Chapter V: Year by Year--1878 to 1896

On November 13th, 1878, Frederic Leighton was elected President of the Royal Academy, in succession to Sir Francis Grant, and immediately received the honour of knighthood.

In 1879 Leighton sent eight contributions to the Academy, not one of which, with the possible exception of the _Elijah_, perhaps, has been counted among his masterpieces. Four of them belong to that group of ideal figure paintings which almost constitute a _genre_ in themselves: _Biondina_, _Catarina_, _Amarilla_, and _Neruccia_, a girl with a red flower in her hair, in white dress, against a dark background. The finely austere _Elijah in the Wilderness_ was an addition to the notable group of Scriptural paintings. In this picture the nude figure of the prophet is seen reclining on a rock, with head and arms thrown back, while beside him stands an angel holding bread and water. The striking and powerful _Portrait of Professor Costa_, the _Portrait of the Countess Brownlow_, and a portrait study, completed the list of the year's contributions, the largest number ever sent in by Leighton, before his election or afterward. This year ten of his landscape-studies in oil were exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery.

It may be thought by the outsider that the coveted office of the President of the Royal Academy of Arts is, in a way, an ornamental one,--some such golden sinecure as that of the old High Chamberlains. Nothing could be more mistaken. "Not everybody," wrote the late Mr. Underhill, who for some time, as private secretary to Sir Frederic Leighton, had special opportunities of knowing, "is aware of the tax upon a man's time and energy that is involved in the acceptance of the office in question. The post is a peculiar one, and requires a combination of talents not frequently to be found, inasmuch as it demands an established standing as a painter, together with great urbanity and considerable social position. The inroads which the occupancy of the office makes upon an artist's time are very considerable. There is, on the average, at least one Council meeting for every three weeks throughout the whole of the year. There are from time to time general assemblies for the election of new members and for other purposes, over which the President is bound, of course, to preside. For ten days or a fortnight in every April he has to be in attendance with the Council daily at Burlington House, for the purpose of selecting the pictures which are to be hung in the Spring Exhibition. He has to preside over the banquet which yearly precedes the opening of the Academy, and he has to act as host at the annual conversazione. Finally, it is his duty every other year to deliver a long, elaborate, and carefully prepared 'Discourse' upon matters connected with art, to the students who are for that purpose assembled. It is a post of much honour and small profit."

In filling this post, and neglecting no one of its smallest offices and endless small courtesies, an artist had needs be without the characteristic artist's defects of hesitation and delay; and in fact, Lord Leighton mastered, as much as any statesman of our time, the indispensable secret of despatch. We quote from Mr. Underhill again: "To administer the affairs of the Academy, to fulfil a round of social semi-public and public engagements, and to paint pictures which invariably reach a high level of excellence, would of course be impossible--even to Sir Frederic Leighton--were it not for the fact that he makes the very most of the time at his disposal. 'That's the secret,' remarked a distinguished member of the Academy to the present writer some little time before the President's death; 'Sir Frederic knows exactly how long it will take to do a certain thing, and he apportions his time accordingly.' This being the case, no one will be surprised to learn that he attached the greatest importance to punctuality. He himself never failed to keep an appointment at the exact moment fixed upon, and he expected, of course, similar punctuality on the part of others. The stroke of eight from the Academy clock was the signal for Sir Frederic to enter the Council Room at Burlington House, and to open the deliberations of the body over which he presided. 'They will never again get a man to devote so much time and energy to the business of the Academy,' said Sir Frederic Leighton's most distinguished colleague shortly before his death; 'never again.'" And since that time the same tribute has been paid ungrudgingly in public and private often enough.

In 1880, we are tempted by five canvases; of which the _Sister's Kiss_ and _Psamathe_, are perhaps the most important. The former turns a garden wall to delightful account, in its picture of a child, who is seated upon it, and of her charmingly drawn elder sister, who gives the kiss. The composition of this picture may be seen in our reproduction, but the colour of the bronze green robe--of singular beauty--is of course not even suggested. More classic, perhaps, and not less picturesque, is the Greek maiden, Psamathe, who was, if we remember aright, one of the Nereides. The artist has painted her sitting by the seashore, gazing over the Ægean, with her back turned to the spectator. Filmy garments, which have slipped from her shoulders on to the sand; arms folded about her knees; every detail of the picture carries out the effect of dreamy loveliness that pervades Psamathe and her surroundings. _Iostephane_ is a three-quarter length figure, less than life size, of a girl in light yellow drapery, with violets in her fair hair, who stands facing the spectator and arranging her draperies over her right arm; there are marble columns and a fountain in the background. _The Light of the Harem_ is a version of one of the groups in the fresco of _The Industrial Arts of Peace_ at South Kensington. The picture now known as the _Nymph of the Dargle_ was also exhibited this year under the title of _Crenaia_. It represents a small full-length figure facing the spectator; the river Dargle flows through Powerscourt, and forms the waterfall here represented in the background, hence its name. _Rubinella_, a girl with red gold hair was shown at the Summer Exhibition and a large number of sketches and studies at the Winter Exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery this year.

