The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton Volume II Part 19

"Icarus," in the picture of the inventive father and the aspiring son, is a beautiful figure of a youth. The conception, design, and colouring of the picture are worthy of Leighton at his best.

Though Egypt had made a deep impression on Leighton's aesthetic emotions, as is obvious from his Diary, his visit there apparently did not actually suggest any pictures except "A Nile Woman"--the only work exhibited at the Academy in 1870--and "Egyptian Slinger Scaring Birds in Harvest-time: Moonrise," exhibited in 1875. A subject suggested by an event, which had occurred some years previously, appears to have been engrossing his mind, before he found expression for it, in the painting "Heracles Wrestling with Death for the Body of Alcestis,"

exhibited 1871. Many persons admired this work more than any that had previously appeared.[42] It evoked the lines from Browning:--

"I know, too, a great Kaunian painter, strong As Hercules, though rosy with a robe Of Grace that softens down the sinewy strength: And he has made a picture of it all.

There lies Alcestis dead, beneath the sun She longed to look her last upon, beside The sea, which somehow tempts the life in us To come trip over its white waste of waves, And try escape from earth, and fleet as free.

Behind the body I suppose there bends Old Pheres in his h.o.a.ry impotence; And women-wailers, in a corner crouch --Four, beautiful as you four,--yes, indeed!

Close, each to other, agonising all, As fastened, in fear's rhythmic sympathy, To two contending opposite. There strains The might o' the hero 'gainst his more than match, --Death, dreadful not in thew and bone, but like The envenomed substance that exudes some dew, Whereby the merely honest flesh and blood Will fester up and run to ruin straight, Ere they can close with, clasp and overcome, The poisonous impalpability That simulates a form beneath the flow Of those grey garments; I p.r.o.nounce that piece Worthy to set up in our Poikile!"

Leighton had taken the lines from Euripides as his text:--

"There slept a silent palace in the sun, With plains adjacent and Thessalian peace."

"....Yea, I will go and lie in wait for Death, the king of souls departed, with the dusky robes, and methinks I shall find him hard by the grave drinking the sacrificial wine. And if I can seize him by this ambush, springing from my lair, and throw my arms in circle round him, none shall s.n.a.t.c.h his panting body from my grasp till he give back the woman to me."

[Ill.u.s.tration: "HERACLES STRUGGLING WITH DEATH FOR THE BODY OF ALCESTIS." 1871 By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the Copyright]

This work made a landmark in Leighton's career. "Dante at Verona" had combined a complicated design of many figures with a dramatic feeling; "Cimabue's Madonna" and the "Syracusan Bride" had proved Leighton's "great power of rich arrangement," to quote D.G. Rossetti's words respecting "Cimabue's Madonna"; but in the "Heracles Wrestling with Death" there was felt to be a more profound tragedy; indeed, the objective treatment had in this instance ceded to one more subjective, in so far that the subject had appealed to him through a personal experience, though the feeling was, as in nearly all Leighton's greatest works, veiled in a cla.s.sic garb. In a letter to his mother, dated November 13, 1864, he wrote:--

_November 13, 1864._

I returned so suddenly on account of a grave and terrible anxiety, _now quite removed_, about my dear friend Mrs.

Sartoris.

I must tell you that for some time past she has been looking dreadfully ill, getting daily worse, haggard and thin. I, in common with all her friends, had been growing very anxious, and conjectured that some day or other a crisis must come in which only the surgeon could avail her. I little thought how near at hand the moment was! She on her part had borne up with an amount of moral and physical courage which everybody says was quite incredible. Her nearest relations have not known from her that she was in so dangerous a state. A week ago I arrived at Francport, the chateau of the Marquis de l'Aigle, where I expected to find Mr. and Mrs. Sartoris and their children. I found instead Mme. de l'Aigle in the deepest anxiety and commotion, having received a letter saying that on that very day poor Mrs. S. was undergoing an operation of which the event was very doubtful! I need hardly say that I instantly hurried off to England in the greatest alarm, and in fear and trembling lest she should have succ.u.mbed. You may judge of my relief, next morning, on hearing from the servant in Park Place that she was doing well. I hurried off to the doctor, a friend of mine, and heard that for six hours her life had been in jeopardy, but that, thank G.o.d, she was doing amazingly well, that for a week there could be no _certainty_ of her recovery, but that the possible chances doubled every day. Since then, thank G.o.d, she has progressed so _astoundingly_ owing to her immense roots of vitality and health, that one may be almost _certain_ (_unberufen_) of her complete recovery, in which event she will enjoy life more than she has done for several years. Her family and friends have escaped an entirely irreparable loss.

