The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton Volume I Part 2

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 h.e.l.lAS" (_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--ILl.u.s.tRATIONS 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?"

[Ill.u.s.tration: HEAD PRESENTED TO THE QUEEN BY LORD LEIGHTON By permission of Her Majesty the Queen]

ERRATA

Motto facing t.i.tle-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 a.s.serted 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 pa.s.sion 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 pa.s.sion.

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 wors.h.i.+pped 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 pa.s.sionate 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 a.s.semblies 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."