as I do not
+    consider myself a good judge of these matters or competent to
+    advise you, I think I should be very much guided by what other
+    artists of the same standing as yourself think and do in the
+    matter, and before deciding or answering Mr. Magwood, I should
+    write to Buckner or any one else competent to advise you and
+    ask their opinion. I don't know what Sister Adelaide will say,
+    but I have sent her your letter and the enclosure, and she
+    will probably write to you on the subject. You are _too_ dear
+    and nice about my mother. I fear that before you come she will
+    have left London, and I don't think you would like to paint
+    her, because her sweet face is entirely hidden by the shade
+    she is obliged to wear over her poor eyes; but _you_ know
+    whether I should like her portrait painted by you! But, dear
+    Fay, you are too lavish of your time on others, and do not
+    think enough of yourself. Here I was interrupted by a visit
+    from Adelaide, overjoyed at hearing all is well with you, and
+    agreeing entirely with me _in re_ C. Palace, Colnaghi, &c. She
+    says if C. wishes the picture to be removed, it is for him to
+    express that wish and not you, that a better order of people
+    go to him than those who frequent the C.P., that he is
+    well-disposed towards you, and that it is advisable you should
+    keep him as your friend.
+
+    We think Mogford's reference useless, being a foreigner, and
+    we are certain that unless _Millais_ and others of the same
+    class exhibit at the C.P., you had best have nothing to do
+    with it. I took Ad. up to your room, and she says you will be
+    _comfy_ in it; and she saw your nice face, patted it, and
+    said, "Dear Fay, but it looks so sad!" She thinks both
+    drawings will be better for a slight gilt _rim_, but I won't
+    put it on without your leave. I am so glad you are leading a
+    wholesome life, and getting the b. who planted you, rather
+    than dawdle proudly, and be without a good _moddle_. I have
+    nothing to say, dear Bimbo, and you will have had enough of
+    me. I am very bad with an ulcerated throat, cough, and
+    inflamed bronchia, and altogether below par. I have seen
+    hardly anybody since I came. Adelaide would have been pleased
+    with "Eli," had she been in a vein where pleasure was
+    possible. Pauline sang to perfection the lovely music allotted
+    to her. And now, dearest Bimbo, God bless you. Write very
+    often, if only a _line_, as it is comfortable to hear that all
+    is well with you--that is always the news I most wish to get;
+    and tell me how the pictures progress, and your real state of
+    mind about them.--Your old and loving Babbo,
+
+                                                               H.
+
+    I send back Mogford. Penelope B. (Bentinck) tells me that the
+    great judge, George, condescends to approve "Romeo" mightily!!
+
+                                    LONDON, _Monday, April 28th_.
+
+    DEAR GOOD FAY,--Cartwright was wrong about the telegraph, but
+    as our anxiety was removed by your letter, I did not expect
+    you to send me one. Knowing how likely you were to write,
+    supposing you to be well, you may imagine that we were not a
+    little anxious at getting no sign of life from you, in return
+    for our daily letters, and I never could have guessed that the
+    Boulogne letter would only have reached you on Saturday!
+    However, all is well that ends well, but we passed a very
+    disagreeable day and night, and it was _because_ we did _not_
+    think you capable of putting off writing that we fussed and
+    worried ourselves about you--foolishly, dear Fay, no doubt. I
+    am very seedy and confined to the house by throat, bronchia,
+    unceasing cough, swelled glands, bad eyes--and should not
+    inflict myself and ailments upon you, but that it is a solace
+    and a comfort to _causer avec "mon petit dernier"_--a
+    cognomen which smiles UPON me--and made _me_ smile. Sister
+    Adelaide tea'd with me last night _en tete a tete_. Fanny was
+    grand, and would not come in, though she dropped her sister at
+    my door, because (she said) I had not said _to_ her that I
+    wished _for_ her! I was so little _en train_ that I was not
+    sorry to have only Adelaide, and we _did_ more than once say
+    how we wished Fay was eating the muffin destined for the proud
+    Fanny. Adelaide has just been here, and brought me your dear
+    letter. I don't see any _present_ prospect of the fire of my
+    affliction being extinguished or allowed to grow dim, so you
+    may make your mind easy on that score, excellent Fay. I feel
+    for your loneliness, and know what a contrast it must present
+    with the sweet fellowship we have held together so unceasingly
+    for those last two months. The only thing you gain by the loss
+    of your people is more time, and a later repast. I don't doubt
+    poor Mamma being unhappy at leaving you, her true and only
+    Benjamin, and for an indefinite time. I can judge by what I
+    felt at parting with _mon petit dernier_, and _with_ the hope
+    of so soon greeting him again. No, Fay, I won't have the
+    Charley drawing, and I won't have you do anything more for any
+    one but yourself, knowing as I do all the things you have on
+    hand--and _a propos_ of _that_, I must tell you that I have
+    endeavoured to put another iron in the fire _in re_ fresco. I
+    asked Lady Abercorn, who is my dearest friend, to speak to
+    Lord Aberdeen (her father-in-law) who is on the Committee of
+    Taste, or whatever it is called, first about your picture at
+    Colnaghi's and then of you generally as desirous of painting
+    in fresco, and as of one whose studies have been that way
+    directed, in whom I take a great interest; but I made her
+    understand that it was no _job_ I wanted done, or that I asked
+    any favour, but merely I wished it to be known that Leighton,
+    a very rising artist, would like to be employed in that line,
+    if an occasion presented itself. Lady A. understood me exactly
+    and being very sympathetic immediately conceived an interest
+    for my _petit dernier_ (I wish you were my son, Fay!) and said
+    if she did not see Lord Aberdeen very soon she would write to
+    him. Neither I nor Adelaide know where Windsor and Newton
+    live, so you had best write straight to him to send the
+    colours you want. I think I _must_ put just a _baguette d'or_
+    on the drawings, and when you see them on my walls I don't
+    think you will disapprove. With regard to Cartwright, Adelaide
+    says Jules Sartoris has got a place called Tusmore. I should
+    advise him to lose no time in advertising it both in the
+    newspaper and by different agents in town and country. I
+    should think it was a place _sure_ to be let, from its
+    convenient distance from London and other advantages. There is
+    no news here.
+
+                                               LONDON, _May 6th_.
+
+    DEAREST FAY,--Your letter is a relief and a comfort. It is
+    both to me to see you take this disagreeable business so
+    manfully, so wisely, and to think that instead of being cast
+    down, your energies will only be aroused by this stupid and
+    unjust criticism. In this case it may, then, well be said,
+    "Sweet are the uses of adversity." As to all the other papers,
+    I can't pretend to say what they may have written, but the
+    _Leader_ is one of no repute, and, as Ruskin said to Adelaide
+    this morning, it don't REALLY signify _what_ they write; in
+    the long run talent and genius must prevail, as yours will,
+    dear Fay, if it please God to grant you, as I fervently pray,
+    health and strength. She is going to write to you, and will
+    tell you all Ruskin said, and also what she thinks of the
+    Exhibition in general and your picture in particular, which, I
+    hear, is infamously placed--that is, in so bad a light that
+    only _Orpheus_ is visible. Passing, I must tell you that
+    Edward (Sartoris) came to see me yesterday, and the _first_
+    thing he said on entering the room was, "Well, I don't think
+    Leighton's picture looks bad. Orpheus's drapery is too yellow,
+    but it don't look amiss at all." This was rather much for him,
+    eh? He likes "Autumn Leaves," and he praised the "Leslie"
+    (which Adelaide says is all very well, but "slaty"). Landseer
+    is beautiful--but E. (Edward Sartoris) was _sous le charme_,
+    having sat next him at dinner at Marochetti's, when he told me
+    L. was as much _aux petits soins_ for him as if he had been
+    the loveliest of females. I am so glad about the models, and
+    if I don't hear from you as often shall know why. I am also
+    glad you dine with Cartwright and Co., but _how_ you _can_
+    dandle a nasty, doughy, puffy, bread-and-butter smelling thing
+    called a baby! Pah! a baby is my horror and aversion. Never do
+    it again--not even by your own. I could not have dandled even
+    my Bimbo without a grimace. Well done! old hideous ----; if
+    she promise not to act herself, I'll take a box for her next
+    benefit. She is the _ame damnee_ of Macready, so that her
+    verdict surprises me. I expect she will begin imitating her,
+    and have Medea translated--horrible idea! Read Ellesmere's
+    speech; it is very pretty, and the whole debate is
+    interesting, but Derby and Co. don't cut a good figure at all.
+    I am getting better now, and dined with my parent yesterday,
+    but can't go out in daytime for fear of eyes and throat, the
+    wind is so cold. Of course I read your letter to Ad. (Adelaide
+    Sartoris). (I think you had best now write straight to her,
+    because as I am soon hoping to be out, and have no one to send
+    so far, your letters will get to her quicker and more surely
+    by post.)
+
+    You must be very careful, and take time to weigh well and
+    consider the subjects of your future pictures. I think the
+    Mermaid might be both interesting and effective well carried
+    out, and you might also perhaps paint some subject from some
+    one of the Italian poets--Tasso, Ariosto, Boccaccio--for your
+    own satisfaction. God bless you! my dear boy. I am longing to
+    see you again already. Tell me how the models answer and how
+    you get on. _Don't_ call Brackley _de_. They are removed to
+    the Meurice. If you don't find them, write to her and offer to
+    go with her (saying at my suggestion) to the Louvre.--Love
+    your old Babbo,
+
+                                                               H.
+
+Later in the summer Mr. Greville wrote:--
+
+                                     1856, HATCHFORD, _Thursday_.
+
+    MY DEAR BOY,--I do sympathise with your disgust at the same
+    time that I think you have acted very _legerement_ about your
+    pictures, and, in fact, taken no trouble or heed about them.
+    _You should have seen to it all yourself before you left
+    London_, or have given directions to Watts, to which he would
+    have attended, instead of leaving him in total ignorance as to
+    what you meant or wished, and which picture or if both were to
+    go. I kept perpetually telling you to see after this business
+    and to be more _exact_ in it, but you see now the consequence
+    of not attending to things more carefully. You had better
+    write a curt letter to Greene, reminding him that you _had_
+    given written directions (as you say) that it was your "_Pan_"
+    that was to be removed, and that you made no mention of the
+    "Venus" (what has he done with her?), and again asking him
+    (since he had not replied to the query) whether he had got the
+    "Romeo." I shan't be in London until to-morrow night late, and
+    as you are to be there on Monday there will be no use in my
+    going to Greene, but I can do so on Saturday if you wish it.
+    I have had an answer from Ellesmere's secretary, to whom I
+    wrote to go and see if your pictures were well hung, to say
+    that the Exhibition only opens in first week of September,[58]
+    but that he has a friend who is an influential member of the
+    hanging committee, and that he will speak to him in favour of
+    yours being put into a good light. I heard from Adelaide
+    yesterday that she will be in town on Monday and will dine us.
+    I hoped you would have stayed (and she too) all Tuesday and
+    gone away on Wednesday morning, so that we might have spent
+    two evenings together, and I am disappointed. I shall go to
+    Scotland on Wednesday, and am sorry to have settled to do so.
+    I suppose you know Alfred Sartoris marries Miss Barrington--an
+    alliance which will enchant Aunt ----, as the young lady is
+    "The Honourable," and allied to several marquesses and
+    earls.--Addio, caro, your ever affectionate H.
+
+    _P.S._--Write again by all means to Greene asking _what has
+    become of the "Venus,"_ and also whether the "Romeo" has or
+    _not_ been sent to Manchester--whether you employ him or not,
+    you have a right to know what he has done with your property.
+    Write a line to Queen Street to-morrow to say at what time you
+    will be there on Monday that I may not be out of the way.
+
+    Rain has come, but it is still deliciously warm and fine in
+    the intervals.
+
+Later in the same year Mr. Greville wrote:--
+
+                                       LONDON, _August 26, 1856_.
+
+    MY DEAREST FAY,--I have just got your letter of Saturday 23rd
+    from Frankfort, and as you state therein that you were to
+    leave that place on Monday, and that the letters which I sent
+    to Malet for you could only reach him on that morning, it is
+    next to certain that they will not have reached you. I
+    requested him, in the event of your having left Frankfort, or
+    in his failing to find you out, to send them on to the _p.
+    restante_ at Venice, and you will probably find them there
+    together with this letter, but I think it best also to send
+    you the originals for fear of accident, as it is desirable
+    that you should write to Mr. Harrison yourself.[59] In the
+    meanwhile, I have told him that when I knew your address I
+    would apprize him of it, and in a few days I shall write and
+    say that you are at Venice; but I don't think he will write to
+    you any more, but that he will expect to know _when you are
+    likely to return_. Having got so far, it of course is out of
+    the question that you should think of, or for a moment be
+    expected to return on purpose, and I think it most likely you
+    will be able to get Watts to go and look at the picture, in
+    case the matter should be pressing; but I think it will be
+    best that you offer to return to England before you settle at
+    Paris, and whenever your present tour (which I told Mr.