The very beautiful picture, "Greek Girls Picking up Pebbles by the Sh.o.r.e of the Sea," was also exhibited in the Academy in 1871, likewise a smaller work, "Cleoboulos Instructing his Daughter Cleobouline."

This is one of several which proves Leighton's gift for catching the grace and singular refinement of childhood. "Lord Leighton's drawings and paintings of children show the protecting, caressing tenderness he felt towards them. He loved little things, little children, kittens--'caressing littleness, that littleness in which there is much of the whole woeful heart of things'--everything lovely that had in it the unconscious grace of helplessness seemed especially to touch him."

In 1872 "Summer Moon" was exhibited--the picture Watts told me he thought he preferred to all of Leighton's paintings. I believe the cause of this preference arose from the fact that the quality and texture in "Summer Moon" is looser and more vibrating, and gives a greater sense of atmosphere than is suggested by Leighton's works as a rule. Moonlight mystifies the tints of purple and blue, and creeps over and into every fold of the beautiful drapery--glistening on the white garment of the rec.u.mbent figure. In every line and touch in the exquisite design of the figures and drapery lurks the poetry of moonlight; the song of a nightingale perched on the branch of a pomegranate tree enhancing the sense of deep restfulness in the scene.[43]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "SUMMER MOON." 1872 By permission of Messrs. P. & D. Colnaghi, the owners of the Copyright]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "A CONDOTTIERE." 1872]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN FRIEZE. "MUSIC." 1886 Leighton House Collection]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN "THE ARTS OF WAR,"

Victoria and Albert Museum. 1872 Leighton House Collection]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN "THE ARTS OF WAR,"

Victoria and Albert Museum. 1872 Leighton House Collection]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STUDY FOR FIGURE IN "THE ARTS OF WAR,"

Victoria and Albert Museum. 1872 Leighton House Collection]

It is thought by some that the design would have carried out the feeling of absolute repose better had the lower curves of the round aperture behind the figures been absent--these lines rather suggesting horns springing up on either side of the group. The end of the foot of the sitting figure being cut off by the bottom line of the picture has also a somewhat uncomfortable effect. The same thing occurs in the picture "Greek Girl Dancing," producing the feeling that the canvas has run short. These criticisms, however, only refer to minor matters.

"Summer Moon" is an exquisitely beautiful picture, one which will ever sustain the great reputation of its creator. "A Condottiere" and the monochrome version of "The Industrial Arts of War" (76 177 in.), exhibited at the South Kensington International Exhibition the same year, strikingly contrast in character with "Summer Moon." If the one is notable for gentle, womanly grace and a sense of relaxation induced by slumber, "A Condottiere" is full of verve and virile power,[44] and in the design for "The Industrial Arts of War" all is action and movement. Leighton made many studies for all his princ.i.p.al pictures, but the finest group of sketches are certainly those made for mural decorations. Being executed under more difficult conditions than the easel pictures, doubtless he felt more preparation for frescoes was required. The studies in Leighton House for the "Arts of War," "Arts of Peace," two friezes, "Music," "The Dance," "And the Sea gave up the Dead that were in it," the painted decoration for the ceiling of a music room, "Phoenicians Bartering with Britons," are the most completely worked out and powerful studies in the collection. In the following year, 1873, the companion lunette in monochrome, "The Industrial Arts of Peace," was exhibited at the Royal Academy. This design is more comfortably fitted into its s.p.a.ce than that of the "Arts of War," as the whole is lifted up from the bottom line of the lunette, and no part of the figures is cut off (as in the case of the men's feet and the drapery of the otherwise most beautiful group of women on the left hand in the "Arts of War"). "Weaving the Wreath," a small picture of lovely colour and subtle technique, appeared in 1873, and in 1874 three of the most remarkable of Leighton's pictures of single figures. "In a Moorish Garden: a Dream of Granada" the charming child "Cleobouline" reappears in an Eastern turban and drapery, holding a copper vessel and followed by two peac.o.c.ks, walking across a square canvas filled in by a background of the delightful garden at Generalife at Granada. "The Antique Juggling Girl" is one of the best examples in Leighton's work of his "ardent pa.s.sion for colour," and his perfect mastery in painting the beauty of an undraped figure. The form of the torso recalls the exquisite fragment from the Naples Museum.[45] The actual painting, however, exemplifies the truth of Leighton's very notable words written to Steinle, "What 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."

