Many thanks for your prompt and amiable answer. I shall be interested to hear on my return the upshot of your analysis; but I hate vernis in painting, as Bocchini tells us the Venetians did, comme la peste.
I am very glad you are getting on so satisfactorily with your work on the frescoes.
In haste (for I have many letters before me).
P.S.—No; I am sorry to say I am no better of my special ailment though my general condition is good.
2 Holland Park Road, Kensington, W.,
November 8, 1895.
Excuse the hand of my secretary.
Many thanks for your note about Vibert's varnishes, which I shall accordingly dismiss from my mind—the varnishes, I mean, not your note.
One chapter in which is revealed Leighton's serious inner life closed during the years he was President. The last letter which has been preserved from his beloved master, Steinle, is dated 22nd November 1883, Frankfurt:—
Dear Friend,—Yesterday evening I received your letter from Florence, and answer at once, partly to tell you how delighted I am at the result of the consultation with Quarfe, as also at your comfort and well-being, and partly because this part of your letter has greatly roused my curiosity for a second, which shall also tell me something about Vienna, Verona, and Florence. At the same time, however, I want to make use of a pause in my work to tell you that the first three coloured contours are completed. To the painting I dedicated all my small skill, and would have died in order to secure that the drawing and composition should produce a life-like effect; I believe also that these pictures will look like frescoes in their surroundings.