+    Harrison was one for artistic purposes) shall be ended. It
+    will be a great bore having to come back even then, on
+    purpose. I am sorry you did not get the letters at Frankfort;
+    on the whole though, perhaps they would only have worried you
+    and have made you _hesitate_ as to _returning_, and which
+    perhaps you might have thought _shorter_ and less troublesome
+    than having to come back by-and-bye. However, it is very
+    probable you may get Watts to do what is necessary, and that
+    you may be saved the expense and bore of another journey here
+    in the autumn. Adelaide and I contemplated the possibility of
+    your coming over at once from Frankfort, and we both
+    deprecated the idea, though we privately said how intensely
+    glad we should be to see you--selfish as it might be; and it
+    was arranged that I was to telegraph to her to Tunbridge where
+    she is gone to-day. Thanks, you dear boy, for your letter just
+    received. I can understand your pleasure at finding yourself
+    in your old haunts again, with your old friend and master to
+    whom you owe so much. It is a great comfort to me to find that
+    he likes your drawings, though I never doubted his doing so. I
+    was amused by your account of the Pimp and Ballerina, whose
+    modesty seems to have attracted you more than that of the
+    Russian Princess. Since writing to you last I have done but
+    little. I am come into town this morning expecting to find
+    Ffrench, but he has not turned up. I saw Sister A.[60]
+    yesterday on her way through, but my visit was spoilt by the
+    ---- Girls and Cigala, who (as he never made love to me)
+    appears to me merely a _bon sabreur_ and horse fancier. You
+    know my opinion of the young ladies, who, _par parenthese_,
+    adore you. I am still at H. (Holland) House, and shall remain
+    there until Friday, when I come to dine with Adelaide, and
+    shall then go to Hatchford until I repair to Worsley--my
+    sister will be established there before long. Yesterday,
+    Ellesmere's secretary sent me a letter to say that the gent.
+    of the hanging committee "would take care that Mr. Leighton's
+    pictures were placed in the most favourable position."[61] So
+    let us hope for the best. I must tell you that Vic. is come
+    home, and is now opposite to me, and that she looks admirably
+    well. We have had heaps of people at H. House at dinner almost
+    every day. Marochetti came yesterday. He is full of the
+    subject of colouring statues, and has just taken to Osborne
+    two busts which the Queen was to present to-day to P. Albert
+    for his birthday. Marochetti _traite d'imbeciles_ all the
+    English sculptors who cannot yet take in this "undoubted
+    fact." He says Gibson is the only one who admits it, but even
+    he will not go Marochetti's lengths. Watts is (you know) at
+    Malvern, and the doctor thought him decidedly better before he
+    went, and that he may get into tolerable health. I think he is
+    to be at Malvern three weeks. John Leslie's wedding is at this
+    moment proceeding; he has almost settled to buy Lady C.
+    Lascelles' house at Campden Hill, which will be a capital
+    position for his studio, and another Sunday lounge for you
+    next year. Next year! (_eheu fugaces!_) a long time to wait to
+    see you again under my roof, you very dear boy. I always think
+    this dispersing time so melancholy. I wonder if I shall hear
+    from you before Venice. Oh yes, of course, you will write
+    wherever you stop. Mind and tell me about your studies, and
+    what you see and do--above all things take care of your
+    health, and don't catch fever by working in the sun, &c.
+    Charles says he can't think where your hat box can be--he is
+    in ecstasies with your old trousers, which have come out
+    brand new and a capital fit! You would be quite envious if
+    you could see them.
+
+    Good-bye, best of Fays. I shall send this letter off and write
+    another in a few days. I will mark _outside_ the dates of my
+    letters (and PRAY, mind and always date yours--you never do)
+    so that you will know which to open first. God bless you, you
+    dear _good_ fellow.--Love your fond old,
+
+                                                           BABBO.
+
+                                   LONDON, _Thursday, August 28_.
+
+    DEAREST FAY,--One line to say that this afternoon your letter
+    of Sunday with the enclosed for Harrison reached me. It is a
+    relief to me that you _got_ the letters, and I think your
+    answer does very well, but as it had no cover, and that I was
+    obliged to send it in my own name to Harrison, I added, what
+    _you_ had better have done, that if necessary you could easily
+    come over the beginning of November, and I rather hope they
+    will accept that offer, as by that time the Court will have
+    returned from Scotland (perhaps to Windsor though), and you
+    might have a chance of being brought into contact with Albert,
+    and you would jabber good German to him and win his heart,
+    which _may_ be valuable to you. With regard to Watts, he said
+    he should be too happy to do _anything_ for you, but he wished
+    you to be thrown with Albert. He (Watts) is better and has
+    left Malvern. I got yesterday the _Manchester Guardian_, with
+    a sort of preliminary list of the pictures which are to be
+    opened to the private view to-morrow. They were not then all
+    hung, but they mention the "Romeo" as in a conspicuous
+    place--a sombre picture, but the Romeo and Juliet finely
+    conceived--or something to that effect. You shall hear all
+    about it. I have got little Ffrench till Saturday, when I go
+    to Hatchford and he home. I expect Adelaide to-morrow--we dine
+    with her, and I _fear_ shall have ----, which will be a potent
+    bore. There is of course no other news. Penelope Bentinck has
+    produced a huge boy, and is quite well. John Leslie's marriage
+    went off without any tears, and he made a very good "neat and
+    appropriate."
+
+    God bless you, my very dear boy--you are not so fond of me as
+    I am of you--be sure of it. Take care of yourself, and write
+    to and love your old
+
+                                                         BABBINO.
+
+    Tell me all about your studies, as they interest me, and don't
+    forget to put me up to some pretty cheap gilt-moulding for my
+    frame.
+
+    Adelaide was pleased and touched at your seeing about her
+    pictures. Fay, she is devotedly attached to you--you may be
+    sure of it.
+
+                                        HATCHFORD, _September 9_.
+
+    MY DEAREST FAY,--I am going to begin a letter to you which I
+    can only send when I know where to direct to you, for after
+    Venice (from whence I have not heard from you yet) you have
+    given me no address. I hope to hear that you got all mine sent
+    to that place, and particularly the one enclosing a copy of
+    Phipps' letter to me in which he tells me it is the Queen's
+    wish that you come over here on your return to Paris. I got
+    your letter from Meran on Thursday last, and I sent it off to
+    Adelaide by that post, enjoining her to let me have it back by
+    the next, since which I have never had a line from her, and at
+    last grew so alarmed that I wrote to Anne to ask what had
+    happened, and that I could not but fear Ad. had been sent for
+    to Edward[62] in Ireland. To this letter I got _no_ reply, and
+    I have been in great suspense and anxiety till this morning,
+    when sure enough my surmise proved correct, and I got a few
+    lines from Adelaide herself from Muckross, whither she arrived
+    on Saturday, having left Warnford the day before, they having
+    sent for her. She has, I do not doubt, written to you and told
+    you that she found him neither dead or dying, but in a low,
+    bilious fever, having been in bed a week, and the doctor not
+    giving much hope of a speedy recovery. She, however, intends
+    to move him as soon as it is possible, but it may be some time
+    first, and of course their plans are more or less uncertain,
+    and mine of meeting them in London at an end, as I shall be
+    gone to Worsley before they can be in town. It is, however, a
+    mercy that this illness is not even more serious than it is.
+    When I heard his account of himself as I passed through
+    London, I wondered that she was not more alarmed, but I did
+    not tell her how serious the case appeared to me, and as it
+    has proved; and when I did not hear from her, I immediately
+    guessed what had occurred. She found Fordwich there, and says
+    the place appeared a Paradise, and now that she is easy about
+    Edward, perhaps she won't mind spending the time there instead
+    of Warnford. Only, the boy was to go to Eton on the 11th, and
+    I don't know how they will manage that. I have written to Ad.
+    to-day, and have sent her a volume I received this morning
+    from Fanny Kemble. The letter would interest you, but is too
+    bulky to send. She speaks of you in a way that pleases me and
+    would gratify your vanity in every respect, and describes you
+    as one of the most interesting people she ever met, and hopes
+    that your art may be an unceasing source of fame, profit, and
+    delight to you. I will keep the letter and show it to you when
+    I have the happiness of seeing you, my dear Fay. When Sarah
+    leaves her she is to begin reading in the West, and I suspect
+    that will answer better to her than the girl's society! Dear
+    Fay, my sister writes to me that she and Brackley went into
+    Manchester to see your pictures. I will transcribe what she
+    says: "They are pretty well placed, but the 'Romeo' is so dark
+    a picture it is difficult to see, and the lighting of the
+    gallery has something of the defect of that at B. House. The
+    'Pan' and 'Venus' seem to me to be very good pictures. _B.
+    considers them improper._ I like the 'Pan' the best. There are
+    not many good pictures in the Exhibition." To this I replied
+    that I was much diverted by Brackley's prudishness, but that
+    if such personages were to be painted, it was not possible to
+    clothe them in crinoline or in green gauze drawers such as
+    Bomba imposed upon his Ballerina. It makes me so sick, all
+    that cant about impropriety, but there is so much of it as to
+    make the sale of "nude figures" very improbable, and therefore
+    I hope you will turn your thoughts entirely to well-covered
+    limbs, and paint no more _Venuses_ for some time to come. I
+    trust you will devote all your energies to the Romeo, Dalilah
+    and Syren, and if you have any spare time, that you will do
+    our Friar Lawrence. I forget if I told you that Miss Kaye saw
+    your portrait of yourself, and says it is quite a _libel_ on
+    your physiognomy. Why _did_ you make yourself so pinched and
+    sad-looking, Fay?
+
+    _September 12._--Your letter from Venice of 5th reached me
+    this morning. I feel sure you will not have got my long
+    letter directed there on the 5th and enclosing Phipps' answer,
+    so I had better transcribe it: "It would be very desirable
+    that Mr. L. should run over from Paris when there to see
+    exactly what is the damage done to his picture, and I will
+    have nothing done to it in the meantime, but care shall be
+    taken that the injury shall not be increased. Mr. L. does not
+    state in his letter where an answer would reach him, and if
+    you are in communication with him perhaps you would have the
+    kindness to mention to him what Her Majesty's wishes on this
+    subject are." So, you see, my dear boy, you _must_ come, and
+    perhaps it may not be time so wasted, as I shall try and find
+    out when the Queen comes back from Scotland, so that if
+    possible you may time your arrival accordingly. The P. of
+    Wales is going to see the manufactories at Manchester, and
+    they are going to ask him to Worsley, I believe. Only fancy
+    those brutes at Warnford never sending me Adelaide's letter
+    written to me the morning of her hastening off to Ireland a
+    week ago until to-day! Too bad. She wrote in great distress of
+    mind and evidently hardly expected to find Edward[63] alive,
+    as she did not believe the telegraph which said he was better,
+    thinking that if it were so they would not have sent for her.
+    You dear boy, I am so glad you enjoy your Venice--which is all
+    very pretty no doubt, but I hate stinks and fleas--and they
+    abound there. I hate wobbling in a boat and walking in dirty
+    alleys, so I don't envy you at all. Have you fallen in with
+    either of the new married couples, Wilson or Leslie? Fay, it
+    is well you should come and see me, for I don't think there is
+    much chance of my going to Paris. The Hollands are going to
+    Naples, as the wall of their house at Paris has been damaged
+    by the pulling down of the next house and has to be rebuilt,
+    and I shall have no money to pay for lodging and food. There
+    are long lists of the pictures the Queen and others are to
+    send to the great Manchester Exhibition next year--I think
+    twenty at least from the Royal Galleries, and Ellesmere sends
+    eight or ten. I see that Eastlake is at Rome, so you may fall
+    in with him there. I conclude my next letter must be directed
+    there. You should recollect to give your address _d'avance_.
+    The second post has just brought me the enclosed, which, as
+    she says she don't write to you, I send (though it will cost a
+    fortune), knowing that it will gladden your eyes to see her
+    hand. She loves you dearly as I do, Fay! Your Meran letters
+    are very pretty, and I wish I could see that place. Good-bye,
+    and God bless you. We have lovely weather--not one bad day
+    since I have been here. Go and see the Villa Salviate. What
+    have you done with Steinle--what heard of Gamba? Love.--Your
+    old loving father,
+
+                                                               H.
+
+Enclosed is one from Mrs. Sartoris to Mr. Greville, which he sends on
+to Leighton.
+
+                                             MUCKROSS, KILLARNEY.
+
+    Many thanks. I got a letter too this morning, which I send you
+    with your own--let me have mine back. E. (Edward Sartoris) is
+    certainly a little better, thank God--still in bed though. He
+    hopes perhaps to get off next Saturday--this appears to me
+    nothing short of impossible--Monday I should think the very
+    soonest for such a move. This place is divinely beautiful, I
+    see, but I go out very little, and what with the shock I
+    received before starting, and the fatigue of my rapid journey,
+    and the anxiety about him, I feel incapable of receiving any
+    _impression_ from the place. I seem to acknowledge its beauty,
+    but I cannot get even a momentary enjoyment out of it at
+    present. The _hosts_ are very kind. Herbert always was an
+    excellent fellow. I cannot write to Fay, for with all the
+    delay caused by his letter having had to follow me here, my
+    answer would no longer catch him at Venice, and I do not know
+    where he next pitches his tent. Dear boy! he seems very
+    happy--God bless him and keep him so!
