The Life, Letters and Work of Frederic Leighton Volume II Part 14

[36] Ruskin would not, I believe, have spoken thus of the peac.o.c.ks in the exquisite water-colour on ivory--presumably a sketch in colour for the picture.

[37] Refers to Lord Ashburton's death.

[38] This picture ill.u.s.trates the verses in the _Paradiso_:--

"Thou shalt prove How salt the savour is of others' bread; How hard the pa.s.sage, to descend and climb By others' stairs. But that shall gall thee most Will be the worthless and vile company With whom thou must be thrown into the straits, For all ungrateful, impious all and mad Shall turn against thee."

"Dante, in fulfilment of this prophecy, is seen descending the palace stairs of the Can Grande, at Verona, during his exile. He is dressed in sober grey and drab clothes, and contrasts strongly in his ascetic and suffering aspect with the gay revellers about him. The people are preparing for a festival, and splendidly and fantastically robed, some bringing wreaths of flowers. Bowing with mock reverence, a jester gibes at Dante. An indolent sentinel is seated at the porch, and looks on unconcernedly, his spear lying across his breast. A young man, probably acquainted with the writings of Dante, sympathises with him. In the centre and just before the feet of Dante, is a beautiful child, brilliantly dressed and crowned with flowers, and dragging along the floor a garland of bay leaves and flowers, while looking earnestly and innocently in the poet's face. Next come a pair of lovers, the lady looking at Dante with attention, the man heedless. The last wears a vest embroidered with eyes like those in a peac.o.c.k's tail. A priest and a n.o.ble descend the stairs behind, jeering at Dante."--_Athenaeum_, April 1864.

The following expresses the admiration of a brother artist, Richard Doyle, for the exiled "Dante":--

54 CLIFTON GARDENS, MAIDA HILL, _April 5, 1864_.

MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I feel so awkward whenever I attempt to praise a man's works to his face, and I felt that you, yesterday, were so likely to be bored with the repet.i.tion of similar speeches from your large influx of visitors, that at the moment of my going I could not bring myself to say what I wished to say--how much I liked your pictures. To-day, however, when "Dante" and "Orpheus," and the music and drawing parties are before my mind as vividly as they were yesterday before my eyes in your studio, I cannot resist sending you a few lines to say what pleasure my visit gave me, although I was "without words."

The "Dante" seemed to me a very impressive picture, and I think one of the most important as well as most successful of your works, historical in a higher sense than the mere representation of an event--an ill.u.s.tration of the man and the time. I could mention many of the figures that especially pleased me, but, for beauty, can only single out that most delightful little child in the foreground, toddling at the feet of Dante, laden with flowers, the childhood and innocence of whose whole figure and face, although we do not see the face, contrasts so beautifully with the worn, ascetic, melancholy Poet. I think these two are a poem in themselves.

The lady in the "drawing lesson" struck me as a charming figure, so graceful, and the painting of her dress as a perfect piece of work. The lady leaning over the instrument in the "music"

("Golden Hours") subject is also a great favourite of mine.

The "Orpheus," although there is a great deal to admire in it, I don't think I liked so well as the others. Perhaps it is that the cla.s.sic subject does not come home to me, but I say this doubtingly, feeling that it is a picture that would very likely grow upon me.

Anyhow, I end by offering you my most hearty congratulations.--Most sincerely yours,

RICHARD DOYLE.

[39] Referring to Leighton's painting of "Helen of Troy," exhibited in 1865, Mr. Martin Tupper wrote:--

ALBURY HOUSE, NR. GUILFORD, _May 23, 1865_.

DEAR SIR,--It is just possible that the following few words of comment upon your wonderfully spiritualised "Helen of Troy" may be acceptable to you from the undersigned.

The "Helen" of Euripides is very little read amongst us, and yet it is as strangely sensational as "The Woman in White": there being two Helens in the play, the real substantial wife remaining faithful to Menelaus in the island of Pharos, while Juno gives to Paris--out of jealous rage at him for his "judgment" in favour of Venus--"an image composed of ether" in the likeness of Helen.

This Ethereal Presence you have so exquisitely portrayed that it is probable you know the play! only that I think you would then have quoted from it in the R.A. catalogue, in explanation of what confuses some of your ignorant reviewers as to this embodied spirit.

The counterfeit Helen was of "unsubstantial air," a figure marvellously rendered in your picture, and which I can fully appreciate: and you quote a very apposite pa.s.sage from Lord Derby's "Homer," as that which you ill.u.s.trate; but if there are reprints of the catalogue, I would suggest the addition of a line from Euripides, as thus:--

"Juno to Paris gave me--yet not me, But in my semblance formed a living image Composed of ether."