In 1881, the portrait of the Painter, painted by invitation in 1880 for the collection of autograph portraits of artists in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, deserves particular mention. Not even Mr. Watts' best portrait of Leighton is quite so like as this, which shows the striking head of the artist to great effect, assisted by the decorative President's robe and insignia. The _Idyll_, shown the same year, has been compared by some critics with the _Cymon and Iphigenia_, the scene and circumstance of both being to a certain degree similar, while there are similar effects in both of colour and of composition. In the _Idyll_, we have a lovely female figure, lying at full length, attended by a second nymph, and by a piping man, all grouped beneath an arm of a beech tree, that extends overhead and shadows the upland ridge on which they have come to rest, while they gaze on a river winding among sunlit meads. The water reflects the blue and white of sky and clouds; the land is dashed by shadows. The nymphs' robes are red, blue, and pale yellow.

We ought not to overlook another idyllic picture in the same exhibition, _Whispers_, an illustration of Horace's well-known line, "Lenesque sub noctem susurri." In this charming work, amid masses of crimson flowers and green leaves, two lovers are seen seated upon a marble bench, while he whispers tenderly in her ear, and she listens with dreamy eyes and maidenly mien. The noble picture of _Elisha and the Shunamite's Son_ (reproduced at p. 114) was also shown this year, as well as _Bianca_, a fair-haired girl in a white dress, standing with folded arms, _Viola_, and two portraits, _Mrs. Augustus Ralli_, exhibited at the Royal Academy, and _Mrs. Algernon Sartoris_, at the Grosvenor Gallery.

In the 1882 Academy appeared two of the most popular of Sir Frederic's pictures, _Wedded_ and _Day Dreams_. In the latter, a fair Sybarite is pressing her cheek against her hands, as she stands near a tapestry, with eyes gazing far away, the images of love-dreams in them; her purple mantle, embroidered with silver, produces a charming effect of colour. Still more famous is _Wedded_,--"one of the happiest of Sir Frederic's designs," said a critic at the time, "and as a composition of lines, difficult, subtle, and original, may be called one of the most remarkable productions of this decade." Other pictures shown this year were _Antigone_ and the much-debated _Phryne at Eleusis_--a notable study of the famous hetaira, who is seen standing, and holding out with one hand the mass of her deep auburn hair. Her skin is of a ruddy golden hue, as if seen under a glow of sunlight. Red tissue, which falls from her shoulders and extended arms, and an olive-coloured mantle that has fallen at the foot of the marble columns behind her, backed by a sky, very characteristic of the painter, in which snowlike masses of cloud float in a southern azure, produce a total effect of a certain super-womanly order of beauty. A _Design for a portion of a Proposed Decoration in St. Paul's_, a picture entitled _Melittion_, and a _Portrait of Mrs. Mocatta_, were also hung at the Academy in 1882; _Zeyra_, a little Eastern child in plum coloured headdress, a rich bit of colour elaborately painted, was shown at the Grosvenor Gallery.

In 1883, _Memories_, though not one of the most typical of Leighton's pictures, decidedly pleased the general public. It shows the half-length figure of a blonde, in a black and gold dress. More interesting artistically was a decorative frieze, _The Dance_, for a drawing-room, the design for which we reproduce, and which may, in so far, answer for itself. Other pictures of 1883 are _Kittens_, a full-length figure of a fair-haired child in purple and embroidered drapery, seated on a bench covered with a leopard skin, holding a rose in hand and looking down at a kitten sitting beside her; and the _Vestal_, a bust of a girl with her head and shoulders swathed with white gold-embroidered draperies. To this year also belongs a _Portrait of Miss Nina Joachim_, a child in a blue frock with crimson sash.