+
+  MUCKROSS, _Tuesday, 9th_.
+
+                                       HATCHFORD, _September 22_.
+
+    DEAREST FAY,--The enclosed reached me to-day having first been
+    sent to Ebury Street.[64] I think it best to send it to you
+    that you may reflect on what you will do, though it seems to
+    me that with the exception of the "Cimabue" you have _no_
+    picture you could send to this Exhibition. If you wish to be
+    represented by that work, I conclude you would have to ask
+    permission of the Queen to send it there, and this should be
+    done through "The Honourable Colonel Phipps," or Mr. Harrison,
+    his secretary. This permission would of course be granted at
+    once. When Charles told me in my bed this morning that a
+    letter had come for you from Manchester, I fondly hoped it was
+    to announce sale of one or other of your pictures! I wrote
+    yesterday, and have nothing more to say to-day but that I am
+    better, though still seedy. We have got the equinoctial gales
+    with rain. I fancy we, France and England, are going to recall
+    our missions from Naples, if Bomba don't give in, and send
+    squadrons of ships. But what then? I don't suppose we mean to
+    bombard the town. But he will do _just enough_ to give us a
+    pretence for holding our hand, and matters will then resume
+    their ordinary course, and the K. of the two Sicilies be
+    governed just as it was before. Our position is a very
+    ticklish one in this affair. I long to hear whether you saw
+    Pasta--and anything more than the waddle, the red face and
+    beard. Mind and answer my questions. I should tell you that
+    amongst your papers that came from Manchester they sent P.
+    Albert's letter to Ellesmere, and the long prospectus too, but
+    there is no use in forwarding it to you--this will already
+    cost a fortune, but I think it best to send it. When is it you
+    expect to be here? How long do you stay at home?--Addio,
+    carissimo,
+
+                                                             H.G.
+
+                                          LONDON, _September 29_.
+
+    MY DEAREST FAY,--Here I am, sleeping in London on my way to
+    Worsley to-morrow morning, and I have got my Mere Augusta
+    occupying your room; the first _female_ I have ever housed or
+    fed, and it will be a rehearsal for Sister Ad. I have just
+    missed her, as she went to the station as I left it, but I
+    found a letter from her just returned from putting the boy to
+    school; it is a bore that I missed her, as I shall not see her
+    for an age. Edward has been committing all sorts of follies
+    and is again confined to his room, but is better. He ought to
+    come to London and consult a clever man, or he will be very
+    ill, as he was once before. What a fellow you are never to say
+    a word about Pasta to me! Of course Mrs. Siddons had a
+    magnificent eye and brow--who said she had not?--and was a
+    glorious actress, but I should always have preferred Reston.
+    What did Pasta say of _her_? You are wrong about P. not being
+    _powerful_--she was _tremendous_; her voice was one of immense
+    power--almost coarse at times, but prodigious, and her
+    _gestes_ sublime from grace and strength. Dear Fay, I have
+    measured the frame; it is twelve inches wide and fourteen
+    long. Now do find me a pretty cheap croute. I have seen no one
+    in London but Lady Shelburne, who said there was no news. She
+    disapproves, like me, of the policy with regard to Naples, and
+    I think we shall find by-and-by a great reaction _la dessus_.
+    By-the-bye, when at Rome go and hear the opera Verdi has been
+    composing for that place on the story of Adrienne, and tell me
+    all about it. He wrote formerly such pretty melodies, and is a
+    clever fellow. I don't know what Adelaide will do about going
+    to Germany, but I hope give it up, as for many reasons it
+    appears to me at this moment to be a foolish scheme.
+
+    Good-night, you dear boy. I can't frank this, as it is late,
+    and I don't know how, so you must pay this time. Write soon,
+    and _answer_ my letters.
+
+    I don't quite understand what it is you are doing in Italy
+    except amuse yourself. Is there any other ----? How long will
+    it be before I see you?--Addio, caro caro, tanto tanto,
+
+                                                               H.
+
+On the death of Lady Ellesmere, his sister, in answer to Leighton's
+letter of sympathy Mr. Greville writes--
+
+                                          HATCHFORD, _Wednesday_.
+
+    MY DEAREST FAY,--In my affliction, I have one consolation--and
+    it is such events as these that prove it--I am rich in
+    friends, more so, much more than I deserve--and amongst them
+    there is no one whose unselfish love I prize more than yours.
+
+    Dear Fay, I _know_ you feel for me, and I am grateful.
+
+    God bless you for it.--Your affectionate
+
+                                                               H.
+
+A short note to his father from Leighton announces the death of this
+dear friend in December 1872.
+
+                                  ATHENAEUM CLUB, PALL MALL, S.W.,
+                                                        _Friday_.
+
+    MY DEAR PAPA,--I lost last night one of my oldest and dearest
+    friends--Henry Greville; he died without much suffering, and
+    looks this morning calm and beautiful in his rest. You know
+    what I lose in him.--Your affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+Among many letters of the kind, preciously preserved by those who owe
+much to Leighton, the following notes, addressed to his young friend
+"Johnny" (Mr. John Hanson Walker), may be found interesting as
+exemplifying the trouble which Leighton would take in helping young
+artists, and with what kindness, sincerity, and delicacy he tendered
+his advice and assistance. None of these letters are dated.
+
+                                                    THE ATHENAEUM.
+
+    MY DEAR JOHNNY,--I write one line in haste to say how sorry I
+    am to hear that your health has been unsatisfactory of late. I
+    earnestly trust you won't disregard your doctor's advice, and
+    that you will, _at any sacrifice_, do something to recover
+    strength, even though a long sea voyage were necessary. Health
+    is the _first_ thing. Talk it over with Miss Nan; if her love
+    is as sincere as you believe, and I don't for a moment doubt
+    it, she will give you the same advice.
+
+    For myself, I begin to think my studio will never be ready. I
+    have not done a stroke of work. I _hope_ at the end of next
+    week I shall be at it again.
+
+    In October I am off to Rome.--Yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+    2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+      ADDISON ROAD, KENSINGTON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                   ATHENAEUM CLUB,
+                                                  PALL MALL, S.W.
+
+    Supposing a proper price were given, should you care to copy
+    (for a man of position) a portrait by Sir William Beechey and
+    one or two by Sir Thomas Lawrence? I am not asking you to do
+    it for a moment, I merely want to know whether you would
+    _care_ to do the work; _if_ so, please let me know what you
+    would ask.
+
+    I have seen Mr. Greville to-day, and he begs me to tell you
+    that the Countess Grey will be glad if you can undertake for
+    her, for the sum of _L10_, a copy of a portrait of Lady
+    Charlotte Greville. The picture is now with the Countess of
+    Ellesmere, Mr. Greville's sister, and shall be sent to you
+    wherever you wish, if you will let me know at once. Is it to
+    go to Great Castle Street? Lady Ellesmere will be extremely
+    obliged if you will not keep the picture a moment longer than
+    you absolutely require it to make a good copy; the portrait is
+    that of her mother, and she is extremely loth to part with it,
+    even for a time. Please send me a line in answer to this, and
+    believe me always.
+
+                                                      _Thursday._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    The picture will be duly sent to you.
+
+    I have another matter for your consideration: Mr. Greville
+    wants to know if you can think of any good picture (Sir Joshua
+    or Gainsborough would be best) that would make a good
+    companion to the one he has already bought of you; if you
+    could suggest anything suitable, he would give you the
+    commission. I am very glad you should have encouragement, but
+    I trust you will not flag in your zeal about more important
+    studies.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I send you the money from Mr. Greville for the portrait of his
+    mother. I am very glad you should have this new commission,
+    but you must thank _him, not me_, for it was entirely his idea
+    and desire. He is indeed one of the kindest and best men
+    possible. I look on him myself as a second father.
+
+    To save time, I shall make arrangements for you to work in my
+    studio on the _4 first_ days of January, if you can manage it.
+    I shall be out of town, and you will have the place all to
+    yourself.
+
+    I wish you a happy Xmas and New Year, and remain.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                  WARNFORD COURT,
+                                                 BISHOPS WALTHAM.
+
+    You will forgive me, I am sure, for not writing to you to
+    thank you for your letter, received some weeks back; but the
+    fact is I have been so very busy as to make writing a matter
+    of very great difficulty. I heard from your father not long
+    ago that you have been very fortunate in getting capital
+    commissions for portraits where you have been staying. I am
+    very glad indeed to hear it, and trust sincerely that you feel
+    you are progressing as steadily in proficiency as in
+    prosperity. To the commissions you have had in the country, I
+    have one to add here. Mr. Henry Greville wishes you to paint
+    for him a copy of a head of a relation of his--I believe, of
+    poor Lady Ellesmere, his sister, whose recent death has been
+    such a terrible grief to him. You will, I am sure, be glad to
+    undertake this painting, even though it may not in itself be
+    very interesting. The size is a sort of oval kit-cat, not
+    large. He proposes to offer you ten pounds for it.
+
+    How is Miss Nan? I hope you have good accounts of her, and
+    that all goes smoothly between you.
+
+    I send this to Bath to be forwarded, as I don't know your
+    present whereabouts.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    DEAR JOHNNY,--I am just off to Paris, and write one line in
+    hot haste to thank you for yours, and to say that I am
+    delighted to hear you are conscious of progress. Come back as
+    soon as you can _conveniently_, please, because Mr. Greville
+    has _borrowed_ Lady Ellesmere's portrait for you to copy, and
+    wants to return it as soon as possible to the Duke of
+    Devonshire.
+
+    Come and see me when you return, and believe me, with kind
+    regards to Miss Nan,--Yours always,
+
+                                                             F.L.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+                                                   KENSINGTON, W.
+
+    I want very much, before they have quite disappeared, to get
+    for myself and for a friend a couple of old-fashioned country
+    bumpkins' smocks; you know the sort of thing. Do you chance to
+    know any one in any of the villages about Bath who could pick
+    up a couple? I should like a brown one (_NOT a white Sunday
+    one_) and a green one, and that they should _not_ be
+    washed--well worn, untidy things. If you saw your way to
+    getting me such garments, I should be very grateful, but don't
+    _trouble_ about it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    If you have leisure to think of anything but Miss Nan just at
+    present, will you do me a favour? Will you get for me a
+    peasant's _wide-awake_, in shape like the one I painted in
+    your portrait, only really _old_ and _soiled_ and _stained_;
+    bought, in fact, if possible, off a bumpkin's head? Can you do
+    this for me, and either send it or bring it if you are about
+    to return shortly? I will pay you when we meet.
+
+    When is the wedding to be? or is it already over? I wish you
+    all happiness and prosperity, and remain with kind
+    remembrances to Miss (or Mrs.) Nan,--Yours truly,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    I hope you can read this; my hands are so cold I can scarcely
+    hold the pen.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Mr. Greville has very kindly desired me to give you another
+    commission, this time a larger one. He wants you to copy from
+    my large picture the group of women carrying flowers, the size
+    of the original.[65] He offers you L25 for it. If you are
+    disposed, as I have no doubt you will be, I would, if I were
+    you, write him a line of thanks for the kind interest he shows
+    in you. In great haste.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    One line in a great hurry to say that I am delighted to hear
+    that you have got in to the life school at the Royal Academy,
+    and to thank you for the photo., which is capital.
+
+    I have not touched my Venus since you went away. I have been a
+    good deal out of town myself, and have spent most of my time
+    in finishing the two large decorative figures, which have now
+    gone home. I am sorry you did not see them.
+
+    Come as soon as you can to begin Mr. Greville's picture.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I leave town Saturday next, and shall not see you till
+    Saturday the 6th July, so I write a line to say that you will
+    set to work by yourself; the maid will light you a fire and
+    give you the key of the studio.
+
+    I have written direct to Gatwell to order the canvas, or it
+    would not have been ready in time. You are to paint the group
+    full size. _Trace it_ to get it quite accurate. Put the head
+    of the centre figure, the woman in _yellow_, about four inches
+    or four and a half inches from the top of the canvas; that
+    will give you all the rest. _Leave out_ the little _child
+    sitting_. Go slap at the colour, vigorously but _NOT quick_.
+    The slower you work, if you work with energy, the sooner you
+    get through, and the better the result.
+
+    I hope you are enjoying yourself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    [Illustration: PORTRAIT OF MRS. HANSON WALKER
+    By permission of Mr. Hanson Walker]
+
+    Although I certainly think it is a pity to exhibit too soon,
+    nevertheless I think that your particular situation just now
+    does justify you in doing so, as long as you confine yourself
+    to the Suffolk Street Gallery. I sincerely hope you may sell
+    your pictures.
+
+    With kind regards to Mrs. Nan and love to my god-child, I am,
+    in haste, yours always,
+
+                                                             F.L.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    I can't quite make out the price as written in your note, so
+    to avoid mistakes I send blank cheque, which pray fill in
+    yourself.
+
+    Just off--good-bye.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                 _26th December._
+
+    I have got your note and enclose little cheque. This is as it
+    should be. It is absurd that because I am an old friend, you
+    should be a loser by me in time and pocket.
+
+    With a merry Xmas and New Year to you and Nan, I remain, in
+    haste, yours sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                   2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD, _Monday_.
