The life, letters and work of Frederic Leighton. Volume I

"...The loss to the world is so great that I almost feel ashamed to let my personal grief have so large a place.

"I am glad you knew him so well. I am glad for any one who knew him. No one will ever know such another, alas! alas! alas!

"I am glad you have enjoyed the friendship of one of the greatest men of any time."

This is the estimate of a great artist who knew Leighton for forty years, and for many of those years enjoyed daily intercourse with him.

A few like Watts required no length of time before forming a right estimate of Leighton. They not only knew him to be great, but knew why he was great. Undoubtedly as a draughtsman Leighton was unrivalled; but bearing in mind his English contemporaries--Watts, Millais, Holman Hunt, Rossetti, and Burne-Jones--it is not as a painter that even his truest friends would claim for him his right to the exceptional position he undoubtedly occupied.

What was it that gave Leighton this position? He himself was the very last to claim it as a right. His creed and his practice were ever to fight against the weaknesses of his nature rather than to rejoice in its strength. For assuredly, however strong the intellect, beautiful the character, brilliant the vitality, and fine the intuitive instincts, a man may yet have within his nature foibles in common with the herd. The difference is, that in the truly great the unworthier side of nature is viewed as unworthy--is fought against and banished like the plague.

"A good man is wise, not because all his desires are wise, but because his reasonable soul masters unwise desires and is itself wise.

"He is courageous, because he knows when to fight, and does so under control of reason.

"He is temperate, because his pluck and his desires unite in giving the first place to the reasonable soul; and finally, he is just, because each principle is in its place and stops there."

In a letter to his mother when he was twenty-three Leighton wrote: "I feel I have of my nature a very fair share of the hateful worldly weakness of my country people;" adding, "Still, I have found no sufficiently great advantage or compensation for the tedium of going out." Again, three years later, after describing to his sister the delight he felt in the beauty he found in Algiers, he wrote: "And yet what I have said of my feelings, though literally true, does not give you an exactly true notion; for, together with, and as it were behind, so much pleasurable emotion, there is always that other strange second man in me, calm, observant, critical, unmoved, blasé--odious!

"He is a shadow that walks with me, a sort of nineteenth-century canker of doubt and discretion; it's very, very seldom that I forget his loathsome presence. What cheering things I find to say!"

Doubtless Leighton had within him the possibilities of becoming a worldling, and also of becoming a cynic. He overrode and banished the first as despicable, the second as hideous.

But it is not in the wisdom that--Socrates-like--steered his life by reason, that we find the adequate answer to the question, "Why was Leighton the prominent entity he was?" Diverse as were his natural gifts and his power of achievement on various lines, he differed radically from that modern development--the all-round man, who has no concentrated fire as a centre to illumine his life, but develops all his capacities so that they shall shine forth equally on certain high levels. From childhood Leighton had one overriding passion, and from this sprang the will-force and vitality which throughout his life succeeded in bringing his intentions to fruition. Whatsoever his hand found worthy to do at all, he did with the whole might of his great nature. Still even that would not adequately answer the question. His greatness truly lay in the fact that the choice he made of what was worth doing was never limited by personal interests. He impelled the force of his powers for the welfare of others, and for the causes beneficial to others, as much or more than to those matters which concerned himself alone. Hence his true greatness and his great fame--for Æschylus is right: "The good will prevail."

A sense of duty--"the keenest possible sense of it," to use Mr. Briton Rivière's words--which was the keynote of all Leighton's actions, was impelled in the first instance by a feeling of gratitude for the joy with which beauty in nature and art had steeped his being from a child; a deep well of happiness, a constant companion, ever springing up in his heart, which he craved that others should share with him. This happiness gave sweetness to his life, lovableness to his character, irresistible power to his control. Leighton's was truly a life of praise and gratitude for the joys nature had bestowed on him. He had a pleasant way of making the truth prevail. The description by Marcus Aurelius of his "third man" applies well to the character of Leighton.

"One man, when he has done a service to another, is ready to set it down to his account as a favour conferred. Another is not ready to do this, but still in his own mind he thinks of the man as his debtor, and he knows what he has done. A third in a manner does not even know what he has done, but he is like a vine which has produced grapes, and seeks for nothing more after it has once produced its proper fruit. As a horse when he has run, a dog when he has tracked the game, a bee when it has made the honey, so a man, when he has done a good act, does not call out for others to come and see, but he goes on to another act, as a vine goes on to produce again the grapes in season."