The princ.i.p.al scheme of colour is effectively carried throughout the picture--in the golden flesh tint against the ivory-white of the parchment banner hung as a screen background, the crown of dark ivy leaves and the golden b.a.l.l.s telling out as notes of a deeper tone; the crinkled folds of white drapery resting on the darker ma.s.s, the full tawny browns and yellows of the leopard skins on which the figure stands making a dark, luminous basis, the metal jar and the dense foliage of deep verdant green enriched by the orange of the fruit springing up and continuing the dark framework of the central design. This picture is a very original work, and should, I think, be placed very high in the rank of Leighton's achievements. "Clytemnestra from the battlements of Argos watches for the beacon fires which are to announce the return of Agamemnon" is, in every sense, a contrast to the "Antique Juggling Girl." The figure is powerful and heavily draped, the drapery being superb, and the limbs those which might truly overpower even Agamemnon.[46]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "ANTIQUE JUGGLING GIRL." 1874 By permission of Mr. George Hodges]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "CLYTEMNESTRA WATCHES FROM THE BATTLEMENTS OF ARGOS FOR THE BEACON FIRES WHICH ARE TO ANNOUNCE THE RETURN OF AGAMEMNON." 1874 Leighton House Collection]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STUDY FOR "CLYTEMNESTRA." 1874 Leighton House Collection]

[Ill.u.s.tration: STUDY FOR "SUMMER MOON"

From Oil Sketch painted by Moonlight in Rome Given by the late A. Waterhouse, R.A., to the Leighton House Collection]

The bar of red, which strikes a warm note among the cool lights and shadows of moonlight, adding immensely to the value of these tones, was suggested by the coral necklace, worn by the model from whom Leighton painted the study by moonlight for "Summer Moon" in Rome.

"Egyptian Slinger" was Leighton's princ.i.p.al work exhibited in 1875, "The Daphnephoria" already engrossing most of his time and thought.

This picture (89 204 inches), "a triumphal procession held every ninth year at Thebes in honour of Apollo and to commemorate a victory of the Thebans over the Aeolians of Arne" (see Proclus, "Chrestomath,"

p. 11), and the very fine portrait of Sir Richard Burton were exhibited in 1876. From some points of view "The Daphnephoria" is Leighton's greatest achievement. The difficulties he surmounted successfully in the work were of a character with which few English artists could cope at all. The size of the canvas alone would certainly have insisted on ten years' devotion to it from most modern artist-workmen. The extreme breadth of the arrangement of the ma.s.ses, united with great beauty of line and form in the detail; the sense of the moving of a procession swinging along to the rhythmic phrases of chanted music; the brilliant light of Greece, striking on the fine surface of the marble platform along which the procession is moving and on the town below, which it has left behind, contrasting with the deep shadowed cypress grove rising as background to the figures;--all this is more than masterly: it is convincing. It is probably quite unlike what took place at Thebes every ninth year;--but Art is not Archaeology. The written account of what took place fired Leighton's imagination to create a scene in which he treated the Greek function as the text; the wonderful light and the fineness of Greek atmosphere as the tone; the processional majesty and grace of movement as the action. The element of beauty which the record suggested to him was the truth of the scene to Leighton, and he has recorded the essence of it in an extraordinarily original work.

It was after Leighton's death that the picture first "struck home" to me. The last day of the exhibition of a wonderful man's life-work had come to an end one Sat.u.r.day afternoon in the spring of 1897. It had been a record day at Burlington House; crowds had filled the galleries from morning till the light had begun to wane. Only a very few stragglers remained, but the keeper, Mr. Calderon, R.A., was there.