+
+    Many thanks for your letter. I have had absolutely no time to
+    answer sooner, and now can only do so most briefly. I am
+    extremely glad to hear of the success of your labours at
+    Dorchester, and think you are very right to take for yourself
+    and "Mrs. Nan" a refreshing little holiday on the hills.
+
+    I will begin the portrait next week,[66] when you return, at
+    which time also I hope to show you some under-painted work
+    which I think may interest you. I shall certainly call and see
+    your screen. It will no doubt be a very useful bit of
+    "property" to you.
+
+    Remember me very kindly to your wife.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    MY DEAR JOHNNY,--I am much obliged to you for your letter,
+    telling me of your doings in the country. I think you will do
+    wisely in going to the Isle of Wight to paint landscape; the
+    danger of copying the old masters too exclusively, as you have
+    been forced to do lately, is that one is apt to fall into
+    mannerism by trying to see Nature with the eyes of others;
+    painting landscape direct from Nature is the best possible
+    corrective against this tendency.
+
+    I shall be glad to see you and what you have done on your
+    return, if you are here before the 20th or 22nd August; if
+    not, we shall meet in October, when I return from the East.
+
+    I am working away at my picture, which will be under-painted
+    before I leave England.
+
+    I wish you joy of your summer trip, and remain, yours very
+    truly,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                 _6th September._
+
+    I have just got your letter, and scribble a line in haste (for
+    I am very busy) to say that you are wholly at liberty to do
+    whatever you choose with Nan's picture, and that I am glad for
+    your sake that people like it. I am also much pleased to hear
+    that you have an interesting portrait on the easel, in which
+    you see progress and improvement in the matter of breadth and
+    light and subordination of half tints; nothing is more
+    important in painting; I think that after accuracy and
+    refinement of form, it is the quality you should most strive
+    for. I am myself tolerably well, but not by any means
+    brilliantly. I have got to work at a few small heads, which
+    you will see before long.
+
+    In haste, with love to Nan and the children.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                              LYNTON, _Saturday_.
+
+    I have just received your note, and hear with sincere regret
+    that you have not been prospering lately in your affairs. I am
+    in great difficulty as to what I can do for you in the matter
+    of the Curatorship. If it were only a question of testifying
+    to your character, zeal, industry, &c. &c., I should have real
+    pleasure in giving you that testimony in the highest and
+    fullest degree. But, my dear Johnny, if I am not very much
+    mistaken, the Curator is expected to be able when required to
+    _advise and direct the pupils_, and I cannot in candour
+    conceal from you that your age and experience do not appear to
+    me yet to qualify you for that part of the duties. If it were
+    not so, why does the candidate send in some of his works for
+    inspection? You must not be angry with me, Johnny; you know I
+    have always spoken the plain truth to you, and am always ready
+    and desirous to help you when it is in my power. I should be
+    only too glad to think of your obtaining some post that should
+    relieve you from all immediate pecuniary care. Give my love to
+    your wife and children, and believe me always, yours most
+    sincerely,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    _P.S._--I shall be back on Wednesday or Thursday.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                                        _Sunday._
+
+    In case any alteration should have been made in the
+    arrangements of the Schools during my absence, and that
+    _teaching_ is not expected as part of the duties of a curator,
+    I send you a letter to the Council, as I should be sorry you
+    lost any fair chance by my absence.
+
+    You heard from me no doubt yesterday.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                           _Care of_ MRS. WALKER,
+                                    NEALINMORE, GLEN COLUMBKILLE,
+                                                     CO. DONEGAL.
+                                                          _15th._
+
+    I have got your note, in regard to which I feel some little
+    embarrassment. I am, as you know, always pleased when it is in
+    my power to be of any use to you, and I should therefore wish
+    to help you in this matter concerning which you write. I own,
+    however, to having some hesitation in asking this favour of
+    Mr. Hodgson, because I fear that the granting of it would be a
+    source of a good deal of inconvenience to him, and he might,
+    out of his old friendship, be put in an awkward position; he
+    would be equally loth to say "yes" or "no." The picture hangs
+    in his dining-room, _and cannot possibly be moved_. The copy
+    would be a lengthy affair, for there is an enormous amount of
+    work in the group you speak of, and you would have,
+    therefore, to be established for a long time in a room which
+    is in daily use by the family. I do not at all say that he
+    might not grant the favour you ask, but I own I feel that _I_
+    cannot, discreetly, ask it of him. I am sure you will not
+    misinterpret my declining, and I shall be very sincerely glad
+    if you yourself succeed in your direct appeal.
+
+    I trust you and yours are thriving, and that you have not
+    suffered lately from your leg.
+
+    This is a wild, wind-swept corner of Ireland in which I am
+    staying, and abounding in matter for studying, especially rock
+    forms, but the inconstancy of the weather puts sketching
+    almost out of the question.
+
+    This is a matter of comparative indifference to me, as I came
+    here purposely for rest, and not for work.
+
+    Give my love to Nan and the chicks.--Sincerely yours,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    Do you know of any one who would do a life-size _copy_ of a
+    portrait of the Queen in robes for the sum of _L100_? I have
+    been asked to inquire. It is, I believe, for Chelsea Hospital.
+    In former days it might have been worth _your_ while; now it
+    no longer is, it would not pay you; but you perhaps know of
+    some less prosperous artist who would undertake it, and who
+    would do it _well_--for of course that is expected.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+                                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+                                                   KENSINGTON, W.
+                                        (_Postmark, Mar. 9. 82._)
+
+    I am absolutely _ashamed_ to rob you, but you offer me the
+    drawing so kindly that I can't possibly refuse it; I am
+    delighted with it, only you must let me give you a little
+    drawing some day in return. With very best thanks.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY OF GROUP FOR CEILING IN MUSIC ROOM
+    Executed for Mr. Marquand, New York, 1886
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+    [Illustration: FIRST SKETCH OF GROUP FOR MR. MARQUAND'S CEILING
+    IN MUSIC ROOM, NEW YORK
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+The following letter was written when Mr. Hanson Walker was in
+America. In it Leighton refers to the ceiling he painted for Mr.
+Marquand (see List of Illustrations):--
+
+                                             2 HOLLAND PARK ROAD,
+                                                  KENSINGTON, W.,
+                                            _12th February 1887_.
+
+    DEAR JOHNNIE,--I was very glad to get your letter giving so
+    very satisfactory an account of yourself and your doings. I
+    had already heard of your prosperity in a general way from
+    Nan, who came to see me before starting, but who told me also
+    how lonely you felt. It must have been a great joy to you to
+    see her again, and it will be a still greater when you see the
+    (_fourteen?_) youngsters about you once more; you will, like
+    everybody who crosses the water, bring back a very pleasant
+    recollection of American kindness and hospitality, and, I am
+    glad to think, also a good pocketful of money. I hope it will
+    bring you luck here. I am glad that Mr. Marquand has made you
+    welcome to his house, which I understand is very beautiful. I
+    know his Vandyke well; it belonged to an acquaintance of mine,
+    Lord Methuen, who has a number of beautiful things at Corsham.
+    It is one of the finest I know, and stands quite in the front
+    rank of Vandykes. The Turner also I know, a rare favourite of
+    mine. But of the Rembrandt I know nothing. I am glad, too, you
+    thought my "ceiling" looked well. I hope he has introduced _a
+    little gold in the rafters_ to _bind_ the paintings to the
+    ceiling itself. Give my love to Nan, and believe me, with all
+    good wishes, sincerely yours,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+    Please remember me to the Marquands and to your friends the
+    Osbornes.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[56] Owing to the kindness of Mr. Greville's niece and executor, Alice,
+Countess of Strafford, I am able to quote extracts from his letters to
+Leighton in this "Life." Unfortunately the letters from Leighton to Mr.
+Greville cannot be found, though, as we know, many were written. During
+his first visit to Algiers in 1857, Leighton wrote to his mother: "The
+fact is that as besides corresponding with you I write often to Mrs.
+Sartoris, and still oftener to Henry Greville, and having continually
+much the same to tell all of you, I often cannot remember to whom I
+have written what."
+
+[57] It was when visiting his family at Bath that he first saw Hanson
+Walker, the "Johnny" of the letters and of the pictures. Leighton was
+much taken with the picturesque beauty of the boy's head, and made
+various studies from it. A pencil study he made from his head (see List
+of Illustrations) he used as a study for his picture "Lieder ohne
+Worte." Having discovered that his sitter had a natural taste for
+drawing, Leighton advised "Johnny's" father to let him become an
+artist. This led to the boy being sent to learn drawing at the School
+of Art in Bath. When Leighton returned to London after it had been
+decided that "Johnny" was to study drawing, the young student received
+one day to his surprise a large case. On opening it he found to his
+delight a cast from the antique, a drawing-board, paper, charcoal,
+chalks, in fact, all the utensils wanted by a beginner wishing to work
+seriously at Art. Never to the end of his life did Leighton's interest
+in his pupil flag. Never was he too busy to do a kindness to him or
+his. Perhaps the early and somewhat romantic marriage which "Johnny"
+made with a lady for whom Leighton felt from the earliest days of the
+wedded life a very sincere regard, and the charming children who soon
+made a pretty cluster round their parents, and were always a delight to
+Leighton, cemented the friendly interest. The head of "Nan" (Mrs.
+Hanson Walker--see List of Illustrations), painted as a wedding present
+to "Johnny," is one among the happiest of Leighton's portraits. It is
+broad in treatment, and fair and very pure in colour, and as a likeness
+was considered perfect.
+
+[58] Yearly Exhibition at Manchester.
+
+[59] This correspondence refers to the "Cimabue's Madonna" at
+Buckingham Palace. Small holes in the canvas having appeared, the
+authorities were anxious that Leighton should inspect the picture, and
+take steps to prevent further mischief.
+
+[60] Mrs. Sartoris.
+
+[61] In the Yearly Exhibition at Manchester, where Leighton sent the
+"Romeo," "Pan," and the "Venus."
+
+[62] Mr. Edward Sartoris.
+
+[63] Mr. Edward Sartoris.
+
+[64] Papers relating to the great Manchester Exhibition held in 1857.
+
+[65] "A Syracusan Bride."
+
+[66] The portrait of Mrs. Hanson Walker, which Leighton painted as a
+wedding present for his young friend.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+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 passed 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 nobody 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 L25,
+    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 passport 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 pass
+    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 Finstermuenz 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.
+
+    God 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 Titian 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. God 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 noble
+    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 gods 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!_
+
+    [Illustration: CA' D'ORO, VENICE. WATER COLOUR. 1856]
+
+                                   FLORENCE, _11th October 1856_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMY,--I wonder whether you are coming to Florence,
+    and, if so, how long you are going to stay. I suppose you will
+    go to the Hotel du Nord as in old times--I go there
+    invariably, and write now from my own particular room. I wrote
+    to you last from Venice, where I spent ten days in a very
+    satisfactory manner between work and _flanerie_ of an artistic
+    description--indeed I _flaned_ this time with more advantage
+    than hitherto, for I went more closely than I had yet done
+    into the _architecture_ of Venice, studying the different
+    masters, their different styles and relative merit; I need not
+    say that I found this extremely interesting. Fred Cockerell, a
+    young architect friend of mine, was there with Villers Lister,
+    another very nice boy, a London acquaintance of mine. We were
+    a great deal together, and they accompanied me to Padua, where
+    I left them doing _Giotto_, which I would most willingly have
+    done myself if I had not been hard pressed for time. In the
+    painting line I only made one sketch, a Bonifazio of the first
+    water, which will figure very satisfactorily on my studio
+    wall; it took me a good deal of time, and is on the whole, I
+    think, very fair. In Florence I have had one or two great
+    disappointments which have rather diminished my enjoyment of
+    this loveliest place. I expected confidently to find both
+    Browning and his wife and Lyons. Neither of them are here, the
+    former not having yet returned from the North, and the latter
+    having been called home to see his father, who is very ailing.
+    I have seen the Fenzis, who received me with their wonted
+    cordiality, and am going to-day to call on the Maquays. I am
+    here too short a time to work, beyond a pencil sketch or two,
+    and am off for dear old Rome on Friday morning as ever is. I
+    shall stay there till I find a studio, which I hope won't be
+    long, and shall then rush off to Cervara in the mountains to
+    paint.
+
+    Good-bye, Mammikins. Give my best love to all, and believe me
+    your loving boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+In Rome Leighton received the following from his friend Mr.
+Cartwright:--
+
+                                    AYNHOE, _September 26, 1856_.