The next year, 1884, brought _Letty_, that most delightful of English maidens, _A Nap_, _Sun Gleams_, and the imaginative and admirably romantic _Cymon and Iphigenia_. _Letty_ was one of Leighton's pictures which particularly excited Mr. Ruskin's admiration. It shows a simply pretty child, with soft brown hair under a black hat, a saffron kerchief about her neck. The _Letty_ and the _Cymon and Iphigenia_, with a few other notable pictures, did much to leave a pleasant recollection of the exceptional Academy of 1884. "A more original effect of light and colour, used in the broad, true, and ideal treatment of lovely forms," said a French critic, "we do not remember to have seen at the Academy, than that produced by the _Cymon and Iphigenia_." Engravings and other reproductions of the picture have made its design, at any rate, almost as familiar now as Boccaccio's tale itself. There are some divergences, however, in the two versions. Boccaccio's tale is a tale of spring; Sir Frederic, the better to carry out his conception of the drowsy desuetude of sleep, and of that sense of pleasant but absolute weariness which one associates with the season of hot days and short nights, has changed the spring into that riper summer-time which is on the verge of autumn; and that hour of late sunset which is on the verge of night. Under its rich glow lies the sleeping Iphigenia, draped in folds upon folds of white, and her attendants; while Cymon, who is as unlike the boor of tradition as Spenser's Colin Clout is unlike an ordinary Cumbrian herdsman, stands hard-by, wondering, pensively wrapt in so exquisite a vision. Altogether, a great presentment of an immortal idyll; so treated, indeed, that it becomes much more than a mere reading of Boccaccio, and gives an ideal picture of Sleep itself,--that Sleep which so many artists and poets have tried at one time or another to render.

In 1885, among the five contributions of the President to the Academy, appeared the vivacious portrait of Lord Rosebery's little daughter, _The Lady Sybil Primrose_, who appears in white with a blue sash, carrying a doll. _A Portrait of Mrs. A. Hichens_ and _Phoebe_ were the only other pictures this year. A frieze, _Music_, was shown, and at the Grosvenor Gallery _A Study_ of a fair-haired girl, in green velvet dress. 1886 was chiefly notable for the statue in bronze of _The Sluggard_, in which Leighton again furnished us with a plastic characterization of Sleep, which he designed by way of contrast to his statue of the struggling Athlete. It was suggested, Mr. Spielmann says, by accidental circumstances. The model who had been sitting to him fell a-yawning in his interval of rest, and charmed the artist, not only with his exceptional beauty of line and play of muscle, but also with the artistic contrast of energy and languor. But that he might not lay himself open to the charge that the work was a glorification of indolence, the sculptor made concession to what after all was an artistic suggestion, and placed under the yawner's foot

"The glorious wreath of laurel leaves
Heel trodden and despised."

The graceful statuette of a little girl who is alarmed by a toad on the edge of a pool or stream of water, called _Needless Alarms_, appeared at the same time; and was so much admired by the President's colleague, Sir John Everett Millais, that he wished to purchase it, whereupon Sir Frederic presented it to him, and received, in return, the charming picture of _Shelling Peas_, which Sir John painted specially for this pleasant exchange. In 1886 also appeared the _Decoration in Painting for a Music Room_, destined for New York, which is illustrated[7] by the completed work, and its preliminary studies from life for it. _Gulnihal_, a single figure, is the only other painting exhibited at the Academy in this year.

In 1887 appeared a picture which seems scarcely to have received its due appreciation, _The Jealousy of Simætha the Sorceress_. This is a seated figure in yellow and white drapery, with a purple mantle wrapped around her shoulders; a well-wrought, finely-rendered work. _The Last Watch of Hero_, also first seen this year, is now in the Manchester Corporation Gallery. It is in two compartments; in the upper, and larger, Hero, clad in pink drapery, is seen drawing aside a curtain and gazing out over the sea. Below, in the smaller panel, is the body of the dead Leander, on a rock washed by the waves. A quotation from Sir Edwin Arnold's translation of Musæus was appended to its title:

"With aching heart she scanned the sea-face dim.
* * * * *
Lo! at the turret's foot his body lay,
Rolled on the stones and washed with breaking spray."

A picture of a little girl with yellow hair and pale blue eyes, entitled with a verse by Robert Browning:

"Yellow and pale as ripened corn
Which Autumn's kiss frees,--grain from sheath,--
Such was her hair, while her eyes beneath
Showed Spring's faint violets freshly born,"

was in the same exhibition, and also a design for the reverse of the Jubilee medallion, executed for her Majesty's Government.

