The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton Volume II Part 10

M.E. LEWES.

16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W., _Monday_.

DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Your letter comforts me particularly. I am so glad to think you find subjects to your mind. I have no especial desire for the view from S. Miniato, and indeed a plan we started in conversation with Mr. Smith this morning, namely, to have moderately sized initial letters--the opening one being an old Florentine in his _Lucco_ and generally the subjects being bits of landscape or Florentine building--seems to do away with any reason for having the landscape to begin with. The idea of having Tessa and the mules, or Nello's sanctum, smiles upon me, so pray feel free to choose the impression that urges itself most strongly. Your observation about the "che, che" is just the aid I besought from you. With that exception, I have confined myself, I believe, to such interjections as I find in the writers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and in them, curiously enough, this exclamation now said to be so constant and "to mean everything" (according to our authority) does not seem to occur.

Thank you. Pray let me have as many criticisms of that kind as you can. I am more gratified, I think, by your liking these opening chapters than I have yet been by anything in these nervous anxious weeks of decision about publication.--Very truly yours,

M.E. LEWES.

F. LEIGHTON, Esq.

16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W., _Tuesday Evening_.

DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I am enchanted! purely delighted! which shall I begin with, to tell you that I delight in Baby's toes or that exquisite poetry in the scene where Romola is standing? Is it not a pleasant change to have that opening made through the walls of the city, so as to see the sky and the mountains? In the scene with Balda.s.sarre and Tessa, also, the distant view is charming. Tessa and her Babkin are perfect--Balda.s.sarre's is, as you say, an impossible face to draw, but you have seized the framework of the face well, both in this ill.u.s.tration and the previous one.

I want to tell you that a man of some eminence in art was speaking of your drawings to a third person the other day as "remarkable" in a tone of genuine admiration. I don't know whether you care about that, but it is good to know that there is any genuine admiration in one's neighbours.

I am glad to have the drawings left. I shall go now and have a long look at them. The February number will soon be out of my hands, but you will have it when it pleases the pigs--or printers.--Ever yours truly,

M.E. LEWES.

PARK HOTEL, LITTLE HAMPTON, SUSs.e.x, _September 10, '62_.

DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Thanks for your letter, which I have received this morning.

My copy of Vasari has a profile of Piero di Cosimo, but it is of no value, a man with a short beard and eyes nearly closed. The old felt hat on his head has more character in it than the features, but the hat you can't use.

Of Niccolo Caparra it is not likely that any portrait exists, so that you may feel easy in letting your imagination interpret my suggestions in the First and the Fifth Parts of Romola. There is probably a portrait of Piero di Cosimo in the portrait room of Uffizi, but in the absence of any decent catalogue of that collection it was a bewildering and headachy business to a.s.sure oneself of the presence or absence of any particular personage.

If you feel any doubt about the _new_ Romola, I think it will be better for you to keep to the original representation, the type given in the first ill.u.s.tration, which some accomplished people told me they thought very charming. It will be much better to continue what is intrinsically pretty than to fail in an effort after something indistinctly seen. If you prefer the action of _taking out_ the crucifix, instead of the merely contemplative att.i.tude, you can choose that with safety. In the scene with Piero di Cosimo, I thought you might make the figures subordinate to those other details which you render so charmingly, and I chose it for that reason.

But I am quite convinced that ill.u.s.trations can only form a sort of overture to the text. The artist who uses the pencil must otherwise be tormented to misery by the deficiencies or requirements of the one who uses the pen, and the writer, on the other hand, must die of impossible expectations. _Apropos_ of all that, I want to a.s.sure you again of what I had said in that letter, which your naughty servant sent down the wind, that I appreciate very highly the advantage of having your hand and mind to work with me rather than those of any other artist of whom I know. Please do not take that as an impertinent expression of opinion, but rather as an honest expression of feeling by which you must interpret any apparent criticism.

The initial letter of the December part will be W. I forgot to tell you how pleased I was with the initial letter of Part V.

I am very much obliged to you for your critical doubts. I will put out the questionable "Ecco!" in deference to your knowledge.

I have a tremulous sense of my liability to error in such things.

I don't wonder at your difficulty about the modification of _com_ into _ciom_. The writers of the fifteenth century, speaking of the insurrection of the _Ciompi_ which occurred in the previous century, say that the word was a corruption of the French _compere_, the same word of course as _compare_, constantly on the lips of the numerous French who were present in Florence during the dictators.h.i.+p of the Duke of Athens. The likelihood of the derivation lies in the a.n.a.lysis of transition in the meaning of words _compere_ and _compare_, like the English "gossip," beginning with the meaning of G.o.dfather and ending with, or rather proceeding to that of companion. Our "gossip" has at least parted with its secondary meaning as well as its primary one.

The unlikelihood of the derivation lies in the modification of the sounds, and I felt that unlikelihood as you have done. But in the absence of a Max Muller to a.s.sure me of a law to the contrary, I thought the statement of Tuscan writers a better authority than inferences. I ought to have written "is stated by the old historians."

I am really comforted by the thought that you will mention doubts to me when they occur to you. My misery is the certainty that I must be often in error.

Mr. Lewes shares my admiration of the two last ill.u.s.trations.--Ever yours truly,

MARIAN E. LEWES.