+
+    MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--Truly was I delighted with your letter, so
+    that in spite of my "nature to" I gulped my huff, though I was
+    like to choke; but self-interest is a wonderful smoothener,
+    and as I want you to do something for me I mean to behave
+    myself. Leighton, by the squints which you shot over my park
+    from your outspread umbrella, by those you are hereafter to
+    shoot, by Tokay cup and venison hash--by anything you like, I
+    want you to belumber yourself with some ripe _stone
+    pinecones_, and a hundred cork acorns. I have found a _true_
+    legitimate stone pine about forty to fifty feet high on my
+    property, and as for the cork trees you have seen the one in
+    my garden, and therefore, I do not see why I should not have a
+    lot in the park. They can only be raised from acorns. Now,
+    _if_ you could take steps to get me _these_ things--God! I
+    don't know what I would not do for you, and how would we enjoy
+    it in years to come to watch the growth of our trees. It is a
+    _national_ object. You may have some difficulty in getting the
+    acorns and cones; Pantaleone or Erhardt might perhaps mention
+    to you some gardener who would procure them. _You_ know
+    probably the trees would get to be called L. pines and
+    Leighton oaks, which is one way to immortality if Orpheus and
+    Eurydices won't help you. I wrote to Mason about the pines; by
+    all means _make_ him answer, the exertion will do him good, he
+    _wants_ exercise, and therefore don't get on with his work. My
+    God! when I came in at twelve to-day he was not up!
+
+    How I envy you at Rome when I think of it; how would I _enjoy_
+    being there, and yet I can't help thinking of ----'s death at
+    the same time. Remember me to little Cornhill and every Roman
+    who remembers me. Write Poste Restante, Paris. I go there, I
+    believe, next week, but _where_ I shall be the winter ----?
+    Forster is in the Westminster--be d----d to it for stale wine
+    that it is. As for Mason, make him write, and believe me,
+    yours affectionately,
+
+                                                           W.C.C.
+
+                                        ROME, _October 14, 1856_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I have delayed writing to you for a few days
+    in the hope of finding a letter from you in answer to my last;
+    however, as the posts here are frightfully irregular, and I
+    think it very possible your answer may have been lost, I wait
+    no longer. I enclose two little criticisms on my "Romeo" and
+    "Venus," which will I think please Papa and you, and which
+    were sent me through Mrs. Sartoris by Henry Greville.[68]
+    There is, however, not the remotest chance of my selling them
+    at Manchester, and I am considering where to show them next. I
+    am trying here in Rome (where I shall stay till the end of
+    October) to make up by rigid economy for the expense
+    inevitably incurred by living at inns all the way here. I
+    can't tell you what a delight it was to me to see this dear
+    old place again. Everything is so unaltered since I left it,
+    that I felt on returning exactly as if I was coming home from
+    a drive instead of a lengthened absence. The frescoes which I
+    knew so well were as new to me again from their colossal
+    grandeur, and I wished I could spend a month or so exclusively
+    copying in the Sixtina. My picture, though not well _seen_, is
+    not particularly badly _hung_, but it can only be seen from a
+    distance, so that the expressions are almost entirely lost; it
+    does not look so well as in my studio. The Pre-Raphaelites are
+    very striking, full of talent and industry, but unpleasant to
+    the eye. Meanwhile they have the day. Colnaghi told me that he
+    _thought_ he could sell "Romeo" if I made the price _four
+    hundred_, and said I could do it without derogating, as it
+    went through his, a dealer's, hands. I consulted Henry and
+    Mrs. S., who strongly advised me to follow his advice. I have
+    done so. May it bring me luck. If the remarks you quote, dear
+    Mamma, are meant to apply to my relation with Mrs. Sartoris, I
+    can only say, that as I have derived from her more moral
+    improvement and refinement (you know it), and from her circle
+    more intellectual advantage than from _all my other
+    acquaintances_ put together twice over, I can't join with Mrs.
+    Whatshername in apprehending "a great number of
+    inconveniences."
+
+In a later letter Leighton announces the sale of the "Romeo"
+picture:--
+
+    The "Romeo," which had the best place in the Exhibition, has
+    been sold for L400, which to me represents _L360_ after
+    deduction of percentage. They have in a most slovenly way sold
+    my picture for pounds though marked _guineas_, they want to
+    know if I claimed the difference; as they have behaved without
+    sufficient _egard_ about other things also, I have directed
+    the secretary in England to say that I should like the error
+    to be rectified, though I do _not_ wish the sale to be
+    cancelled on that account if it be too late. I don't want to
+    miss the money of course, but I have no idea of such
+    negligence on their part.
+
+    You see, dear Mamma, that my little pension to Lud has become,
+    for this year at least, so easy that I have scarcely any merit
+    left.
+
+                                        19 QUEEN STREET, MAYFAIR.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--Having arrived in London, and been to the
+    Palace to see my picture, I hasten both to tell you the result
+    of my inspection and to answer your very kind letter to Paris
+    which, like an ass that I am, I have neglected to bring with
+    me. The damage to my picture is trifling and easily
+    remediable, having arisen in no way from the precarious nature
+    of paint or varnish, but from a faulty canvas, and probable
+    rough usage in moving. I shall set all right in a few days;
+    the holes or raw places are in the sky, and luckily not near
+    the faces. I have not yet seen Colonel Phipps, and am waiting
+    for further instructions; the Court I shall of course not see,
+    as it is at Windsor.
+
+    I don't remember whether I told you that I got an invitation
+    from Manchester to exhibit next spring, and having nothing to
+    send but "Cimabue," have respectfully applied to the Queen
+    through Colonel Phipps to obtain it of her for that occasion.
+
+    I am truly sorry not to see you all but as you say, I can't
+    afford it; indeed, I write now partly to ask Papa to send me
+    some money, the L50 he gave me in the middle of August when I
+    started are not only gone, but scarcely took me back to Paris,
+    and but for Petre, whom I met coming back from Naples, and who
+    lent me a trifle with most friendly alacrity, I should have
+    been frightfully pinched; the first part of my journey being
+    all travelling, and hotel life was very dear. In Rome,
+    however, I lived for nothing, and sailed from Civita Vecchia
+    to Marseilles "before the mast," a thing I will never do again
+    if I can help it, but which enabled me just to get home to
+    Paris within a few francs of the L50. Meanwhile I have no
+    hesitation in saying that I never spent three months more
+    profitably or more agreeably. I suppose Papa kindly paid my
+    last quarter as I asked him, but not having received your
+    letter I don't in reality know.
+
+    P. Delaroche is dead, I am sorry to say. Going through Paris I
+    went to see Rob. Fleury, who with characteristic kindness put
+    me up to several dodges in picture-restoring with a reference
+    to "Cimabue"--invaluable information.
+
+After doing what was required to the Buckingham Palace picture,
+Leighton returned to Paris, where he wrote the following to Steinle:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                  21 RUE PIGALLE, _1st December_.
+
+    DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--I read with real distress the sad
+    news of your severe loss, but sincere and deep as is my
+    sympathy, I pass on in silence, for in such an hour of trial
+    there is but one comfort for you, and that not from man.
+
+    I should no doubt have come back to you from Rome in the
+    beginning of October, but I had to go to England, where I
+    spent three weeks, and am consequently now just established
+    again in Paris. My Italian journey afforded me in every way
+    the greatest pleasure and edification, and I seem now for the
+    first to have grasped the greatness of the Campagna and the
+    giant loftiness of Michael Angelo; still the dear old town,
+    now as ever, is quite unchanged. The good Cornelius is so
+    cheerful and friendly that it is a real pleasure; he has
+    finished some works which have much beauty in the design, but,
+    quite in confidence, they are nevertheless a trifle "solite
+    cose," and much too weakly drawn: from a man who makes claims
+    to style, one expects something more of solidity. Cornelius is
+    a richly and powerfully endowed man, but he does the young
+    generation no good; if young people would only look at work of
+    Michael Angelo's! I except the sculptor Willig, he is a famous
+    fellow, and also an agreeable man. I was glad to meet Gamba
+    again, but unfortunately I did not see any work of his.
+
+    Dear Friend, in spite of all my efforts I could nowhere find
+    the right garment for your composition, and learnt only after
+    a long search what is properly the official dress; I learnt at
+    last from the custodian of the Sixtina, who inquired from the
+    head "Ceremoniere," that the cardinal in these days wears the
+    Cappa Magna _pavonazza_, not the _red_.[69] The costume
+    therefore is: purple undergarment, _lace shirt_ (rochetto),
+    cappa magna of violet _cloth_ (those in the _Charwache_ will
+    wear no _silk_), black shoes, four-cornered hood, and gloves
+    with the ring; I enclose a drawing of the real confessional in
+    St. Peter's Church; I hope it may be of use to you. Dear
+    master, how can you possibly _excuse_ yourself for closing
+    your letter with a word of true and wise advice! You know that
+    I owe to you, and to no one else, the whole of my serious
+    education, and am proud of it.
+
+    If you do not get the work at Cologne, it will be a downright
+    infamy and a dirtiness without parallel; but I hope for the
+    best.
+
+    How I should like to see your "Marriage at Cana."
+
+    Keep in remembrance your loving pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                            _Saturday, 9th May 1857._
+
+    MY DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--Your letter, just received, has
+    given me intense pleasure. Your constant and affectionate
+    remembrance of a pupil who is under so many obligations to
+    you, rejoices my heart. On this occasion, however, your letter
+    was particularly welcome, because I had already begun to worry
+    myself a little about your long silence, and was almost afraid
+    you might imagine that I had not exerted myself sufficiently
+    in the matter of your cardinal.
+
+    But first of all I offer my best congratulations on the
+    completion of the Cologne affair, and on the splendid field
+    which is offered to you also in Muenster. At last you have work
+    which is worthy of your abilities and your efforts, and will
+    give them scope. With such employment I must not regret that I
+    shall not have the pleasure of seeing you again in Paris. That
+    I have not seen the "Marriage of Cana" is, I candidly confess,
+    a source of regret to me; I know the design of the
+    composition, and should have liked extremely to have seen how
+    it has turned out. When shall I see one of your works again?
+
+    What shall I tell you about myself, my dear friend? I am
+    getting on with my pictures, and have now got them all three
+    into a fairly forward state of _under_-painting; completion,
+    however, will only be reached in the course of next winter,
+    for I intend to execute them with minute care. I have
+    simplified my method of painting, and foresworn all _tricks_.
+    I endeavour to advance from the beginning as much as possible,
+    and equally try to mix the right tint, and slowly and
+    carefully to put it on the right spot, and _always_ with the
+    model before me; what does not exactly suit has to be adapted;
+    one can derive benefit from every head. Schwind says that he
+    cannot work from models, they _worry_ him! a splendid teacher
+    for his pupils! nature worries every one at first, but one
+    must so discipline oneself that, instead of checking and
+    hindering, she shall illuminate and help, and solve all
+    doubts. Has Schwind, with his splendid and varied gifts, ever
+    been able to model a head with a brush? Those who place the
+    brush behind the pencil, under the pretence that _form_ is
+    before all things, make a very great mistake. Form _is
+    certainly ALL important_; one cannot study it enough; _but_
+    the greater part of _form_ falls within the province of the
+    tabooed _brush_. The everlasting hobby of _contour_ (which
+    belongs to the drawing material) is first the _place_ where
+    the _form_ comes in; what, however, reveals true knowledge of
+    form, is a powerful, organic, refined finish of modelling,
+    full of feeling and knowledge--and that is the affair of the
+    brush (_Pinsel_).
+
+    You see I have again begun discoursing, my dear Master; you
+    must excuse all this silly talk, and ascribe it to the
+    pleasure I feel whenever I enjoy intercourse with you, even if
+    only by letter. How much we have already talked over together!
+
+    And now adieu, dear Friend. Rest assured that you have not
+    wasted your affection on an ungrateful man, and keep always in
+    remembrance--Your faithful pupil,
+
+                                                        LEIGHTON.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife.
+
+    I do not know of any work of mine that has appeared in an
+    illustrated paper--Louie has been dreaming.
+
+Three interesting letters to Steinle belong to the following year. In
+the second Leighton states that he is about to start for Algiers.
+After his arrival there he writes to his mother describing the place.
+Notwithstanding the difficulty he found in drawing the natives of
+Algiers, owing to their shyness and to their prejudices, Leighton
+succeeded while there in making drawings which rank among his very
+best; in fact, in certain qualities no others he ever drew can be said
+to equal them. To quote Mr. Pepys Cockerell (_Nineteenth Century_,
+November 1896):--
+
+"I do not believe that more perfect drawings, better defined or more
+entirely realised, than these studies of heads of Moors, camels, &c.,
+were ever executed by the hand of man."
+
+Unfortunately the paper Leighton used was of the kind which becomes
+injured by time. The brown stains which now disfigure the sheets and
+the faint tone of the pencilling make it impossible to reproduce these
+drawings with any worthy result, but some of the original sketches can
+be seen in the Leighton House Collection.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                ROME, 11 VIA DELLA PURIFICAZIONE,
+                                                 _March 3, 1857_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR MASTER,--Heartiest thanks for your kind lines of
+    the 3rd of last month.
+
+    I hear with the greatest interest that your cartoon is now
+    finished, and that you expect to get to the wall next year.
+    How I envy you this great work! I cannot deny that I rejoice a
+    little, secretly, that you are tied down to _buon_ fresco, for
+    I have a passion (unfortunately an altogether unsatisfied one)
+    for this material. You may be quite sure that if it is in any
+    way possible for me, I shall make a little excursion to
+    Cologne in order to offer my humble assistance; nothing could
+    be more delightful to me.
+
+    Some works of yours have just come to Rome; illustrations to a
+    prayer-book, engraved (I believe) by Keller. When did you make
+    these charming drawings? The one with the blossoming staff and
+    the little Madonna is quite specially sympathetic to me. The
+    things are, however, engraved without feeling or delicacy.