In 1888 appeared another large work, which, although not absolutely a procession, has much in common with the _Cimabue_, the _Syracusan Bride_, and _The Daphnephoria_. It was entitled _Captive Andromache_, and accompanied by a fragment of the "Iliad," translated by E. B. Browning:

... "Some standing by
Marking thy tears fall, shall say, 'This is she,
The wife of that same Hector that fought best
Of all the Trojans when all fought for Troy.'"

This, and a _Portrait of Amy, Lady Coleridge_, were the artist's only contributions to the Royal Academy of 1888. The _Portraits of the Misses Stewart Hodgson_ is also of this year, which saw four landscape studies exhibited at the Royal Society of Painters in Water Colours, and five at the Royal Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street.

The _Sibyl_, exhibited in 1889, is a full-length figure swathed in lilac drapery, seated with her legs crossed, on a chair, her chin supported by her left hand, and gazing out of the picture. Beside her are scrolls, and a sombre sky is behind the figure. _Invocation_, a girl in white robes with arms raised above her head, and a _Portrait of Mrs. F. Lucas_, were also shown; but _Greek Girls playing at Ball_ is not only the most important, but is also a picture that shows the mannerism of Lord Leighton's treatment of drapery at its finest. Elsewhere the undulating snaky coils may be somewhat distressing, here they float in the air and help the suggestion of movement. The landscape at the back is also both typical and beautiful. An _Elegy_ was the fifth of the artist's contributions to the Academy of 1889.

In 1890 _The Bath of Psyche_ appeared at the Academy. This at once established its position as a popular favourite, and has probably been more widely reproduced than any other. It was purchased under the terms of the Chantrey Bequest, and is now in the Tate Gallery. It was suggested, so Mr. M. H. Spielmann tells us, by the "paper-knife" picture, as Lord Leighton called it, which he had painted for Sir L. Alma-Tadema's wall screen. _Solitude_ was also shown this year, and the _Tragic Poetess_, a full-length figure, clad in blue and purple drapery, on a terrace, with the sea beyond. The fourth picture at the Academy was a very faithfully painted transcript of _The Arab Hall_, at No. 2, Holland Park Road.

In 1891 appeared _Perseus and Andromeda_, a very original version of a theme which it seems the destiny of every painter and sculptor of classical subjects to attempt at some time. In this Andromeda is bound to a rock, the monster stands over her with outstretched wings, while from the clouds above, Perseus, on his winged steed, is discharging arrows. The clay models for Perseus are reproduced elsewhere (at p. 68). The _Return of Persephone_ was another important work shown this year. It represents Persephone, supported by Hermes, being brought back to the upper world, where she is awaited with outstretched arms by Demeter. A _Portrait of A. B. Mitford, Esq._, and a marble version of the _Athlete Struggling with a Python_, were also shown in the same exhibition.

In 1892 a version of a panel of the proposed decoration for the dome of St. Paul's appeared with the title, _And the Sea gave up the Dead which were in it_; this, purchased by Mr. Henry Tate, is now among the pictures he gave to the Gallery at Millbank. The most important of Leighton's later works, _The Garden of the Hesperides_, in many respects the most sumptuous piece of decoration he ever achieved, was shown this year. It is a large circular picture, the centre occupied by a tree bearing golden apples; under its branches recline the three Hesperides, caressing the dragon who assists them to guard the treasure. A superbly brilliant sea is in the distance. The charm of this picture is mainly in its colour, but as an example of elaborately artificial composition it is hardly less noteworthy. Unfortunately, despite every effort of Lord Leighton, most kindly exerted on behalf of the editor of this volume, the owners of the copyright refused under any condition to allow it to be illustrated herein. _A Bacchante_, and _At the Fountain_, a girl in fawn-coloured and violet draperies, with a bunch of lemons overhanging the marble wall behind her, were shown this year; and also a _Clytie_, which must not be confused with another known by the same title, the last picture on which the artist was at work before his death. The 1892 version, shown in the retrospective exhibition, is thus described in its catalogue: "A small figure of Clytie is seen on the right, kneeling on a stone building with arms outstretched towards the sun, which is setting behind a range of moorland hills."