One of the porters in his red gown came up to him, and pet.i.tioned for a half-hour more before the final closing of the doors on the message which Leighton had left to the world. Both men, the keeper and the porter, looked grave and sad. The great President had been beloved by all. The porter's request was granted, and it was during that short half-hour that I seemed for the first time fully to realise the great qualities of "The Daphnephoria"; the room being empty, it could be seen from the right distance, and the conception of the work and its completion spoke out very plainly and convincingly.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE DAPHNEPHORIA"--A TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION HELD AT THEBES IN HONOUR OF APOLLO. 1876 By permission of the Fine Art Society, the owners of the Copyright]

[Ill.u.s.tration: "AT A READING-DESK." 1877 By permission of Messrs. L.H. Lefevre & Son, the owners of the Copyright]

Different as a picture could be was the exquisite "Music Lesson" of 1877. Again we have the lovely little Cleobouline, her delicate fingers learning to make music on a mandoline. The grouping and grace in the att.i.tude of the teacher and the pupil, the ease and pleasant arrangement of the draperies, the texture and fine distinction in the feeling and technique of the work, can only be suggested by a reproduction; whereas to appreciate in any way the delicate brightness and charm of the colour is impossible without seeing the original.

This is the one of all Leighton's paintings which--perhaps more than any other--conclusively contradicts the statement made, that "the inspiration stage was practically pa.s.sed when he took the crayon in his hand." Another Cleobouline also appeared in the same Academy Exhibition--as fascinating as the little lady learning music; "Study"

it was called--a child in a delightfully painted glistening pink silk dressing-gown, sitting cross-kneed on an Eastern carpet before an inlaid prayer-desk. Very characteristic of Leighton's bewitching painting of children's feet are the little toes of the child peeping out between the folds of pink drapery. The finest woman's portrait Leighton ever painted appeared the same year as a "Music Lesson." This was Miss Mabel Mills.[47] The breadth and delicacy in the modelling of the cheek and throat rivals the work of Greek sculpture. The most serious work exhibited in 1877 was the bronze version of Leighton's "Athlete Strangling a Python,"[48] the small sketch of which was made in 1874. This statue showed to the world his power as a sculptor.

Every work he modelled evinced in an equal degree his consummate ability as such, though the more flexible treatment--in the modelled sketches for the "Python," the sleeping group in "Cymon and Iphigenia,"[49] and the "Perseus and Andromeda"--may carry with it a greater charm than is found in the completed statues. The following letters from the French sculptor Dalou, the painter George Boughton, and Sir Edgar Boehm are testimonies to the effect which the "Python"

in bronze, and the sketch, produced on artists at the time they were executed:--

217A GLEBE PLACE, CHELSEA, S.W., _2 Mai 1877_.

MON CHER LEIGHTON,--Si mes humbles felicitations peuvent vous toucher j'en serais tres heureux.

J'esperais vous voir lundi dernier a l'Academy et vous complimenter comme vous le meritez pour votre belle statue. a quoi sert de gratter toute sa vie un morceau de terre, quand pres de soi on voit tout a coup surgir un chef d'oeuvre d'une main a qui la sculpture etait jusque la restee etrangere?

Si j'etais envieux ce serait une belle occasion pour moi, mais loin de la j'ai ete tres heureux d'admirer votre oeuvre, et tres flatte de l'honneur qu'on a fait a ma pauvre terre cuite, en la placant en pendant avec votre bronze; c'est encore un bon souvenir de plus qui me viens de l'Academy et de vous, mon cher Leighton, car je sais toute la part que vous avez prise au deplacement dont ma figure a ete l'objet.

Aussi croyez que je suis heureux de pouvoir me dire votre sincere admirateur et tres reconnaissant ami,

J. DALOU.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "AN ATHLETE STRANGLING A PYTHON"

From small sketch, 1876]

GROVE LODGE, PALACE GARDENS TERRACE, KENSINGTON, W., _December 11, 1874_.

DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I fear that the note which I sent with the bronze did not explain itself sufficiently. I _meant_ to ask you to _accept_ it--"to have and to hold for yourself your heirs and a.s.signs for ever," to speak legally.

I can in no way express the pleasure I felt when I saw your small study for the man battling with the serpent. I hope the report in the _Academy_ that it is to be done life-size in bronze is true. It will be worthy to go with the best of the antiques. The other study for the singing maidens was delightful[50] as the other was grand. To put it in the picturesque parlance of the Far West, "I was knocked over and sat on." It will be a slight relief to give my words a little form and weight; as I am unfortunately not a Roman Emperor and have not a golden crown of laurel about me, pray do me the favour to accept the only thing I have worth sending.--Believe me, yours very sincerely,