The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-04
NEW BOOKS.
Lord Leighton.

-, discriminating, biography VI Fred
..;o lord Leighton we are indebted
" Mr.. Ernest Rhys London; George
OIL Sons). Whatever may now be
thought by artists and art critics about the
.arL assignable to Leighton in contem-
nary nictorial art, there is no doubt that
r. achieved a memorable success in the
nyos Of the world at large. having received
p,ora and higher honors than have ever
han awarded to a painter. The list OF
them is interminable. We need only re-
oolI that he was elected Royal Academi-
can in 1879 and became president Of the
Royal Academy in 1878; that he was an
associate Of the Institute Of France and
president of the International Jury OF
Painting at the Paris Exhibition OF 1878;
an honorary member of the Berlin, the
Vienna and the Belgian academies; OF the
Academy Of St. Luke in Rome and the
academies of Florence Turin, Genoa, Peru
ola and Antwerp He was made conf
nander Of the Legion Of Honor and subse-
ruentlv commander of the Order of Leo
pold. a Knight of the Prussian Order pour
Ia merite." and of the Coburg Order Dem
yordjenste. For his Discourses on Art
IN example he was made d. G l.. Of On
ford and Durham universities; an LII. ID.
Of Cambridge and Edinburgh, d. L. T.
Of Trinity College. Dublin. and an honorary
Fellow at Trinity College, London. He
was inghted by Queen Victoria in 1878:
created Baronet in 1878 and created
Baron Leighton Of Stretton in 1896. 1t is
not surprising that his talent should have
been appreciated on the Continent, for he
strove from the outset to the end Of his
career to keep alive All Italian ideal Of
beauty in London, and, as regards tech
n,aue, he owed much to French artists,
Among the French painters with whom he
consorted at Rome in the sos were Bougue-
reau and Gerome. To these, and espe-
oav to the former, who was great be-
lever In scientific composition" Leighton
has estifed that he was largely indebted
for his sense Of form, From another ia
nous Frenchman. Robert Fleury, whom
he afterward met in Paris, he learned much
in the way of coloring. NJ. de la Sizeranne.
in book on Contemporary English Paint
ing published some eight years ago, char
acteriHes Leighton as at once the repre-
sentative of English painting on the Con-
tinent and the representative OF CONT
mental painting in England.
Apart from Leighton's distinctly native
prediction for certain subjects, NJ. de la
Sizeranne finds him very English in his
reatment Of draperics, a treatment which
he traced to a study Of the Greek drapery
Of the Elgin marbles. When taking for
a text the picture The Spirit Of the Sum-
nit" the French critic says, in a passage
winch we translate Subjects that lift
the mind toward the submits Of life or
history. 50 that one cannot recall nose
or leg without bethinking oneself Of
some high Gospel lesson, or at least Of some
great social exigencv, such are the subjects
that NJ. Leighton has treated. He has
treated them, moreover, in style much
more severe than Overbeck's, much more
virile than Bouguereau's.'
From the art critics Of his own country
Leighton by no means met with a speedy,
enthusiastic or unanimous recognition;
although Thackeray, returning to London
from Rome in the early sos, and meeting
Millais, exclaimed "Millais, my boy, l
have met in Rome a versatile young dog
called leighton, who will one Of these
DAYS run you hard for the presidentship.
When the very picture, "Cimabue's Ma
DONNA" however, which in an early stage
Thackeray had admired, was exhibited in
the Academy in 1865 it was not very favor
ABLY criticised by Ruskiu or by Dante
Gabriel Rossetti. The former thought the
picture an important one, and opined that
leighton had greatness in him; but. he
added, "there is no absolute proof Of it in
this picture; and if he does not in sue
ceeding years paint far better, he will
soon lose the power OF painting so WELL
The impression made by the ACimabue
on Rossntti was far from definite. 1T was
,fry undressing to me at first sight.
he wrote, but, on looking more at it, l
think there is great richness OF arrange
ment quality which, when rfHHy exist
ing, ranks among the great qualities. But
| am not quito sure vet either OF this or OF
the faculty for color. AS for purely
intellectual qualities, expression, intention,
&c, there is little as vet of them.
There is something very French in his
ILeighton'sl work at present, which Is
the most disa greeable thing about it.
Eight years later, however, W. NJ. Rossetti,
referring to Leighton's pictures of that
year, the Girl Feeding Peacocks, and the
Girl With a Basket Of Fruit said that
they belonged to that class Of art in which
Mr. Leighton shines-the art OF luxurious
exquisiteness; beauty for beauty's sake
color, light, form, choice details. for their
own sake, or for beauty" BY 1878 Ruskln
had become convert, and claimed Leighton
as "a kindred Goth and, in his lectures
on the Art of England speaking OF Leigh
tons children, he said: 1T is with extreme
gratitude and unqualified admiration that
| find Sir Frederic condescending from
The majesties of Olympus to the worship
of those unappalling powers which, Heaven
be thanked, are as brightly Anglo-Saxon
"a Hellenic; and painting for us. with
soft charm peculiarly his own, the witch
craft and the wonderfulness OF childhood. '
At the same time, Ruskin's criticism OF
the Egyptian Singer exhibited in the
same year was adverse. He termed the
picture a study OF man in his Oriental
function of scarecrow (symmetrically
antithetic to his British one of Game Pre-
server" He acknowledged the artists
acutely observant and enthusiastic study
Of the organism Of the human body, but
confessed that he "felt no sympathy with
the subjects that admit of its display.
The author Of this biography holds that the
tr,lfh was c,,ocipCt awpraaaed nv another