+
+    With what you say about the advantage of growing older I
+    quite agree, and I am in a certain respect anxious for the
+    time when I shall find my _niveau_, and shall be able to work
+    with more peace and equanimity. I have been for some time in a
+    very painful position--I feel so humbly my incapacity even
+    from afar off to approach the entrancing beauty of nature,
+    that I have not the courage to embark upon any large work. For
+    some time I have scarcely composed at all; partly, it is true,
+    because I have no time, but partly also because I do not feel
+    myself in a position to embody an idea properly. I know that
+    such a condition is morbid, and hope to extricate myself from
+    it in time. It arises also partly from the fact that my
+    _individuality_ is not yet sufficiently developed; I see it
+    coming, but it takes a very long time. I know already, on the
+    smallest computation, _what_ I want, but I do not know _how_ I
+    am to accomplish it.
+
+    I went recently to see Cornelius, who is always genial and
+    charming. He is drawing on one of the Redelli for the Campo
+    Santo. Rich and spirited in invention and arrangement, the
+    form in _details_, however, is very badly drawn--heads that
+    are unpermissible; he treats God's nature quite cavalierly. I
+    saw at his house a composition by a certain Woeredle (or some
+    such name) of Vienna, a pupil of Fuehrich, the subject taken
+    from the Apocalypse: "There shall be wonders." Above, the
+    Saviour, in the usual attitude, with the usual flowing
+    garment; to the right and left, Mary and John, in their
+    respective usual attitudes; at their feet four angels blowing
+    trumpets, by Cornelius; in the background a number of comets;
+    lying about in the middle and foreground, a quantity of
+    figures, which have been collected from different works of
+    Cornelius', strike convulsive attitudes on the floor; for the
+    rest, the whole is constructed with appalling academic
+    execution and lifelessness. Cornelius seemed to think it quite
+    right; I consider it difficult, with reverence and love, to
+    complete the head of one girl; for that reason I am not fond
+    of going to him, for although personally he is extremely
+    sympathetic to me, I cannot help feeling that I do not fit in
+    with him, and am obliged to dissemble. But you must be quite
+    weary of this chattering letter, dear Master; I will close.
+    Remember me most kindly to your wife and children, and rely
+    always upon the friendship of your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                        LEIGHTON.
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                   _Thursday, September 3, 1857._
+
+    DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--I was, as usual, most delighted to
+    receive your cordial letter of 21st August; I am touched by
+    your constant friendship, but also somewhat ashamed that you
+    should treat your much indebted pupil almost as an equal and
+    counsellor. I have the greatest desire to see your second
+    cartoon, but I am very much afraid that this year it will be
+    quite impossible, for I am going on a journey in quite the
+    opposite direction; I am shortly going to Africa, partly to
+    make some landscape studies, but also to make acquaintance
+    with that very interesting race, but _not_ in order to become
+    a painter of Bedouins. It was my intention, as I am starting
+    immediately, not to write till I came back, in order that I
+    might have something to tell you; however, the following has
+    suddenly made me change my mind; the fat, affected,
+    tailor-like, civil-spoken little Jew visited me recently and
+    told me you want to make inquiries about wall painting, and
+    that I might tell you, if I was writing, that Conture has just
+    gone away. This impelled me to write immediately. Will you
+    forgive me, for old friendship's sake, if I put in a word
+    here, to which you need not give the smallest attention? I
+    want to protest vehemently, dear Master, against all
+    _oil_-painting on _walls_; and that, not because fresco
+    painting has sufficed for the greatest works of the greatest
+    masters, but on account of the _positive disadvantages_ of
+    oils. How, in effect, do the two materials stand to one
+    another? Fresco is certainly the one material for monuments.
+    First, because it is the most suitable for a broad, massy,
+    imposing _form_, for in no material can one pursue form so
+    completely _without losing colour_; secondly, because by no
+    other method can one attain such masterly, earnest, quiet,
+    virile effect in colour; thirdly, however, and principally,
+    because fresco _is visible from all points alike_, this
+    advantage is immeasurable for architectural art. What, on the
+    other hand, are the advantages of oil? Only one occurs to me
+    and that is quite illusory, _i.e._ you have a wider range of
+    colour; but all the colours that an oil palette has in advance
+    of fresco are, for fresco, superfluous if not pernicious.
+    Superfluous, because the broken, fine grey tones which have
+    such an infinite charm in easel pictures, and which counteract
+    the otherwise too great brilliance of the material, are quite
+    superfluous in a painting where _all tones_ are dull and
+    solid. Pernicious, where they would be applicable, because
+    they might mar the majestic peace of the work. And then it
+    should be remembered that the limited scale of the fresco
+    palette, so _far as it extends_, is unsurpassable for glow and
+    atmosphere and strength. Titian's frescoes at Padua in the
+    Tenola St. Antonio rival his oil-paintings in colour. M.
+    Angelo's "Madonna in the Last Judgment" might (for colour) be
+    by Tintoretto, and many figures on this glorious wall are as
+    glowing as Titian's! As regards the disadvantages of
+    oil-painting, I can only say that they often blister in the
+    shadows, and that one can _only see them from one point of
+    view_. I know very well that fresco is exposed to damp, but
+    one can, indeed one must, have one's wall examined before one
+    begins to work, and if it is well dried and "drained" there is
+    no danger; at the worst, one can cover one's wall with sheets
+    of lead; it has been discovered that this was often done in
+    Pompeii. Or one can also (there are instances) paint upon a
+    specially prepared canvas away from the wall. But you know all
+    this better than I. Have you forgiven me, dear Friend? I could
+    not forbear from saying this, and rely upon your indulgence.
+
+    Do not allow Schloesser to mislead you about my work. I daub on
+    steadily, but am by a very long way not contented.
+
+    I send these lines to Frankfurt in the hope that they will be
+    forwarded to you.
+
+    I shall stay some weeks in Algiers--can I do anything for you?
+    in that case send me a line. Till the _1st October_ a letter
+    will find me; address, Poste Restante, Algiers.
+
+    All good luck be with you on your holidays, and may you gain
+    the desired strength.
+
+    Keep in remembrance your loving pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+    21 RUE PIGALLE.
+
+                                         ALGIERS, _Friday, 18th_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--I arrived here only last Monday, as the little
+    delay about the money made me lose the boat by which I
+    intended to sail; having, however, nothing in my studio that
+    was dry enough or otherwise fit to work on, I left Paris all
+    the same and visited Avignon, Nimes, and Arles, most
+    interesting towns which I had long desired to see. Avignon
+    reminded me so vividly of certain parts of Rome that it was
+    all I could do not to take a place for Civita Vecchia and
+    succumb to my longing desire to see Italy once more.
+
+    I have not the least idea (especially in this hot weather) how
+    to describe to you this strange and picturesque town in which
+    I have taken up my temporary quarters; everything where the
+    African element has been preserved is so entirely new, so
+    unlike anything that you have seen, that I see no chance of
+    putting before your mind any living image of the thing. Before
+    going further I may as well tell you, dearest Mammy, that
+    although it is very hot I am perfectly well and have an
+    enormous appetite. I walk from six to eight hours every day,
+    and bathe regularly in the sea.
+
+    Algiers occupies one horn of a most beautiful bay, thickly
+    studded with villas and farms, and reminding one greatly of
+    Italy. The aspect of the town, however, shows you at once, and
+    from a great distance, that you are in no European land. You
+    must know that oriental houses have no roofs, but are
+    surmounted by terraces, that they have no windows, the rooms
+    being lit from the inner court, and that they are painted
+    three times a year of the purest white, so that on approaching
+    Algiers, rising as it does steeply up the hillside, it looks
+    from the sea and under an African sun like a pyramid of
+    alabaster or marble, or, as some poet or other has said of it,
+    like a swan about to spread her wings. The effect of this
+    whiteness glittering out from the green and purple hills and
+    hanging over a dark-blue sea is really most beautiful;
+    unfortunately, however, the whole of the lower part of the
+    town that runs along the port has been so completely
+    Europeanized that, but for a rather pretty mosque on the
+    waterside, you might fancy you were at Havre or any other
+    French seaport town. As soon, however, as you get up into the
+    Arab town, your illusions are not only restored but enhanced,
+    for assuredly nothing could be more perfectly picturesque and
+    striking than the steep, tortuous streets that climb up to
+    the Casbah, or fortress, at the top of the town. The upper
+    storeys of the houses jut out into the street in such a manner
+    that they constantly meet, forming an archway underneath, and
+    yet the streets are never dark, from the dazzling whiteness of
+    all the walls, which reflect the light in every direction and
+    gild and brighten the darkest corners. Fancy, in the midst of
+    all this gleaming white, the gorgeous effect produced by the
+    varied colours of oriental costumes and complexion: the
+    copper-coloured Arabs, the sallow Jews, the ebony negroes; and
+    then the frequent display of every kind of fruit--crimson
+    tomatoes and purple aubergines, emerald and golden melons,
+    glowing oranges, luminous green grapes, and to relieve the
+    blaze of ardent colour, the tender ivory tones of the
+    tuberose, and the soft milk-white jessamine. I don't think a
+    colourist could have a more precious lesson than seeing this
+    place; you see in half-an-hour a sufficient number of fine
+    harmonies to set you up for a year. Not less striking than the
+    display of colour is the variety of types and costumes. Arabs
+    of the desert, with their lofty bearing and ample drapery, the
+    tattered, brawny Kabyles, the richly dressed Jewesses, the
+    negresses, dressed in long indigo-coloured draperies, and with
+    bracelets of horn round their ankles; in fact, you cannot
+    imagine a greater medley than is presented by a street in the
+    Arab quarter of the town. It has this drawback, that in the
+    midst of such an _embarras de richesses_, I don't know how I
+    shall ever be able to work; as yet I have not seen a pencil
+    even, indeed I have not been off my feet since I arrived, and
+    my head is in a perfect muddle. I spend next week in the
+    interior of the country, and when I come back I shall have a
+    fortnight in which I hope to do something. Getting anybody to
+    sit here is exceedingly difficult, and costs mints. The price
+    of living here is the same as Paris, but anything at all extra
+    is very dear; a horse or a cab to get to some place beyond a
+    walk is very expensive, and my consumption of drink (lemonade,
+    coffee, &c., for pure water is not wholesome here) from six in
+    the morning till bedtime is something incredible. Good-bye,
+    dearest Mother, I will write a longer letter next time. I have
+    no news from India. Best love to all, from your most
+    affectionate boy.
+
+    If you hear from Lina, _mind_ you let me know, as I am most
+    anxious for news.
+
+    I am so sorry the ink is so pale. I have written over half the
+    letter, but it is not much use; next time I will have darker
+    ink.
+
+    [Illustration: SKETCH IN OILS. ALGIERS. 1895]
+
+                                      ALGIERS, _Monday 29, 1857_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--Poor Lina,[70] what a state of wretched
+    suspense and terror she must live in! what a frightful crisis
+    it is! God grant all may end well. Have you heard lately? Pray
+    let me know whatever you can; at this distance I can get only
+    the most salient facts, and am most eager to hear some more
+    circumstantial account of the progress of affairs. Poor
+    Sutherland, I often think of his kind grey eyes and manly
+    carriage; what a harassing, anxious life he must lead!
+
+    Before I go any further I must ensure saying a thing that I
+    have been intending to tell for some time past, and which has
+    always been driven out of my head by the more immediate
+    subject of my letter. I am by no means certain that I have not
+    already mentioned it; I wish to be quite certain. The fact is
+    that as besides corresponding with you I write often to Mrs.
+    Sartoris, and still oftener to Henry Greville, and have
+    continually much the same to tell all of you, I often cannot
+    remember to whom I have written what, and I am therefore
+    uncertain whether I told you that Romeo and Juliet and Pan and
+    Venus are by this time exciting (let us hope) the admiration
+    of the citizens of America at the town of Philadelphia. It
+    costs me nothing at all either to send or to fetch, and the
+    percentage is ten per cent. I sent them off the end of last
+    month, just before leaving Paris for Africa. Tom Taylor is on
+    the committee, and I think the speculation may turn out good,
+    particularly if Mrs. Kemble, who is in America now, takes an
+    interest in them.
+
+    Putting aside all question of anxiety and sorrow, I am
+    delighted with my visit to Algiers. I feel that, though I have
+    as yet been unable to touch a pencil, I have already taken a
+    great deal of new stuff, and if I were to leave Africa with an
+    empty sketch-book, I should still return to my easel improved
+    in knowledge of form and combination of colours. Still it is
+    a great mortification to me to see such fine types around me
+    without any means of getting them to sit, an operation to
+    which they have an insuperable objection; if it were not
+    vexatious, it would be quite amusing to see how they slink
+    away when they perceive you are trying to sketch them.