Leighton's work in every direction was complete work, because his mind grasped completely the proportion and aspect of everything he undertook. His inborn affection for, and sympathy with, his fellow-creatures impelled him to feel that the area of self-interest, however gifted that self might be, was too restricted for him to find full completeness therein. This could only be attained by working with and for others. Such feelings and doctrines are common in religious and philanthropic men; but in the ego of the modern artist there is generally something which seems to demand a concentration of attention on his own ego in order to develop his gifts as an artist. The attitude of Leighton towards his own work, and towards that of others, was essentially contrary to this concentration.

In his letters to his mother, and to his master, Eduard von Steinle, are found the bases on which the superstructure of his after career rested, the underpinning of that monumental feature of the Victorian era--namely, in unflagging industry, in ever striving to make his life worthy of the beauty and dignity of his vocation as an artist, and in ever endeavouring to make his work an adequate exponent of "the mysterious treasure that was laid up in his heart": his passion for beauty.

In my attempt to write Leighton's life I have purposely devoted more space to the earlier than to the later years of his career as an artist. With an artist more than with others is it specially true that the boy is father to the man; and if Leighton's example is in any way to benefit students of art, the early struggles, the failures, more even than the successes, will teach the lesson that there is no short cut on the road which has to be travelled even by the most gifted. From the family letters and those to his master, which are, with a few exceptions, given in full, it will also be seen that, however high was the pedestal on which Leighton placed his mistress Art, he felt keenly likewise the beauty of his family relationships, and a deep, grateful affection for the master who had given him his start on the road to fame.

If this endeavour to present a true picture of Leighton the man has any value, it is owing mainly to the fact that Mrs. Matthews has placed at my disposal the family and other letters in her possession,--an act which demands the thanks of all those who are interested in the fame of her brother.

I also wish to acknowledge with gratitude the considerate kindness of several of Leighton's friends in contributing "notes" and letters, which are of true value in bringing before the public a right view of the man and of the artist. First and foremost among these contributors must be placed Dr. von Steinle, son of Professor Eduard von Steinle of Frankfort-on-Main, the beloved master to whom Leighton in 1879 referred as "_the indelible seal_," when writing of those who had influenced him most for good. The first letter of the correspondence which was carried on between the master and pupil, and preserved preciously by each, is dated August 31, 1852, the last 1883. Only second in interest to this correspondence, which discloses Leighton's intimate feelings and aspirations as an artist, are the notes supplied by Mr. Briton Rivière, R.A.--notes which could only have been written by one whose own nature in many ways was closely attuned to that of Leighton's, and which give the intimate aspect of Leighton as an official. "It would be difficult for any one," writes Mr. Briton Rivière, "to give in a short space any adequate account of a character so full and complex as Leighton's." And indeed it would require a great deal more than two volumes even to touch on all the events of this eventful life, which might further illustrate Leighton's character; but Mr. Briton Rivière has noted certain salient characteristics of his friend with a sympathy, and a fine touch, which I think will prove of very rare interest in this record. The tribute to Leighton of Mr. Hamo Thornycroft, R.A. (from a sculptor's point of view), carries great weight, and gives also, as does that of another old comrade in the Artists' Volunteer Corps, an appreciative account of Leighton as the soldier. To these, to Lady Loch, the Hon. Mrs. Alfred Sartoris, Sir William Richmond, R.A., Mr. Walter Crane, Mr. Alfred East, P.R.B.A., I offer my thanks for so kindly contributing notes which help to solve the problems presented by "a character so full and so complex." For courteous permission to publish letters I wish to express my thanks to Alice, Countess of Strafford, the executor of Mr. Henry Greville, who was one of, if not the most intimate of the friends who loved Leighton; the Hon. Mrs. Leigh, Mrs. Fanny Kemble's daughter and executor; the Right Hon. Sir Charles Dilke, executor of Mrs. Mark Pattison (afterwards Lady Dilke); the Right Hon. John Morley, Dr. von Steinle, Mr. John Hanson Walker, Mr. Cartwright, Mr. Robert Barrett Browning, Professor Church, Mr. T.C. Horsfall, and Mrs. Street, daughter of the late Mr. Henry Wells, R.A.; the executor of George Eliot, Mrs. Charles Lewes; and the executors of John Ruskin. There are many other letters and notes of interest which have been preserved by Mrs. Matthews, but which cannot be inserted for want of space. Among these are affectionate notes from Joachim, Burne-Jones, Hebert, Robert Fleury, Meissonier, Gérome, Tullio Massarani; also friendly letters from Cardinal Manning, Viscount Wolseley, Sarah Bernhardt, John Tyndall, Froude, Anthony Trollope, Sir John Gilbert, Lady Waterford, and Lord Strangford. A number of letters exist from members of the Royal Family to Leighton, all evincing alike admiration for the artist and an affectionate appreciation of the man.