The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton Volume II Part 9

In 1860 Leighton drew his first ill.u.s.tration for the _Cornhill Magazine_:--

_Translation._]

_Friday, 30th November 1860._

MY DEAR FRIEND AND MASTER,--Best thanks for your dear letter of the 7th, thanks also especially, because in your kind praise you do not spare criticism also; you could give me no better proof that you still esteem and love your old pupil. I feel the justice of your remarks about the drapery of the Saviour very much, and can only say in my excuse that I have treated this kind of subject very little, for I am only really a profane fellow; but should I at some future time again treat such a theme, I should endeavour to avoid similar faults. I send you this time, for fun, a proof impression of a woodcut after a drawing I made for one of our good monthly periodicals (_The Cornhill Magazine_). It seems to me to be not bad for wood. It ill.u.s.trates a poem, and represents Ariadne kneeling on an eminence, looking out for Theseus. This as a preliminary; I hope to send you something in April.

DEAREST MAMMY,--My wretched picture is causing more delays! I am very sorry to say I shan't be able to get to Bath before Wednesday evening. I am due at Stourhead the 27th; this I cannot defer any more, as I must be on duty with the Rifle Corps at the beginning of September, and can't do all I have to do in less than a week--this will, however, still leave me three weeks, all but two days, at Bath.

I enjoyed myself at Panshanger very much--did I write to tell you who our party was? In case I did not, it was as follows: Henry Greville, Lord and Lady Katherine Valletort, Lord and Lady Spencer, Mrs. Leslie, Lord Listowel, Mr. Clare Vyner, and Mr. E.

Lascelles--all young people; so that it was very pleasant.

There are, as you know, most beautiful pictures at Panshanger--a magnificent Vand.y.k.e, a splendid Rembrandt, Correggio, Andrea del Sarto, and two beautiful Raphaels.

G. Smith sent me a kind note and a cheque to fill up for drawing in the _Cornhill_ ("Ariadne"). I put ten guineas, telling him that I could not, as a general rule, interrupt my work for that sum, but that I would not take more because the cut had turned out so extremely bad.

I am going to expend the money, adding a few pounds, on a cup, to be shot for in the spring by our Rifle Corps. Arthur Lewis has already given one, and another of our men has promised a second prize to go with my cup. My picture will be _finished_ by the time I go to Bath. My eye is too accustomed to it to know whether it is successful; I shall know better when I return from the country.

I have no news, so good-bye, dear Mammy. Best love to all.--From your very affectionate boy,

FRED.

I go to Windsor (to Miss Thackeray) for two days next week; that also is an old invitation; I have no time for it, but must go. I keep my parties going tolerably, but shall give that up with a few exceptions when I settle here; it makes work impossible from unavoidably late hours, and produces a general deterioration of mind and body, mostly the former; the Hollands I shall always keep up--they are most kind; I dine there frequently and meet interesting and remarkable people.

Very remarkable drawings in pencil on other lines followed the celebrated "Lemon Tree"--surpa.s.sing in dramatic truth of expression any Leighton had executed since the early design he drew of the "Plague in Florence in 1850."[26]

[Ill.u.s.tration: SKETCH FOR "MICHAEL ANGELO NURSING HIS DYING SERVANT." 1862 Leighton House Collection]

The group of drawings for "Michael Angelo Nursing his Dying Servant"

are among those preserved in the Leighton House collection, but were not seen by the public before Leighton's death. Though slight, they are among the most admirable he ever achieved in subtle tenderness of feeling and expressive truth of drawing. The feeble twitching clutch of the hands of the old man--announcing the speedy approach of Death--is a convincing proof of imaginative realism of a high order.

This group of sketches, however, exemplify the curious artistic discrepancy which at times existed, especially before and about the time when the Michael Angelo was painted, between Leighton's pictures and the studies he made for them--a discrepancy which had no reference to his feeling for colour, but simply arose from an absence of sensitiveness for texture. In turning from the drawings to the painting, we find the n.o.ble feeling and conception, the lines and forms of the design much the same in all; but the heavy and yet insufficient texture of the actual surface mars the full conveying, even in the completed painting, of the feeling of the motive--so imperative is a simultaneous union of the idea with a happy echo of it in the touch of the human hand, if a work of art is fully to convey its message. Leighton's genius for using the point is referred to in a letter from Mrs. Browning, on the subject of a drawing he had made of her husband:--

_Copy._]

DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--The portrait is beautiful, and would satisfy me entirely except for a want of strength about the brow, which I must write of, because I can't trust Robert himself with the message. I think the brow is feeble, less ma.s.sive than his, with less fulness about the temples. In fact, your temple is _hollow_, instead of full. Will you look at it by the original?

The eyes and mouth are exquisite. _Your pencil has the expressiveness of another's brush._

How much I thank you for having put so much of my husband on paper is proved by the very insolence of my criticisms.--Most truly yours,

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING.

_April 1._

In the same category as the Michael Angelo studies may be placed the first sketch of "Samson Wrestling with the Lion," designed as an ill.u.s.tration for Dalziel's Bible. This drawing is also in the Leighton House Collection, also the original drawings for "The Spies' Escape"

and "Samson at the Mill." The following was written with regard to it: "An animal model never 'sits.' The artist must catch the action he wants from fleeting suggestions. His imagination alone can guide his pencil when he depicts such action with realistic power. It is in a pencil drawing of a lion that we find the work that evinces, more distinctly perhaps than does any other of Leighton's utterances in art, the highest kind of imagination in the drawing of form in action, namely in the sketch of 'Samson Wrestling with the Lion' for the ill.u.s.trations in Dalziel's Bible. Where, indeed, for vigour of invention, can we find a drawing to surpa.s.s these few pencil lines?