+
+    Of course, one of my great desires was to see if possible a
+    Moorish _interieur_; and in this, though it is difficult to
+    achieve, I have been very fortunate, through the
+    instrumentality of a young native, with whom I became
+    accidentally acquainted. I have made the acquaintance of one
+    Achmet, son of Ali Pasha, a decayed native gentleman, now
+    holding office in the French customs, but once very well to do
+    in the world. I have been twice to his house, which I may as
+    well describe to you, as it is a type of all Moorish houses in
+    this part of the world. The whole of the centre of the
+    building is taken up by a little _cortile_, open to the sky
+    and surrounded by two storeys of arcades of a graceful shape,
+    on to which the rooms open as in Greek houses. These arcades
+    are painted pure white, and are relieved by fillets of
+    coloured porcelain tiles that have a most original and
+    charming effect; the first-floor gallery is closed in by a
+    breast-high balustrade, elegantly carved and painted blue or
+    green; the top of the house is invariably an open terrace,
+    adorned with flowers and shrubs. The rooms, I said, open on
+    the corridors and have no windows (except little peeping
+    holes) on to the street; they are consequently always wrapped
+    in a sort of clear, cool, reflected twilight that is
+    inexpressibly delightful and soothing in hot, glaring weather.
+    Each room takes up one side of the house, and is therefore a
+    long narrow strip; immediately opposite the door is an alcove,
+    containing a raised, handsomely cushioned and carpeted divan,
+    and ornamented invariably with three florid gilt
+    looking-glasses. At the foot of the raised divan is another
+    lower one for those who like low seats; other such divans run
+    along the wall, and a few highly wrought, embossed chests and
+    other oriental articles of furniture complete the decoration
+    of the room. In such a room Achmet Oulid received us, putting
+    before us delicious hot coffee in tiny cups with filagree
+    stands, a delightful kind of peach jam, and the pipe of peace.
+    You would have laughed to see your son lolling on a Turkey
+    carpet and puffing away at a long pipe. Our host has the
+    dearest little daughter, ten years old, whom by a great
+    stretch of courtesy we were allowed to see. By-the-bye, nearly
+    all Arab children are lovely, and look great darlings in their
+    Turkish dress.
+
+    My paper is coming to an end and the boat does not wait, so I
+    close. I shall write you another letter before I leave this
+    and tell you more of what I have done and seen.
+
+    Good-bye, dearest Mammy.
+
+    [Illustration: SKETCH IN OILS. ALGIERS. 1895]
+
+Leighton refers to this visit in a letter to Mrs. Mark Pattison
+(1879), who was about to write an account of his art. "This visit made
+a deep impression on me; I have loved 'The East,' as it is called,
+ever since. By-the-bye, I drew here my (almost) only large
+water-colour drawing 'A Negro Festival' (the picture Leighton always
+referred to as 'The Niggers'), which was thought very well of by my
+friends."
+
+To his sister in India he wrote:--
+
+    Since I last wrote I have spent a month or six weeks in
+    Algeria, and have opened an acquaintance with the East which I
+    hope to keep up, not only from the pleasure but from the
+    instruction I have derived from even a short visit. My next
+    journey, however, will be to the old, original cradle of
+    Western Art--to Egypt, which country, as I shall visit it
+    under widely different circumstances from what you did, poor
+    dear, and I trust in much better health, will of course strike
+    me in a very different manner. There are many things in the
+    Arab quarter in Algiers which will probably stand comparison
+    with Cairo, but besides that, Egypt has far more physiognomy
+    as a country than the coast of Algeria. I am anxious to study
+    the Egyptian type, which is truly grand and wonderful.
+    However, these are plans for a tolerably remote day, as I
+    shall spend my next winter in my dear, dear old Rome, to which
+    I am attached beyond measure; indeed, Italy altogether has a
+    hold on my heart that no other country ever can have (except,
+    of course, my own); and although, as I just now said, I was
+    most delighted with Africa, and have not a moment to look
+    back to that was not agreeable, yet there is an intimate
+    little corner in my affections into which it could never
+    penetrate. If I am as faithful to my wife as I am to the
+    places I love, I shall do very well. What the first impression
+    of an Eastern country is, you already know by experience as
+    far as the mere aspect goes, but to understand my sensations
+    you must translate your own into a far brighter key. In my
+    case everything was for me: a decent passage, a glorious day,
+    a light heart, and a firm determination to enjoy myself; to
+    this add that more rapid apprehension of what is beautiful
+    which belongs to an artist's eye, and is the natural
+    consequence of the constant exercise and cultivation of that
+    faculty.
+
+    I saw in Algiers many things that interested me, very much _du
+    point de vue moeurs fetes_, with strange music on queer
+    instruments, odd dances, odder singing. The music of the Moors
+    is altogether very strange; it is monotonous in the extreme,
+    fitful, and sometimes apparently without any kind of shape,
+    and yet there is something very characteristic and almost
+    attaching about it. This applies only to instrumental music,
+    for as for the voice, they seem to consider it only as a
+    shriller instrument, using always at full pitch, with neck
+    outstretched and eyes half shut, always from the throat and
+    always higher than they can go. It is very strange that a
+    nation which attained once so high a pitch of civilisation,
+    should either never have known or have entirely forgotten that
+    the human voice is capable of inflection, and what an
+    all-powerful vehicle it may be made of every passionate
+    sentiment or soothing influence. However, much the same thing
+    is noticeable in the peasants near Rome, whose songs consist
+    (within a definite shape) of long-sustained chest notes that
+    are peculiar in the extreme, and though often harsh seem to be
+    wonderfully in harmony with the long unbroken lines of the
+    Campagna.
+
+    _A propos_ of chanting, I saw a very striking thing one day in
+    Algiers, in the shape of a Rhapsodist, who recited, with an
+    uncouth instrumental accompaniment, a long string of strophes
+    describing (I am told) the life and deeds of some hero; it was
+    exactly what a recital of the Homeric poems must have been
+    amongst the early Greeks. The Homer stood up in the midst of a
+    motley and most picturesque group of breathless listeners, and
+    chanted, with a sort of animated monotony, verses of about
+    two lines each, heightening the colour of his tale by
+    gesticulations. After each strophe the music struck in,
+    consisting of two queerly shaped tambours and a shrill flute.
+    After the performance, or rather, during the pauses, money was
+    collected in the tambourines. Homer (if he ever lived) no
+    doubt did the same.
+
+On his return to Paris Leighton wrote to Steinle:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                       PARIS, _October 22, 1857_.
+
+    MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,--Since I know your industry better than
+    any one else, and also know that at this moment you are quite
+    particularly busy, I cannot be surprised that you have not
+    answered my letter of last month; however, some warm
+    expressions slipped from me in that letter which you may
+    perhaps have taken amiss; lest this should be indeed the case,
+    I hasten, my dear Master, to make you an ample apology and to
+    beg you not to take amiss what I may have said too hastily;
+    but if it is not so, do send me a short note that my doubt may
+    be solved; for it is an excessively painful idea to me that a
+    single word from my mouth should have displeased you.
+
+    I have just come back from Africa, where I have spent some
+    weeks with extreme pleasure, and, I believe, not without great
+    benefit; indeed, I might say that an artist cannot perfect his
+    sense of form so well anywhere as in the East; the types of
+    characteristic stamp which meet one's eye at every step are a
+    wonder to see, and of the simple grandeur of the costumes one
+    can form no previous conception--one sees real Michael Angelos
+    running about the streets.
+
+    I have done little or almost nothing, for one cannot possibly
+    induce the Arabs to sit; however, I believe I have learnt a
+    great deal by my observations; I have already made a
+    resolution to become acquainted with the Egyptian race in the
+    near future. But now I must see to it that I produce something
+    this winter, for time goes bye with giant strides, and will
+    not be called back again.
+
+    And you, my dear friend? what are you working at now? How I
+    should like to see your second cartoon! but unfortunately that
+    is one of the impossibilities. What has happened about the
+    church you were to paint? Has anything been settled? Once more
+    I beg you to write me a few lines to assure me that you are
+    not angry at my indiscretion.
+
+    Please remember me most kindly to your wife. And keep in
+    kindly remembrance, your grateful pupil,
+
+                                                        LEIGHTON.
+
+And again:--
+
+  _Translation._]
+                                           PARIS, 21 RUE PIGALLE,
+                                              _November 2, 1857_.
+
+    DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--All my best thanks for your kind
+    letter, and for the enclosed photograph of your splendid
+    cartoon; there is no need for me to tell you how greatly this
+    has rejoiced and delighted me; by now you know that beforehand
+    regarding every work of Steinle's (Steinleischen Arbeit), and
+    in no work more than in this do I recognise the fulness and
+    the brilliance of your fancy; meanwhile (as is only human) my
+    joy is a trifle damped by the overwhelming desire to know the
+    complete composition, and then to see the original itself. How
+    glad I am that at last you have a worthy task!
+
+    It was a great relief to me to find that you did not take
+    amiss what I wrote about wall painting, and that you quite
+    understood that I could only become so wrathful regarding a
+    matter which interests me in the highest degree. I wish with
+    all my heart that you may discover something which will fill
+    all requirements, while at the same time, as a bigoted
+    frescoist, I shake my head a little at your heresy. You will
+    certainly find me dreadfully stiff-necked, dear Friend! That
+    is because lately I have seen fresco painting much nearer, and
+    have compared it with oil painting directly beside it; I
+    cannot deny that in colour I find it immeasurably more frank
+    and stronger than its oil-neighbour, which appears muddy and
+    dull next it. True, Cennini mentions wall painting, but only
+    supplementarily, and after he has written at length of _buon
+    peseo_. I certainly fall into his views again!
+
+    Now, adieu, my dear friend; once more all my best thanks; you
+    may rely upon it, that the very first thing of mine that is
+    photographed shall immediately find its way to you at
+    Frankfurt; meantime, I candidly confess to you that I am quite
+    terribly dissatisfied with my performances, and could only
+    submit a hasty work to you.
+
+    Think often of your most devoted pupil,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+  (Written below by Steinle)
+  Answered, 4th June 1858.
+
+The following letters, dated 30th November 1857, Paris, refer to Mrs.
+Orr's narrow escape from Aurungabad, owing to the fidelity of Sheik
+Boran Bukh, in the time of the Mutiny. It is a good example of the
+ease with which Leighton threw himself into the atmosphere of a
+situation. It reads like the writing of an Oriental!
+
+    MOST VALUED FRIEND,--The report of your gallant and generous
+    conduct towards my sister and the companions of her flight has
+    reached my ears, not only by private letters but also through
+    several of the first English newspapers. From one end of this
+    country to another, Englishmen have read the account of your
+    loyal bearing, and from one end of the country to the other
+    there has been but one voice to praise and to admire it; for
+    uprightness and fidelity are precious in the eyes of all
+    Englishmen, and honour and courage are to them as the breath
+    of life; but _my_ feelings towards you are naturally doubly
+    warm and grateful, for to your care and vigilance I owe the
+    safety of a most precious and valued life, that of a beloved
+    sister. It is to express to you this gratitude that I now
+    write, and also to beg you to accept as a small token of my
+    regard a shawl which I send together with this letter, and
+    which will be as a sign to cement our new friendship. Wear it
+    in remembrance of that perilous night at Aurungabad, and in
+    wearing it remember that on that night your fidelity won for
+    you many new friends, and amongst the truest and most sincere
+    count the brother of Mrs. Orr,
+
+                                                   FRED LEIGHTON.
+
+_To_ FREDERICK LEIGHTON, Esq., &c. &c.
+
+                                    AURUNGABAD, _13th July 1858_.
+
+    MOST RESPECTED SIR,--I beg to return you my humble and hearty
+    thanks for your kindness in having sent me a revolving pistol,
+    which was highly admired by all who saw it. I cannot be
+    sufficiently thankful to your invaluable kindness. I shall not
+    part with it till death, but keep it as a remembrance of your
+    high estimation of me your unworthy servant, and ever pray for
+    your and family's welfare and happiness.
+
+    I feel very uneasy in not hearing from Captain Orr since he
+    left us; I beg you will kindly let me know how he is getting
+    on, as I hear that he is not altogether very well. I was very
+    anxious to accompany him, and he agreed to take me, but on
+    second consideration he changed his mind. I hope some day or
+    other to be able to see you and family by God's grace.
+
+    I conclude, sir, with my humble respects and good wishes to
+    self and family. Hoping all's well.--I am, Sir, your most
+    obedient and grateful servant,
+
+                                    SHEIK BORAN BUKH, _Silladar_.
+
+                                                      _Thursday._
+
+    DEAR PAPA,--In accordance with your request, yesterday
+    received, I enclose an envelope for B.B., on which perhaps you
+    will be so good as to add his rank, whatever that may be--I
+    believe Subahdar. I am glad the letter is right, and knowing
+    your great epistolary facilities, I don't feel as sorry as I
+    ought to have interfered with your design. I don't think it
+    will fall heavily on you.