WODHALL'S _Eur. Hel._

If haply you do not know the book, inquire at Longman's for the fifth volume of the Greek Tragic Theatre (in English); or, should you prefer it, of course it is extant in the Greek. If not easily attainable in London, I shall be happy to lend you the volume by post. Congratulating you on your difficult and exquisite achievement--I am, dear sir, truly yours,

MARTIN F. TUPPER.

F. LEIGHTON, Esq.

[40]

WARNFORD COTTAGE, BISHOP'S WALTHAM.

MY DEAR MR. LEIGHTON,--I was very sorry indeed when I returned to Park Place on Sunday evening and found that you had been so kind as to call upon me.

I have not ventured to intrude upon you in your late affliction with the expression of a sympathy which cannot have much value for you, but had I seen you when you called I should hardly have refrained from telling you how sincerely I feel for your sorrow.--Pray believe me, yours always most truly,

f.a.n.n.y KEMBLE.

WARNFORD, _Thursday, 2nd_.

FOREST BANK, LYNDHURST.

MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I cannot let the post go out without offering you my sincere sympathy on your loss. I know how deeply attached you were to your mother, and am very sure the bereavement is a heavy grief to you. You are right in saying that to me your sorrow comes especially home. My mother sends you her affectionate love, and we both beg you to remember that, whenever you have a few spare days and want quiet, you must consider this home as a temporary home.--Believe me always, in all affection, yours,

HAMILTON ADe.

MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I must write to you to express the grief both myself and my wife felt on hearing of the loss which has befallen you. I am well aware that no words can afford consolation against such afflictions, but I should be sorry if you had construed silence into want of sympathy. If you have time I should be glad to hear from you, and to know how may be your father, from whom I have received on every occasion so much kindness. You have much distress to go through, for death has recently touched you in many ways by striking your own family, your friends, and imperilling others to a degree that must have inspired every pain it can produce.

Good-bye, my dear Leighton; remember me to your father, and express to him my deep sympathy with him in his misfortune.--Yours ever affectionately,

W.C. CARTWRIGHT.

PALAZZI GIORGI, ROME, _January 31_.

13 EATON PLACE (WEST), _Tuesday, January 17, 1865_.

MY DEAR LEIGHTON,--I heard at the Marqs', on Sunday, of your late bereavement; and, as perhaps the one of all your many friends whose mind the most habitually dwells among thoughts of loss and deprivation, I can a.s.sure you of thought of it with sincere concern and sympathy, and just write a line to say so.

There is nothing to be said, I well know, which is of any immediate good or alleviation, and time only strengthens affectionate recollection: but after a time, among gentler thoughts which will come, I hope you will, as you may justly, find comfort in thinking that your mother's life was spared so as to permit her to be cheered by the certainty of your success.

This is much--especially to a woman's heart.--Faithfully and sincerely yours,

HENRY J. CHORLEY.

CHAPTER III

JOURNEYS TO THE EAST--CONSTANTINOPLE--SMYRNA--ATHENS--DIARY "UP THE NILE TO PHYLae"

1866-1869

Leighton visited Spain in 1866. There exists apparently no letters or written record of this journey, but he made many sketches remarkable for strong and characteristic colouring.

The letter written to Mrs. Mark Pattison in 1879, already quoted, contains an amusing endeavour on Leighton's part to date the various journeys he had made in answer to questions she had asked.

"I am sorely perplexed to answer this; I can only approach an answer by a sort of _memoria technica_. I made studies in Algiers for 'Samson Agonistes'; that will give you roughly the period. This visit made a deep impression on me; I have loved 'the East,' as it is called, ever since. By-the-bye, I drew here my (almost) only large water-colour drawing, 'A Negro Festival'

[the picture Leighton alluded to as 'The n.i.g.g.e.rs'], which was thought very well of by my friends. To Spain (into which I had made a raid of a few days on a previous occasion when visiting the South of France for architecture, to which I am much devoted) I went the year of the cholera. I remember this because I was going to Constantinople, but was dissuaded by a friend there because of the ravages of that epidemic. The following year I _did_ go: Vienna, Danube, Varna, Constantinople, Broussa, Smyrna, Rhodes, Athens (the greatest architectural emotion of my life, by far), &c. This was the year _before_ those poor young Englishmen were murdered on Pentelicus, up which I had been with _the same_ guide. My visit to Egypt, and up the Nile on a steamer, given me by the Khedive, was a year before the opening of the Suez Ca.n.a.l; I rode over the Salt Lakes with Mons. de Lesseps and a party of his friends. Damascus a year before I exhibited the 'Jew's House,' I _think_. Spain, revisited, and Morocco, the year before last. This is a roundabout way of getting about dates, but, contrary to my expectation, I think I have contrived to fix all the chief journeys approximately."