The sinews in the legs and claws of the animal are drawn up, clenching the vacant air with a quivering grip; the tail straightened stiffly through the strain of the wrestling; the whole animal convulsed with the force of the struggle. This is treatment of form no model could suggest, no knowledge evolve, no labour or industry produce. A true imagination alone can inspire such vivid realism." The other subjects Leighton ill.u.s.trated were "Death of Abel," "Moses Viewing the Promised Land," "Samson Carrying the Gates," "Abraham and the Angel,"

"Eliezer and Rebecca at the Well," "The Slaying of the First-born."

[Ill.u.s.tration: ORIGINAL DRAWING FOR "SAMSON AND THE LION" IN DALZIEL'S BIBLE Leighton House Collection]

In 1862 Leighton ill.u.s.trated George Eliot's great novel "Romola." He writes to his father:--

_Tuesday._

DEAR PAPA,--Though I am not able, I am sorry to say, to report the sale of any more of my pictures, you will be glad to hear of a commission just given me by G. Smith of the _Cornhill_ which is very acceptable to me. I am to ill.u.s.trate (by-the-bye this is "_strictly confidential_") a novel about to appear in the _Cornhill_ from the hand of _Adam Bede_. It is an Italian story, the scene and period are Florence and the fifteenth century, nothing could "_ganter_" me better. It is to continue through _twelve_ numbers, in each of which are to be _two_ ill.u.s.trations.

I am to have for each _number_ 40; for the whole novel, therefore, 480. I have conferred with the auth.o.r.ess to-day, and am to get the first-proof sheets this week. The first number will be published in July. Miss Evans (or Mrs. Lewes) has a very striking countenance. Her face is large, her eyes deep set, her nose aquiline, her mouth large, the under jaw projecting, rather like Charles Quint; her voice and manner are grave, simple, and gentle. There is a curious mixture in her look; she either is or seems very short-sighted. Lewes is clever. Both were extremely polite to me; her I shall like much.

I have no other news; no one asks about my pictures, though their success is decidedly great; hard times! Are you writing to Gussy? if so will you tell her that I mean to give her some lessons with Halle when she comes to London? she shall have _three_ a week for a month. Tell Lina with my love not to be jealous, it will be her turn next. How is she? and how is Mamma?

Give them my best love, and believe me, your affectionate boy,

FRED.

That George Eliot should write a Florentine story at a time when Leighton was available to ill.u.s.trate it, was certainly a most fortunate coincidence. Each scene which he represents is impregnated with a feeling which records the strong hold Italy had on his artistic resources. With a few exceptions, these ill.u.s.trations for "Romola" are the last examples of his art, when a dramatic or a humorous treatment was a prominent feature of the designs. The last picture exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1897--the pa.s.sionate, despairing figure of "Clytie"--was notably one of these exceptions. Unfortunately Leighton's letters to George Eliot respecting the "Romola" drawings cannot be found, and were probably destroyed before the author's death. The following were preserved by Leighton:--

16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W., _Friday_.

DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Thanks for the sight of the Vignettes. They are satisfactory.

Your delicious drawing was with me all day yesterday and made the opera more delightful to me in the evening. I never saw anything comparable to the scene in Nello's shop as an ill.u.s.tration. There could not be a better beginning.

I should very much like to have a little conversation with you, and will arrange to see you at any hour that will best suit you, in the evening if you like, any time after the morning working hours, which last till two o'clock. I know your time is very precious to you just now, but I think we shall both benefit by a little talk together after you have read the second proof.--Yours very truly,

M.E. LEWES.

F. LEIGHTON, Esq.

16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W., _Wednesday_.

DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I feel for you as well as myself in this inevitable difficulty--nay, impossibility of producing perfect correspondence between my intention and the ill.u.s.trations.

I think your sketch is charming, considered in itself, and I feel now with regret that if we had seen each other and talked a little together after you had read the proof, the only important discrepancy might have been prevented. It is too late for alterations now. If it had not been, I should have wished Bardo's head to be raised with the chin thrust forward a little--the usual att.i.tude of the blind head, I think--and turned a little towards Romola, "as if he were looking at her."

Romola's att.i.tude is perfect, and the composition is altogether such as gives me a very cheering prospect for the future, when we have more time for preparation. Her face and hair, though deliciously beautiful, are not just the thing--how could they be? Do not make yourself uneasy if alteration is impossible, but I meant the hair to fall forward from behind the ears over the neck, and the dress to be without ornament.

I shall inevitably be detestable to you, but believe that I am

(Unfinished)

16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W., _Thursday_.

DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Unmitigated delight! Nello is better than my Nello. I see the love and care with which the drawings are done.

After I had sent away my yesterday's note, written in such haste that I was afterwards uncomfortable lest I had misrepresented my feelings, the very considerations you suggest had occurred to me and I had talked them over with Mr. Lewes--namely, that the exigencies of your art must forbid perfect correspondence between the text and the ill.u.s.tration; and I came to the conclusion that it was these exigencies which had determined you as to the position of Bardo's head and the fall of Romola's hair. You have given her att.i.tude transcendently well, and the att.i.tude is more important than the mere head-dress. I am glad you chose Nello's shop; it makes so good a variety with Bardo and Romola. In a day or two you will have the second part, and I think you will find there a scene for Tessa "under the Plane Tree." But perhaps we shall see each other before you begin the next drawings.--Ever yours truly,