+
+    I have a great favour to ask of you; and I feel sure you won't
+    grudge it me, as it concerns a man whose house is a second
+    home to me: Cartwright--indefatigable as he is, he keeps
+    constantly on the alert for any vacancy in Parliament, and is
+    in frequent communication with Hayter on the subject. Now the
+    representation of _Scarborough_ has just become vacant, and I
+    should take it as the greatest kindness if you would write to
+    that great friend of yours in that town (a banker--whose name
+    I, if I were to sit on my head, I could not remember; but you
+    know), mentioning Cartwright as a great friend and most
+    appropriate man. He (your friend) is sure to be very
+    influential amongst the townsfolk. I should wish you to say
+    this: state who Cartwright is, his family, place (Aynhoe Park,
+    Brackley), his relations _with Hayter the Whipper-in_ (that he
+    may not appear _tombe des nues_), and the following creed:
+    Pledge himself to Reform Bill with extension of franchise;
+    considers the Educational question amongst the most important
+    of the day; wants a thorough inquiry into India and Indian
+    affairs (government), and is prepared to support Lord
+    Palmerston's administration. All this is very important to
+    mention, because _all his relations_ are hot Tories. Also, in
+    case your friend should accept the suggestion and want to
+    communicate _at once_ Cartwright, give his (C.'s) direction in
+    Paris, _No. 5 Rue Roquepine_. Will you do this for me?
+
+    Please give dear Mamma a wigging for expressing no pleasure at
+    the prospect I hinted at of running over to Bath for a day or
+    two in the winter; tell her if she does not behave better I
+    won't come. I would write at greater length, but my model is
+    waiting, and I have no time.--With anticipated thanks, your
+    affectionate son,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+It was in the year 1857 that Leighton painted the beautiful figure of
+"Salome, the Daughter of Herodias," which apparently was never
+exhibited in any exhibition of his works till that of 1897. A sketch
+(see List of Illustrations) made for the picture is in the Leighton
+House Collection, also other drawings of dancing figures sketched in
+Algiers.
+
+    [Illustration: STUDY FOR "SALOME, THE DAUGHTER OF HERODIAS."
+    1857
+    Leighton House Collection]
+
+To his mother he wrote in the beginning of 1858:--
+
+                                             MONDAY, _Jan. 1858_.
+
+    DEAREST MAMMA,--Many thanks for your nice long letter, which I
+    had been anxiously expecting not only for news of yourself but
+    to hear what tidings had reached you from India. I am so
+    glad dear Lina continues tolerably well considering her
+    position. I can fully understand how dreadfully anxious poor
+    Sutherland must have been the whole time about her. I mean to
+    write to her myself without delay. Will you please let me have
+    her present direction, as I don't know it? How kind Sutherland
+    is to have remembered at such a moment about my tigerskin!
+    What an excellent and thoughtful creature he must be! The
+    extract from Brig. Stuart's despatch is most gratifying and
+    satisfactory, but I want to see it in print; where is it
+    published? can't you somehow get it and let me have it? I have
+    the greatest desire to possess it in that shape. What a nice
+    letter Booran Buckh's is. I am afraid that about the regiment
+    returning to Aurungabad is a hope not very likely to be
+    realised. There is still a frightful deal to do in Oude. Sir
+    Colin wants men sadly, and cavalry is particularly precious.
+
+    Mario's _etrenne_ cost me a pound, it was the least I could
+    do. Let me reassure you, dear Mamma, about my behaviour to
+    that amiable creature. I have been at his house often since,
+    and am sure he is not in the least hurt; as for his thinking I
+    was proud about his being an actor, that is so out of the
+    question that I could not help laughing when I read the
+    passage in your letter. In the first place, he would never
+    dream of suspecting me of such a piece of vulgarity, and in
+    the next, actor or no, he still is Count Candia, and therefore
+    more than my equal in rank.
+
+    I hope I may be with you somewhere about the 6th or 7th
+    February, and should stay till the 10th or 11th. It would be
+    humbug to say that I should not rather find you alone than in
+    a whirlpool of funereal gaieties; but, however, I am at your
+    disposal; do with me as you wish. I have been suffering very
+    much of late from tooth and face ache. I am rather better now,
+    thanks to, or in spite of, homoeopathy.
+
+    Lady Cowley I have never found in yet. The Embassy parties
+    have not begun yet. I go out almost every evening, but only in
+    a circle of four or five houses. I can't stay at home, my eyes
+    are too weak to do anything, I am sorry to say; I have not
+    opened a book this winter. The Hollands are going to Naples,
+    to my great regret; they were very kind; poor Lady Holland has
+    only just recovered from a very serious illness.
+
+    You tell me to bring over my Algerine sketches, but I have
+    very little to show, a few scratches only of types; my two
+    principal studies are _in oils_; I can't well take those over.
+    I am working away at my pictures as well as the pitch-dark
+    weather allows (which is very badly); however, I hope they may
+    turn out well. The silent Sartoris said to-day he thought my
+    Juliet picture "safe to succeed."
+
+    Good-bye, dear Mamma; best love to all from your most affect.
+    boy,
+
+                                                            FRED.
+
+
+END OF VOL. I
+
+    Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
+    Edinburgh & London
+
+    [Illustration: "BLIND SCHOLAR AND DAUGHTER"
+    No. 1. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: NELLO'S SHOP: "SUPPOSE YOU LET ME LOOK AT MYSELF"
+    No. 2. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE FIRST KEY"
+    No. 5. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE PEASANTS' FAIR"
+    No. 6. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE DYING MESSAGE"
+    No. 7. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "FLORENTINE JOKE"
+    No. 8. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE ESCAPED PRISONER"
+    No. 9. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "NICCOLO AT WORK"
+    No. 10. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "YOU DIDN'T THINK"
+    No. 11. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "FATHER, I WILL BE GUIDED"
+    No. 13. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "THE VISIBLE MADONNA"
+    No. 15. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "DANGEROUS COLLEAGUES"
+    No. 16. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "MONNA BRIGIDA"
+    No. 17. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "BUT YOU WILL HELP"
+    No. 18. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "DRIFTING"
+    No. 20. "Romola"]
+
+    [Illustration: "WILL HIS EYES OPEN?"
+    No. 21. "Romola"]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[67] "Romeo," "Pan," and "Venus," being then exhibited at the yearly
+autumn Exhibition at Manchester.
+
+[68] "368. _From Keats' Ode to Pan, in the 'Endymion'_: F.
+Leighton.--Flesh painting is the grand test. With the majority of
+artists the attempt results in a something very much resembling tinted
+marble. Not so Mr. Leighton. This enchanting creation of his mind glows
+with the rich warm hues of life; and the sweeping outline which gives
+such beauty to the female form is preserved with subdued definiteness.
+The background is a fine piece of mellow autumnal tinting.
+
+"_The Royal Institution._--In the second room will be found one of the
+very best, if not the best picture in the exhibition, No. 183,
+'Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets,' by F. Leighton.
+Whatever its other merits or faults may be, it tells the sad story
+clearly and forcibly. The scene is 'the tomb of all the Capulets,' and
+the moment chosen by the artist is when the heads of the rival houses,
+standing by the dead bodies of those in whom all their hopes had been
+centred, agree to lay by their ancient feuds, and clasp their hands in
+sign of future friendship.
+
+    "'_Capulet_--O brother Montague, give me thy hand:
+                 This is my daughter's jointure, for no more
+                 Can I demand.
+     _Montague_--But I can give thee more:
+                 For I will raise her statue in pure gold:
+                 That while Verona by that name is known
+                 There shall no figure at such rate be set,
+                 As that of true and faithful Juliet.'
+
+In the foreground are the bodies of the lovers, placed on a bier.
+Juliet has thrown herself upon the body of Romeo, her hands clasped
+around his neck, and her cheek touching his. In that position, typical
+of her undying love, the fatal potion has done its work. Lady Capulet,
+in a paroxysm of maternal grief, has thrown herself on her knees at the
+foot of the bier; behind her is the Friar. Opposite the spectator are
+old Capulet and Montague, their aged forms bowed with grief, in the act
+of reconciliation. These are the principal figures. The Prince,
+attendants, &c., fill up, without crowding, the picture. The gloom of
+the ancient monument is capitally rendered, the colouring is
+harmonious, and the disposition of the figures careful and dramatic.
+The artist has admirably discriminated the characters of the two aged
+noblemen. Readers of Shakespeare will not need to be reminded of the
+distinction which the dramatist has made between the two. Montague
+appears only in the first and last acts, but displays great resolution,
+accompanied by a noble moderation, in the brawl commenced by the
+retainers of each of the houses. The language put into his mouth is
+noble and poetical, especially in concluding his account of the black
+and portentous humour which had overtaken his son.
+
+    "'But he, his own affection's counsellor,
+      Is to himself,--I will not say--how true,--
+      But to himself so secret and so close,
+      So far from sounding and discovery
+      As is the bud, bit with an envious worm,
+      Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,
+      Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.'
+
+No such language as this is ever given to old Capulet. On the contrary,
+he is fussy, shallow, and pretentious. Even the Nurse snubs him. In the
+first act he rushes out frantically calling for his sword, to which
+Lady Capulet replies--
+
+    "'A crutch, a crutch!--why call you for a sword?'
+
+And the Nurse on another occasion says--
+
+    "'Go, go, you cot quean, go,
+      Get you to bed; faith you will be sick to-morrow
+      For this night's watching.'
+
+The artist has finely distinguished the two men; there is no mistaking
+them. On the other hand, if we may 'hint a fall' or two, we should say,
+that the faces of the lovers are too livid and corpse-like. They are
+but newly dead, and the artist would have been truer to nature and
+increased the beauty of his picture if he had allowed some of the
+beauty of life to linger around them. The attitude of the Friar, too,
+with elevated arms and appalled look, is not in harmony with the grand
+composure of his demeanour at all other times, the noble motives from
+which he had acted, and that sanctity of character which induces the
+Prince to say to him, after his explanatory speech--
+
+    "'We still have known thee for a holy man.'
+
+With all drawbacks, however, this is a noble picture; and if our
+readers will turn to the scene in the play and refresh their memories
+before going to the Institution, they will, we think, agree with us in
+ranking it as a successful Shakesperian illustration--high praise, but
+deserved."
+
+[69] Among the drawings sold by the Fine Art Society in 1897 was a very
+striking and interesting sketch in water-colour by Steinle. The subject
+was a peasant confessing to a Cardinal. May be it was the sketch for
+this picture for which Steinle asked Leighton to help him respecting
+the cardinal's costume.
+
+[70] Mrs. S. Orr was in India, the Mutiny taking place at that time.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+    +----------------------------------------------------------------+
+    | Typographical errors corrected in text:                        |
+    |                                                                |
+    | Page xviii: Spagniola replaced with Spagnola                   |
+    | Page  63: Middelburg replaced with Middelburgh                 |
+    | Page  69: antlered replaced with anthered                      |
+    | Page 136: Spagniola replaced with Spagnola                     |
+    | Page 153: volorous replaced with valorous                      |
+    | Page 160: Kuppelwiesser replaced with Kuppelwieser             |
+    | Page 190: Sclosser replaced with Schlosser                     |
+    | Page 210: "magnificent intellectual capacity, and unerring and |
+    |           instantaneous spring upon the point to unravel."     |
+    |           replaced with "magnificent intellectual capacity,    |
+    |           and an unerring and instantaneous spring upon the    |
+    |           point to unravel." (see "Reminiscences of G.F. Watts"|
+    |           by Mrs. Russell Barringtong, page 193.)              |
+    | Page 198: antlered replaced with anthered                      |
+    | Page 226: Spagnolli replaced with Spagnola                     |
+    | Page 261: "bran new" replaced with "brand new"                 |
+    | Page 272: "He offers you L25 for if" replaced with             |
+    |           "He offers you L25 for it"                           |
+    | Page 273: "your sincerely" replaced with "yours sincerely"     |
+    | Page 291: Pigale replaced with Pigalle                         |
+    |                                                                |
+    | Footnote 10: Sain-Damien replaced with Saint-Damien;           |
+    |              l'envalussait replaced with l'envahissait; and,   |
+    |              remplet replaced with remplit                     |
+    | Footnote 36: Caranco replaced with Carcano                     |
+    |           (see Adelaide Sartoris' book "A Week in a French     |
+    |           Country-House" page xxx.)                            |
+    |                                                                |
+    | Note that the names I'Anson and Ffrench are legitimate         |
+    | surnames.                                                      |
+    |                                                                |
+    | Frankfort a/M. is the abbreviation for Frankfurt am Main,      |
+    | (in English 'Frankfort on the Main') a city on the Main        |
+    | River, Germany.                                                |
+    |                                                                |
+    +----------------------------------------------------------------+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic
+Leighton, by Mrs. Russell Barrington
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE, LETTERS OF FREDERICK LEIGHTON ***
+
+***** This file should be named 35934.txt or 35934.zip *****
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+        https://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/9/3/35934/
+
+Produced by Jeannie Howse, Jonathan Ingram and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
+will be renamed.
+
+Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
+one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
+(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
+permission and without paying copyright royalties.  Special rules,
+set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to
+copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to
+protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+https://gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at
+https://pglaf.org/fundraising.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at https://pglaf.org
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit https://pglaf.org
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including including checks, online payments and credit card
+donations.  To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     https://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
diff --git a/35934.zip b/35934.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5afe32c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/35934.zip
diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..6312041
--- /dev/null
+++ b/LICENSE.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements,
+metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be
+in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES.
+
+Procedures for determining public domain status are described in
+the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org.
+
+No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in
+jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize
+this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright
+status under the laws that apply to them.
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e960d05
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #35934 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/35934)