In 1893 _Hit_, _The Frigidarium_, _Farewell_, _Corinna of Tanagra_, and _Rizpah_ were exhibited at the Academy. Of these the most important is the last named. It illustrates the story of the two sons of Rizpah, by Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth, who were slain by the Gideonites. Rizpah, robed in dark blue, is seen in the act of fetching away their bodies, which are shrouded by dull lilac and blue draperies. Vultures circle above, and two leopards approach stealthily. _Farewell_ is a single figure in olive green and plum-coloured peplis under a portico above the sea, where she pauses to take a last look at an outward-bound ship.

_Atalanta_ depicts the bust only of a dark-haired girl in purple and white drapery, with a snake-like ornament twisted round her arm, which is bare to the shoulder. _Corinna of Tanagra_ is a half-length figure crowned with leaves, in coloured drapery, resting her clasped hands upon her lyre. _The Frigidarium_ is an upright figure in semi-transparent red drapery, which with the background of gold is reflected in the water beneath her feet.

In 1894 were shown _The Spirit of the Summit_, a white-robed figure with upturned face, sitting on a snowy peak, with starlit sky beyond; _The Bracelet_; _Fatidica_, a figure in green-white robes; _At the Window_, a dark-haired boy in blue, looking over the ledge of a window; and _Summer Slumber_. This last is a somewhat elaborate composition; a girl in salmon colour draperies is lying asleep on the broad rim of a marble fountain, masses of flowers are in the mid distance, and a vista of sunny landscape through the open window beyond.

In 1895, the last year of the artist's working life, he sent six pictures to the Academy, and completed the wall decoration at the Royal Exchange (here illustrated), _Phoenicians Bartering with Britons_. The paintings were entitled, _Flaming June_ (a picture reproduced in colours for a Christmas number of the "Graphic"), in which the "broad" painting of the sea beyond was a notable exception to the artist's usual handling; _Lachrymæ_, a standing figure in robes of black and blue green, resting her arm upon a Doric column; _'Twixt Hope and Fear_, a seated figure of a black-haired Greek girl, robed in white and olive, with a sheep-skin thrown around her; _The Maid with her Yellow Hair_, a girlish figure in lemon-coloured drapery, reading from a red-backed book; _Listener_, a child seated with crossed legs on a fur rug; and a _Study of a Girl's Head_, with auburn, wavy hair.

In the 1896 Academy _Clytie_ was the only picture. In Lord Leighton's studio in various stages of completion were a _Bacchante_, a half-length figure of a fair-haired girl crowned with leaves, and a leopard skin over her shoulder; _The Fair Persian_, a bust of a girl with flowing dark hair, crowned by a jewelled circlet; and _The Vestal_, a half-length figure of a girl in white drapery, these were all exhibited at the Winter Exhibition of 1897.

To _Clytie_, his last picture, a small monograph has been devoted by the Fine Art Society. In this we read: "'Thank goodness my ailment has not interfered with my capacity for work, for I have never had a better appetite for it, nor I believe done better. I was idle for five months in the summer, but since my return I have been working hard and have produced the pictures you see.' Thus he spoke to the present writer [of the monograph in question] as he led the way across his studio.... Turning to the _Clytie_ he continued: 'This I have been at work upon all the morning. Orchardson has been so good as to say I have never done anything finer than the sky. You know the story. I have shown the goddess in adoration before the setting sun, whose last rays are permeating her whole being. With upraised arms she is entreating her beloved one not to forsake her. A flood of golden light saturates the scene, and to carry out my intention, I have changed my model's hair from black to auburn. To the right is a small altar, upon which is an offering of fruit, and upon a pillar beyond I shall show the feet of a statue of Apollo.'

"But a few days after this occurrence the dead President lay in semi-state in his coffin, before the picture. A drawing in the 'Graphic' (January 26th, 1896) shows the interior of the studio, with the figure of Clytie, in her attitude of despair, stretching her arms above the body of her creator."

Here the record, year by year, is closed. A few pictures seem to have escaped the honours of exhibition. One,[8] _A Noble Lady of Venice_, in possession of Lord Armstrong, does not appear to have been exhibited. It is probably the picture which was sold at Christie's in 1875 for 950 guineas. A _Lady with Pomegranates_, which sold for 765 guineas at the sale of Baron Grant's pictures in 1877, does not appear in our list of exhibited works; nor, it may be, are all the early pictures included therein. But the official catalogues of the Royal Academy May Exhibitions, and of the special Winter Exhibition devoted to the artist's works, have been freely drawn upon for description, and to the list of his life's work, as it appeared in the first edition of this work, many additions have been made.