F. LEIGHTON, Esq.

16 BLANDFORD SQUARE, N.W., _Tuesday_.

DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--Since I saw you I have confirmed by renewed reference my conclusion that _gamurra_ was the equivalent of our _gown_, _i.e._ the constant outer garb of femininity, varying in length and cut according to rank and age. The poets and novelists give it alike to the peasant and the "city woman,"

and speak of the _girdle_ around it. Perhaps it would have been better to call Tessa's gown a _gamurrina_, the word sometimes used and indicating, I imagine, just that abbreviation of petticoat that active work demands.

If you are going to see Ghirlandajo's frescoes--the engravings of them I mean--in the choir of Santa Maria Novella, I wish you would especially notice if the women in his groups have not that plain piece of opaque drapery over the head which haunts my memory. We were only allowed to see those frescoes once, because of repairs going on; but I am strongly impressed with a belief--which, _au reste_, may be quite false--in the presence of my "white hood" there. As to the garb of the luxurious cla.s.ses at that time, a point which may turn up in our progress, I think the painters can hardly be believed to have represented it fully, since we know, on strong evidence, that it ran into extravagances, which are even in contrast with the general impression conveyed not only by the large fresco compositions but by the portraits. You must have had sufficient experience of the _eclecticism_ in costume which the artist's feeling forces upon him in the presence of hideous or extreme fas.h.i.+on. We have in Varchi a sufficiently fit and clear description of the ordinary male costume of dignified Florentines in my time; but for the corresponding feminine costume the best authority I have seen is the very incomplete one of a certain Ginevra's _trousseau_ in the Ricordi of the Rinuccini family of rather an earlier period, but marking even there the rage for embroidery and pearls which grew instead of diminis.h.i.+ng.

I imagine that the woman's _berretta_, frequently of velvet embroidered with pearls, and apparently almost as prevalent as our bonnet, must have been that close-fitting cap, square at the ears, of which we spoke yesterday. I trouble you with this note--which pray do not think it necessary to answer--in order to indicate to you the very slight satisfaction my anxiety on this subject can meet with, and the obligation I shall be under to you if you will ever give me a positive or negative hint or correction.

Approximative truth is the only truth attainable, but at least one must strive for that, and not wade off into arbitrary falsehood.--Ever, dear Mr. Leighton, yours very truly,

MARIAN E. LEWES.

Leighton preserved the records of a friends.h.i.+p with Mr. Robin Allen,[27] established and for most part continued through a correspondence which lasted for many years from the early 'sixties.

The letter sent with the following poem refers to Leighton's ill.u.s.tration to Mrs. Browning's poem, "Musical Instrument," of which the original drawing is reproduced. (See List of Ill.u.s.trations.)

TRINITY HOUSE, E.C.

MY DEAR SIR,--If I send this to the author of a lovely ill.u.s.tration to a lovely poem, it is not for its worth, but to give me an excuse for saying that I go out of town for a month next Wednesday, and hope that I may call on you on my return, perhaps get leave to show you over Loughton Woods in the autumn.--Believe me, my dear sir, yours truly,

ROBIN ALLEN.

F. LEIGHTON, Esq.

SEQUITUR TO MRS. BROWNING'S "MUSICAL INSTRUMENT" IN THE "CORNHILL MAGAZINE" OF JULY 1860.

A greater G.o.d than the great G.o.d Pan Planted the reed in the river, And he is the only G.o.d who can Break through its heart without killing the reed, And make of its very life indeed An organ, to utter His psalm as the Giver.

This greater G.o.d than the beast-G.o.d Pan, As He watches the reeds in Time's river, Counts for best poet that perfect Man Who holds lightly his song, at its loftiest strain, So he live a man's life!--and at all cost and pain _Is_ a reed among reeds in the river.

R.A.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE GREAT G.o.d PAN"

Original Sketch for Ill.u.s.tration to Mrs. Browning's Poem in the _Cornhill Magazine_, 1861]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "AN EVENING IN A FRENCH COUNTRY HOUSE"

Ill.u.s.tration for Mrs. Adelaide Sartoris's story, "A Week in a French Country House," published in the _Cornhill Magazine_, 1867 By permission of Messrs. Smith, Elder, & Co.]

In a letter to his mother Leighton expresses a warm admiration for these lines by Mr. Robin Allen.

In the autumn of 1863 the following letter to his mother mentions a notable visit to Compiegne. The charming story Mrs. Edward Sartoris wrote, which appeared some years later in the _Cornhill Magazine_, "A Week in a French Country House," owes its local colour to this home at Compiegne to which Leighton refers. It belonged to Mr. Edward Sartoris' brother-in-law, the Marquis de l'Aigle. For this story Leighton made two admirable ill.u.s.trations--"An Evening in a French Country House" and "Drifting." Leighton is supposed to have suggested the character of Monsieur Kiowski, the Polish artist in the story; and the figure in the boat holding the rudder in "Drifting" he certainly meant to represent himself, while the figure singing is Adelaide Sartoris--drawn, as shown by the head-dress, from the sketch Leighton made in 1856. (See List of Ill.u.s.trations.)

_Commencement of letter missing._]

1862.

I have a fit of the blues instead.

I hope for the sake of my pictures that I shall soon get over them (the blues, not the pictures). I believe if I could find models I should recover at once; but I foresee that I shall have no such luck.